I have been playing video games for a long time. For as long as I can remember I have had a Wii or DS in my house and I grew up with those consoles and Nintendo games. I do have an XBOX 360, PS4, and PS5 and have played some great games on those consoles but Nintendo software has hooked me more. I remember getting a 3DS for Christmas and becoming a Pokémon fan, I remember getting into Super Smash Bros at a friend’s house, and I don’t remember getting it but I remember playing Super Mario Galaxy as a kid.

I was into gaming when I was younger, primarily on the Wii, Wii U, DS, and PS4. I played a ton of my 3DS but that was really just for Pokémon. I really didn’t get into it as much until the Nintendo Switch. I remember seeing trailers for a new game called Super Mario Odyssey and knowing I had to have it. So shortly after Christmas in 2017, I got a Nintendo Switch with a copy of Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I’ve played both of those games for well over 100 hours and adore them, but I still wouldn’t say I was huge into gaming at the time. Then March of 2018 came and I watched a Nintendo Direct for the first time. I saw so many games that I wanted and it ended with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being announced. At this time is when I would say I truly got into gaming besides more than primarily Pokémon, Mario, Lego games, and Madden.

After the direct I played Splatoon for the first time, I played Kirby for the first time, and it was the first Smash Bros. cycle where I paid attention to every reveal before release. Again, I needed that game. I played a ton of Smash Bros. Ultimate when it came out and decided that eventually I would want to play a game from every series that has a character in Smash Bros. That idea has brought me to play dozens of games I would not have before then and found many new games that I love. I had dabbled with Zelda before but had never beaten a title in the series. So I tried to beat Breath of the Wild again and that has become my favorite game of all time even with how tedious collecting all the koroks was. Now, The Legend of Zelda is my favorite series and I have beaten nearly every mainline entry.

Smash Bros. also introduced me to Metroid which is a fantastic series, it led me to Pikmin which I adore, I’ve put hundreds of hours into Animal Crossing, I’ve beaten a few installments of Fire Emblem and am looking forward to playing the next entry which just came out. All of these series I had never tried but since they were in Super Smash Bros, I wanted to give them a try.

I also wanted to explore more from these franchises rather than only getting the new entries so over the next few years, I bought many 3DS, Wii, and Wii U entries in the series that I enjoyed until I think I have a complete collection of what I wanted. I also purchased a GameCube to enjoy more games, specifically Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door being the highlight. But after years of collecting, I think I have every game on those consoles that I wanted and I can always go back to play them while also playing the new releases that I enjoy.

Smash Bros. is home to more than just Nintendo series. Sonic is playable, Pac-Man, Mega Man and more. I had played some of those series prior but I had not tried some of the Square Enix series included. When my brother first told me Cloud was being added to Smash Bros on the Wii U, I had no idea who he was talking about. I thought, “they’re adding a cloud? Like Lakitu’s cloud from Mario?” Obviously my thought process was wrong and that of a child who did not know any better. But after playing Smash Bros. more, I finally decided to try out Final Fantasy VII. I loved it. Final Fantasy VII and the remake series are incredible. I have the platinum trophies for Remake and Rebirth and both of them are top ten favorite games of mine. The original is definitely better for a large number of people but I prefer the action oriented combat in the remake series.

Another Square Enix IP I had not tried before was Kingdom Hearts. It had been something I was interested in a bit but I never got into because of everything I had heard about how complicated the story was. But when Sora was finally announced to be coming to Smash Bros, I ordered the All-in-One package and spent over a month playing every game. Again I loved it. Kingdom Hearts II is another top ten game of mine and although the story can be a bit much at times, the games are amazing and I adore the characters and worlds. I am so excited for Kingdom Hearts IV and cannot wait for it to release next year. Sadly the world list for the game might have leaked on Steam and I could not avoid all of the spoilers but I am still very excited.

So overall, Smash Bros. is the game that I would say got me into gaming the most. Sure I played a ton of Pokémon before and wanted a Switch because of Mario, but Smash Bros. is what led me to branching out and finding more series that I love. I own hundreds of games that I can talk about on here and many of them I only got due to them having a character in Smash. I might write a post about my favorite games at some point, maybe some posts about my collection, and I plan to write posts on new games that I play in the future. I think this is going to be all for this post; I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more about my love for games. Thank you for reading.

Ben Mott’s Grab Bag

An Introduction to Me