The Best Use for Time Travel

Playing Chrono Trigger, a role-playing game where you travel through time, I began to muse in a deep and satisfactory manner about if I had time travel of my own, what would I do with it?

The answer, of course, would be to travel back to the year 1995, the year Chrono Trigger was released on the Super Nintendo, and have a conversation with myself. Wouldn't the younger me be amazed that over a decade later he was playing Chrono Trigger again and enjoying it? How bizarre, right?

Of course, the first thing we'd have to talk about is time travel, because that would probably deserve some kind of explanation.

But after about five minutes (trust me, I'm positive about this) we'd get to the important stuff and start talking about video games.




"So what are video games like in 2011?" Justin '95 would ask.

"Oh, they're pretty awesome," I'd start off vaguely, maybe giving a few details about how far polygons have gone since Doom and all of the wild innovations in both hardware and design theory. Just describing Minecraft to Justin '95 would most likely force him to contemplate incapacitating me and stealing my time machine so he could experience the game himself (trust me, I'm positive about this).

But before he could locate a nearby blunt object, I'd reach into my back pocket and produce the 3DS.

"Here, check this out," I would say, "It can play games much more powerful than anything on the Super Nintendo, the graphics are literally 3D, and, oh, look, guess what game I'm playing? Chrono Trigger! Isn't that cool?"


And Justin '95 would look up at me and all the camaraderie he'd feel for an older, game-enthusiast version of himself would just drain from his face.

"What?" He'd mutter, studying me closely to see if I was joking.

"I mean, I never would've guessed that after all these years I'd come back to Chrono Trigger and be having so much fun," I'd say, a little cautiously because I can sense the hostility brewing in Justin '95, "Weird, huh?"

"You're telling me that, right now, you could be playing as an assassin in a fully-realized Renaissance Era Rome or that Warcraft is going to become this virtual world where you and thousands of other people can all have adventures together, or that you could just roll up some big ball with everything laying around on the floor until it gets bigger and bigger and you roll up the entire world? You're telling me that pretty-much every game from 2011 is 3D, super-realistic, and you're playing a game that you already played ten years ago?"

"I don't -"

"Are you fucking stupid?" Justin '95 froths at the mouth, "Why aren't you playing Portal 2?"

To this I would have no answer, because while I am having a lot of fun, Justin '95 has a very good point.

If I do ever travel through time I'll have to make sure not to mention to my younger self that I still enjoy playing Chrono Trigger. He wouldn't understand.