Terraria

A little random trivia for you: I am not the best at video games. And I really suck at first-person shooters. Give me side-scrolling Mario any day and I can do some awesome and amazing things. When we got Super Mario Bros Wii, my wife kept dying before finally finishing the first three levels. I, on the other hand, didn't have my first death until near the end of the 2nd world. And I consistently had 99 lives in the later part of my first go through of the game.

My point being, I really enjoy side-scrolling games. They're less difficult to navigate and I know I'm not gonna worry about changing directions. The buttons are simple to use and fighting bosses don't require too much thought process.

Well, years after the first time I played the original Super Mario Bros. back in the late 80s, fellow Mormon Geek, Andrew, introduced me to the world of Terraria. And at first I thought "this is the stupidest game". And then I realized "this game is AWESOME!"

Terraria is a side-scrolling game whose graphics pretty much belong on an SNES or a Sega Genesis. And there really isn't much to the story, which was my initial problem in the game. I had no idea what I was doing the first time I played it. Then I understood the goal is to seek out treasures, build up my house, and destroy the bosses that can pop up.

For me, it's finding the goals to accomplish that make it fun. Start off with a goal of "build a house". Then there's "get copper armor and tools". And maybe better armor, or better tools, or a specific tool or weapon. Eventually I find myself saying "beat the Wall of Flesh." Still haven't done the last one, but I will soon enough.

A lot of people prefer a similar game called Minecraft. Minecraft is a first-person game, which is probably the biggest and most obvious difference. And I really haven't played Minecraft, but I definitely prefer the 3rd-person sidescrolling.

Terraria is my go-to game right now. My line of thinking is akin to "I need to kill some time, I'm gonna play Terraria." If you like simple game play (like me because I suck at first-person shooters), then Terraria is a game that can work great for you.

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