Gaming Experiences I

A huge portion of my best memories in childhood involve sitting in front of the TV, playing Nintendo 64 with my older brother. Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, Pokemon stadium (one and two of course), and the Banjo Kazooie franchise summed up my raison d'etre as a little kid. Growing up, and getting new consoles, getting a laptop, diving headfirst into the world of game development and production, I experienced my share of gaming moments but there are 5 that stand out for me as the pinnacles of gaming and that had the most impact on me as a gamer.

5. FIFA '07
    (otherwise known as the "BEST TWO OUT OF THREE! BEST TWO OUT OF THREE!" game)

This game. This motherflipping game.

Whenever me and my brother got into a dispute (or were in a gambling mood) it was straight to this game. Holy shit I lost upwards of $15 on this game (HUGE money as a kid. Think of all the popsicles you could buy with that money).

Probably not this one.

 Pulling off nasty moves, nail biting penalty time, beating each other up if we lost. We hated this game but we HAD to play it. It was malevolent, omnipotent, infinite, this game was the final word in seeing who gets the last waffle in the box.

4. Rainbow Road on Mario Kart 64

God damn it. Just looking at that picture makes me want to throw my controller away. This final map on Mario Kart 64 was the biggest problem in my life as a kid (now that I've grown up a bit, my biggest problems right now have also grown up ie. how do I make eggs, rice and shrimp into an edible meal). My entire life, I've been a perfectionist. Pretty much everything had to be high score, I would rather eat my own fingers than be in second place in something.

This is the first result I get when I google "delicious human fingers". Whew

Rainbow Road was my very first introduction into how FREAKING hard and punishing the world of gaming could be. The thing about this map was that there are so many jumps and so many obstacles that one small step and you're flying over the railings or eating a face full of chain chomp. This map helped teach me to man up, grit your teeth and finally finish first.

3. Halo 2 Multiplayer

Halo 2 was a great game in so many regards. It was rather innovative, it had fabulous graphics (for the time) and an intriguing story but what makes this game so important to me was that it was the first time that I actually played a game with friends. The multiplayer on Halo 2 was one of the best things invented except maybe the wheel. It was fast paced, exciting and it felt amazing when you finally finished a round undefeated. Despite all the rampant screen watching (when somebody looks at your part of the screen to see where you are) it was incredibly fun with friends. I remember rushing home during lunch to pop in Halo 2 into the x-box and spending the next hour just fighting it out mano el mano. I got pretty good at that game.

Damn screenwatchers