It was back in the early half of 2009 whilst I was living in Crook, between jobs, coming to terms with a failed marriage, and missing my son. Definitely a low point in my life, that I bought The Orange Box by Valve for the Xbox360.

It was incredible value for money at the time (especially second hand for a tenner iirc), consisting of Half-Life 2 plus its two stand alone expansions Episode 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal.

Apart from being my first introduction to the Half-Life series. Which was an incredible experience, and maybe the subject of a future post. It also introduced me to (what has become a classic) Portal.

It’s rare that an unknown (to me at the time) game out shines such a high profile game as Half-Life 2 in a compilation like this. But it did.

I loved that it was a first person puzzler, some of those puzzles were so devious (I may have had to look up the solution to one or two). It may not have had the storyline of a Final Fantasy game. But you weren’t really playing the game for its story.

There was great use of the environment aiding in telling what there was plot wise. You got the feeling everything was not quite right, failing equipment, decay, and graffiti. Add in atmospheric music, plus the voice acting and dialog of the computer GLaDOS.

Then there was the Jonathan Coulton song during the end credits “Still Alive” adding a surprise twist to the story arc you’ve just completed. I love this song. It is on one or two playlists I have setup. It’s catchy and fun.

You know a game has made it when it has memes. In the case of Portal they were about the cake being a lie. People still quote this today, I do! (the title of this post for starters.)

Plus there is a Portal boardgame (sadly I don’t own it – yet!) Portal (technically Portal 2) even made it into Lego!

As you may have guessed from the big clue above about “Still Alive” I did in fact finish the game. Something I can’t say about it’s follow up Portal 2 but I’m sure I’ll go into that in another post.

Jump forward several years and the purchase of a Nintendo Switch, life events forcing me to trade it in, and the subsequent purchase of a Switch Lite a year or two later.

I remember tweeting during the early days of owning a Switch I’d love to see Portal on the platform. It just seemed a natural fit for the console, especially as a handheld game. But I knew it was a pipe dream. It’d never happen.

Then imagine my surprise and excitement when Nintendo announced in a Nintendo Direct earlier in the year that Portal and Portal 2 would be coming to the platform later in the year as the Companion Collection.

I hadn’t forgotten it was coming out. But since it was announced I hadn’t seen a release date. Then Monday I saw there had been a new Nintendo Direct and that Portal: Companion Collection was out that day! Sadly no physical version (yet?). But at £13.99 as a digital download I could live with that.

So now I am downloading the game as I write this excited to return to the Aperture Science Laboratories, GLaDOS, Chell, and Companion Cubes.

Which brings us to a logical point to split the post, and give me time to play the game before writing about it again.