Last weekend, right when I got back from E3, my brother Jeff graduated high school. That’s a huge milestone, so in honor of his accomplishment, here’s a blog about video games that we’ve enjoyed playing together over the years.

Now, before I begin I want to make something clear. I have six brothers all together, but I’m not showing any favoritism to Jeff in this blog. All of my brothers are different and special. If it wasn’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be reviewing games today. They all love playing video games, too, but my brothers on my dad’s side are full of energy and have lots of other interests as well–such as Scouts and music and other stuff. Jeff on my mom’s side (they’re all actually half-brothers, but I just call them all brothers), he was more into playing games with me when he was a kid. And since he just graduated, I’m honoring him today and celebrating all the fun we had in the past with this blog.

Super Nintendo

I guess you can say that the SNES was Jeff’s first video game console. I think it even came out the same year in the US that he was born! Since Jeff was so young, most of the games we played on it were just me playing and him watching. But he was pretty content with that. I think the first video game he saw me play was Donkey Kong Country. For the first couple of years of Jeff’s life, he lived in Alabama, and when I visited them in the summers between high school, I would bring my SNES with me. That year that DKC came out, I showed it to him and his eyes were just glued to the screen. He was barely a year old and couldn’t talk much. So when our mom came in the room, he looked at her, pointed at the screen, and just started babbling 90 miles an hour! At the end of the summer, he learned a new word. He learned how to say “Donkey Kong” so he could let me know he wanted me to play it with him! Granted it sounded more like “Konky Konk,” but I knew what it was. So Donkey Kong ended up being one of Jeff’s first words!

Another notable game that Jeff loved to watch me play was Super Metroid. I believe that I’ve already told the story about how Jeff was nearly in tears when the baby Metroid died at the end. He also did that when we played Mega Man X and Zero died at the end, too. Later on, Jeff also liked to watch me play Yoshi’s Island. I think he enjoyed the crayon graphics and cute characters. That’s one of the reasons why Yoshi’s Island is a very special game to me.

Also during the SNES’ heyday, I was really into RPGs. And who could blame me, with such classics like FF4, FF6, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Super Mario RPG on the SNES. Jeff’s favorites were the latter two, and he would always ask for me to play “Chwono Twigger” and “Mario PG.” Jeff couldn’t read yet, so I had to read all the text to him in those games. If I ever forgot, he would get mad and yell out “TELL IT!”

Of course, Jeff wasn’t always content to just watch me play games on the SNES. There were a couple of games we enjoyed playing together. First was TMNT: Turtles in Time. Jeff would get mad at me if I took the pizza before he could get it. Even if he didn’t need it! He’d cry out, “Mom, Cary took the pizza!” We still joke about that to this very day! Another game we enjoyed a lot together was Kirby Super Star, a great multiplayer game that even little kids can enjoy. Us playing it together is one of the reasons why I like Kirby games so much. Even more than Mario games!

N64 & Dreamcast

By the time the N64 came out, I was already in college (and reviewing games for a big newspaper) so I didn’t play as many games with Jeff as I did on the SNES. I know he enjoyed watching me play games like Banjo-Kazooie when I was home, though. The only N64 game that stands out that we played together was Mario Kart 64. But he was still very young, so in order for him to have a chance of winning a race, I would need to go around the track backwards in order to give him enough of a head start. Of course, it also didn’t help that Jeff would always pick the racer who was the hardest to control: Bowser. Jeff just ADORED Bowser as a kid. He would always cheer on Bowser in every game (which was kind of worrisome sometimes). One time when he was little, we went to the beach and he made a sand castle and stuck a toy sword in the top. When our mom said, “Oh what a nice sand castle,” Jeff replied, “That’s not a sand castle, that’s BOWSER’S CASTLE!” (in “Mario PG,” Bowser’s castle had a giant sword stuck in it)

Same goes with the Dreamcast, I can’t think of too much we played together on it. We played some classic shooters like Cannon Spike, and he really enjoyed Jet Grind Radio, which surprised me since he was still really young. It was one of the first indications that he would have different tastes in games than me.

PSOne

The original PlayStation was the first console I got that wasn’t made by Nintendo. I ended up playing it more in college than the N64, and that carried over when I was home with Jeff as well. My tastes in games changed a little bit from when I was in high school to when I was in college. I wasn’t as much into RPGs in college. I was more into arcade classic collections, which were just starting to come out about this time. I guess short games were more conducive to me during my college lifestyle. And they were also better games to play with Jeff. By the time the PSOne came out, he was old enough to play games, but still young enough that simpler arcade games were best for him.

We enjoyed playing arcade collections like the Buster Bros. Collection, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, and Midway’s/Williams collections. Jeff was really partial to Spy Hunter; he could play that one for HOURS! We also played a lot of G-Darius, one of my favorite shooter series. And I’m glad that Namco released three Point Blank light gun games, as we played those a lot, too. I wish Namco would bring back the Point Blank games. We also played a lot of Rampage and a PS1 Space Invaders update.

My favorite arcade collections were the Namco Museums, as I am a big fan of classic Namco arcade games like Pac-Man. Two player favorites on these collections for us included Ordyne, a cutesy 2-D shooter. Jeff called it “the flying game.” Another one was The Legend of Valkyrie.

Speaking of arcade classics, at that time, Hasbro got the rights to make updated versions of classic Atari games. They did a weird take on Pong where they gave the paddle a personality, and they did kind of the same thing with Break Out on PS1. But it still had some pretty creative gameplay elements for a classic ball and paddle game, and Jeff really took to it. In fact, I think BreakOut on PSOne was one of the first games Jeff beat by himself! I was really proud of him for that, especially since he was so young.

