Earthbound
What video game reminds us of our mothers?
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You forgot to get a card, didn't you?
Ah, Mother's Day. The day where Americans allow themselves to be told by corporations that they're supposed to spend between $45 and $150 on the woman that raised them (and 1/4 of that on their grandmothers, naturally). It's a festive time, and we've opted to appease the evil demigods that rule over American holidays by giving our mothers the gift... of fame.
Today, we're celebrating not the best games, not the worst games, but the games that remind us of our mothers. Did our mothers buy us our favorite game? Play it with us? Take it away when we were being shitty little kids? Find out here, and share your own stories.
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Bomberman reminds Henry Gilbert of his mother
After my five year old self saw a neighbor playing Super Mario Bros. on their TV, I quickly began begging my parents for an NES. But I doubt I would’ve got one if my mom didn’t get almost as much enjoyment out of the system as I did. She beat Super Mario long before me and played Dr. Mario for about a month straight, but her greatest addiction was the original Bomberman.
Her obsession to the explosive puzzler was so great that my mom rented it enough times to have probably bought it twice over. She stayed up late playing it (when else would a working mom find the time?) and without the manual for guidance, she just made up cute names for all the enemies that she said with scorn every time she lost. After she finally beat it, I don’t think any game caught her like that again. By the 16-bit era games had become too complicated for her tastes--and that's true for even the subsequent Bomberman games--so I’ll always associate her with that 8-bit original.
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Klotski reminds Sophia Tong of her mother
My mom would never consider herself a gamer, not even a casual one. But the amount of time she spent on certain puzzle games can be considered pretty hardcore. She's definitely logged more hours in Tetris, Sudoku, Klotski, and Solitaire than I have most games. She's always been extremely good at solving puzzles, Rubik's cubes, and riddles, so I always think of her when I see any variation of these popular puzzle games. Too bad I can't get her to play Professor Layton (granted, I haven’t tried but the XL DS/3DS screens are likely still too small for her to read).
There was one version of Klotski on Windows back in the '90s that was super complicated and had dozens, if not hundreds of levels, but she managed to beat it. One puzzle a day, every day after dinner. That’s when she would stop; she wouldn’t solve more than one. Come to think of it, I don’t' think she's ever played Bejeweled, but I’m sure she’d like it. I was thinking about getting her an iPad for Mother's Day and slipping Candy Crush on there. That may just ruin her.
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Legend of Legaia reminds Ryan Taljonick of his mother
When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me that for every hour I spent playing video games, I'd have to spend an hour playing outside. "But mom, what am I going to do out there?!" I'd protest, to which she'd reply: "Use your imagination." (My response was always that imagination was for Barney lovers.)
For as much as I resented that she made me get some fresh air, I always loved it when she'd surprise me with a random game purchase--and as a kid who was way into JRPGs, Legend of Legaia was a wonderful present from a wonderful lady (who knew nothing about games). Of course, this was but one of many games she bought for me over the years, but it was special in its relevance to my tastes--and I still have it, jewel case and all.
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Tetris reminds Hollander Cooper of his mother
My mom worked in a hospital during the 1980s, and was generally ahead of the curve when it came to computer stuff because, well, that's what happened when you worked in a hospital during the 1980s. Recently, she told me a story about when everyone she knew was crippled by a Russian game called Tetris. Someone apparently gave her a floppy disk with the game on it and she played it, finding herself totally addicted to the block-dropping mayhem.
Because of that, I've found myself thinking of her whenever I play the game--not because we shared some sort of bonding experience over Tetris or anything, but because she essentially dropped some major nerd hipster cred on me by saying that she played it before I was born.
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Mortal Kombat reminds Lorenzo Veloria of his mother
Funnily enough, Mortal Kombat is the game that most reminds me of my mom. Like any loving mom, Mrs. Veloria cared deeply about what media was seen by her children’s eyes and absorbed into their brains. So, when I think back to my days of playing Mortal Kombat at the age of seven, ripping spines out of torsos, and upper-cutting my victims into a spikey pit, my mom’s reaction to that gruesome game sticks in my mind.
She watched me perform a fatality and said, “What are you playing?,” paused , then just walked away. To this day, I’m still not sure if she approved or disapproved of where my gaming hobbies had taken me, but, hey, I turned out OK, right?
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The Nintendo 64 reminds Greg Henninger of his mother
I grew up with three sisters, sisters that actually enjoyed playing video games as much as I did. So when the N64 launched, my sisters and I were head-over-heels about the idea of getting one. My parents first response was a big NO. Their main reason was because we would all fight over who gets to play it and what games we will want. We decided not to take no for an answer.
