I wish I'd gotten a globetrotting world-saving adventure when I was 12. The farthest we went was Sweden.

Last time I played Earthbound, I made it till fourth town before losing interest. This was many years ago. Now I'm in Twoson and I'm sure I'll make it to the end this time.

I honestly think that all else being equal, twelve is the best possible age for the main character. You're old enough to be a bit more independent of your parents and other authority figures, to run around on your own and get in and out of trouble, to manage yourself in a tight place and even get into fights. Yet at the same time you're so young as to still be growing into your own person, still figuring out who you are and what you want of life - the best time for character development - still possessing that blissful and carefree attitude we all once held on to, still knowing how to laugh and how to cry and how to love... and of course, there's something tragic about how you already must take up such a burden, when you should be out playing.

This may be the best thing I like about Harry Potter, in retrospect. He started out at about the perfect age, and we got to see him grow up too.

And of course it's entirely possible the whole adventure was just a whole bunch of make-believe. Done right - ambiguously enough, where it may or may not have been, or parts of it may or may not have been - it'd be a story worth Wolfe. Alas.

I wish I was a child again, only with the full wisdom and knowledge adulthood brought me. I never could appreciate it enough the first time around.