Being a gamer can be pretty simple when you’re an only child. Add a sibling to the equation, and every one of your games becomes our games. Of course, it wasn’t all that bad. The best-case scenario means you’ve got a valuable player two by your side. Regardless, there are some things you may look back on fondly, even if you were on the receiving end of certain pranks.
There is the occasional unplugged controller that gets passed around. Other times, you both have the same favorite character, and it becomes a race to see who can select them first. Here is a trip down memory lane for those gamers who grew up with siblings.
10Giving Them The Unplugged Controller
The Perfect Gaming Prank
Giving your sibling the unplugged controller is a classic prank. We did this for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, your sibling just has to play during the most important part of the game. What better way to please mom than by passing your sibling the unplugged controller? Maybe they want to feel included in a single-player game, but don’t know how to really play.
Other times, this could be done as a way to land a sneak attack on your unsuspecting sibling. This is a VSco-op game, and you plan to win by any means necessary, even if this means forcing your sibling to scramble for the other end of the controller while you bash them in Mortal Kombat.
9Asking Your Sibling To Play The Difficult Parts
Skip The Nintendo Hotline, Just Ask A Sibling
There are some games with levels that are just too difficult for one sibling. This is where it pays off to have a cool, experienced gamer in your family. Can’t seem to get past a stage? Is a boss giving you too much trouble? Send in your sibling to take care of it.
Older games have a knack of sometimes being just a bit too difficult. Instead ofexperiencing the frustration of getting stuckon that stage forever, you end up asking your sibling to get you through all the hard parts. Now you can enjoy the rest of the game.
8Trading Your Game Time For Favors
Scratch My Back And I’ll Scratch Yours
Every kid growing up remembers having a time limit for their video game sessions. After all, if it weren’t for time limits, we’d never get any studying done. With siblings, a new way to negotiate time could be possible. I’ll give you my hour of game time if you do a little something for me.
Perhaps it’s a case of doing your sibling’s homework or cleaning their room. Either way, one sibling will trade their time with the GameCube in exchange for these favors.
7Overwriting Save Files
Every Gamer Hates This
The worst thing that can happen with siblings is having only one copy of a game and having to share it. With some games, you have the chance to make multiple save files, while in others, you might even need a separate memory card to do so.
Then there were games like Pokemon that only support one save file. Perhaps it happened because we wanted a peek at our sibling’s progress, which was far ahead of our own, or maybe we didn’t realize starting a new save file would delete the old one. Either way, it would be a bad day.
6Lying About A Game Being Co-Op
Solo gaming Trumps All
Sharing a console often meant being forced to play together. At times, this could be fun when you need that player two to back you up or to unlock a feature only available in co-op. However, there were times when you were really invested in finishing a game yourself.
This is when you lie and tell your parents that the game you’re currently playing isn’t multiplayer. Odds are, your parents couldn’t fact-check it, and this allowed you to finish the game unimpeded by a clumsy second player.
5Tricking Your Sibling With Gaming Rumors
Just Keep Trying, It Will Happen
One prank that never got old is telling your sibling about a glitch that doesn’t exist. Some would call these playground rumors, but if you’re dealing with siblings, one usually knows the truth about the whole thing.
you may release a Pokemon in a Master Ball to get the ball back. You can unlock Sonic in Super Smash Bros. Melee by inserting the Sonic Adventure disc on top of the Melee disc. If you try hard enough, you can glitch through the wall and unlock Mario in Luigi’s Mansion. None of it was true, but we loved watching siblings try their hardest to make it work.
The Classic Madcatz Controller
Playing games with siblings isn’t as bad as some make it out to be. However, multiple controllers can cost money. This is why you would often find a Madcatz controller hooked up to the player two slot. It could be the wrong size, have sticky buttons, or feel slightly off.
This is why every co-op session quickly became a race to see who would get their hands on the good controller and who would be left with the weird one. It could be worse though. Your sibling could be using your official controller behind your back while eating nothing but Cheetos all day.
3Playing A Game Not Meant For You
Finding An M Rated Game In Your Sibling’s Room
When siblings have age gaps, they both have their own separate games. While one of you is playing Mario 64, the other is playing Resident Evil 2. Of course, there always comes a time when you want to try some of the more mature games.
In some cases,these games make you a horror fan for life. Other times, you reach the first Licker and end up too scared to sleep as you swear never to touch a zombie game ever again. Sometimes, though, it’s because we want to be cool and what better way to do that than by taking a game from our older sibling?
2Racing To Choose Characters
Why Do You Always Get To Be Mario?
Getting a good controller is one fight. When it finally comes time to play a co-op game, it becomes a battle of who gets to choose their favorite character. If you’re lucky, you will each have different favorites.
This gets harder when a game doesn’t have color swaps like Smash Bros. Some classics, like Nicktoons Unite, only let one player control each character. So, while one of you can play as the always cool Danny Phantom, the other will be left playing as Jimmy, Timmy, or Spongebob.
1Blocking The Screen During Split-Screen Play
No Cheating On My Watch
Split-screen games could be co-op, or they could have players competing against one another. Looking at your sibling’s screen is a great way to figure out their position and gain an advantage over them. Some siblings consider this cheating.
It may not have been practical, but siblings would try to create a barrier between the two screens to prevent any cheating. You would do this with a piece of cardboard taped to the TV or by making a barrier out of boxes.
