The first step is admitting you have a problem...

One summer back in the early 90s, my younger brother and I saved all of our money for months in order to purchase what we viewed as the most valuable investment possible: The Super Nintendo. And indeed, it was an excellent decision; it did bring hours upon hours of joy. Although we eventually gathered a fairly impressive game library (I'm talking quality, not quantity here!), not all games were afforded the same amount of play time. Not many games have what it takes to truly be called addictive. These few games are perfect examples of the phenomenon I like to call 'Just 5 More Minutes.' They are the games that are easy to learn, reward early and often, and give a sense of accomplishment in just the perfect doses. They are the ones that you just can't turn off even when you should be sleeping, the ones that make you late to work/school, and the ones that have made more than one kid (myself included) exclaim, "Aw, come on, just let me play for five more minutes!"

There are many SNES games are certainly applicable here -- games that have addictive gameplay, are extremely fun and very polished, even holding up today when they are several generations old. And certainly, games such as Super Mario World and Final Fantasy 3 definitely deserve their acclaim, but... this week I've been reminiscing about a different game, one that completely captivated me back in the day; hours went by like minutes, I'd easily spend an entire Saturday playing and consider it time well spent.

This game has a strange hold on me once I start playing -- it can captivate me like a good book, and I absolutely cannot stop once I've started. I guess its various incarnations point to this as a general phenomena -- this game must have this power over many more players that just me to have been released so many times in so many different versions. And it was definitely my fond memories of this game as a kid that motivated me to head to EB Games this week and pick up... Sim City DS.

Although I apparently still have as little Sim City skill as I did as a 12 year old, this game rewards me enough that it can also dish out the punishment and I'll keep coming back, asking for more. During this week, I think I started my city at least 5 times, failing miserably before finally figuring out all the little quirks of this version of the game. And that says a lot -- I usually won't stick around for multiple failures in other games. I mean, it only took one round against the first boss in Shadow of the Colossus for me to realize that as cool as the game looked, the gameplay left a little to be desired. I turned it off, and haven't turned it on since.

Why is Sim City so different? I can't really point to one specific reason. It appeals to my desire to create, it's satisfying even though it's very logical and somewhat predictable, and its system of continual rewards keeps me motivated to continue playing. Since getting my DS over 2 years ago, I've played many different games on it, but none of those other games have entertained me enough to keep me playing after the first couple hours. The small screen size gets to me every time, and I eventually stop playing no matter how fun the game is. But not this time -- I played Sim City for 5 hours today. Why do I love it so much? I can't really say right now... See, my city is about to reach 100,000 citizens, and... I um, have to go...