When Adults Play Like Kids

When Adults Play Like Kids….

I have a Wii console.  We got it about a year after the Wii was released.  I very rarely get something the instant it is released.  There are generally bugs and I would prefer to have someone else get the major ones out and then buy the improved version.

The console had a slot for game disks, connections to the TV, the sensor bar and, when added to the system, a Wii Speak microphone.  We got some of the basic games that are played with wireless controllers that allow the user to manipulate the avatar in the game.  You could bowl, shoot guns or arrows, run, ski and a variety of other tasks.  The Wii provided some exercise, of sorts, and lots of laughter as the human players began to act as children, which was a great stress reliever. 

One of my family members suggested a game called Animal Crossings, City Folk.  It was a game that ran on the Wii console or the Nintendo DS which is a small handheld game.  Basically you create a small village, it happens randomly when you first run the disk.  The village has a store, a town hall, a museum, a dress shop, and a gate in the wall that secures your village.  There are four empty houses that you can choose to be your own, one avatar per house so four different humans can play in the game one at a time.  There are other residents in the town who are based on animals.  They talk to you, give you hints on how to play the game, have you do special tasks for them and give you presents.

Your avatar learns the basics once your town is built by working as a clerk in the General Store, under the owner, Tom Nook.  He sends the newly created avatar out on tasks and you cannot move forward in the game until you have completed them all.  But once done, you will have the basics of the game and can begin to wander around, earning ‘bells’ (Animal Crossing’s money), fishing, planting flowers, picking fruit, gathering fossils, fish specimens, and bugs for the museum.  You also furnish your house, add a basement and a second story as well as get different outfits to wear.  There are flea markets where you can buy and sell things in houses.  There are fishing tournaments and bug tournaments.  You can take a bus ride into the city where you can have your hair done, go to a show where you buy emotions, visit a shyster who sells stuff from a back room… some of it valuable, some not.  Overall it is a cute, fun and light-hearted entertainment.

The real fun is that you can connect this game to the Internet and by exchanging codes that are generated in the game with other players of the game, you can open your gate and they can have their avatar come over to your town and play OR you can go out of your gate and visit their town.  Using the Wii Speak feature, you can talk to each other as you maneuver around the towns, gathering items, selling them at the store, dig holes for planting, share fruit trees and chase each other with axes anf shovels.

I with my BFFs, Marji and Debby, have spent hours and hours indulging our inner children.  Marji lives in Maryland, Debby and I live in Pennsylvania but about 20 minutes apart.  We generally log onto the game around 7:00 PM.  The first one at the gate will open their town. The rest of us log on and head to the town with the open gate.  We play the game while we chat, catch up with each other’s lives and make plans for other activities.  We giggle and laugh, complain about the stupid fish and the lack of bugs in the wintertime (bugs pay higher bells than fish/shells).  We hide items that have been dropped by another avatar, steal a fish by casting in the same area or chase each other all over town.

And while we adults spend evenings acting as children, we have grown very close.  While playing, we are still at home, so we can fold laundry, put the dog out, dust or any quiet activity that will not disturb the game.  All the time, we continue to talk and listen.  It has been wonderful fun for the three of us.

For those of you who have never has a chance to play, do not knock it until you try it.  I would not change my childlike evenings for anything in the world.  I would not trade my BFFs for anything either.  And I am so grateful to be able to spend so much time with them.