It was Christmas morning, 1994. I was sixteen, awkwardly caught between childhood excitement for presents and teenage pretensions of being “too cool” for family traditions. But when I unwrapped that distinctive rectangular box and saw the bold “III” on the cover (thanks to Square’s confusing US numbering system), all pretense vanished. I literally yelled loud enough that our dog Rusty started barking. My mom still brings this up at family gatherings—”Remember when Michael screamed over…
8 Best Platformers of the 80s & 90s That Shaped My Childhood The Christmas of 1987 changed my life. I…
There are games you play, games you love, and then there are games that fundamentally alter your relationship with the…
I first saw Final Fantasy VII in the back pages of a dog-eared issue of GamePro at my friend Kevin’s…
The first time a video game made me cry, I was sixteen years old, sitting cross-legged on my bedroom floor,…
My love affair with The Legend of Zelda series began in the most unremarkable of places—my cousin’s dingy basement in…
I can still hear the heated arguments echoing across the playground of Westlake Elementary circa 1992. “Sonic is way cooler!”…
In 1996, with the debut of the Nintendo 64 (N64), video game history was irrevocably altered. The N64 was, and…