When I was 5-6 years old my uncle got a PlayStation and invited me over to play it. I remember sitting there with him playing games like Crash, but it sorta bugged me. It was cool and all, but I felt that Mario was better. I think it's because of this that I really didn't care about it. I could go over to my uncle's to play it anytime I wanted, and even then it didn't have the games I already liked. But then something happened... That day I walked through Toys R Us and everything changed...
Rugrats Search for Reptar! Yep! A Rugrats game was on it's way, and I really REALLY wanted it. I loved the show, and I wanted to be able to play around in that world myself. Toys R Us was showing it off on one of their video displays, and it looked amazing to me. "That's the game I want!" But it was also the game I couldn't have. This was the first time I realized what an exclusive game was, and the first time it was a problem for me. I was 7 years old at the time, and didn't think there was any way for me to get it. Then Christmas came.
Just like with the Pico, parts of this Christmas was recorded as well. We didn't have Santa of course, but Christmas Eve was filmed, and so was most of Christmas Day. That year I was really into Disney's new movie A Bug's Life, so a lot of what I asked for related to that. I believe this was also when I got my telescope and moon poster (which I actually still have), but it's what I got that Christmas Eve night that stood out to me the most. For whatever reason my parents decided it was okay for me to open one thing early, and they already planned for what that "one thing" would be. So I followed my dad down into the basement, watched him pull this huge boss off of the shelf, and then took me back upstairs to open it. That's when I saw it, the PlayStation and a new copy of Rugrats.
I've already discussed Rugrats in the past in my review for it, and honestly it's still one of my favorite licensed games to this day. I'm well out of the target audience now, but that doesn't change how I felt about it then, and still feel about what they did. You see rather than slapping well known characters onto some horrible platform game, or cheeping out by making some mini game collection, this game was a FULL Rugrats experience. It had the opening theme song to start, and when you got into the game it gave you full access to the home most of the episodes took place in. You could pick up and play with the toys you saw the characters with in the show, you could explore their back yard, and the "levels" in the game focused on different fan favorite episodes. This greatly expanded where you could go and explore, and gave you reasons to revisit different places. There were also mini games like golf (which comes from the Ice Cream Mountain episode), and hidden items to collect. Overall the game was a lot like Mario 64, and it was exactly what I wanted out of a PlayStation game.
Of course that was just the start of my PlayStation journey. Over the years I would get a lot of other games I ended up loving, and before long I'd even discover some new favorite series. Rayman and Spyro come to mind, with Rayman 2 being the game I would receive the following year! In general the PlayStation was just an amazing console, and because of that I think I ended up playing it more than my N64. Especially because of all the Mega Man games on it. Sadly this wouldn't last though...
About two years later my PlayStation would be destroyed on Christmas Day. I remember getting that new Buzz Lightyear game, but first I wanted to play Hey You Pikachu on N64. Now I know the rumor of Pikachu getting angry at the word "PlayStation" was actually just the game mishearing what you said, but I don't believe it. Even if the game's programming tells me that Pikachu doesn't hate PlayStation, it wont change what he did to me. Thanks to that long microphone cable needed to play, a cup of hot chocolate suddenly fell off the shelf next to my TV, and the next thing I knew my PlayStation was covered. Yep, after that the thing only worked long enough to try out Buzz Lightyear, and then it was finished. My PlayStation was no more.
