*insert gobbeldygook here*

I received an early Christmas present that was a) a complete surprise and b) knocked my socks off. I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to have received a Nintendo DS Lite! I think my first handheld was a Tiger Pinball game I received as a stocking stuffer somewhere in the mid 80s. I played that thing through countless AA batteries and numerous car trips to NYC to visit extended family. I can still feel the buttons under my thumbs and see the ball and it's intended trajectory, timing the flipper flip just so to make the ball obey my every command. Ah, nostalgia.

Then in the later 80s to early 90s the Nintendo Gameboy is where I first met Tetris (Google video link to a one hour BBC special on the creation of Tetris). I didn't own one, but the folks I used to babysit for did. Many a late night babysitting at the Wickes' house I would curl up on their couch, a slave to Mr. Pajitnov's genius, in their 1800s farmhouse and play Tetris on the tiny black and white screen while waiting for them to come home. The music is tattooed on my brain I cannot resist a game of Tetris for a few hours or so.

So it was particularly poignant that the first game I received with the DS Lite was the Metroid Pinball game. And the second? I think it'll be Tetris.