Although I wouldn’t call myself a gamer, I really enjoy games. We play Settlers of Catan, Dominion, cribbage, or Mille Bournes weekly in my house. I spend down time in waiting rooms playing Peggle and Farm Hero Saga on my phone. I really enjoy the weekly game of Magic: The Gathering (Thursdays from 2:30-4:30!) I host for middle and high school students at UDPL. And, when all else fails, I’m not above playing the classic pencil and paper “Dot and Boxes” game to pass the time. But what has really changed the games I play is UDPL’s extensive video game collection and my ability to check out games before buying them!

I’ve been a Nintendo owner since second grade. I played on an original NES, an N64, a GameCube, a Wii, and as of this past December, a Wii U. I’m a huge fan of all things Mario, Link, and Kirby. But as much as I’ve always loved playing Nintendo, I never had an extensive collection of games because of the cost. I saved a couple weeks’ worth of part-time college job paychecks to buy The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask when it first came out only to be disappointed by the game. The only way to preview games at the time was to rent them from a video store like Blockbuster and the rental fees added up almost as quickly as buying the game! Now, though, I can check out many of the Wii U titles I’m curious about from the library at no cost before I decide to buy them. This past weekend, in honor of the Daytona 500, I brought home MarioKart 8. The cold and snow encouraged us to stay in to race as classic Nintendo characters on physics-defying tracks. Nintendo has always been the master of balancing innovation with familiarity – although I had never used the unique Wii U remote to play a racing game before, I quickly caught on because controls were familiar to the point of almost being instinctive. MarioKart 8, like the seven iterations before it, is just simply fun. There’s some cartoon violence, but no characters “die” during game play and everyone gets to finish every lap. Nintendo allows you to race as dozens of different characters plus the personalized Mii characters you can create on the console. I didn’t win a single game all weekend, but I never got tired of trying!

UDPL carries games for systems other than the Wii U. You can also check out games for the PS3, the XBOX 360, and the original Wii. Stop in to check out our collection today! (And, if you check out any of the MarioKart games, I highly recommend playing as Yoshi. He’s my favorite go-to character!)