The single most hyped I’ve ever been for a video game was for Smash Wii U. The Smash Bros series is why I’m a huge Nintendo fan today, so middle school Preston was freaking out at the idea of a brand new game on the horizon. Between 2013 and 2014, I honestly believe that Smash 4 was the only thing I thought about. I would refresh the smash website every day and watch every Nintendo direct, waiting for Smash news. So finally, when the game came out for 3DS and eventually Wii U, it was like a dream come true. I sunk HOURS into these games and truly loved every minute of it. And now, 10 years later, I decided to essentially 100% Smash Wii U by fully completing the challenge board. The only challenges I had left were beating Classic mode with Marth and Classic mode without losing a life, and Marth was definitely the easier one. It took a fair amount of time, but I got through it without too much trouble. But Classic mode without losing a life was one of the most difficult video game challenges I’ve ever done. Weirdly enough, Master Core itself wasn’t even that difficult. But the CPU matches beforehand were SO AGONIZING to get through, mainly because it was mostly up to chance if you survived or not. It honestly got so infuriating at points that I questioned if I wanted to beat the challenge at all. I knew it was possible, but the CPU matches were so luck based that I felt like I wasn’t really improving at all. But I still decided to keep grinding, playing as Ganondorf and then switching to Corrin. But after more and more hours, I still fell short most of the time. I finally decided to play Ganondorf again after avoiding him for a while, and dealing the final blow on Master Core was one of the most satisfying moments I’ve ever experienced in any video game. Such an intense but fulfilling send off to such an important game in my life.

Ended up beating all the events on Hard (not the group events though) and I collected all of the CDs and outfits I believe. Didn’t do all trophies and custom moves because I already did that on 3DS and it took soooo long. But I’m just happy I beat all of the challenges on the challenge board. It’s been an amazing 10 years with this game!