The Doodles are Coming....but later

Yes, I know I promised the doodles today, but something happened that I'd rather talk about, so I'm gonna do that instead.

For the first time in months, I played Super Smash Bros. Not Melee, or Brawl, but the orginial title. The game that started it all. Just seeing the title screen, hearing the first few strains of the opening credits, brought back a rush of nostalgia. I felt like I was a kid again. My thumb began to get sore from the tough, plastic joystick pressing into my skin. My fingers slowly began to remember the combinations they had learned ages ago, ones that newer, faster techniques tend to replace. The game goes slower than my Brawl-inspired reflexes care to remember, yet I know what I need to do. I didn't spend years playing by myself and not learn how to play as pretty much everyone.

As I'm currently sending the other players flying off the screen, I feel that pent up tension start to leave me. It flows out through my fingers into the character I'm currently controlling. My brain, racing from the stress of the previous month, starts to calm, things aren't as bad as my overactive imagination makes them out to me.

Just a few days ago, I had a wave of homesickness for my games, just by hearing a few select tunes on my Grooveshark (it's great! Free, and only the songs you want). I feel my hands ache for the hand-eye coordination that can only come from me watching someone dart around on a screen, comprised only of pixels. I need to play a game. I need to push buttons. I need to do something that makes me feel awesome, even if I didn't do anything really serious in life. I have to feel in control, just for a few minutes.

Right now, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is playing softly in the background. Instead of a longing for it, a desperate need to go home and bring Pres to college with me, it's only anticipation. It's a gentle melody, reminding me that it's waiting for me at home. Waiting for me to pick up the controllers and own the galaxy like I need to.

I never realized until tonight how video games have become my therapy. I own that world, even if it's just my interpretation of it. But I'm okay with that. Because it's mine, and that's what matters, right?