The
14th day of February never really meant that much to me. With
retailers’ ploys to grab at your hard-earned cash to be spent on lots of
wasted paper and cheap chocolates; I never understood why a special day
had to be set aside for those shenanigans. But I remember that one year
I got something incredibly special as a Valentine’s Day present. It was
gifted to me by my awesome Father during a time when I was still a
student and without the means to buy games for myself. It was presented
to me unwrapped, and behind the red paper cut out heart that read “ To
My Little One, Happy Valentine’s Day - Love Daddy” was a menacing,
half-eaten zombie face. Indeed, my father with his amazing sense of
humour had gifted me a bloody Valentine of Resident Evil 2.
That was just one of my sweet stories of gaming memories that I shared with a member of my family and I know some of you have had your special memories as well.
However, if you’re looking for more of those stories from me, you’re
not going to find them here today. Welcome back to another edition of Flashback Friday Fun Times!
What you
will find here is a collection of some of my embarrassing gaming moments
involving my family members. These are the sort of stories where I
would happily be playing something and suddenly I would hear a cackle at
one of my failings. Those cackles may be followed by a smug smile as
the sort of smile you might find on Reno of the Turks. Do not
misunderstand though, as I love my family in the ways which words will
never be able to adequately express. My immediate family are some of the
most caring, and hilarious group of people I know... even when they’re
being loveable jerks and having a laugh at my every video game demise!
The train did not look like this but I can never look at the top of a train car the same way ever again!
Tales of Woe # 1: My Father - I’ve mentioned it before but it was Final Fantasy VII
and the PSOne that sealed my interests in games and JRPGs as my genre
of choice. But it was somewhere along the top of the train cars in Final Fantasy VII,
battling monster after monster and failure after failure, that I heard a
chuckle. “You died again?”, I heard. And in my frustration I gave the
evil-eyed squint to my precious Daddy that made him laugh hysterically. I
couldn’t help but laugh as well… after I had finally beaten those
stupid monsters, that is.
Tales of Woe #2: My Brother - Oh the fun nights I had with Resident Evil 5 with my darling brother, and the not so fun nights he gave me playing the first game in the series.
It was not all giggles and laughs at 2 in the morning though, or maybe
it was. It sure was for him when in my desperate attempt to get us out
of a crowd of zombie like folk wielding axes and chainsaws, that in my
panic and confusion, instead of shooting the lock as he screamed for me
to do; I got out my knife and tried to cut the padlock. “WHAT THE HELL
ARE YOU DOING?!” Well, I was clearly showcasing my knifing skills. I
thought that was plainly obvious at the time. Alas, there is a valuable
lesson to be learned here. Pocket knives may not always cut a padlock.
And by always, I mean never.
Tales of Woe #3: My Sister
- Running for my dear life from spiders was all sorts of harrowing for
me. The stress of seeing them run behind my ottsel self and failing more
than once was amplified when I heard singing in the background. At
first it did not click but as I grew more agitated I realized that there
she was, my loving sister, who had been minding her own business as I
was playing Jak II, was singing Coldplay’s “Trouble”. The
words, “Oh no, what’s this? A spider web and I’m caught in the middle”
never sounded so grating before. It was only when she felt my cold, hard
stare that she realized the irony of that situation: Daxter dying
repeatedly to spiders and her choice of song to sing right at that very
moment. What irritated me the most was that she sang it so sweetly too.
It was pitch perfect and right on cue.
She laughed
like a hyena at my face back then and to this day, my eye still
involuntarily twitches whenever we hear that song. She does what a
sister does best and that’s to point and laugh. I cannot help but laugh
at that moment too, one of my finer ones in my gaming memories.
Tangled up with me... a likely story.
Surprisingly, I have no tales of woe to tell of my mother
unless I am intentionally blanking out a memory. I don’t really feel
like going into the recesses of my mind at the moment. Therefore, I
would like to keep all memories of her skeet shooting magnificence in
the Commodore 64’s Summer Olympics game locked up in my head.
Though that's not an embarrassing story but really I just don't want to
recall that she bested us all with her aiming expertise.
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