Irate Gamers VI: The Lost Generation.

Non nova sed nove. What does this mean? Well by the end of this edition of Irate Gamers, youll know. This being my first dive into the world of Irate Gamers, Im going to focus on the one thing we love to silently hate: the younger generation of gamers.

Gamers of today, Generation Y and younger, dont appreciate the challenges put in front of them. Ill take my cousins for example. When they play the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES, they have trouble getting past the third world. Sure they have help from their father, who is amazing at SMB by the way, but they give up easily. My focus here is with the current generation of games, Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, anything.

Over the Christmas holidays (2001) I had most of my extended family over for a few days, namely, my dad's brother's family, who have two kids, aged 8 and 6. Every time they come over they play N64, as the last time they were here that's what was available to them. Between last visit, and that holiday visit I obviously got my GameCube. Now, there was no way in hell I was going to let them play my cube for obvious reasons (little sticky booger infested hands!). I had SSBM in there and I was going through the game at a nice pace; but oh wait, the little buggers have to come and interrupt. So they come down; and since they're as I said, 8 and 6, they are in love with Pokmon and they can name every single one of them! So I'm battling it out with some random enemy, and low and behold a PokeBall comes on screen. They immediately yell Its a PokeBall get it! Get the PokeBall! so hoping it would shut them up, I get the PokeBall, and throw it at my enemy; thus killing him with it as well. They named the Pokmon that came out and they were convinced that PokeBalls were the only way to kill your enemy (oh this pissed me off).

So I'm playing more games, and whenever a PokeBall came on the screen, they would not shut up to get it. Get the PokeBall its the only way you can win! Pick up the laser sword, its strong! Oh, then they have the decency to tell me how to play the game.

I'm working my way through event mode 37, to get Pichu I believe it was, and the damned kids would not let it go; since (my luck) event mode 37 is 'superstar Pokmon' or whatever, they wouldn't shut up about that; endless PokeBalls too. So the kids were constantly spouting Get the PokeBall its the only way you can win! and since they're my cousins I cant tell them to screw off or they'll tell on me and all that family-clause stuff. So, I deliberately avoided PokeBalls at all cost. And well, I won. That shut them up for all of 20 seconds, why? Oh I'll tell you.

Next comes the 15 minute melee, with wire frames. So here comes the endless questions about 'Why are they all purple?', 'Why aren't they attacking?', 'How many do you have to kill?', 'Why arent you moving?'.

The next day started early, damned kids... I went to bed at 2am the night before (watching Letterman); and during the holidays I sleep till like 2 or 3 in the afternoon; get a nice 12-14 hours of sleep; but not today. They waited outside of my room from 8am until my Mom eventually opened the door and let them wake me up at 10am. I told them to go away; and my Mom proclaims 'they dont know how to turn on the Nintendo.' Yes, its already hooked up, and no one in the house can read the infernal machine and see the (different coloured!) button to turn the power on? So I lose 4 hours of sleep to go downstairs and hit a white button. Not to mention that, one of the kids was on this very computer that I'm writing on. I dont trust anyone to use my computer; not even my family, and my mother let them use it. I still haven't checked if anything is deleted (last time they were here half my music was gone, and my mario64 saves were erased on my n64).

So I let them play SSBM all day, I went out with some friends, I come back and immediately those little buggers want to play. I said no, I'm gonna put the cube away. So I unhooked it and put it where they couldn't reach it, and immediately the kids got even more annoying (is that possible? YES!). So I left it unhooked for the rest of the day, because I couldn't even play 1p mode without their guidance on how to play my games.

Luckily for me, I had only rented SSBM, even though I've beaten it completely (yes unlocked everything, levels, characters, all that), I had to return it that night. The kids went to bed and I brought the game back. So I went to sleep again, at about 2 am; the next morning they wanted to play SSBM; but guess what? Its not there! I felt evil, but alas, my pains werent over. So my mom some how, put Luigi's mansion in; and they played that.

I figured there is nothing else besides a vacuum, what could they possibly bug me about? Boy was I surprised. It was almost their goal to annoy the hell out of me, to prove to me that I dont know what Im doing. Upon booting up the game, Alex, the oldest, says that he played this game at Wal-Mart or some store like that; so he proceeded to tell me how to suck up ghosts (even though I had beaten the game twice before and was working on my third time through.).

I flipped. I turned off the system and left the house for a while. They succeeded; they got to me and annoyed me to no end. As much as you may tell the younger generation or even show them with physical proof, they try to prove to you that they know better, that they know how to play the game more than you.

Maybe its a form of envy, theyre trying to emulate the older generation. But they have a lot to learn. Now that they are getting older, theyre getting a bit better. But just as Jason described in his Difficulty Decision article, they do call on me to beat bosses in Mario Sunshine for them.

One difference? Instead of showing me how to play the games Ive already conquered, Alex sits back and Watches the wiz (his words, not mine).


Nintendos vision of gaming is still based on our generation (X); but it has the look and feel of the new generation (Y) so what happens is a crossing, the games look like something for the younger generation, but play like something for the GenXers. See Mario Sunshine for example, it looks great, but its no easy game (the boss is, but thats another story). It gives us original gamers the challenge weve looked for. But it gives us the headache of the Younglings badgering us to beat it for them.

So I say, Non nova sed nove Not new things, but in a new way.

We, the Nintendo Generation, will be the ones making the games of the future. Boy, are they (Generation Y and younger) in for a surprise.


Have any stories of younger family members or family friends telling you how to play your favorite games? Send them to me here.