After school, my friend and I always played Game Pigeon. And when she won, she sent me a celebratory GIF of Papa dancing in a mushroom hat from the hit Nintendo video game series “Cooking Mama”. The moment I laid eyes on Papa dancing his jig, I knew I needed to download it. I played it every chance I got, but although I used Cooking Mama as a quick escape from the horrors of life, It reminded me of my upbringing with all the other Nintendo games. 

Like many other kids, I grew up fighting with my older brother about who got to play with our old broken Nintendo. Whether it be Pokemon, Nintendogs, or Mario, I enjoyed all if not most of the games we had. But for some reason, I never played Cooking Mama. Was it because my feeble seven-year-old brain couldn’t comprehend the complications of cooking? Or was it because I could never cut the onions exactly how Mama wanted me to? I would never know, since my immature brain would quit the moment I failed. 

But what does this say about me now? Ever since I downloaded Cooking Mama on my phone, every time I messed up or lost, it just drove me to do better. Since the age of seven, I’ve become more sociable, more tolerant, and overall just grown up. And even though I have more growing to do, there’s no way a cooking game I barely played could have contributed that much to my growth as a person. And that’s because I left out one tiny game that I played religiously, even more than Pokemon and Nintendogs.

Before getting a DS, I was a shy kid. A shy kid with an obsession with Hello Kitty and Sanrio. I had a Hello Kitty backpack, coloring books, toys, the list could go on. But my obsession was fueled even more by a game on the DS, called Hello Kitty Party. In this game, we assist Hello Kitty in preparing for a big party with her friends. We would also cook in this game, along with many other minigames. After playing this game, it inspired me when I saw Hello Kitty have fun with the occasional Batzmaru and Kuromi messing with our plans. I wanted to experience the type of fun Hello Kitty had when she spent time with her friends, but as a kid whose parents had to hire a speech doctor because I wouldn’t talk, it would be hard. But while playing Hello Kitty Party as a young child, I found it much easier to bounce back after failing than Cooking Mama. So, I applied this to real life and eventually made friends that I’m still with to this day. While Hello Kitty might just seem like a cute little mascot, she has more influence than you think. 

As a person who recently changed my perspective on Cooking Mama, I have to say that I still enjoy Hello Kitty Party more as it has more accurate cooking according to real life. I have never seen Cooking Mama wash vegetables or go grocery shopping, so I might be a little biased.