I guess you can say that the SNES was Jeff\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u201cDonkey Kong\u201d so he could let me know he wanted me to play it with him! Granted it sounded more like \u201cKonky Konk,\u201d but I knew what it was. So Donkey Kong ended up being one of Jeff\u2019s first words!<\/p>\n
Another notable game that Jeff loved to watch me play was Super Metroid. I believe that I\u2019ve 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\u2019s Island. I think he enjoyed the crayon graphics and cute characters. That\u2019s one of the reasons why Yoshi\u2019s Island is a very special game to me.<\/p>\n
Also during the SNES\u2019 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\u2019s favorites were the latter two, and he would always ask for me to play \u201cChwono Twigger\u201d and \u201cMario PG.\u201d Jeff couldn\u2019t 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 \u201cTELL IT!\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Jeff wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t need it! He\u2019d cry out, \u201cMom, Cary took the pizza!\u201d 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!<\/p>\n
N64 & Dreamcast<\/strong><\/p>\n By the time the N64 came out, I was already in college (and reviewing games for a big newspaper) so I didn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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, \u201cOh what a nice sand castle,\u201d Jeff replied, \u201cThat\u2019s not a sand castle, that\u2019s BOWSER\u2019S CASTLE!\u201d (in \u201cMario PG,\u201d Bowser\u2019s castle had a giant sword stuck in it)<\/p>\n Same goes with the Dreamcast, I can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n PSOne<\/strong><\/p>\n The original PlayStation was the first console I got that wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n We enjoyed playing arcade collections like the Buster Bros. Collection, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, and Midway\u2019s\/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\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cthe flying game.\u201d Another one was The Legend of Valkyrie.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gamesanityblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/ordyne.jpg\" "\\"ordyne\\"")
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