When I was a kid I didn’t necessarily aspire to be a video game journalist; primarily I wanted to be an actress, and then occasionally I had designs on becoming a surgeon, until my third grade teacher told me I’d have to buckle down and get better at mathematics if I hoped to make it through medical school. Fuck math, man.
I wanted to become a surgeon because of a computer game, though. Sometimes I don’t fully realize how omnipresent games were throughout my life until I look back on my childhood journals and papers and stuff from this sheaf of old junk rescued from my parents’ house (where I found my classic Phantasy Star II ‘novelization’!).
Anyway, last night I happened to find one of my earliest “game reviews”. Judging by the rest of the content of the journal I found it in, I must have been about six when I wrote it:
Fun fact: Donald Duck’s Playground for the Commodore 64 was made by Al Lowe, creator of the Leisure Suit Larry series. Believe it or not, I also played those games when young. My parents probably should not have let me. I got a real kick out of being able to interview Lowe a few years ago.
Don’t believe the review, either. I wrote it while frustrated. Donald Duck’s Playground wasn’t weird, it flippin’ rocked and I played the shit out of it.