Gaming with the Nephews

One of the best things about being in Indiana for any length of time is getting to play video games with my nephews. In Atlanta, I just never play video games with other people. I mean, I don't play video games that often, anyway, with the kids always wanting attention. But when I do play, it's usually a solitary activity. I'll sit on the couch for an hour and play some Ratchet and Clank, or play some Dungeon Siege II on my PC, always by myself.

Heck, even in the online multiplayer game that I subscribe to, I play like a soloist. I rarely group, and sometimes pay the price when I take on enemies for which I should really have a team's support.

But when I'm in Indiana, I get to play games with the nephews and niece, and I love it. There's always a bit of a learning curve, since they own an XBOX and I'm a PS2 guy. But considering that none of them are yet teenagers, they're usually pretty predictable and unimaginative when playing competitively, which keeps me competitive even when I can't get the controls down quickly.

Tonight, I played video games with the boys off and on for several hours. Except we didn't play on the XBOX. One of my nephew's friends had come over for a sleepover and brought his Nintendo Gamecube. We played Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Kart Double Dash, NFL Street and NBA Live '06.

I wasn't the worst at Super Smash Bros., which is surprising as I'm usually bad at fighting games. I never won a battle, but I was the last one eliminated a couple of times. And since I made a point of trying every character, rather than sticking at the ones I was better at, I'm counting that as a moral victory.

I was a bit better at Mario Kart, coming in third twice, but then finally getting a first and a second. The same went for NBA Live, where I won my first game, but then got beat when playing 2 v. 2 with a partner that wanted to play as Spud Webb and insisted on launching threes constantly.

Finally, we had an NFL Street tournament. I was knocked into the consolation bracket with a first round lost to my oldest nephew. In my defense, we matched the better players up early so the younger players wouldn't just get eliminated by a powerhouse in the first round. If I had played my younger two nephews, I may have had a better change. In the consolation round, I found myself matched up against my niece. In this game, the first one to 36 wins. When I went up 24-0, I realized I should take it easy on the poor girl. Of course, that thinking backfired. I lost 36-34. I didn't mind losing, especially when I was running trick plays every series and trying not to score on a few drives. But it was sort of funny how serious everyone else was taking it. When I lost, more than one nephew came in to make fun of me for getting beat by a girl.

Despite having a far from perfect win-loss record, it was still fun getting to play some games. One of the things I miss most during fatherhood is the lack of guys' nights. As sad as it is, hanging with eight and eleven-year-olds playing Gamecube may be the best I can hope for.