I’m Taylor Lautalo; I was born in 1996, in the beautiful state of Hawaii, on a little island called Oahu, and recently moved here to Utah.
I lived with my grandparents and older sister and didn’t really get to talk with my parents. We lived in a normal apartment and were raised to strictly focus on school and nothing but school. Fast forward a couple of years, my sister got a Sega Genesis for her birthday and a game called Sonic the Hedgehog. Although this was after the Nintendo 64 release, this was all we could afford. For the first couple of weeks she played it extensively, from the moment her homework was done, until we were called to eat dinner. I had no interest with it until she asked me if I wanted to play, I thought it would be fun so I said okay.
Boy was I in for some fun. Who knew making a little blue Hedgehog run and jump around could be so fun! The lights, the sounds, everything about the game intrigued me and had me glued to the screen. After a couple of weeks, and many attempts to get to the final boss, Dr. Eggman, I finally made it. Even my sister didn’t know how I did it, but I did. Now at the time I was fairly young, so I had no idea what a boss fight was, and neither did my sister. I tried everything I could to defeat him and if it wasn’t for his whole machine flashing when I hit him, I’d have been dead.
A couple years later my sister and I moved in with my parents and older brother. My brother, being ten years ahead of me, had a Nintendo 64 (N64) and a Playstation One (PS). So many new games were at our disposable. Instead of one, he had TWO controllers for each console! Instead of a 16-bit Sega, he had a 64-bit Nintendo along with his new Playstation! I remember he had NBA ’99 and Mario 64 for the N64, Twisted Metal for the Playstation.
It wasn’t until January, 2002, that I got my very first console all to myself. It was a Nintendo Gamecube (GCN), with a copy of Super Mario Sunshine. I played that bad boy for days on end, collecting all the stars, memorizing exactly what to do as I ran through each level, doing my own little speed runs. I was having the time of my life, until I bought yet another game much later: Metroid Prime. I had no idea what a Metroid was, or who Samus was, and to be honest I called Samus “Metroid” until I was eight. Confused and naïve I asked my neighbor for help, and good thing too, as my neighbor knew what he was doing; without him the first boss would have been a never ending battle for me. What was neat about the Gamecube though, was that it had four controller ports instead of just two, setting it apart from the other consoles I was used to (excluding the N64, I had no friends back then) so every once in a while my friends and I would get together and we’d all play Super Smash Bros. Melee. Now that was a game that heightened my gaming abilities; it made me “practice”, and made me want to get better at what I was doing. There were a lot of name-calling, spilled drinks, and missed bed times because of the little quarrels we would get in.
A couple of years later I got a Playstation 2 (PS2), making me one happy kid. I remember walking to Costco, knowing exactly which one to grab, and walking out PS2 in one hand, and a copy of Jak and Daxter in the other. It was 2003, so I wasn’t the earliest person to the console party, but I did manage to host a lot of all-night gaming sessions with my friends, taking my console and television set outside using a super long extension cord. We played a lot of competitive games , as well as adventure games, passing around the controller. During this time I was introduced to renting games, and the main place to go was Blockbuster. From there, I was able to expand the horizons of my gaming choice, and try games out before I dished out the money to buy a title. My testing ranged from Kingdom Hearts, to NBA Street and led to many purchases and passes alike.
I currently own an Xbox 360, and have for a good 3 years. I play all types of games, and as long as they’re fun I’ll like them regardless. I rarely play a single genre for a week straight; I could be playing Halo 4 one minute, and Ninja Gaiden or Mortal Kombat the next. I love video games and everything about them, and I can’t imagine a world without them. I’ve been playing since a young age, and I’ll continue playing until the day I die. I hope you all enjoy my articles, and look forward to hearing from you all as well!
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