Mobile Gaming vs. Traditional Handhelds

As far as casual roommate discussions go, I was having a fairly intense one the other day. You see, the reason it was so intense was because the stakes had never been higher nor had they been in control of the likes of us.

We had never been in control of our own console destiny before, and we were discussing which consoles we would buy.

The bulk of that conversation is unimportant to the subject of this post and I will get away without ever mentioning it again. However, I do have to mention a quote from said conversation to spring this post forward into the future, bottom-portion of this post:

"I don't play handhelds anymore. I just use my phone."

I was shocked by the instant realization that this was the world I now lived in. Angry Birds had replaced Pokemon as people's go to handheld. I guess I always knew we were at that point when I didn't run out to buy the PSP... or the DS.... or the Vita... OR THE 3DS... or WHATEVER ELSE I MISSED BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE.

It was depressing me that the short levels and quick gameplay of the mobile phone was more appealing to today's modern "gaming on the toilet" approach. This isn't anything against mobile games if that's what you think this is about... you ignorant fool. No discredit to Angry Birds, Temple Run, especially Robot Unicorn Attack. The problem is that Professor Layton and New Super Mario Bros. are just clearly better. As a plugged in human being, I physically reject the idea that good media can be ignored in the place of bad media.

Yet here we are. I don't know anyone who owns anything released after the Nintendo DS and yet everyone has over 1 million in temple run (myself excluded, though not for lack of trying... shut up). It's upsetting.

But I remembered.

I remembered that I never played my Gameboy Color on the toilet. I remembered that my parents and my cool friends  and the bullies who beat me up for bringing my gameboy to school because playing sports at recess was for people with athletic ability never played Gameboy Colors. I remembered that all these places that I felt mobile phones had snatched away from handheld devices never actually belonged to the handhelds in the first place!  Handhelds were never for the toilet! They were for the boring trips that you couldn't bring your console on! They were for your school friends who never bothered learning where your house was but knew that the Alakazam whom was evolved on their gameboy helped you beat the Elite 4. I forgot that I'm NOT a CASUAL GAMER. 

I take time to write about games even when no one reads it because that's how much I love gaming. When I thought that, I pulled out Professor Layton and went crazy... with some Temple Run on the porcelain throne.