The Gaming Experiment

Thanks Mom and Dad.

When I think about videogames and my love for them, I need to thank my parents. Videogames are in my blood, my parents at the laundromat playing Ms. Pacman, or buying the intellivision in the early 80's. My exposure to videogames was early and often.

Over the years, my love for videogames has grown exponentially. My parents nurtured that love, of course school work came first. We owned most of the major systems while sidestepping some of the failures (I'm looking at you Jaguar!). A lot of our favorite family moments center around a new console acquisition, and the ensuing days of non-stop playing. Everyone huddled around the NES playing Super Mario Bros, and being amazing at the graphics of the blue hedgehog, Sonic, on the Genesis. Looking back at that time, I guess we made one mistaken purchase, the Sega CD, Sega abandoned development early and moved to the Saturn. But my parents, being the technologically advanced people that they are, wanted to be on the cutting edge, and that allowed for advanced PC gaming too.

As the years went on, the games got more complicated, and my parents played less and less, but still enjoyed gaming in general. The analog sticks are a tough hurdle to pass. But something happened, after showing my parents the PSP, they now both own and play them on an extremely regular basis. They are back into games, asking questions, and engaging the the videogame discourse and how it is moving forward. I'm excited and ecstatic that they are jumping into the fray again. Hopefully The Beatles Rock Band will bring them back, full swing!

Thanks Mom and Dad, even if I don't thank you as often as I should, you are the reason why I love games.

I was talking to some co-workers today about games that we really enjoy. I had mentioned I like fighting games, such as Street Fighter, Tekken, and Soul Caliber. After I mentioned it, I realized one thing, I’m not really all that great at them. Sure, I have passable skill, but I am in no means good at the games. Yet, I really love them, and especially love playing them with other people in the room. Talking smack and having a good time, especially when somebody pulls off a great looking combo, is what really makes a good fighting game great.

I remember playing Mortal Kombat 2 on the Sega Genesis. I was ok back then, and I could barely pull of any Fatalities, but the game was fun playing with some buddies. Back in the early 90’s, my brother and I would put hours upon hours into Street Fighter 2 Turbo. We played it on the SNES and had a great time doing so.

I had definitely fiddled around with a lot of different fighting games over the years. But a couple years ago, I went on a cruise. Rather than laying on the deck and getting sun, or swimming in one of the 4 pools, I found this small grungy arcade. It didn’t have much, your standard racing games and light-gun games, maybe even a couple ticket games. Those games were over priced and underwhelming, but there was one gem in the bunch, a Tekken 4 arcade machine.

I like I said before, I’m not the greatest fighting game player, but I was stretching those quarters far on that trip. Guys would be quartering up, and I was taking them down. I owned that machine every time I played it. It was a great feeling, people talking smack, and I was beating them badly. I had never done that well before. Was I just that good? Maybe. Were they just that bad? Possibly. But I think that there were a couple reasons why I did so well. I think that I was actually better, but it was the joystick. When SFIV was first released, I went for it, and bought the tournament edition of the arcade stick, and had a great time with it. I bought a couple games to play with it, Tekken: Dark Resurrection, and Soul Caliber 4, both for the PS3.

This new renaissance has really rekindled my love for fighting games, even though I’m not the best at them.

What games or genres of games do you enjoy playing, but you just aren't that good at? Let me know in the comments.