I played video games for the first time in probably seven years this past weekend. 

My knowledge of video games includes "Spyro" and "Harvest Moon." But hearing a lot of my friends talking about video games and meeting KZOO SMASH, my interest rekindled. 

For weeks, I had bugged my darling friend Casey Watts, assistant news editor for the Western Herald, to teach me how to play video games, and we finally found some time.

After going through suggestions like "Twilight Princess," "Ocarina of  Time" and a few others, I decided on "Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword" because she said it had a great story line (stories are my favorite). I played for 7 1/2 hours.

Short version: I died a lot and killed some stuff and flew on a giant bird and it was great.

Slightly longer version: The hour and a half long tutorial seemed lengthly, but it was definitely needed because I died numerous times on the surface. Flying was so much freaking fun and I aggressively wanted a Loftwing after two seconds of playing. Landing posed some difficulties. Casey laughed really hard when I accidently ran my Loftwing into a building a few times before I got Link to jump off. I also forgot the Sailcloth so Link face-planted, but just once. 

Link needs to do more cardio to build up that stamina. Come on, dude. I can sprint farther than 20 feet. 

Casey was excited when I got to the first temple and ran into Ghirahim, her favorite villain. I was excited when I finally beat him (it took me a few tries because I'm really good at pressing a lot of buttons and hoping someone, preferably not me, dies). I defeated him faster than I defeated the rolling-rock-fireball boss, though. I hesitated too much but I really enjoyed throwing bombs at a fire-spitting rock. 

I loved the characters. Zelda was a gem and I would love to cosplay as her. The adorable and delightful Kikwis had Grade-A camouflage skills. Groose was hilarious. And Casey was definitely right about Ghirahim and his fabulousness. I'm honored that she photoshopped my face onto his for the above picture.

Playing "Skyward Sword" was a marvelous life decision and I'm going to bug Casey to play again this weekend.