It Was Better Back Then

Recently my wife picked me up a Nintendo Wii at a thrift store.

I plugged the component cables into the back of my TV and turned it on. When I was met with the Wii homepage, I got hit with a wave of nostalgia. I was incredibly excited to boot up Super Mario Galaxy and relive my childhood. The game is dripping with charm and innovation on every single level. I loved this game as a kid and I still very much do.

I couldn't help but wonder, though... was my nostalgia getting in the way of my critical thinking? Was the Wii good? The Wii remote and sensor bar is such a unique way to interact with the system, but is it a good user control?

After messing around with Super Mario Galaxy, I wanted to play Wii Sports with my wife. She beat me in tennis and then again in golf. I blamed the controller. But then something so seemingly insignificant happened that made realize that things were different now, something besides the old hardware and games:

A screen popped up reminding us to take a break and go outside.

This is such a small detail that you aren't likely to find in games today. It's the developers subtlety reminding you that yes, this game is fun and unique and challenging and silly and whimsical... but please also remember that real life exists too.

This kind of sentiment seems so foreign in 2026.

Maybe it's because people are spending so much time with their AI chat bots that they're literally going into psychosis.

Maybe it's because many game companies seemingly stopped caring about making good games, instead focusing on extracting money out of their playerbase.

Maybe it's because social media algorithms are trained and tailored to try and get you to spend as much time as humanly possible using their apps.

The Wii released in 2006, a time before any of this had happened. It was Nintendo's first console to be able to connect to the internet. It was a time when 480p 3D Mario games and whacky motion controls were innovative and fresh ideas.

I don't know, maybe I'm just not playing the right games today, or maybe it is nostalgia, but it certainly feels like things were better back then.