Hey, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter! Now I know that not everyone here celebrates Easter (in fact I KNOW one of our local writers don't celebrate it since they're Jewish), but lets just put that aside for now.
For all of you who do celebrate it, Easter is a big holiday, and it is also one where a lot of memories are formed. Families and friends get together, kids go on Easter Egg hunts, and everyone gets to have a great time. I myself have a lot of fond memories of the holiday, and that is today's topic! Now in the past (on Capcom-Unity) for Easter we decided to share some awesome "Easter Eggs" that we found in games, but this year I figured I'd do things a bit different for my post. I wanted to talk about my gaming memories from Easter, and I want you to think back on your memories as well!
Now in my family we have always given each other gifts for Easter. Sure we'd do the whole family Easter Basket thing and end up having candy for a few weeks, but we also gave gifts as well, and I owe a lot to that. You see, if it wasn't for Easter, I may not even have a lot of the games I do today. I remember when I was younger I'd wake up around 6 AM and bug my parents to finally open my Easter Basket and get my gift (funny how even today I still wake up at 6 AM on Easter, but not for a present, but to go to work)! One year I got the Pokemon Trading Card GBC game (with the special promo card), but that's not what I want to talk about today. You see, there are two games I want to discuss getting, and these two games are ones I truly owe a lot to! In fact, if it wasn't for one of these games this Game Room may not even be here.
As you may know I'm a huge Megaman fan. I own basically every game (including some Japanese exclusives), I've seen every episode of the cartoon, I've seen every episode of the Rockman.EXE anime (in Japanese), I've read some of the mangas (X, Zero, Rockman.EXE), I used to run a Megaman fansite that turned into the worlds first Megaman Battle Network RPG forum (back in 2002), and, well, I just flat out follow everything Megaman! The thing is though, none of this really started until I was 10.
Growing up I played some of the classic Megaman games, as well as Megaman X and X2, but that was really it. The cartoon was on around 5 AM in the morning so I almost never got to watch it, and before I knew it I was slowly fading away from it. That is, until Megaman X5 came out!
When X5 was announced I saw it sitting on a shelf at EB Games (which became a GameStop where I still shop), and it was right next to Megaman Legends. Now I had played Legends before and loved it, but when I saw that they made a 5th X game, and that it allowed you to play as Zero (I missed out on X3 and X4), I was excited! I asked my parents if they'd buy it to me, but in the end they said no. Sure I went home sad that day, but a few months later I woke up on Easter day only to find it sitting in my basket!
Megaman X5 was THE Megaman game that brought me back to the series. I loved the story, I loved the gameplay, I loved being able to play as Zero, I loved the new graphics, I loved the music, and it basically became the only PlayStation game I wanted to play. After that I just couldn't help but to want more, and that was when I started breaking off into the other Megaman series. Not too long after Battle Network came out (and despite my young age I started learning how to make websites), and not too long after that I got my friends hooked on the series as well! While we all began playing Battle Network, I also found myself getting other Megaman games as well. Megaman Zero, X6, I actually bought Legends (I used to rent it all the time), and before I knew it my collection spiraled out of control!
You see, if it wasn't for X5, I might have never made CN, I might have never met the people I did, I might have never moved onto the other projects I started to work on, and I also would have never joined Capcom-Unity. If I wouldn't have joined Capcom-Unity I wouldn't have met the great people I know from there, and this game room would have never been created. I have a lot of fond memories from that Easter, but its lasting effects are still showing today!
Anyway, besides Megaman X5, I also received Pokemon Sapphire as an Easter present (which is still one of my favorite games still today), as well as games like Megaman Chip Challenge (which my parents bought from EB Games after I finally tracked down a copy of Megaman Legends 2), as well as a few other games which I will always have great memories of.
As for this Easter, my family actually shocked me and bought me a GPS! Now it isn't a game (in fact I really didn't expect anything), but it is something I've really been needing, and they decided to go ahead and buy it for me. Since I'll be doing quite a bit of traveling for awhile (due to both personal reasons and work), its something that will be getting a lot of use over the next year or so. Even so, I decided to buy myself a game anyway.
You see, quite a few years ago I finally decided to try Final Fantasy VII, and I ended up buying it on Easter. Maybe it's just out of nostalgia, but this year I went ahead and downloaded Final Fantasy VIII off of PSN. Just like Final Fantasy VII, I missed out on it the first time around, and I've always wondered just what Squall's story was like.
Well anyway, that's my story guys! I hope all of you can think back on some fond memories of your own! So, with that being said, Happy Easter everyone!