My sisters and I got together, deciding that we needed to put our sibling rivalry aside for the greater good. We drafted up a contract that we would present to our mother as a sign that we were mature enough to handle ourselves. We all voted on what games we wanted, when we would play them, and even had contingency plans for when we had friends over and what the rules would be. We took our typo-laden contract to mom and after she finished reading it, close to tears (from love or from laughing at how ridiculous we were, the world will never know) she drove us right down to the store and purchased the beautiful new system.
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Grand Theft Auto 2 reminds Lucas Sullivan of his grandmother
Curse Coop--he stole my pick of Tetris (in which my mom could trounce Coop's AND Sophia's respective mothers with her eyes closed). So instead, I'll touch on Grand Theft Auto 2, which against my better judgment, I played while my grandma was in the room. See, at the time, we only had one PC--and my Grandma was chomping at the bit to get some quality Spider Solitaire action going. Unfortunately for her, me and my cousin were gaming like champions--me on the PS2 with Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, him on the PC running over miniature citizens in GTA 2.
My Grandma was a saint, but on this particular day, her patience was wearing thin; she wanted to get on that computer bad. So she stood over my cousin's shoulder, watching agitatedly while he hijacked vehicles, barreled over pedestrians, and used a flamethrower to cook incoming police officers like hot dogs. It was almost as inappropriate as the time we watched The Chappelle Show--the uncensored DVD version, mind you--while she was in the room.
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The disgusting monster in DmC reminds us... oh...
Oops, we messed up. This doesn't remind us of our mom, it reminds us of your mom.
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Also, call your mother
Do you have a fond memory of your mother playing a game? Or of smashing your games and telling you to stop wasting your time with those damn things because you're never going to find a person to love you if you hide in a virtual world instead of just saying hi to that nice girl down the street she's Jewish and her dad is a doctor? Let us know in the comments below!
And if you're looking for more, check out the 100 best villains and the meanest things we've done to game characters.
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ChiChiRocket - May 16, 2013 9:12 a.m.
Dr. Mario always makes me think of my mom. It was the only game that she was better than me at, and probably still is, as I'm crap at puzzle games. I'll never forget seeing the ending to the game after she beat the last level on the highest difficulty and max speed. -
JokerJ0613 - May 13, 2013 2:08 p.m.
Whenever I play Mario Kart I think of my mother. She used to play it with me when I was little, and have a heated competition with my father. Great memories... (My mother always won against my dad) -
db1331 - May 13, 2013 10:20 a.m.
Anytime I play something from the N64 era. I never did homework in school, so I was constantly getting grounded from something. My mom's favorite punishment was "No Nintendo." Instead of taking the console or even the games, she would tell me to wrap up the controller and put it in her room. After a month or two, once my grades showed improvement, she would give the controller back. She had no clue that I had gone to the mall and bought a second controller. I would just play it until she got home, then unplug my controller and hide it in my room. It went on for years. I told her about it after I was a grown man, and she smacked me on the back of the head and called me a little shit. Ocarina of Time reminds me of her more than anything else. I was too young for a driver's license yet, so she picked up my preorder on her way home from work. Up to that point, and maybe still til this day, I had never had a more agonizing wait for a game. I was walking home from my friend's house down the street and she pulled up to give me a lift the rest of the way home. I opened the bag and couldn't believe I finally had the game in my hands. She died from pancreatic cancer. She bought this "Cancer Sucks" bracelet online a couple months before. I was holding her hand when she passed, and I slid the bracelet off her wrist and put it on mine. I've worn it every day since. That was over 4 years ago. People who don't know what it is sometimes give me shit about it for wearing a purple bracelet, but you can imagine how little that bothers me. Now that I have a son of my own, I have somewhat of an idea of everything she did for me. I wish she was still around so I could tell her how much I appreciate it. I remember thinking it was funny when she cried like a baby during our dance at my wedding. Now that I'm a parent, I think I'm beginning to understand. And I still can't hear that damn Rod Stewart song we danced to without getting choked up. When you're a kid, your parents are just these people who vanish for 8 hours of the day, then come home and feed you. You think they do it because they have to. Truth is, they don't have to. And many of them don't. If you're lucky enough to have one of the good ones, I hope you realize the full extent of what they've done for you before it's too late. -
GR_RyanTaljonick - May 13, 2013 1 p.m.
Hahaha, great story, and so true. Super grateful that I had awesome parents. -
taokaka - May 13, 2013 2:59 a.m.
