I’ve spent most of the week helping my folks move out of their old house – so, in honor of that, I thought I’d dust off this article from a while ago that I never got around to posting.
1. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
After the strokes, my dad didn’t have much going on in the way of hobbies, and the antique marionettes I purchased for him from a niche online retailer received a lukewarm reception. I decided to go with the next best option: Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker for the Nintendo Switch. The only things I know more about than Mario lore are the nuances of historical puppetry.
He was initially rather perplexed as to who, exactly, Captain Toad is, and how he attained the rank of Captain (given his rather obvious ineptitude at military and logistical matters). I was too lazy to go on the wiki, so I made up some bullshit about nepotism in the Mushroom Kingdom’s armed forces, which just raised more uncomfortable questions.
A further source of confusion was Captain Toad’s reason for tracking treasure. Again, I didn’t want to go on the wiki, so I spun a sordid tale of gambling mishaps and Armenian debt-collectors that was, if not exactly plausible, at the very least an interesting bit of fan fiction.
Unfortunately, in the twenty-odd minutes I’d spent describing Toad’s interactions with the criminal underworld, my dad had completely forgotten that I was trying to get him to play a video game. When I reminded him of this, he replied with the timeless, “Nah. I’m going to watch Beverly Hills Cop 2.”
Fair enough. A no on video games for dad, then. Thankfully, my mother is much easier to pester into doing things she finds boring and/or inexplicable.
2. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves (Collection)
After spending three minutes spinning in circles during the opening to Lost Legacy, my mom conceded that “the alleyway look[ed] nice.” She gave up the controller before the tutorial was over, stymied by the need to operate two control sticks simultaneously.
All was not lost, however! Naughty Dog’s writing and graphical chops proved up to the task of maintaining her interest in the plot to such an extent that I planned future sessions around her schedule so that she could keep up with the story. I eventually played through both Lost Legacy and A Thief’s End with her at my shoulder (although she declined my offers to take the controller), and she enjoyed the experience quite a bit.
3. Horizon Forbidden West
Once I saw the “co-pilot” feature in the settings, I knew I had to wrangle one of my progenitors into taking it for a spin. Unfortunately, the “previously on”-style recap managed to destroy any interest my mother had in participating in the experiment, although she admitted that Aloy’s hair is nice. After I get past the tutorial and into the game proper, I’ll badger her into giving it another try. [Update: I forgot to do this.]
*As an aside, the sheer breadth of accessibility options included in this title is awesome, and something I’d like to see more of in the industry. Not saying that developers need to gut their vision for a title in order to include a “very easy” mode, but including granular options that allow differently-abled people to engage with titles at their own comfort level is a noble endeavor that should be rewarded. Now, on to the next entry, wherein I shoot that argument right in the fuckin’ foot…
4. Elden Ring
I mean, I kind of had to have one of them try this. Right?
…Right?
I promise, I didn’t just do it to be mean. The attempt originated from an interesting question my mother had posed just the day prior – “Do you think someone my age could play this?”
“Definitely!” I replied, completely neglecting to inform her that she was in for what could politely be termed “a rough start.”
Controlling the camera proved to be difficult, as before, but the problem was slightly reduced via heavy use of the lock-on feature, which let the two of us get a great look at whatever horrific monster was about to stomp her into paste. I took a relatively minimalist approach to tutorializing and let her hop into Limgrave with my character (who was, at that point, around level 85). After a couple of minutes spent clumsily exploring, capped off with a brief flight from a pack of wolves and a long fall down a crevasse, she regarded me with a slightly wounded look and asked, “this is fun for you?”
“Well, yeah! When you win. But you gotta look at failure as a learning experience.”
This did not prove to be a successful argument, and her time with Elden Ring ended there (for now). Perhaps a title to return to after Horizon. She’d be able to print money if she streamed an Elden Ring playthrough on Twitch.
5. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Despite my string of previous failures, I was mildly hopeful going into this one. This was primarily due to the fact that, well, you can’t really lose the game. Your little minifigure pal just pops back on screen!
The Lego license helped, I’m sure. As a kid, I adored Lego sets – especially the Star Wars ones. A recent (failed) attempt to get my dad into Legos (he used to like puzzles, and I figured, hey, Legos are like puzzles with instructions, right?) proved an excellent excuse for me to order more Star Wars sets, many of which are lurking nearby as I write. My chinchilla, Brutus, is also here, but that’s not really relevant to the story. I just wanted to give him a shout-out.
Anyhoo. Lego Star Wars ended up being a resounding success – insofar as my mother actively expressed interest about playing again (our first session involved a couple of levels toward the end of Phantom Menace). I put this down to my excellent motivational/leadership skills, and absolutely nothing else.