My 7-year-old, Matthew and I sat down last night and redeemed a Wii points card that he received for his birthday. For those unaware, you can download classic video games like Pac-man, Punchout and Super Mario Bros. directly to your Wii and play them to your nostalgic heart’s content.

The funny thing is this. My kid’s been playing video games since he was about 3-years-old and by the time he was 5, he was playing games like HALO and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell – games that involve wielding automatic weapons and fending off giant aliens and government assassins. It’s not that I’m bragging, or overly proud of this, but at 5-years old, Matthew fully grasped the concept of the “headshot” and the necessity of hiding the bodies of the bad guys so as not to sound alarms later in the game.

These are stressful games. The lighting, music, and action are designed to keep you on edge and stressed out, but Matthew’s always been able to handle them. Kid’s these days are pretty amazing.

So last night I learned something that I find hilarious – the boy has no problem laying waste to hordes of gigantic intergalactic bad guys, but Pac-Man? Forget it. Being constantly chased around a maze by 4 brightly colored ghosts proved to be WAY too intense for the boy!

Another thing I discovered was that the boy had no concept whatsoever of “points”. To him – eating the ghosts was a waste of time because “they come right back”. Kids today play to rescue the princess or defeat the evil overlord. Back in the day, ALL games were a quest for the same all-important title, the “High Score”.

So I called my best friend, and fellow gamer, Adrian this morning because I knew he would appreciate my finding and of course – he winds up being the one person on the planet who’s actually had discussions with others on this exact topic. His two cents:

I hadn’t thought of it that way before but it’s true. What I saw last night was the result of an entire industry forced into a renaisance of sorts in order to keep up with the times. I guess it’s true. Classics are always relevant.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.