Games have shaped my life in amazing ways. From changing who I am and how I act, to just building the bonds between me and my friends, they have shaped me.

I grew up with what my brothers did. So when they played Spyro on the PS2, that was what I’d play too. When one of them played modded Minecraft via the Technic launcher, so did I. Their interests had seeped into my own.

I can remember nights when I would have to go to bed, yet they were allowed to stay up. I just wanted to watch them play Lego Star Wars on our PS3. I remember not being able to beat hard levels in other games and turning to my brothers for help.

Yet one of those games has never left me, one of those games has grown up with me as a series

The year 2008: it marks the beginning of this series, at least for me. Sure, there were two games before this now disliked middle child, but it started me on a trip to one of my best friendships.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl: a game near and dear to my heart. Being the third game in the Smash Bros series, and being released 7 years after the last game, it was much anticipated. Once it came out, however, it was played casually and then dropped by a surprisingly large part of the player base.

My main draw to the game was the mode called Subspace Emissary where you play as various characters trying to stop someone from turning all the fighters into trophies. It makes more sense in the game

It was a sort of story mode, and I played the first 6 levels countless times. Of course, I also played this game with my friends. It is a fighting game after all, and it does become more fun with friends.

It would be in the year 2014 that would change the game for me: quite literally. That is the year that Smash for Wii U and 3ds came out. With that game, my memories of Brawl would be mostly forgotten. I can still see myself sitting in the upstairs of one of my friend’s houses though.

Smash 4, as it was called, would be the reason that me and one of my best friends⁠—Zach⁠—had come together in the first place. Seventh and eighth grade weren’t so great for me, but I can look back and see all the time that I’ve played this game with a smile.

But I know this game would mean a lot less to me without Zach. The hours I’ve spent with him in that game are nearly countless and are at least in the hundreds. Playing online with him in skype calls back when we used that in 2016 or 17 feels so long ago.

I wish that I could objectively say this is a good game, but without friends, I’d say it isn’t. Of the games I’ve played, it’s the one I love the most, but it is absolutely not the best. The game had its flaws in characters that were blatantly the best and some that were the worst.

Then there’s Smash Ultimate, the best of the three that have left a mark on me. It was fluid. It was fast. It feels good to control. It has the best version of the character roster, stage list, and music.

It is the Ultimate Smash bros. and it isn’t even a competition. Again, I’ve sunk countless hours into the game with Zach, but this time I’d gotten even better at the game which has just one issue: it’s not fun to always win against your friends.

And it isn’t fun to lose most of the time for them I’d wager, but even then we still play. This series has brought me closer to some of my best friends, and there is no series that I would rather have been the one to do so.