“Most of it is on the go,” Cena says. “We have a lot of gamers in the WWE, and they all try and game with consoles. So these guys are lugging an extra bag with them everywhere, and then it’s difficult for them to set up to play on the go.”
So it’s no surprise that Cena has partnered with Nintendo to help it launch its new Switch console, which allows gamers to play on the go by switching from a home console to a portable system on the fly.
Cena, a self-professed fan of Nintendo from the early days, was on hand to help the company launch the system at a series of inventive pop-ups designed to show the versatility of the system. This put him in touch with his childhood passion for gaming in a whole new way as Cena puts it, “I was like a kid again I was so excited.”
We talked with Cena about his passion for gaming, how he feels about his own video games, and what we can expect from him at the Kid’s Choice Awards (plus, how he feels about getting political at them).
John Cena: I’ve been a longtime fan of the brand — my lineage dates back to the Nintendo Entertainment System. I’m probably dating myself by saying this, but I got the first console in 1985. I kinda hit that video game age right when it became super popular, so I grew up on Super Mario Bros.
Legend of Zelda, Tecmo Super Bowl … a lot of the 8-bit titles. What I enjoyed most about them was the ability to just pick up and play, but the games were challenging enough where if you devoted more time, you got more out of it. A perfect example of that would be like Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out! You could pick it up and play it, but if you put in the time, it became another game.
So that’s what I loved about the Nintendo Switch. With gaming consoles nowadays, the interfaces make it difficult to play. And me being 40, games have almost passed me by, so I mostly stick to tablet stuff. But then again, you lose a lot of game play by sticking to a tablet.
Switch has been hyped as a versatile console that you can use at home and on the go. And in being Nintendo as well, the system isn’t only spectacular from a tech standpoint, but a 40-year-old guy like me can learn to play without reading instructions!
You think you’re dated in saying you had an NES, but I had an Atari.
Oh, I had an Atari as well, but it was so basic. With all the games, the sticker on the game made it look awesome, but then you’d play and it was so basic.
I also had a ColecoVision, which was like a step in between, but with Nintendo that’s when universes really came to life.
So are you gaming much now?
I am, but like I said, most of it is on the go. We have a lot of gamers in the WWE, and they all try and game with consoles. So these guys are lugging an extra bag with them everywhere, and then it’s difficult for them to set up to play on the go. I ditched that. I used to mess around with tablet games, so I’m down with basic strategy games.
But with Switch, now I can either have a privatized and intimate gaming experience, or if there’s a group of us on a plane, we can play each other.
What do you think about violence in video games?
I actually think the video game industry handles it well they handle it just like we do in the WWE. We’re on TV, we have ratings, our ratings across all platforms are PG-13 but that doesn’t mean you don’t have explicit shows, like
The Walking Dead, or syndicated shows that get TV-Mature ratings. Those are for certain audiences and let people know this is good for children, or it’s not good.
Video games have done a great job of designating ratings of games that are for ages 14 and up more mature, or OK for everyone and that’s certainly the best way to do it.
That way, the person purchasing the game knows either that this is something that’s good for my kids, or it’s something I should play with them, or it’s something they shouldn’t play.
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