Earlier this week, I wrote about the games that existed for me, for years, as single levels, bec💃ause I never owned a copy I could play to completion. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario 64 was just Bob-omb Battlefield. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 was just The Hangar. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon was just that opening zone around the mountain, but mostly it was a N64 box that enticed me to grab a copy at Family Video. Throughout my life, there have bꦚeen many games that I have loved, but never owned. Some were rentals, but the ones most indelibly imprinted on 🧸my memory are the Friends’ House Exclusives.
Some Games Were Meant To Be Friends' House Exclusives
I think the name is mostly self-explanatory, but here’s a quick definition. Friends’ House Exclusives, or FHEs, are games that your friends owned and you didn't, that you got to play when you went over to your friend's house. It might be because you didn’t have the money to buy the game, because your parents wouldn’t allow you to play it, or because your friend owned a console you didn’t. Whatever the reason, these were the special games that were one of the fringe benefits of being social.
I’m focusing on video games here, but other things can be FHEs, too. The Simpsoཧns, which I wasn’t allowed to watch, was an FHE, as were the Seinfeld boxed sets one of my friend’s family owned. Heck, getting to eat Velveeta shells on Hercules plates for dinner and cinnamon rolls the morning after a sleepover was one of my favorite FHEs.
My group of friends in elementary and middle school were all Nintendo kids, but our GameCube collections didn't always overlap. There were the staples that most people owned, like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Smash Bros. Melee, but there were also the stran💧ger games that you were the๊ only one to own, or that your friend swore by.
I had one friend in particular whose house felt like it existed in an entirely different world from 𝕴my own. His parents lived near a la༒ke, he had a trampoline, and a dog — I had none of those things. He had a waterbed, which was fun to sleep on, but both of his parents smoked like chimneys, so I often woke up on Saturday morning with a pretty bad headache.
The Sonic, Sims, And Star Fox Games I Never Owned
There were numerous games that I only touched at this house. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Sims: Bustin' Out was one that I remember fondly. I didn't think I could convince my parents to get a game rated Teen for "Mature Sexual Themes”, but I did eventually convince them to buy me the E-rated GBA version of The Urbz: Sims in the City, which kind of felt like The Sims, but had more in common with social sims like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing.
One time, this friend didn't want to hang out on Friday night because he had just purchased the GBA arena fighter 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sonic Battle, and was playing it on his TV using the Game Boy Player peripheral that hooked into the bottom of the GameCube. This pissed me off, so I kept bugging him until he agreed to hang out and then we played Sonic Battle together through the night. When he eventually picked up copies, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Kirby Air Ride, Sonic Riders, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Star Fox: Assault got similar multiplayer love.
That same friend's house is where I saw Super Mario Bros., the original 1993 live-action gonzo take on the Brothers M. It will forever be a fun movie to watch on a big plasma TV in the middle of the night for me, I don't care who thinks it sucks.
N♚ot having spending money is a quick way to build mystique around certain games. If I had owned Sonic Riders, had been able to play it anytime I wanted, I might think that it sucked. But, because I only ever played these games when I was away from home, and only for a little while before𒀰 I had to go, they retain a certain special something in my memory.
