A Very Wii U Christmas
I know I mentioned that I didn’t think I’d be writing much while on holiday vacation, but I have a little down time tonight, so I decided to post. I just got back from my sister’s house and am currently staying at Syn’s abode, waiting for her to fly in tomorrow so we can start our traditional post-Christmas festivities. We still have presents to exchange and a New Years to see in. Plus, my sister, Syn and I all plan on hitting up the new Star Wars movie sometime next week.
Earlier this year, I picked up a travel bag and a second controller for my still fairly new Wii U all in order to bring it along on this trip. I wasn’t sure how much interest I’d get from my sister. It’s been many, many years since we’ve sat down together in front of a Nintendo console and spent time just plain-out gaming.
We started out messing around in Smash Bros, which was fun. It’s been many years since either of us have picked up a Smash title, so learning the controls and figuring out all of the (sometimes overwhelming) new features and locations was a bit for us to process. I’m sure with practice and time, we’d be just fine. But we only had a few days to mess around with it together.
When we decided to pop in Mario Kart 8, everything changed. I’d dabbled with it a bit when I first got it, having already unlocked a few characters, some tracks, and some kart upgrades. But when we started playing, we were hooked. And, suddenly, we were back playing Nintendo late into the night like we did when we were teens.
I’m not quite as skilled as I used to be, mostly because I’ve gravitated towards playing on the PC for the past 15 years more than consoles. It doesn’t help that the Wii U default controller can be a bear to handle for someone with smaller hands. But we were still able to clear all tracks on 50cc, unlock all the characters, and several kart upgrades.
I think the unlocks were a big thing that kept driving us (see what I did there?) to play, though we were having enough fun even without it. By the end of the first night, my sister wanted to play Link as a racer, so I didn’t even blink an eye to pick up the DLC patch. I’m actually happy with what I got from those packs – the tracks ended up being some of our favorites. Also, having all my favorite versions of Rainbow Road in one game makes me a super happy camper.
Hoping you’re having a fantastic holiday! I’ll break down some of my gaming gifts in another blog because I did get some very cool stuff! 🙂