Memories come with a purpose, whether they remind us of the things we used to enjoy or the things we lost along the way. Regardless of the purpose they serve, they play a significant role in shaping us into the people we grew up to become.
Some of the most significant memories we can all recall, if we dig through our memories deep enough, are memories of our childhood and the silly games we played to pass the time before the internet and smartphones became such a prominent part of our lives.
Come reminisce about some of the most iconic games we once loved as kids.
Snake
The retro snake game had to be a staple on this list. Long before iPhones and apps, snake was the one mobile game we had back then. Usually played after we begged our parents to give us their phones, snake was addictive and a way to fill the boredom. And the longer the snake got, the more frustrating it was when we would lose and would have to start all over again.
Mario Nintendo
Remember Luigi? Princess Peach? Playing Super Mario on the Nintendo quickly made you one of the cool kids. With its endless adventures and obstacles, that game was a hit.
Solitaire
This one was mentally challenging for many of us, but we still played it any chance we got. It felt good to watch the cards rearrange themselves as we got closer and closer to the finish line.
Autobus Complet
You’re not a 90’s kid unless you’re familiar with this game. All you needed was a piece of paper, a pencil and a group of friends. Taking turns, you’d choose a letter then have to name a variety of things starting with that letter. The game never failed to start fights about whether or not an answer was valid or if one player was peaking at another’s answers.
Finding Waldo
This game is not too old, but it exercised our mental focus and has become engraved in our brains forever. The tedious hours spent determined to find every Waldo hidden in the book or racing your friend to see who will find him first, this game made Waldo a 90s icon.
Hide and Seek in the Dark
The mischievous kids out there loved this game. It was all about scaring each other rather than actually finding a missing contestant. It forced us to think of the most creative places to hide and it had us holding our breaths in fear of being found.
El Bank El 7az
This older version of monopoly, definitely kept us up all night more than we’d like to admit. No one ever won, before the game ends we’d always lose interest and call it a day.
Mama w Baba
Perhaps not everyone is familiar with this one but as kids, we loved to pretend we were parents. We used to fight over who got to be the kid and who got to be the parent, perhaps because the latter gave us a sense of authority we lacked as children.
Hopscotch
Whether we played it in school or in the reception of our house, this one definitely hits home.
Barbie
This one is international. For most girls, dressing up their Barbie doll and having her go about her daily life was the highlight of their day.
Just the idea that silly, or perhaps in our world not-so-silly, games gave us pleasure within the bounds of their simplicity, is definitely worth something. In a way, it is telling of how we have evolved to enjoy things in far more complex ways, perhaps suggesting that there exists far greater beauty in the simpler things.