Now, I’ve played tons of videogames over the years, from any EA Sports installment of NHL or FIFA, to the countless amounts of Call of Duty’s and Halo’s, and a fair amount of them have had lasting impacts…

But no game has ever left more of a deep impact on me than the one and only, Wii Sports.

(jennifulw / Flickr)

The amount of hours I have plugged into Wii Sports over the last fourteen years is astronomical, and most likely borderline unhealthy, but do I regret any of that time?.. no, not a chance.

Wii Sports bonded me with so many friends and family members during its existence. I remember spending hours on end with my cousins from across the country that I almost never see, pouring in countless hours into Wii Golf and Bowling specifically. The trash talk, the cheering, the banter… just a recipe for a fantastic get together.

Even as the years passed by, as everyone got a tad older, we still play Wii Sports from time to time and create magnificent memories in the meantime. Who doesn’t have that one friend at a party who stumbles across the homeowner’s Wii and then in an inebriated stasis, scream out “I can take on ANYONE here in Wii Baseball, none of you have a DAMN chance at beating me, no way”… come to think of it… I may have been that guy in some instances.

(ghostwoodauctions / Flickr)

That’s the thing that makes Wii Sports so captivating though. I thoroughly believe it is the one game that can bring nearly everyone together, because bascially everyone has strapped on the wristband and played a game of tennis or a round of bowling at some time in their life, that can’t be said about any other game, even the classics like Halo or Super Mario in some cases.

That whole process of meeting someone new, finding out they have a Wii, creating your own virtual avatar on their console, and dueling it out in one of the five coveted sports for a couple of hours… it is something that’ll always hold merit. Truly, Wii Sports is a game that a lot of us can say, shaped our childhood.