Michael Mullooly | Contributing Writer
There are a surprising number of similarities between college students and little kids. Both have irregular sleeping patterns, with naps interspersed throughout the day. Both are heavily dependent on bottles, and both are just barely house trained. A less obvious similarity can be found in the films and videogames the two groups enjoy. I’ve dubbed this strange, regressive phenomenon the “Gameboy Cycle”.
It is impossible to enter the Disney store without seeing a pack of first years revelling in all the brightly coloured, harmless fun, trying on Monster’s University hats and examining Buzz Lightyear toys. Wide-eyed five year olds stand side by side with wide-eyed arts students, equally and utterly entranced. Similarly, the sight of a student pulling out a Nintendo 3DS to play a few rounds of Super Smash Bros. or catch another Pokémon is so common nowadays as to pass without remark. One only has to observe the Classical society singing along to Hercules to sense the love third-level students have for their old favourites. Why does this phenomenon – this return to the entertainment of our youth – seem so common?
By the time I was 15, my eyes were glazed with violence and crude humour. Innocent became a synonym for boring.
When I was five years old I was given a purple Gameboy Colour for my birthday, along with a copy of Pokémon Yellow. I can honestly say that very few moments in my life have been as utterly pivotal as that one in shaping who I am today. That is not an exaggeration. That game (once I’d learned to read so I could play it properly) taught me so much, blowing my mind with its scope, imagination and perfect story about a plucky mute kid on the journey to become a Pokémon master. Pokémon Yellow kick-started a love for video games that is still burning strong more than thirteen years later.
As I grew and eventually hit puberty, my tastes changed. Newer generations of Pokémon games were scoffed at and shunned in favour of more “mature” titles, games composed of high-octane aggression like Halo and Call of Duty. A similar trend emerged in the animation I watched. As a five year old I would sob repeatedly every time I watched Snow White. By the time I was 15, though, I was more interested in the latest antics of Peter Griffin and Eric Cartman. My eyes were glazed with violence and crude humour. Innocent became a synonym for boring.
Having reached university and emerged from puberty more or less intact, I find my views widening, and my interest gently swaying back to the works of art that captivated me wholly when I was young and impressionable. While my appreciation for South Park remains, my love for Disney films has completely resurfaced. It’s easy to get a shocked laugh from the audience when your joke involves an anti- Semitic fat kid, but to wow them with an animated classic that is universally funny, beautifully drawn, and full of a whole range of emotions is another story altogether.
In university, students’ minds are expanded and introduced to a huge range of new ideas. This return to a fresh perspective on life and art, in all its forms, is what fuels the Gameboy Cycle.
In university, students’ minds are expanded and introduced to a huge range of new ideas. Independent learning and creativity are encouraged, and we are free to learn, express and appreciate things in new ways. This return to a naïvety of sorts, to a fresh perspective on life and art, in all its forms, is what fuels the Gameboy Cycle. All of a sudden people begin picking up where they left off with old save files, blowing dust off controllers and reading blog posts about the top five hottest Disney princes (Eric, no question).
For every person reading this nodding and patting the Nintendo in their pocket, there are probably several who are slightly baffled. To those people I say this: give in to the nostalgia. Laugh and be delighted with no strings attached. Let your inner five year old dictate the entertainment for an evening. Blow the dust off an old favourite film or game and curl up on the couch. Responsibilities and deadlines can wait an hour or two.
