Seeming that today marks the release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS I thought I’d share the story of the first time I played Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64.

The following is an excerpt from The Adventure is Over: How Working in a Video Game Store Ended It – Part 1

The only other real adventure of the N64 era was Super Smash Bros. It was after school one day and me and Ryan were staying at our Dads. We knew Smash Bros. was out and our dad agreed to take us to the video store to hire it. We went to the closest one and the didn’t have it. We were disappointed. Dad said “Why don’t we try this other video store?” So we did. They didn’t have it either. I don’t know how many we went to, but on the way home dad said he knew of one more place.

We walked into the video store with low expectations. But they had it! We grabbed the box and took it to the counter excitedly. We weren’t members and the counter guy said no worries. As dad was giving the guy details he said “Oh, I’m sorry we only hire things to people who live locally.” BUT WE ONLY LIVE 5 MINUTES AWAY!!! He refused to let us hire the game because the owner didn’t want to let people from a suburb over partake in his business.

Shoulda thunder-bolted the shit outta that guy.

We went home rather angry and quite disappointed. A young boy lived next door, and though we did sometimes play with him outside he was much younger and quite annoying most of the time. He would run out to the car every time we pulled into the driveway. We knew he was going to do it today and frankly we couldn’t be bothered dealing with him. We asked our dad to tell him we weren’t going to play with him today. He opened my door as the car stopped. “My cousin lent me a game” he said. Oh, yay. Woo. Whatever. “It’s Smash.”

Wait a second… Could he mean Super Smash Bros.? My eyes widened in excitement and disbelief. “You mean Super Smash Bros.?” I asked, trying to hide any form of emotion. “Yeah, that’s it,” he said, “wanna play it with me?” Cool calm and collected me and Ryan were all like “Sure, I guess. If you want.” I think we were bursting inside.