"Don't fear change, embrace it"
-Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book
The only thing to fear is blah blah blah, etc., etc.
I haven't purchased a new video game system since The Nintendo Gamecube came out. Despite the pressure I receive from friends to purchase a new system the only games I play now are Worms for XBox Live and Halo 3. I'm not caught up on the Final Fantasy Series, God of War craze, Mario Sports Series, or the Wonderful World of Warcraft (like I'd want to be). However, one of the great franchises I've always tried to follow is Smash Brothers.
Released in 1999 Smash Brothers was a revolutionary addition to fighting games. It went beyond the 2-D ground fighting characteristic of games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and introduced platforms to jump on, weapons to throw, and simple attacks that catered to both button mashers and gamers alike. The controls and gameplay took some getting used to but eventually I mastered it on my own Nintendo 64. In 2001 the sequel was released, Super Smash Brothers Melee. I bought a Nintendo Gamecube just to play it and to my surprise the gameplay changed dramatically from the original. The game had evolved. The physics were different and each character I had mastered in the original had to be relearned. After weeks of sleepless nights I too mastered this Smash Brothers game.
In 2008 the most recent edition of the Smash Brothers franchise, Brawl, was released for the Nintendo Wii. My interest at the time was piqued but not enough to purchase a Nintendo Wii. Here's why. Before its release in 2008 I got a preview of the game at my friend's place. To my surprise the gameplay had once again changed and there was a new set of characters to get used to as well. My friend and I sort of just sampled the game through versus matches and I didn't spend ample time learning the new mechanics of the game. Within an hour or so of game sampling my interest had faded and my nostalgia for the last game of the series, Melee, had intensified. I didn't feel the obligation of learning a new way of playing because I liked the way things were before the new game. I was fearing change rather than embracing it.
Last night (nearly a year later) I played Smash Brothers Brawl with another friend who owns the game. He purchased the game last year and had mastered it to the same degree as I had mastered the previous games before. Because I was a veteran of the previous two games I was able to hold my own against him. He played as Toon Link and I went with my favorite for the night, Lucas. We played with three-stock lives and limited items. The match boiled down to one life each in the end. It was close but it concluded with the more experienced gamer winning, my friend.
In the end I realized that I had been avoiding change. I avoided it because I was afraid of it. My friend, on the other hand, had embraced it. He too was an avid follower of the Smash Brothers Series and had evolved with the game. I was stuck in the past. I'm ready to embrace change now though, especially with Smash Brothers Brawl. Now, if only I had enough change in my pocket to buy a Wii and Brawl.
~Anthans
