I said back in the day that this was going to be a weekly column. I lied. It’s so hard to think of things to say and find the time to say them on a weekly timeframe, which gives me a much greater respect for all the other excellent C-bloggers on this site! Anyway, I felt compelled to come back and write a blog on a topic that occurred to me the other day while listening to the most recent Failcast (FAIL!).

The Failcrew™ was discussing what games they would raise their children with, and Charlie’s love of Sonic 2 hit home for me. I, too, enjoyed playing Sonic 2 as a kid…an experience which was made better due to the inclusion of my little brother. It is the year 2008, and he is now graduating from high school and heading off to college…therefore in celebration of his accomplishment, I present:

My Little Brother: Player Two

I wish I remembered it like it was yesterday, but I don’t. The arrival of my little brother and his years as an infant are documented only in home videos, not in my head. However, there are choice memories that I recall from the later years, when he assumed the role as my right hand man in all things gaming. My player two.

One of the earlier memories I have is of us playing the Sonic series. Playing the first Sonic game, I would have to fly solo, with him only watching. But then came Sonic 2, where it was possible to hook up the second controller and allow a friend to join along as Tails “Miles” Prower. Naturally, as the older sibling, I assumed the role of our hero, Sonic. This “blue streak” suddenly found himself feeling guilty every time I went too fast that my brother couldn’t keep up, since I wanted to make sure he had as much on screen time as possible. I also soon realized that certain things were made much easier because of him….ledges that seemed impossible to reach were now attainable through the power of my brother’s dual wielding helicopter “tails”. And as Charlie mentioned, when all seemed lost, and I had almost no rings left, it was up to my brother to defeat the boss of the stage, while I concentrated on not dying. Together, I found we made a formidable team, and knew that our gaming union would continue for a long time.


Sonic and Tails.....brothers from another mother

My brother continued to be my Player Two for many games, from TMNT: Turtles in Time to Zombies Ate My Neighbors, but nothing compared to the unique experience we had playing my favorite RPG of all time, Secret of Mana. It was in this game that our roles were slightly reversed. Due to the complicated nature of the Girl and Sprite characters, I assumed their roles as magic casters, which meant my brother was in charge of the main character, the Boy. Although I still technically called the shots on where we would go/what we would do, and would usually be forced to spam spells such as Gnome’s Gem Missile in order to defeat a boss, he was leading the charge. Together, we traversed across desert and snow, sealing Mana Seeds and spell grinding to ensure that my Sylph, Undine, etc. magic were as powerful as possible.


The best RPG of all time....made better with a brother

Finally, we head to the final temple to defeat the Mana Beast, and it turns out that my magic attacks, which had faired very well until now, are useless. The power to defeat him must come from my brother. I was helpless to anything but revive his Mana Sword and heal as much as possible. When we finally won, I could tell how excited he was that he was the cornerstone important to our victory, and that I couldn’t have done it without him. As we sat through the ending credits, I was proud to have him by my side.


The last boss (SPOILERS!!!one!) of Secret of Mana. See how the Girl and Sprite stand off to the side? That was me

Fast forward many years later, and he has grown up into the gamer that I only dreamed he would be. He’s an expert at Rock Band (seriously…check out http://www.youtube.com/elem08), he showed me the ropes in FFXI, and loves nothing more than to jump out of helicopters in GTA IV. In many ways he has surpassed me in ability. (except for pretty much any fighting game….I still have his number in Tekken and Soul Caliber…we are fairly equal in Brawl..:P). Now that he is going off to college, I know that he will continue our hobby and all I can say is that I’m extremely proud of who he has become. Even though he continues to grow, he will always be my Player Two.

Congrats on your success bro! The whole family is proud of your educational accomplishments, and I'm proud that you can play Through the Fire and Flames on Expert!

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Anyway I hope you’ve enjoyed this read! Feel free to leave any comments below on personal stories you have about playing games with siblings or stuff you may want to hear my opinion on! As we get closer to PAX, I get that much more excited about meeting many of you guys in person that I have yet to meet! I will be staying in the most epic room possible with CTZ, GuitarAtomik, and ceark, and fully anticipate it being one of the greatest weekends of my life!

Also, much raping.

Until my next post, (whenever that may be)

Level Up!