A while back, I was
having a conversation with my dentist about what I was going to do that
summer. “Do some writing” was the
obvious choice, but with no small number of tools hovering around my mouth I
wasn’t in much of a mood for conversation about the particulars. So I just said “play some video games.”
“Oh? Do you have Wii Sports?” he asked with a smile.
“My kids love that -- all that boxing and stuff.” I told him that I did (though I’d loaned it
out to a friend). “What kind of games do
you like?”
“Fighting games,” I
answered -- though with his assistant currently shoving metal into my mouth, it
sounded more like “Haahigg gaaaaze.” I
managed to raise my fists to illustrate.
It was a weird moment
in more ways than one. See, I like to
think of myself as an intellectual gamer -- one that preferred titles
emphasizing the mind and strategy instead of rote button-hammering and
battering enemies with bullets and nail bats.
So I’ve collected my fair share of RPGs and strategy games -- a couple
of Advance Wars, a couple of Disgaeas, a heaping helping of Shin Megami Tensei games…I even spent
the better part of six months pining for Valkyria
Chronicles. I hold games that give
you time to stop and think in high esteem...and the less said about my love of Phoenix Wright and 999, the better.
Given that, you’d think
that I’d hate fighting games. And to
some extent, you’d be right.