At first I was gonna cough you that it's in the Mega Man 9 thread, but then after reading your post, I just can't. This is worthy of its own thread.

In the early years of my career life after 2000, I actually stopped running into games causing me that genuinely joyful mood. Sure, I had fun, but nothing really gave me that genuine, childlike joy that gaming so often did before.

That all changed with Guitar Hero. It was the first game in a long time to truly make me just giddy with fun, and I literally got the jitters each day near the end of work just anticipating going home and rocking out.

Since then, I've also really scaled back on game purchases, trimming the list down to just the stuff I really want, and I've been able to recapture that feeling more often. Gaming isn't a backlog checklist anymore. It's a romp with the games I most want to play when I want to play them, and I don't worry about things like "OMG, I HAVE to play Bioshock right away so I don't miss out on the gaming forum discussions!"

Sure, sometimes I get those pangs of wishing I could discuss the latest hot titles that I'm just not getting around to picking up and playing yet, but gaming has become the same fun experience it was when I was a kid again. I love it!

I almost posted this myself, and I don't even like mega man. It's a pretty universal feeling.

Because it's part of the nostalgia. Just go with it ...

As an aside, one of my greatest early console memories was figuring out the "bounce on the shell in the first level for as many lives as you can get" in Super Mario Brothers.

I share similar feelings with all of you, so I'll just quote Bill Harris instead:

Right on.

I think it's worth noting that Gabe just put up a wallpaper sized version of the strip.

I think because, like art, they conveyed something that the intended audience can immediately relate to in a very complete way.

The joy, and sharing that joy, begetting more joy. Which is something that we take for granted so much sometimes it's startling to see it illustrated so clearly in front of us.

It's the pureness of the reiteration.

I'm not going to keep harping on this but "playing games makes you feel like a kid" is about the most obvious thing ever. Is the art nice? Sure. I just think people are hyperbolizing the "awesomeness" of this strip... I mean, seriously... haiku? Please.

I think most people like it because it doesn't require hyperbole. They see it, it strikes a deep nerve in a significant way, and there isn't any explanation needed.

If it didn't strike, then there's not a way to explain it.

Like any other kind of art.

I never cared for Picasso. It just doesn't hit me the way it hits others. I'm not impressed.

Nobody can tell me why it's great.

I think you're on to something:

I loved the image haiku. It shows a Gabe loving a game as much as you were a kid because it was a game specifically designed for US, late twenties to early thirties that banged our heads every time a boss killed you, you ran out of lives or ammo for your Metal Blades.

8-bit game during a PS3 v Xbox360 generation? Brilliant!!

I see Gabe's face as skeptical, as in "how fun can going back 3 or 4 generations be?" and it's almost instant. The music, the game play, the enemies, etc.

You really DO go back 10 years or so.

I've said all I wanted to say. You may now enjoy yourselves in peace

Yeah, but sometimes people need a reminder of why they even play games. Any games, not just 8-bit games. The strip is a nice little reminder, and it's also a nice advertisement for Mega Man 9, which is also a nice reminder of why gaming is awesome. Both the strip and Mega Man 9 are lacking in all the seriousness and all of the cynicism that sometimes weigh us down. Mega Man 9 isn't alone in this, of course, but that's not the point of the strip. The strip is just celebrating that joy. It doesn't matter if it's an obvious sentiment because being obvious doesn't make it any less valid of an expression. It just means the strip isn't revolutionary, something I don't think anyone has ever claimed it to be.

I loved that one, but I also like this for another succinct yet true view on coming of age in this day and age.

Ian and Matt are underappreciated legends of their time. They're pretty awesome dudes, too. I've met em both at Otakon one year, and they were the genuine article.

On the PA strip, I can only echo the sentiments. They're not literary geniuses by any stretch, but they can be very, very poignant from time to time.

Really ought to add notation, I Corinthians 13:11.

@Matt

I like dissenting opinions. I'm trying to save money by keeping the thermostat low and righteous indignation keeps me warm at night. Besides, if we all thought the same, we'd be one cybernetic implant away from being the Borg.

And truthfully, my favorite game is pretty stupid.

You may be avoiding this thread from now, but I think this needs a response. You are right, the idea that games make you feel like a kid is so obvious that it shouldn't need to be said.

Problem is in this day of 'games is serous bizness' sometime we need to be reminded. Competitive online shooters, MMO addictions and Rob's Rage Pills have made people far too serious about their hobby.

The strip is just a reminder of why we do what we do.