I feel it’s high time that I came right out and told you all why I love Nintendo. There are a lot of people that theorize about such things. They’re not talking about me, but just Nintendo fans in general. You know the description: Cheetos-loving fattie who lives with his parents. Age is never really mentioned because it’s assumed that if you love Nintendo, you’re either a juvenile at heart or in reality. Well, that’s not always true. As I see it, there are two sorts of Nintendo fans:

1) Kids who are creating memories for the first time
2) Older gamers who never got tired of having fun

I fall into the latter group, obviously. When I was young, I enjoyed the heck out of Nintendo’s games. When other kids grew up and learned that in order to have fun with games, it’s necessary to kill hookers, I skipped class. So I’m stuck in this twilight zone where I don’t play games as a way to express myself, or as a way to act out my violent aggressions without fear of reprisal. I still play games for the most fundamental of reasons, the one that attracted me to the hobby in the first place: fun!

I think you’ll find that most Nintendo fans share that desire. And really, I’m not sure that’s true of every gamer. Some people game socially. Some people do it for the thrill of competition, or the challenge. These are in their own ways admirable reasons to play, but I think they narrow things down too much. If you’re in it for one of those reasons, you can’t easily enjoy a good fun game that doesn’t have a hooker slaughter, or whatever. You can’t enjoy a product if it’s not challenging you. So many gamers have stopped playing just for the fun.

Well, most Nintendo fans don’t seem to be that way. I can identify with other Nintendo fans because when we start talking about games, we aren’t generally talking about polygon counts or even innovation. When you hear a Nintendo fan talking about those things, he’s trying to pander to someone. Maybe it’s the Sony fan who says “Well, my system is better because the emotion engine makes Squall’s hair blow in the wind!”

(Yes, that example is way out of date. I know, I know.)

Well, the Nintendo fan then has to try and talk on that level. Of course it’s going to sound hollow. Because if I say “I love the way they put all that detail in Mario’s butt,” I look like a complete freak. That’s not what Nintendo’s games are about. Nintendo’s games aren’t necessarily attempting to compete directly with every element that games from Sony or Microsoft do well.

This is not to say that those companies fail to do anything worthwhile. It’s just that Nintendo doesn’t always try to mimic it. And you know what? Despite what a lot of Nintendo-hating people will work hard to make you believe, there’s nothing wrong with that.

I don’t need a billion polygons working in perfect harmony to have fun with a game. 8-bit graphics can still amuse me if the game plays right. I don’t need a complex plot filled with intrigue, betrayal and murder. I don’t mind it if the game I’m playing has that, though, so long as the game remains fun. High-definition gaming can go screw itself. Online play is optional. Multi-player mode doesn’t always have to be perfect, and there are times where the reverse is true and I’ll forgive a game with crappy single-player campaigns if it’s fun to experience with friends.

It keeps coming back to that one word: fun. And that’s why I’m a Nintendo fan.

The part of me that never grew up and became self-conscious about my hobby still loves to see a giant mushroom waddling toward me, menacing eyes fixated on my blue suspenders. I remember how much fun I had with such games in the past, and right away I’m interested. That same part can stare across Hyrule Field for several minutes, swept up in the grand adventure of it all, even before the sun sets and skeletons shamble toward me. I’m too busy remembering all the past adventures to care.

And when I play today’s newest games, am I looking for the most innovative experience of all time? Heck no! I’m looking for another trip into the worlds I explored in my childhood. Sure, I expect them to have better graphics. And I like new adventures, but that’s all you have to give me. You don’t have to make things violent to retain my interest. You just have to keep doing what I always found to be fun in the first place.

This is something that Nintendo’s detractors don’t understand. They don’t get how I can sit down in front of the television and wander through some dorky village, picking up chickens and throwing them at nothing, or breaking clay pots with my sword and scooping up the hearts that float about. They’ve moved on. Don’t I understand that I should be like them? Don’t I understand that I’m not having fun if I’m not blowing up a space station or slapping a police officer around?

People bash Nintendo for a lot of things. They bash them for not innovating, which is hogwash but irrelevant in my book. They bash them for recycling old games. Well, guess what? That’s what I want. It’s not me—a Nintendo fan—pretending to want it because that’s all Nintendo is willing to produce. First, Nintendo puts out a lot of new properties (I generally love them), and secondly, I like rereleases of the old classics on occasion.

I guess that’s what makes me a Nintendo fan. If it’s still fun, I’ll play it. I’ll play it even when it’s not high-definition, even when there aren’t amazing online components, even when other people are turned away by graphics or perceived immaturity. I’m not in this for the same thing some people are. I’m in it for the fun, pure and simple. Until Nintendo stops providing that fun—and they aren’t yet at risk of doing so as far as I’m concerned—I’ll remain a fan. A fanboy, if you will. Because sometimes, you have to be a Nintendo fanboy to have any fun with games. Nyah!