Despite the bad a reputation that film and television adaptations of video games have, HBO Max’s The Last of Us series has kept us surprisingly optimistic via its first three episodes. The third of these stars Nick “Ron Swanson” Offerman as… well, basically Ron Swanson with two major twists, one of which is that he’s in a zombie apocalypse.
We’re not here to spoil any of the show for you, but instead bring up a recent interview featuring Offerman on a late night TV show. The topic of video games came up, naturally, and Offerman explains that he had just one two-week stint with the things before realizing (and fearing) their power of attraction. The game he played? It features a certain bear and bird most recently spotted in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Yes, it was a two week stint with Banjo Kazooie that caused Offerman to swear off games forever. He explains to host Jimmy Kimmel that the allure and dopamine drip playing as the platforming bear and bird gave him made him realize he’d sink way too much time into games if he made playing them a regular part of his life.
“25 years ago I played my last video game, and I’m very indulgent,” he starts. “I lost a couple weeks to a video game called Banjo Kazooie… the slow dopamine drip is so delicious. Then it’s over and… immediately I was like ‘what have I done with my life?’ and so I decided I’m never gonna do that again.”
Two things that are hard to hear with that. First, wow, we were playing Banjo Kazooie a quarter century ago. Second, that familiar feeling of lack of production does tend to creep up on us when we’ve sunk too many consecutive hours into Ranked and realize that it’s time to go outside and remember what the sun feels like.
In any case, you can see the bit in which Offerman talks about one of the greatest platformers of all time in the video below. We’d love to hear your reactions on the matter in the comments once you’re done.
