Konami, I want my childhood back

Sky

Jordan812 Posts

August 20 2009 23:31 GMT

This post possibly contains poor writing style, bad grammar, and spoilers for two games (which you should have already played by now).

When I lived in California, my parents would occasionally let my father's mother watch me for hours of the day. I loved going to her house because she had an old NES which I played Dr. Mario on, and a computer that I had to use DOS commands in order to play Sim City 2000. There was, of course, a part I wasn't a fan of while staying at her place, but for her side of the family it was a rite of passage.

-watching horror movies-

She had me watch as many horror movies as she possibly could while I was at her house. The movies that most vividly stick out are C.H.U.D. and the mini series adaption of Stephen King's It. The latter of which cause my 4-6 year old self to get a form of coulrophobia. My grandmother, and her daughters would scare the shit out of me continually throughout my younger years. They would jump out of closets in hallways when I wouldn't expect it, and take me to the graveyard at odd hours of the night. I figured I had eventually become numb to most fears by the few years preceding my teens, but a medium which I had figured was off limits to my grandmother's twisted schemes had attacked my assumption.

By the time I was 11-12, my uncle let me play on his ps1. The game had one hell of a corny intro, but I hadn't seen a game quite like this before. I controlled a character trapped in a house. I walked through a door to enter a huge lobby, then through another into a hallway. Everything was fine until...

+ Show Spoiler +

...an obscenely loud sound of glass shattering was followed by a mutated dog coming for me. I almost pooped my pants, but it gave me a hell of a rush! I got a fourth through the game before it was time to leave my uncle's house. I never did finish the first Resident Evil.

I moved to a different state, to a much smaller town. Our video store was nothing compared to the blockbusters of my old home, but I managed. My parents had gone the route opposite Sony and bought me a Nintendo 64. When I went to the video store I would always rent the games I had heard nothing about on my Nintendo power magazine. Usually these games were fun for a couple of hours, but dulled down soon after. There was always a game on the PlayStation rack that caught my eye, but I had no ways of playing it.

+ Show Spoiler +

A year later, my friend had been given a PS1 as a gift. Since the television at my house was a bit bigger, we decided to plug it up and rent a random game from the video store. The choice couldn't have been less random. I glanced over for a moment at Clocktower, but in the end I rented the game that had caught my eye for so long. We put the disc in and were eventually greeted with...

+ Show Spoiler +

...the song reminded me vaguely of a Tarantino film, with a few riffs similar to a James Bond theme. The music came into it's own and, along with the images, had left me with an odd feeling.

We took turns through the game, I started it off. Right from the start I led into a trap and tossed into a struggle to stay alive. My gamer instincts were telling me to figure out a way to survive this oncoming lot of deformed children with knives, but I could not and my character died. The only thought in my head was what the hell the point was in the game if you die right from the start. Moments later my character woke inside the diner surrounded by fog.

During the game we met characters that were as confused as we were about what the hell was going on. The only thing we knew was that every time we heard + Show Spoiler +

, it was time run. We were trained by that sound in a way that would probably make the behaviorists of old, smile.

As the journey went on, we felt a bit of comfort knowing that others were seeing what we were seeing. Cybil, a cop that followed us in, was one of these people.

Until... we killed her.

Lisa, the harmless nurse, was another great character to help us keep a foot in reality.

Until... we pushed her away.

Those two scenes turned the atmosphere of the game into seclusion. There weren't any monsters that killed these characters, warranting us to seek revenge. We did it, and as such the bad ending seemed deserving.

We finished the game in a day and a night. Not only was I terrified by the end of the game, but I also had an odd feeling my gut that I couldn't shake for days. I didn't go back to that town for years.

+ Show Spoiler +

Lisa in SH3

Years later my parents bought me a Playstation 2, and consistently spoiled me by buying a new game every other week. A bit pathetic, but the game laying on my bed that day changed the way I looked at a lot of things. A game which I consider the magnum opus of the series...

+ Show Spoiler +

Silent Hill 2