Many people over the years have played a video game and said, "Ah, this reminds me of what it felt like to be a youth!" Now, I'm no old man, and old men themselves may describe me as some sort of youth, but I assure you that not only am I not a youth but I am very mature for my age, and therefore am able to take a serious look back on my youth-times and say, "Well, yes, I was a frivolous young bob but I certainly had some good times, I tell you what." A lot of these good times were spent playing video games on the Nintendo 64: the flagship console of millennial childhoods. One of these games was Super Mario 64.

Super Mario 64 was an important game for many people and many reasons, and therefore I am going to assume you know either these people or these reasons and move on to say that Super Mario 3D World is a game that is similar to it. Super Mario 3D World, in true Nintendo fashion, capitalizes on both those who have played Super Mario 64, and new youths who are playing it as one of their first video games of their life. Startlingly, both of these "factions" have very similar feelings evoked in them while they play. The old players will say, "Ah, this reminds me of what it felt like to be a youth!", while the youths of today will say, "Ah, I feel like a youth because I am one!" Be sure to keep in mind that both of these "factions" are feeling like youths while playing this video game.

While being a very similar game to Super Mario 64, as previously mentioned, Super Mario 3D World is a game that consistently surprised even a hardened veteran like myself. For example, in World 2-4: "Really Rolling Hills", there is a baseball. You can pick up this baseball and throw it at enemies. I did not expect this! The game surprised me again in World 2-5: "Double Cherry Pass", when I ran into a cherry and was suddenly in control of two Super Marios! Two Super Marios! Then, I picked up a second cherry, and a third and so on, until I had five Super Marios. I took a videotape of this with my phone and sent it to my friend, and she said, "Wow!" I felt just like a youth! (Because youths use phones.)

Super Mario 3D World has provided me with a level of connection and communication with youths that I have not felt since the release of the iPhone when they all suddenly became too busy playing Angry Birds and texting their mates to have a good conversation with one of their elders. In Super Mario 3D World, at the end of each level users are given the option to draw a picture (either by themselves or with the help of cute collectible stamps) or write a text post to communicate to others their feelings about the level, or to communicate that they find it funny to imagine a world in which Super Mario can fart. You are graced with a slideshow of other users' posts, and boy howdy are there some great posts on there. It is often very hard to tell which are created by adults (like me) playing the game as a means of escape from the daily drudgery of the "rat race" and "corporate politics", and which are created by young tykes who are just god damn weird.

For example, I once saw a post that stated "The publisher of Donkey Kong Country should sue Nintendo for stealing their barrel gameplay." Ah, to be young again! To not be jaded by the in-depth knowledge of the publishers/developers involved in the creation of each video game we play. (A brief aside: When I was a wee young lad, in a similar vein to this young fellow, I believed that upon the release of Lays Stax, Pringles should have sued Lays for the fact that they made similar potato chips. I sent them an e-mail to this effect, but upon reflection I realize that I failed to check whether they actually owned the e-mail "pringles@hotmail.com".) The image posts are often of high quality, but they are so absurd and surreal that they are almost impossible to describe. I myself have provided the Miiverse with around 20-25 pictures I created, and I'm certain that if I looked at those from an objective view, they would seem as if they were created by a 5-year old. Therefore, I continue to have no idea if the audience of this game is entirely children (except me), or entirely fully-grown big cool adults (including me). In my opinion, this makes Super Mario 3D World Miiverse posts the most pure form of art, where the identity of the creator sinks deeply in the background and is enveloped entirely by the message conveyed through their art.

And that's really what video games is all about, isn't it? Letting our identities flow away as we all enjoy life together in a cosmic playground. A place where an old haggard man (like me) can relate with a youth in a way that transcends language and culture and "corporate rat races". A place where we can all be youths at heart, especially the youths. Nintendo makes this all possible. Nintendo says, "Gosh darn, can't we all just be youths for a bit?" Yes we can, Nintendo. Yes, we can.