So to my surprise I bought a Wii on Friday. It took me about 10 minutes of calling and a furious drive to a store about 20 minutes away to get one. For the record, the store had gotten in 3 units but only had one left when I called because two people were waiting at the store for them when they opened, damn you Nintendo and your forced scarcity. I basically bought the game for Super Smash Brothers:Brawl. For those of you who don't know, SSB is a game franchise from Nintendo that started out on the N64 system. If you attended college in the last 10 years and know anyone that was anyone who played video games on a semi-regular basis you know what this game is. If you don't stop reading because your were probably told about it and were just not interested enough to remember. Smash brothers is a 4 person free for all battle that despite its simplicity is regarded as one of the best fighting games ever (I'm not kidding, look it up). It uses Nintendo characters and characters that have been in Nintendo games. It only uses 4 buttons and is relatively easy to learn and hard to master. I bought my gamecube specifically to play SSB:Melee which was the second iteration of the game. This new version allows online play which should get anyone that knows about the game excited. The point is, the game is dope as hell which is why I am surprised I did not see the scene that confronted me at the mall when I went to pick it up...at midnight...on Saturday night/Sunday morning at a Gamestop that was having an actual release event for the game.
It was like 11:45 and I was sitting at home watching TV when I decided I should go. I knew from earlier in the day (when I was at the store reserving my game) that Gamestop would be open at 12am for the release but I never imagined I would show up. Realizing that I really had nothing else better to do I drove over totally expecting to show up, walk in, pick up my game and walk out. That was definitely not the case. As I entered the mall I saw a few heads standing around the Gamestop shop doors, this was of course from afar. As I got closer I realized that the people I saw were actually in front of a store a few shops down from Gamestop AND part of a surprisingly long line. My first thought was "REALLY?!" Come on now, this was ridiculous. This was not a console or anything, but a game on one of the three next-gen consoles currently out, and it had a line of good size waiting for it. I guess I was a bit naive but I still was pretty shocked, which turned to a feeling of uncomfortable boredom as I began hearing the awkward conversations and smelling the noticeable B.O. you usually hear and smell from people who would wait in line for a video game. Yes it's true that some of these people were my closest friends and still could be, but I was definitely in the contingent that took a step back and asked "How did I get here?", even as I shuffled forward in line. I even heard someone say in front of me "I used to make fun of these people and now I am one". Right with you brother, right with you.
P.S. - The Game is AWESOME.
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