Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes? - Volume 1

We begin what will be (from time to time) an ongoing series of cultural commentary from Chuckonia. We seek to answer the question posed by George Jones, "Who's gonna fill their shoes?" We ask that question of several cultural staples of our youth, which we believe were far more culturally beneficial in their own way than some "advancements" of the 21st Century. For the purpose of this series, it is important to note that we were born in 1983, we remember the end of the Cold War, the Challenger explosion (vaguely), the first Gulf War (America kicked major tail back then), and the beginning of TGIF as it stood on ABC's Friday night line-up. That's the generation from which we speak. We also recognize, as was often so eloquently stated by Gladys Knight before singing "The Way We Were" that "As bad as we think they are, these will become the good old days for our children." Therefore, not only do we acknowledge that the past of which we speak was not and, probably, still is not seen as kindly as we see it, but that the present which we criticize will, one day, be viewed with higher regard by those younger than us. With all that in mind, we first discuss a favorite indoor pastime - video games. Here's the historical view from Chuckonia...
Around 1985, Japan made one of the great cultural contributions of the 20th Century - the Nintendo Entertainment System. Yes kids, we're only talking about the NES. Some of you never knew that such a thing existed without "Super" in front of the name or "64" behind it. And, no, we had yet to hear of anything called X-Box or Playstation. All we needed on a controller was A, B, Start, Select, Up, Down, Left, and Right to create hours (and I do mean many hours) of fun for friends and family of all ages. We spent many a sleepover as a young Chuckonian staying up literally all night with our royal friends to keep Link, Mario, Luigi, Mega Man, and others fighting for freedom in their worlds. Video games of the past had a uniting effect for us. We were able to feel like freedom fighters, conquerors, defenders, and victors in the comfort of our own home and in the company of our friends. We saw the characters we controlled and knew that their every move was on our shoulders. Those were the days of our lives.
Now, we find that video games have taken several turns for the worse. Instead of jumping on turtles and renegade mushrooms to save a princess, games are won by stealing the most cars and shooting the most prostitutes. That is deplorable. We also find among the crimes of modern video game makers that skill and adventure have been replaced by boring scenarios and pointlessness. We find the complex controllers of the Nintendo 64 and many of its modern sister systems unfathomable. And, is it only in Chuckonia that we prefer to see the character that we control on the screen? Having a God-complex is not so bad if it's contained inside the television set, as the player's ultimate power is. By seeing through the character's eyes, one loses the sense of care that players used to have and replaces it with a glazed-over lack of attention to detail.
Maybe these are just ramblings that are as pointless as the first-person-view games themselves, but we feel that America's children really were better off with the games of old. Not just because they didn't teach violence so realistically and bluntly, but because people actually thought and strategized while playing them. There aren't enough 2-player games anymore either. Video games used to bring people together. They were like the "front porch" of the world on days when it rained outside. Do yourself a favor sometime, if you're of our generation or younger, find a classic NES and play a few hours and remember the difference. And, if you're a parent, find a 2-player game and have some healthy competition with your child. Life is all about competition (whether with oneself, another, or an outside force), so why not practice competing a little and have some fun at the same time? That's the way we see it here, where classic Nintendo is still a way of life (since we own our fourth classic console) and flower power has nothing to do with Hippies but, rather, with fire flowers as it should everywhere - here, in nostalgic Chuckonia.