GoNintendo "End of Day" thoughts - I'm not crying, I've got something in my eye!

Saturday, what a wonderful day. Weekend update schedule starts, which means plenty of time for friends, games, and naps. I can’t decide which activity I want to do more! I hope you guys have some great plans for the weekend. Hopefully we will be seeing some of you at the Pokemon launch event on Sunday! I’ll catch you guys in a few hours, have a great morning.

This is one of those topics that I wasn’t sure I wanted to share. You know how it is; we all have our dirty little secrets. You eat peanut butter right out of the jar; you enjoy not showering for weeks on end…that sort of stuff. It just so happens that one of my secrets is related to gaming. There are a select few out there that know about this, but for the most part I try to keep it to myself. At first I thought it was a fluke. I was caught off guard in a moment of weakness. Everybody has an off day, a time when they are a little more vulnerable. I moved on in my gaming life, convinced that this event was a one time thing. Then it happened again…and again…and again! I was quickly developing a new gaming habit that I had to hide. I couldn’t be caught doing this! Sure every once in awhile a mood hits us, but this was happening way too often! The last game I finished ended with the same results. I either had to let my secret out, or keep it bottled up inside. It’s no good to keep things tucked away in our minds…you know they are going to burst out at the worst moment possible. I’m going to stand up and announce my secret. I’m not ashamed…I’m proud…maybe.

My name is RMC…and video games make me cry.

One of the most well-known tear jerkers has to be Final Fantasy VII. I think that was a big turning point for waterworks gaming. Tons of people are open about how a certain portion of that game (do I still have to keep that a spoiler!?) made their eyes well up. Prior to the Playstation, there wasn’t much going on in gaming to make you cry. Games didn’t have too much in the way of story; we were still in the days of the side-scroller dominating consoles. You ran, jump, and sometimes shot…and that was it. Of course there were games that broke out of that mold from time to time, but they were few and far between. Now we live in an age where video game storylines have become much more detailed, the manner they are expressed in much more telling. It didn’t matter to me though; I was shedding a few years back in the SNES days. Yoshi’s Island…I dropped a year or two. I couldn’t even tell you what it is. I don’t know if it was the game being so damn good, the chalk-like sketches telling the story at the end, or the music accompanying it all. Whatever it was, the end had me crying just like Baby Mario. Now let’s not go crazy…I didn’t cry buckets…it was a couple tears at most. Still…what a strange game to cry at!

As we moved into the PS1/N64 age, games became a lot more expressive. The combination of graphics and storytelling both getting a bump made for some very compelling games. I definitely remember getting leaky from Ocarina and Majora’s Mask. Once again, there’s nothing that I can pinpoint in those games as being super sad, but what was there did the trick for me. The entire lifespan of both those platforms gave me some reasons to cry. I didn’t really take notice of my baby-like state when playing games; I just thought that the games I was playing were particularly motivating. Surely I wasn’t the only one crying a bit from games I thought. Those years wrapped up, and we moved onto the Cube, PS2, and Xbox era. As we were heading towards these new platforms, I expected to play some amazing games. What I didn’t expect was to become more of a giant hairy baby.

When we hit last generation’s console stride, I really started to notice my “problem”. Who the hell gets teared up at the end of Super Mario Sunshine? No one…well no one but this guy that is. There’s not even anything sad going on in that game! You give me Mario getting kissed by Peach and you’d think I just finished watching Brookes hang himself in Shawshank Redemption. Wind Waker made me gush more than a few times. Watching Link leave his grandmother at the beginning of the game…that was just the start of many watery play sessions. Here’s another one for you…Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Super Mario Sunshine makes more sense than that! I really think it has something to do with the soundtrack in that case. I think the music in FFCC is some of the best game music yet, I have the entire soundtrack on my iPod. We all have certain music that we think is extremely beautiful, and the FFCC soundtrack is one of those instances for me. One I don’t feel so bad about is Beyond Good & Evil. I’m sure Michel Ancel and team were trying to pull a few tears out of you on that one, and it worked on me. That’s another game where the music alone can get me going. I think the worst by far out of last generation was Metal Gear Solid 3. I will stand by my sob sessions 100% in that case. For any of you that played the game, you know there are a few times that really feel like you’re getting a knife to the stomach.

There were a bunch of other titles in-between that did a job on me too. What is going on with me?! I mean, I love video games and have for a long time. I think I’ve reached a point where I am so emotionally invested in a lot of these games/characters, that just seeing them return sets me up from the start. Getting to play new games with returning characters always gets a special spot in my heart. Most of the time I know that the game is going to be great (returning Nintendo franchises, Metal Gear Solid). It always makes me happy to see a favorite character return. Just recently I had a friend that moved away come back to NJ. I hadn’t seen her in years; it was so good to get back in touch. That made me cry a bit. Now let’s compare this to my earlier example, Super Mario Sunshine. I hadn’t seen Mario in a traditional Mario game since Super Mario 64. It was just so good to jump into another one of those games. Wow…I think I just related real life friends to digital characters that never truly existed.

I think things are getting worse for me as I get older. With each new generation of game consoles, I get a little softer. Many of you guys have played through Super Paper Mario by now. Did any of that game make you cry a bit? Well it did for me! Not once or twice, three times I became a man child. The entire Paper Mario series has made me cry, I am talking about all the entries. Now once again, I am not saying that I cry for minutes on end. It’s more of a tear building up in one of my eyes, culminating in one trickle down my face. That’s enough for me to qualify it as a cry. Twilight Princess definitely made me cry as well. I actually put myself to a test this week. Mom Brain finally finished up the game (after almost 60 hours of play), and I sat myself down to re-watch the ending. I knew what was coming; I knew what happened…no reason to cry. Guess what…it was even worse this time! Did I set myself up for a bigger reaction this go around?! The Wii hasn’t been out very long, and I already have two games that made me lose it. This generation of consoles could prove to be the soggiest yet.

Alright, time to set some things straight. Not every game I play makes me cry…it’s actually not that big of an amount. You won’t catch me crying from The Godfather, Motorstorm, Splinter Cell, Guitar Hero, or many, many other games. There just has to be something in the story, music, or gameplay that clicks with me. There are a ton of games that I absolutely love, but they don’t make me wuss out. For instance, I love the Jak and Daxter series, but I am yet to shed a tear for that one. Metroid is another one that I love, but no tears for that series either. The range of games that have made me cry shows that anything from a simple to complex storyline can do it. Zelda, Metal Gear…those I can tolerate crying over. If I start tearing up from God of War, I am going to get some help.

Perhaps admitting this will bring a lot of other gamers out of the woodwork. Maybe a lot of us guys cry over certain games. Hell, I am sure the ladies can step up and tell a story or two as well. Come on, admit it…you were crying like a baby from Tetris Attack. Ecco the Dolphin had you sucking your thumb as you went to bed. I’ve opened up my shameful little habit, now it’s time for you to join me. I want to hear what games made you sob. It’s good to let this stuff out…we can form a support group! Then maybe you won’t feel so bad the next time you cry over F-Zero.

Man, I can’t wait to read the comments on this one. I have a horrible feeling that I am going to get bashed! I sure hope I am wrong about that…cause if I am not, I’ll be crying the entire weekend.