The Best Video Game Ever

The dark haired beauty is a younger sibling. Not unlike many others she has a love/hate relationship with her older brother. In her eyes there is no bigger hero than him and that includes me. That is not to say that she doesn’t love or respect me because she does. She knows that she is daddy’s girl and that is something that only she and I have. But I am not her brother. I am dad, a man that is 35 years older than she is and that distinction is huge to her. We have had more than a few conversations where she is surprised to hear me say that I did XYZ as a kid.

Doesn’t matter how many pictures she has seen of me as a boy- I am old in her eyes. I am ok with that. It took me a long time to reconcile the reality that my parents were once children too.

But her older brother is a different story. He is a kid in her eyes, albeit much bigger but still a kid. They go to the same school and have had some of the same teachers so I think that in some ways it is easier for her to relate to him. Not to mention that since she found out that I am older than her teachers it has made me even older in her eyes.

This relationship with her brother is something that I love to watch because there is an inherent sweetness in it and I understand it because I remember life with my sisters.  More importantly where my son is concerned I remember how annoying sisters can be and how unfair it is for them to try to do everything we do. But such is the way of younger siblings and if she stays true to form she will get to be as good or better as him at almost everything. He doesn’t like that but again he doesn’t understand that the reason she pushes herself so hard is because he is her hero.

Two years ago my son received a DS as a birthday gift from his grandparents. It was something that he had wanted desperately and I was happy that he received it.  However I was less happy that he didn’t want to share it with his sister. I didn’t want or need him to say that it was a gift for both of them because it wasn’t. It is his and always has been. Still I was hopeful that he give her a shot to play with it. And to a certain extent he did. It would be unfair and untrue to suggest that she never got to play with it.

Needless to say she didn’t just want more time on his. She also wanted one of her own. But I wasn’t about to give her one, she was five and I didn’t see a reason for it.  Besides we had a Wii and she had a few games there that were hers. And let us not forget the battles to limit video game play. I want my children to stay active- a sedentary lifestyle isn’t for us. I told them that I don’t mind them playing as long as there was balance. And then my too smart for  her own good daughter told me that her lack of a DS meant that things were unbalanced already. I told her to relax and that one day things would change.

And then it did…somewhat.

Last November I became a Nintendo Brand Ambassador. Since that time I have received a number of games for the Wii, a Nintendo 3DS and some games for that too. Not to mention that I got to participate in a fabulous trip to Nintendo headquarters in Seattle. And that my friends brings me to the tale of the best video game ever.

That 3DS I took home from Seattle is a family unit that we all share. Through my work as a Brand Ambassador we received Asphalt, Steel Diver and Nintendogs & Cats. To be candid I haven’t really played the Nintendogs game all that much but that is because my daughter has fallen in love with it.

The game allows the players to adopt pets that they care for and the dark haired beauty loves animals so this was perfect for her. She has spent her time on the 3DS training, feeding and grooming her dog. Did I mention that she had a huge Cheshire cat grin while doing so.

Anyway, she doesn’t really understand my relationship with Nintendo and has decided that her dad is awesome because he got her the best video game ever. It is good to be the hero. Speaking of heroes I should mention that my son and I have had several conversations about my relationship with Nintendo and whether he can tell his friends that I work for the company. I explained to him that I am not a direct employee and that I have been compensated with products. He thought that was pretty cool and then suggested that I should tell whomever I am working with that he would be even happier if they decided to pay me a million dollars.

I told him that I liked that idea too and then he suggested that the best way for me to sell it to them is to remind them that I’ll a lot of the million dollars and spend it on games. Maybe I should hire him as my chief negotiator. 😉

Disclosure: Just to be clear- I have received compensation from Nintendo but all opinions about the games and game systems are my own.

• Saved: Children