Mike's Meanderings

🎮 Couch Co-op 🎮

I’m doing something different for this post. I’m having it transcribed first, then fingers to keyboard to enter, edit, and post. Full disclosure: I’m using AI to do some grammar checking and cleanup on my speech. But the words are all mine.

A white stuffed bunny

Nostalgia

I think the world lost something as couch co-op games became more rare. Growing up, it was always exciting to visit friends or family and play their Nintendo, Super Nintendo, PlayStation, or Xbox. I have memories of making Ethernet cables—RJ45 jacks and all—in an IT class in high school so we could haul our tube TVs, these massive boxes of plastic and glass, over to a friend’s house and play Halo. The original Halo. Shotguns and rockets. Good times.

You don’t see that as much these days. I miss it.

The Nintendo Switch has been great, because Mario Kart makes it easy. Nintendo has always been good about those kinds of games. They feel more soulful somehow. But even now, when new games come out, kids play them online with their friends instead of right next to them. And that’s where the real loss is.

Togetherness

We don’t get to see and hear every little thing they do. We experience things together, sure, but it’s not the same as sitting next to each other, sharing Doritos. The shit talking isn’t as good. You don’t talk about girls or whatever else is going on in your life when you’re just on a headset.

I’d been thinking about this for a while, but it really came up today because my son went to a friend’s house and they played Super Smash Bros and Mario on the Wii. He had so much fun. James and I have even started playing LEGO Star Wars on my PC. I got him an 8BitDo controller for Christmas, and we just play side by side. It’s so much fun. I get to help him out, show him different ways to do things, and we just talk and make jokes. It’s a wonderful experience.

So yeah. This is my old man rant for the day. We lost something when the world stopped producing couch co-op games.

#100DaysToOffload: 7