Having gamed now for over 18 years, Ive played more games than I can care to admit. Some were bad, some were good, some amazing, and others, well... not so amazing. Thankfully, Ill be avoiding the latter. Instead, I want to bring to your attention three games that have created for me, some of my warmest childhood memories. Games, which literally saw me through some of the darkest moments in my life. But before we delve into these games, allow me the opportunity to explain to you why I find these games, and more importantly the memories attached to them, so special. My Childhood As a child, I had a pretty rough upbringing. Not only did my family not have much--to illustrate, I slept on the floor till I was 11 or 12, when I got my first bed--but my father was very, very tough on us. I think the more appropriate word would be violent. It was like a boot camp. If we set one foot wrong, no matter how small that wrong was, we were beaten, be it with a vacuum pole, a pipe, a mountain bike at one point, or a belt. Hell, I used to pray for the belt. Especially after he introduced us to the extension lead, but that's a story for another day. Now, before you think that maybe I was a little so and so, let me tell you, very honestly, that I wasn't. It all depended on his mood on any given day. Lets say I had forgotten to put the sugar away, or maybe the dishes weren't cleaned right, or maybe, while playing with my brother in the front yard, the ball went over the neighbors fence. All of these were beatable offenses. With that being the case, as you can imagine, getting beaten, happened very frequently. I mean, I was only a kid and yet, fear and violence, having made an appearance almost daily, were starting to become best friends to me. My Saddest Moment Things only got worse however, when I lost my older brother to Cancer. I had never cried so much in my life. He was like an idol to me. He was just a nice human being; caring, generous, loving, and humble. Just everything an older brother should be. I remember when we were younger, he introduced me to a lot of things. Tupacs music being one of them. Surely you can guess what the other was. Just in case you can't, it was the wonderful world of video games. Video Games to the Rescue I think you can now see why video games are very important to me. It offered me and my brothers the chance to escape our then reality. A chance to escape into different worlds where we weren't helpless against baddies, but instead were given the opportunity to defeat them. It gave us a way out. Mario Kart Our first console was the iconic Super Nintendo, and our first game was Mario Kart. It was actually a game that my older brother got for us. I remember laughing with my brothers, as we'd watch each other race. Why was that funny? Do you remember when you were young, playing racing games, and you used to turn the controller and tilt in the direction you were turning? Hilarious! Of course, we also used to fight amongst ourselves, with the phrase "Youre cheating" being loosely tossed around. But hey, it was fun nonetheless. Donkey Kong This ones probably my favourite. I used to get so emerged in the game, like I was actually DK himself. And I loved that he always had family around, with Dixie Kong or Diddy Kong, to help him get through tough situations. Situations that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to get through. Kinda like my brothers and I. Lord knows, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. Street Fighter Another game my older brother introduced me to is the iconic fighting-game Street Fighter. It was like a way to vent all the frustration that had built up. Almost like: breathe in, breathe ou...HADOUKEN! I loved it! Me and my brothers used to pretend we were Street Fighter characters, and before my dad would get home from work, we'd be Hadouken-ing, Shoryuken-ing, You-Got-Fire-ing and Sonic-Boom-ing at one another until someone tripped over and started crying. So there you have it, the God honest truth as to why video games are very special to me. I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments section below, just so I don't feel like a weirdo who's just poured his heart out just to have it met with silence. We've all got our reasons, whats yours? Why are video games so special to you? PS: If you wanna hear more of my sad, whiny video game stories, check out my site: http://www.nizulo.com/