Well, I do! And here’s how it started.

 Imagine this, you’re 7 years old, mom is calling you to go to bed but you are sat beside your dad, as he is solving the hardest puzzle you have ever seen in Tomb Raider 2, wide eyed and my mouth hanging on the floor as he dodged traps or doing backflips. I could hardly believe my tired eyes as I sat nailed to the chair, watching as this was all his handy work. Watching my dad play video games on the ps1 and how I would refuse to go to bed or tell my mom that I was hungry just to get that extra 5 min to see if my dad could push it to the next chapter or clear the next boss.

 This was just a few of the ways that I tried to stay up, some nights I would pretend that I went to bed. My dad would normally stay up late to play games so I waited and waited to what might have felt like hours of waiting until I heard my mom go to bed. I had to be as quiet as a mouse, as my bedroom was just across from my parents It was mission impossible time to ensure I did not wake my mom or that she would get up and come check up on me and my sister. I had to tippy-toe across the hallway, it felt like I was on a really hard boss mode, trying to sneak by the final boss to make my exit. My little sister was the watchkeeper and she would give a soft cough if she heard my mom, to warn me to get back ASAP. Sometimes I would not hear my sister so she would start hitting the wall or coughed like she had a fur ball stuck in her throat. By the time I got caught I would be in so much trouble. I would blame my sister who either did not cough hard enough or who fell asleep, I would wake her up just to complain. On a good night when my dad saw my shadow, he would allow me to sit with him, for a few minutes, some nights I would drift off on the couch or I was placed back into bed carefully and in the morning, just before school, mom would make a few funny remarks asking me if I was tired or “did you not get enough sleep”. Those were the good days.

 When I turned 8 my dad went out and bought me my first PS1 game. I remember all of the feelings that came up inside of me as he handed me that tiny wrapped up square box. There was excitement, fear, anticipation and when I peeled back that thin layer of wrapping paper I was greeted with the beautiful logo of my favourite movie at the time. Chicken Run. I was beyond excited as it was a birthday present. Growing up watching my dad and now it was my turn to step into the world of gaming. MY very own game, but sadly my experience was short-lived as the disk could not be read by our ps1,  a day that started to bright turned in to all sorts of sad colours. After seeing how upset I was my dad marched back to the store to replace the game. Unfortunately, the store only had that one copy of Chicken Run and my dad come home with another game, one WE ALL COULD PLAY together much to my disappointment as it was no longer MY present. I remember asking my dad to go back and ask them to fix the game for me but it was a battle I did not win and so WE got Dragon Ball Z instead, who introduced to anime, but that is a story for another day. It was fun to win matches for a few games but I still wanted to save the chickens and teach them to fly over the fence.

 As my love for gaming grew, I remember begging my sister and asking her to go ask my mom to see if we can play games. Eventually, she would grow tired of my constant asking and would rush off to ask mom, who always wanted her to have a turn. As the older, wiser, and much more devious sibling I obviously never gave her the opportunity to actually adventure or defeated monsters and bosses and, as my hour slowly came to an end I would think of ways to bribe her into giving me her hour to continue playing. Mom would get really upset if I was still the one playing and not my sister (seeing as it was her rightful turn) and she would make me suffer by making me watch my sister run aimlessly through rooms. Me getting annoyed by her not knowing what to do or where to go was the most frustrating and hardest thing I ever had to watch, I would try to direct her on what path she needs to take to win or what items to buy but she NEVER listened.

As someone who adores JRPG games (seeing as I have played SO MANY Final Fantasy games over the years) I can still say that FF9 is one of the most original pieces of storytelling I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.