My Latest Addiction

I've always enjoyed playing video games.  I remember fighting with my brothers for my fair share of playing time with our rather limited Atari collection.  I don't even remember the games.  PacMan, maybe.  Space Invaders.  Centipede.  Pong.

I don't quite remember the year we got the Atari system, but I'm thinking I had to have been anywhere between ten and thirteen.  In my memories, my brothers are young.   They're sitting in the dining room, chairs in front of the small tv my dad had let us hook the thing up to.  The big TV in the living room was reserved for his viewing pleasure.  

At least, these are what my rather diminished memories recall.  My brother, BJ, has an elephant's memory and can likely paint a more complete picture, but I'm not about to call him and ask.  We'll just go with I was young and we had a small collection of games we all like to play.

Not my photo.  Click here to go to original location on the web.

As we grew and technology advanced we were lucky enough to get a Nintendo.  Mostly, when I think of this console, I think of Duck Hunt. Oh, the hours we spent shooting that gun at the screen!

Not my photo.  Click here to go to the original location on the web. 

Eventually my parents replaced that original Nintendo with a Super Nintendo.  I think while I was away at college and not really paying much attention to games that didn't involve cards and/or alcohol, there may have been another upgrade to a Nintendo Cube.  

When Ken and I got married, we didn't worry about gaming consoles.  We had more important things to focus on, you know, like a mortgage and groceries.  If I played any electronic games during those years, it was limited to Mine Sweeper on the computer.  It wasn't until our boys came along that we decided to finally go next generation.  We started with a Wii, but soon enough had a Playstation and then a PS2 and now we've got a PS3.  I really want to upgrade to the latest and greatest, but the time isn't quite right for our household to deal with that distraction. 

Kids + school + new gaming console = disaster!  

I'm not too disappointed by this decision to keep the old and forego the new.  I still enjoy playing my PS3 games.  I have quite a few I haven't yet beat.  Final Fantasy XIII-2, for example, is frustrating the hell out of me.  I know I'm at the final boss battle, but do you think I can figure out the maze my character is stuck in?  No.  No, I cannot!  

I must say, though, that my latest addition has nothing to do with our fancy and expensive console machines or their equally expensive games.  Nope.  That's not the case at all.  My latest obsession is on my phone and on my iPad.  It's an App Store freebie with in-game purchases available.  Really expensive in-game purchases that might make life easier, but likely won't because Com2us really does mean to make you work for a viable team. 

The game in question is Summoners War.  I started playing it a few months back and I must admit that I don't think I've missed a single day of game play.  I think this is because it does remind me a bit of the RPG games I tend to prefer.  You summon characters with different elemental abilities.  Each character has a main type: attack, defense, or support.  Their "moves" or skills can be leveled up. Even better, runes can buff your characters' basic stats giving them more health, attack power, defense, accuracy, resistance, speed, etc.  This is all very important because while there are scenerios you work through, the real challenge comes in guild and arena battles.  Your opponents in these two settings aren't just the basic form of the monster you're facing, as they would be in scenerio, instead these are runed and skill-up monsters other players around the world are building.  

So, there's a lot that appeals to me.  I like trying to figure out how to make my monster better.  I swap runes in order to experiment with skill variations.  Okay, and the graphics are pretty cool, too.