128 Sweaty Summer Days Playing Video Games With My Girlfriend

"Hey man, get outta here. Your girlfriend's waiting for ya".

I stopped doing what I was doing and went out to her. She gave me a hug and sniffed my clothes. Working in a bakery had its perks. When she wanted me though, she wouldn't leave until I stopped working at what I was doing and went out to her. She saved many a good summer day for me that way.

We spent this hot summer at my place playing the Nintendo 64 I bought with my pocket money. We were both amazed by it. Exploring everywhere in Super Mario 64 and controlling our first 3D game was unlike anything we ever experienced. We would talk about the worlds and everything when we weren't playing. We would hum the Dry Dry Desert/Lethal Lava Land theme when we were away from the console because it was a really hot summer. We couldn't wait to get back playing.

Then I got Banjo-Kazooie and the adventure of 3D worlds was fresh all over again. Like Mario, this game had tons of atmosphere and we spent an unholy amount of time looking for collectibles. But also exploring this world, which was now on a 128 megabit cartridge. We were actually able to fly now, unlike Mario who could only glide. Rusty Bucket Bay and Gobi's Valley became the new summer theme and that quickening tune in King Sandybutt's maze made us want to thrash around together like we were in a mosh pit. The mixture of heat and hormones and Nintendo 64 worlds and music made our summer of 1998 one to remember.