Born in 86, got my NES at 5 and never looked back. I was a Sega kid in the early '90s, but was always jealous of my SNES owning buddies. I used to beg to play DKC, LttP, SMW, Mega Man X, Krusty's Super Funhouse, Mario Kart, Zombies At My Neighbors, Street Fighter, Star Fox, really whatever, whenever I visited their houses... and I remember rushing to the games section at Wal Mart or Toys R Us just to try out the new games like Yoshi's Island and DKC2 before they released, just so I could talk to my friends about them at school. I wanted a SNES so bad, but being a kid my options for new games and consoles were limited to birthdays and Christmas and since one Christmas I picked a Sega so I could play Sonic... I was stuck. Also, my parents rarely took us to Blockbuster, and if they did it was only for movies. Still, despite that, those were fun days. I remember them fondly.
Circa 6th grade, and I was getting back into Mario thanks to Yoshi's Island and the utter hype that was Mario 64. That game blew my little kid brain all over the wall, it was such an incredible experience. I was high on the N64 but I still had friends dragging their SNES around, and it was neat to play stuff at their house since I still never owned one. I had heard a lot about Mario RPG at the time, it was supposedly this cult game none of my friends ever played but all heard was pretty fun. I remember joking once at lunch that Mario RPG, Earthbound and Chrono Trigger were the 3 greatest games none of us even actually knew existed. They only ever came up in magazines or on super early internet forums. But, one day, I was lucky. My friend's mom found it at a rental store for us and for one glorious sleepover we played Mario RPG nonstop, from dusk till dawn. I won't forget how engrossed we were either. I believe we made it all the way to the sunken ship, in one night, and we just thought we were unstoppable. And the game was so good! It was funny, the music was catchy, the characters were awesome... I remember thinking for a while, then and there, that this is what Mario ought to be and was from here on. It was a great first impression.
Flash forward to middle school, though, and I developed a weird grudge against Mario RPG. I was bitter, for one, that the N64 was losing the console race, and mostly due to Square. I boycotted Final Fantasy, quite infamously among my friends, and dared to say games like Quest 64 were superior. Mario RPG became a symbol, for that time in my life, of Nintendo's lost vision. Mario 64 was the way forward, and I looked ahead to the coming Gamecube. I did buy a SNES in high school, refurbished, but I never bought Mario RPG, though. I never came across it, but I also didn't go looking for it (funnily enough, I did come across an in-package Earthbound w/ player's guide around that time and never bought it. The game was cult even back then, but not full-blown like it is now. I didn't see the opportunity, so to speak).
I got to college and one of my roommates and I would play Melee together, running and winning tourneys on campus. We would pine about our childhoods and of all things he would talk about how amazing Mario RPG was to him. I would argue back, but slowly he wore away at my shell. I decided to try and emulate the game and play it fresh, from the beginning. And I kind of liked it again. And when it came out on the Wii VC, I bought it and played it all over again. And I liked it more. And as time continued marching forward, I became more and more of a fan of this game once again. The joy it brought me was back. It also helped that I started playing Final Fantasy again, thanks to that same friend, the GBA re-releases and also Crystal Chronicles being such a fun drunk college game.
None of this mentions my role in the Smash fandom either. I used to post on the SMBHQ and Smash Stadium forums well before Melee launched, and was a huge advocate for retro/obscure characters on GameFAQS and IGN leading up to Melee's release. In the early years before Brawl, I mostly lurked, but after its reveal I was posting on Smashboards and Nintendo Database enough to gain a reputation. I saw Geno mentioned as far back as my days on SMBHQ, but he was as likely as Bubble Bobble to most people back then -- nobody knew the rules. Once Smash 4 speculation ramped up, though, Geno jumped right up on my list of wanted characters. He's such a perfect blend of interesting, unique, retro, obscure, and fanservice. Plus, for years I have been saying the Mario series needs to get back to being "off brand" and less sterile. But regardless, now we're where we are today and I'm happy that we are in the 11th hour. Geno has been a longtime coming, and I couldn't be happier to have such a storied history with this character and his game. My wish is that Smash Ultimate finally recognizes his wonderful and justifies a nearly 34yo father writing a diary entry about his love affair with a 25 year old game.
That is all.
