I’m lucky in that I’ve latched onto an amazing woman for my wife. Besides her phenomenal cooking skills, her excellent brain, and her beautiful body, she also happens to be a lifelong gamer.

She honed her skill on the Sega Genesis, playing Sonic the Hedgehog games. More recently, she’s been addicted to various MSN “casual” games, including the Diner Dash series, and all the sundry restaurant manger-type games available online. With the introduction of the Wii, she has gracefully moved on to games such as Super Mario Galaxy (playing as my ever-present and faithful “number 2”) and Super Monkey Ball.

This past weekend, however, I got to experience a whole new side of my wife’s mysterious gaming history. I was browsing the Wii Shop Channel because I had completely forgotten that I still had an extra batch of 500 Wii Points just sitting there, doing nothing at all. They required spending. I browsed the 500-point NES games and came across Startropics. I recalled briefly that my wife had played that game; or, more appropriately, her mother had played that game once upon a time (see! good genes). In any case, I mentioned it to my wife, as I had skipped that game in my brief NES past (but managed to score most of the rest in some fashion). My wife responded thusly: “Startropics is on there?! Download it!” as she leapt off our bed. We downloaded the game, and then somewhere about an hour into it, she became disinterested because the gameplay style wasn’t to her liking. But the fact of the matter is that she showed a definite interest, one that still remains even years after she has sold and/or packed away her old gaming gear.

As of this moment, I have no doubt that she is busily firing away with the Wii Zapper at little wooden targets, cursing each and every miss as she attempts in vain to beat my scores in Link’s Crossbow Training. I love that woman.

I don’t know why after all this time I still get tickled so when I think about the fact that my wife enjoys video games. Maybe it’s because I continue to read thread after thread on Evil Avatar where aging gamers are finding it hard to get in valuable game time because their nagging wives are brow-beating their “childish habits”. Or maybe it’s because even with what little game time as I get each night, gaming itself is such a huge part of who I am, and was so integral to shaping my creative instincts growing up, that I’m honored to be in a marriage with someone who shares a love of this basic, simple, “childish”, wonderful, engaging, provocative activity.

Or maybe, I just love watching her face when I beat her high score. And, consequently, hearing the pride in her voice as she mercilessly returns the favor. Whatever the reason, it makes me look forward to all the future game nights with the boys as they grow up in a family that games together.