Gaming

My Gaming Life

I have been playing computer and video games since I was young, and they are something that I will always love; whether offering fun, competitive gameplay or something to come home and relax to.

Unlike many of my peers, I started out with PC gaming; particularly with strategy games like Age of Empires, management sims like RollerCoaster Tycoon, and racing games like Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix series; mostly driven by my uncle’s influence. As soon as Pokémon came to the UK however, my love for Nintendo started to build and aged 9 I got my hands on a shiny new Game Boy Advance and Pokémon Yellow. From there I’d fall in love with a lot of the big N’s major IP: Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Smash Bros…; and these are franchises I still love and play today.

While I’m still very much a big Nintendo fan I’ve spent many years following gaming as a whole, both with play (expanding out to Xbox, PlayStation and back into PC in my later teenage years) and the industry; watching and following major developments and trends and attending events including GameHorizon (Gateshead), GameON (Newcastle), Tokyo Game Show (Makuhari, Chiba pref.) and VRTGO (Gateshead).

In terms of what I play my experiences are broad, but I have a preference for deep, engaging single player games. So strategy games, RPGs and story-driven adventure games are what I tend to gravitate towards. I also do enjoy multiplayer games, but I tend to play for fun rather than competitively. The games I like I do take seriously, but I lack the time to put in the hours of training to actually get good at any of them.

If you’re curious about what multiplayer games I currently play (or will be picking up a future release of), I’ve made this handy table:

I also did used to play Pokemon competitively, although I’ve stepped away from that in recent years due to lack of time to invest in the online battling scene.

I’ve been a part of many gaming communities, both online and in real life, including  Northumbria Students’ Union’s Computer and Video Games Society (which I was treasurer of), the Official Nintendo Magazine Forum (ONM), the Serebii and Smogon Pokémon communities and more recently ResetERA. My time being a part of the ONM community was very influential, subsequently becoming close real life friends with several members of the former magazine’s forum.

I also enjoy getting wrapped up in the hype for specific events such as during E3 and for Nintendo Direct presentations. The past couple of years I have also been getting into watching Games Done Quick, the bi-annual speedrunning event which raises money for charity. Just remember, save the animals.

Systems Owned

• PC
• GameBoy Advance (incl. SP)
• Nintendo GameCube
• Nintendo DS (incl. DS Lite, DSi)
• Wii
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo 3DS (incl. new 3DS XL)
• PlayStation 3
• PlayStation Vita
• PlayStation 4
• Nintendo Switch

Game Franchises I Like

In no particular order, here’s a list of my favourite game franchises:

• Metroid
• The Legend of Zelda
• Pokémon
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Smash Bros.
• Mario Kart
• Splatoon
• Fire Emblem
• Tales of
• Tekken
• Aikatsu!
• BlazBlue
• Total War
• Age of Empires