There was ONE RPG that we both enjoyed on the PSOne, though. Final Fantasy 9. It was kind of a throwback to the earlier games in the series, which is OK with me. I always said that FF9 is what FF7 and 8 should have been anyway. But while we played FF9 together, we did it in a different way. Back then, Jeff and his friends were really into that Yu-Gi-Oh card game. Actually, Jeff has always been into card games. Even when he was tiny, he would get a deck of cards and make up his own games (the only rule he had was Jeff always wins). FF9 had a card game you could play by talking to certain people in towns. So when I was done playing the main quest, I’d hand the controller to Jeff and he’d play the card game! He got me some of the best cards in the game that way!

Handhelds

The portable game systems are really better for single player experiences, but there were a handful that we enjoyed together. Mainly Pokemon, as that was a popular game for Jeff’s generation, and he and his friends still enjoy it today. Another notable game was on the Neo Geo Pocket Color that we both liked: SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash. It was a card game, so of course Jeff liked it. I appreciated the simple rules and familiar characters. We were both bummed out when the DS Card Fighters game wasn’t near as good as the Neo Geo Pocket one. You know, aside from the PSP, the Neo Geo Pocket Color was one of the only handhelds that lured me away from Nintendo’s for a while. Before the GBA came out, I even liked the NGPC even BETTER than the GBC.

PS2

In the next generation of games, most of mine and Jeff’s multiplayer game experiences were on the GameCube. Sure, we enjoyed the PS2 just as much, but it was better for single player games like Kingdom Hearts and Ratchet and Clank. One two player game we played all the way through was The Adventures of Cookie and Cream. That’s a great co-operative game, by the way, in case you’re ever looking for two player games on the PS2. We also enjoyed the two player mode in Taiko Drum Master, my favorite music game of all time.

One game on the PS2 that Jeff loved that really surprised me was Nightmare of Druaga. It was a Mysterious Dungeon game with Tower of Druaga characters. I still can’t believe Namco brought it to the US. And it really wasn’t that good, but Jeff loved it! In fact, that year for his birthday, he wanted a Tower of Druaga cake!

Later on, Jeff started to show his own tastes in games on the PS2. I got Metal Gear Solid 3 on sale because it had the classic MSX 2-D games, as well as an Ape Escape mini-game. Well Jeff played the main game and loved it, which turned him into a Metal Gear fan!

GameCube

The GameCube had more multiplayer games that we enjoyed together. In fact, I liked the GameCube even more than I like the Wii, really. Some that we played together include Animal Crossing, Beach Spikers, Cubivore, Kirby Air Ride (better than Double Dash, I think), Super Monkey Ball, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Zelda: Four Swords Adventures was especially a lot of fun. I hope Nintendo brings back that kind of multiplayer Zelda in the future. Jeff and I also especially enjoyed Tales of Symphonia together. A lot of people probably say Symphonia is their favorite Tales game because it was one of the GameCube’s only RPGs. Did you know that Nintendo actually paid Namco to bring it out to the US because of the GC’s lack of RPGs? Symphonia isn’t my favorite Tales game (that would be Legendia on PS2), but the GC RPG had a great co-op battle system despite the awful story. But we didn’t care. Sometimes we would just wander around and battle together.

Wii

Even though Jeff’s tastes in games are less ‘kiddy’ now, most of the games we enjoy on the Wii are pretty colorful, lighthearted, and family oriented, surprisingly. We’ve enjoyed Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort together (Jeff loves the sword game on Resort). And despite the bad reviews it got, Jeff and his friends and I really had fun with Wii Music. I think that game deserves more praise than what it got. Also the same goes for Wii Party. And of course, we all played Super Smash Bros. Brawl extensively, also New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Another surprising Wii favorite of ours was Namco’s We Ski and We Ski and Snowboard. In fact, Jeff and I are really excited about Go Vacation, a new Wii game that Namco announced at E3 that is essentially a sequel to those games, and lets you do lots of vacation themed mini-games and sports.

Xbox 360

While it’s harder to get Jeff to play games with me now that he’s older, there are still a good amount of 360 games we’ve enjoyed together. It wasn’t a two player game, but we spent countless hours on Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Usually, I would play the main adventure, and he’d build the vehicles that I would need for the missions. I don’t think it was originally meant to be a Banjo-Kazooie game, I think Rare just had a neat idea and slapped the characters on it to sell more copies. But it’s still one of the 360’s best games and I highly recommend it.

We’ve also enjoyed fighters like BlazBlue, Marvel vs.Capcom 3, and Soul Calibur 4. We especially enjoyed the latter because you can make your own characters. I think we spent more time making characters than fighting! And co-op beat ‘em ups are fun for us as well, especially Castle Crashers. I’ve made him play through the LEGO games with me, and I hope he’ll be willing to do that again when the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean game goes down in price. And most recently, we shared a lot of laughs playing Portal 2’s co-op mode.

But this story is a bit bittersweet, as Jeff and I don’t play games as much as we used to. Jeff’s tastes in games are different than mine now, and he’d rather play with his friends more at this point in his life. In fact, if you see me on Xbox LIVE playing something like LA Noire or Ace Combat 5, chances are it’s Jeff playing, not me. But it’s not Jeff’s fault. His tastes in games are normal. I’M the one with weird game tastes. But I do miss the days when we would play games I like more.

If it’s one thing that my little brothers have taught me, it’s to enjoy your kids and family as much as you can, because it won’t last forever. People grow up and change, so enjoy every chance you have with them now! Jeff will be going off to college and I won’t see him as much, and I’ll really miss him. But I’m happy and proud that he graduated. I like it when you all put comments in my blog, but this time, what I’d really like for you to do is go give your kids, siblings, and other loved ones a big hug and tell them how much you love them. And then spend some time with them doing something fun! –Cary

Tags: Misc