The author reflects on the joy of playing video games with their children, highlighting how their perspective on classic games has changed and the surreal feeling of watching their kids experience these worlds for the first time.
Introducing my kids to games like Link’s Awakening has given me a whole new perspective on these old favourites and made me excited for what new video game adventures we’ll have together in the future. Thanks to some distinctly Scottish weather over the holidays, my family and I ended up celebrating Hogmanay at home rather than at the party we’d planned to attend.
My smallest son’s wee pal and his parents came over for dinner, and when the smaller members of our group started to spiral out of control around 9pm, we threw them a little midnight countdown party. The last time I played Animal Crossing was in the depths of lockdown. Tending my island paradise helped me cope while largely imprisoned in a 2.5 bedroom basement flat with a baby, a toddler and a teenager. (I was far from the only one – the National Videogame Museum.) Our guests had brought their family Switch, and we set up the kids with their little avatars so they could join the animals’ New Year party. They spent about 10 minutes gleefully whacking each other with bug nets before gathering with the other inhabitants in the square with a giant countdown clock in the background, the island’s racoon magnate Tom Nook offering party poppers and shiny top-hats. I was visited by a sudden, arresting memory of New Year’s Eve 2021, which I spent on my sofa, alone but also not alone, because I was with my friends in Animal Crossing, watching the same countdown clock tick down. My youngest had just started walking, and was unsteady on his short, chunky legs. Turning away from the screen, I saw him joking with his big brother, thrilled at being up so late. It felt surreal. Watching my children discover and experience video games has often felt a little surreal. They enrich or even overwrite my earlier memories of the games in question, like playing on New Game+, or a brand-new save fil
FAMILY VIDEOGAMES CHILDHOOD MEMORY SURREAL
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