DeKALB – Since the early 1970s, video games have spread far and wide across the world and have seen significant improvements. However, as more advanced games are released year after year, the older consoles and games become more scarcely available to play and are reduced to a memory. 

Once a year, the students and staff of NIU will have the opportunity to play games on older consoles in the “Smash from the Past” event and compete in a tournament to win prizes. 

The event will be held annually, and this year marks the second time it was held. Smash from the Past was hosted by NIU Esports at the Esports Arena in Altgeld Hall, Room 100, and the event allows anyone to play with different and older games in and outside of the tournament. 

Esports has quite the collection of old consoles such as the Xbox 360, the N.E.S. (Nintendo Entertainment System), the Nintendo GameCube and the Nintendo 64. There were also games from consoles like the Playstation 2 and the Sega Genesis even though those consoles weren’t physically present and could be played on PC instead.

Some of the more popular games with the attendees were Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Castlevania, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Halo Reach, Crash Bandicoot, Mario Party, Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Mario Sunshine. Music from these games could be heard playing on the overhead speakers from time to time. 

Some gamers were there for a more competitive reason, that being the double elimination style Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament. It was an intense competition with razor sharp focus from the participants and the ferocious symphony of buttons, but the bright smiles and happiness of the players were more than evident. 

Alex Kramer, assistant director of NIU Esports, commented on why Melee was chosen as the tournament game. 

“Esports is so modern focused that it’s nice for one night to kinda look back to the past,” Kramer said. “To look back where every esport player has their origin story, so to speak, with what their first game was, and we wanted to kind of touch into that nostalgia a little bit.”

With how lively the Smash From the Past 2 event was and the different groups of friends that came in that night, it is a wonder why more gamers don’t go check it out for themselves next year. It truly was astounding to see 59 people still enjoy and have the chance to play a different era of games, and hopefully more gamers will give the event a try next October.