Farmville is a solid runner up for my mum because of all those farmville requests that popped up on my facebook feed from my mother years ago before I removed her as a friend on facebook. But tekken tag tournament is still the game that reminds me most of her because of a prank my older sister pulled on a young, dumb me. When we first got our ps2 and the game on christmas my sister insisted I fight mum, I accepted because I knew she wouldn't stand a chance but then she beat me. I was utterly shocked, I admitted defeat then my sister cracked up laughing as she reveals she had taken over the controller during the fight without me noticing. For that brief second I thought my mum had some sort of skill at video games. -
Rub3z - May 13, 2013 2:40 a.m.
Dark Souls reminds me most of my mother. Not in that my mother is extremely punishing and brutal, and cold and desolate... heavens no, she's the sweetest most caring mother in the world when she's not drunk (and it's not even as if she gets drunk very often). It's because through hard times, my mother is always there for me to provide her support, even when she can't possibly fathom how difficult my emotional and mental struggles may be. There's always that one singular feeling of hope and steadfast will to push on, even when everything seems gone to shit, that I feel I've inherited from my mother; that she exhibits when the going gets tough. In some of my most trying times, Dark Souls provided for me an indelibly rewarding and emotional experience. It seems strange to say that Souls is an emotional game, but I really think it is for the sheer abundance of emotions it's capable of stirring in a player. In much the same way, dealing with my mother on a regular basis can be a maddening test of will as much as it can be wonderful and fulfilling. In all, some things about Dark Souls that I would say are totally analogous to my mother would be that both are notoriously, absolutely stupendously stubborn, old-fashioned, and very hard to change; I love them both more than just about any other thing; and neither of them have to change much at all for me to continue loving them. I love them just the way they are. -
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laurenhiya21 - May 12, 2013 8:03 p.m.
Unfortunately I don't really have much of a story as my mom would usually leave me and my sister to do our own thing (and she didn't approve of games too much, although she's getting better at accepting them), but I do remember how she liked Harvest Moon: Another Wonderful Life just because she thought the cows were adorable. -
FlyWire2 - May 12, 2013 7:50 p.m.
The arcade Cruisn' America. When I was a little boy I had (And kind still have) an obssession with cars, they were awesome, they were fast. And the closest thing I had to do so was that arcade gabinet... but I could reach the pedals. For like 3 years until they closed that center I would sit on top of one of my parents and use the steering wheel. 2 years after I got PS1 olny to play NFS3 and Gran Turismo. Now I look at myself... -
Letter11 - May 12, 2013 6:34 p.m.
This was a great feature. The game that reminds me of my mom is Shenmue. It was the first game I really tried to show her, since I thought it's more cinematic nature would make it more accessible. The game was a bit too much for her to try to play, but she would watch me for a few hours every now and then. I remeber loved the fact the she could remember a few of the characters names. Good memories. -
BladedFalcon - May 12, 2013 5:51 p.m.
I always love it when you guys get personal and honest about some of your gaming stories and experiences! as always reading them were fun, and some were pretty heartwarming, specially Greg's story ^^ Alas, i don't think I have a particular gaming story attached to me mom, I mean, I do associate her when I think of when i first played the original prince of Persia on a computer on the red cross facility she volunteered in. Or when me and my brother tried to hook her unsuccessfully with Tennis games. (she loves that sport too much, either playing it or watching it on TV, alas, never with a controller though.) But neither memory resonates that strongly with me. I suppose the most thankful think I can be with my mom, is that she has always been respectful of me hobby even when she disagrees with it. Sure, to this day she sometimes complain that I spend way too much on that, but she has never actually tried to take it away and for that, i am always grateful. -
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g1rldraco7 - May 12, 2013 5:48 p.m.
Majora's Mask reminds me of my mother. I wanted to get my own copy of Ocarina of Time, but since it was sold out, she got me Majora's Mask with the memory thing for the graphics. I remember explaining to her why I liked these games and she had a blank expression, she told me it sounded boring and said why can't you be a normal girl? That really hurt so I didn't talk to her for a week, it was fine she favored my brother Ben more at the time since my parents split up. Before she got sick and went to the hospital she apologized to me about her comments about me being a gamer girl instead of being a girly girl and for all that happened. I was 16 when she passed away and when I play Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask , I always wonder how she would react to my gaming habits now. Still even though she's gone, I know that she understands why I play video games and I still miss her :( -
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dden45 - May 12, 2013 4:42 p.m.
The game Doom reminds me of my grandmother. I tricked her into buying the little demo disk for her computer. Little did I know that she would sit in the chair next to me and play with me. The blood, guts and Satanic imagery didn't even phase her. Plus there is something truly surreal about hearing your grandmother tell you, "I think you need to go find the blue key in that other room. -
smashpro1 - May 11, 2014 5:51 p.m.