Thanksgiving is the time of year when friends and family get together, and everyone sits around a table to have a big meal. Everyone knows that, and although that's the "standard," many people do celebrate it in their own way. As for me, Thanksgiving and gaming has always gone hand in hand, and today I wanted to share some of those memories with you all.
The first time I really considered playing games on Thanksgiving was when my uncle invited us all over to his house for a change. He had a PlayStation 1, and a copy of the brand new Spider-Man PS1 game. To put it simply, that game was amazing. The moment I sat down and started playing, the rest of that day flew by. Heck even AFTER we finished eating and everything, I wanted to stay and keep playing that game. I loved it. It was the first time I had play a game that actually made me feel like Spider-Man, and there was so much to do. So many costumes to unlock and use, most of Spider-Man's greatest enemies were in there, and the voices from the cartoon only helped make it even better for me. It quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, and one of the best Christmas presents I would ever receive from my uncle.
Another one of my earliest memories of playing games on Thanksgiving comes from my days of playing Mega Man X5. That's a game I'd return to a lot, but the Thanksgiving after I received the game is one moment that really stands out to me. While any other day I would just turn the game on for a few hours and mess around with it, that day was the first time I really tried to complete it. Yeah, that's right. I played Mega Man X5 almost every day and never actually finished. I didn't have a memory card, some of the parts were too hard for me, and I had no idea how to get the different types of armor the instruction book mentioned. This time however, I actually tried. I'm sure I spent most of the time just trying to get through the bike section in Volt Kraken's stage, but oh well. It became a fond memory of mine either way.
After that my family started jumping around for Thanksgiving. Many times it would be at my house with just me, my parents, and my grandparents, but sometimes we'd go to their house, my uncle's house, or even the family bakery after it opened. On days like those I typically didn't get to play much of anything, but sometimes I'd wake up early to do something before we left. I can still recall the days of playing Zelda OoT and Shadow the Hedgehog before setting off, and when I got older there was that time my cousin left Call of Duty Black Op's at my house and I speed ran the thing. There was also the year I got to play Donkey Kong Jungle Beat at my uncle's house, but that was only for a little while as well. Of course these are all still fond memories of mine, but the next big thing didn't really come until a few years ago.
When the PSVR came out two years ago (yes, it's been TWO YEARS) everyone in my family was excited. My parents, my cousins, my grandparents, and even my neighbors! Everyone was interested in seeing the new technology, and they were all blown away from it. Although the day started out just like many of the others (with us meeting up at my grandparent's), once we all finished eating everyone piled into multiple cars and headed over to my house. There everyone got to experience things like PlayStation VR Worlds for the first time, and even some horror games like Here They Lie. Although VR is fun to play yourself, seeing others experience it for the first time is even better, and it was something I got to see time and time again that day. Making it one of my favorite Thanksgivings of all time.
