Nintendo time is family time

Yes, this is every last member of my immediate family, and then some.

I think gaming runs in families, particularly big ones. Every large family I know plays games. I have 8 siblings. Mary, our other contributor, has 14 siblings. I could name two other families, one with 8 kids, the other with 9, who play video games.

Each of these families have older members. With 9 kids, there's going to be a pretty large age gap in between the youngest and the oldest. That gap is 20 years in my family. So, yeah, my oldest brother was around when Nintendo brought video games home with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Is that not a reasonable explanation as to why video games are a continuing tradition in the households of large families?

But that's not really the point I wish to convey in this post. Considering the above, it stands to reason that video games could provide crucial family bonding time in these households. Well, I'll just go right out and say it: video games do provide crucial family bonding time in my household. Memories that stand out to me from my younger years include playing Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Paint, Mario Kart 64, and Mario Party 2 with my family. Now, years later, the video game legacy lives on with me, my three younger siblings, and games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Bros. Wii, and more. We even revisit classics like Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World, thanks to the Wii system's Virtual Console.

I'll end on this ironic note: my parents are the sole members of the family who have no interest in playing video games with the rest of us.