Ever since I can remember I've had a terrible memory.
Sometimes I wonder if this is the result of blunt force trauma or a by-product of a superbly boring young life; neither is particularly good. In any case one of the few memories I hold dear to me is playing a certain Amiga football game with my brother on cold Winter evenings in our family home in southern Ireland. 
The youngest of three kids, my closet sibling in terms of age and inspiration was my brother Alan, 6 years my senior. Brotherly love can be tough and common ground rare, especially with an age gap as wide as ours. When he was tumbling around our mucky garden with his pals, I had just learned to stop to stop crapping my pants. By the time I was finished my multiplication tables he was trying to get into girls underwear.
But this great divide disappeared altogether when, sitting in front of a 14 inch true-colour TV, we'd load up a chunky floppy disk labelled 'Sensible Soccer'. For years 'Sensi' was the common ground we delighted in stamping around in for hours. We bought every version of the game (usually with his money), created our own custom teams, smashed each other with Zipsticks and sometimes argued over who's turn it was to play. It sounds silly, but that simple Commodore Amiga game was the platform atop much of our childhood relationship blossomed, something I am eternally grateful for.
Years later the Amiga would give way to the SNES and Mega Drive, neither of which really grabbed my brothers attention. By the time the Playstation arrived Alan had left for college. Over the coming years his enjoyment of video games quietly shuffled away behind new and exciting social & sporting endeavours. Myself and my brother are different in small but measurable ways, and though over the years we could often enjoy a night in watching films, or a few pints in a pub none of these engaged us actively the way those tiny pixelated players did.
This past December my brother turned 30, a milestone that resonates inside this little brother how long its been since we heard that Amiga disk-drive clunk into action. His generous girlfriend celebrated the occasion by buying him a Playstation 3, the first console my brother has owned in nearly a decade. Rabid football fan he is, FIFA10 was immediately acquired and practised on for the weeks running up to Christmas. When the 25th came we all returned to the homestead and much to my surprise, Alan arrived with his brand new console.
On Christmas night, as our stomachs struggled to digest a broth of turkey, stuffing and mince pies, myself and my brother played FIFA into the early hours of the morning. The phrase "Just one more game" lost all credibility as we screamed and laughed through competitive and co-operative matches between teams from across the globe. It was a great night. Last week my brother flew over to London to stay with my girlfriend and I for a couple of days and it all happened again. We had planned to visit a few Museums and generally act like the cultured adults we should be by now, but inevitably that singular morning game of FIFA soon became an afternoons worth. Before we knew it, it was time for him to catch a tube to the airport.
Children use play to bond with each other from a very early age and the older we get, it seems, the less time we have for play. Alan and I would sometimes play with toy cars or kick a football beneath the apple trees of our back garden, but those battles in Sensi were special. Nowadays the age gap is less relevant, replaced by distance and free time. But I'm happy with the knowledge that when we do have the time, we can sit down in front of FIFA and, for a short while, transport ourselves back 15 years in front of that tiny TV with joysticks in hand.
C'mon bro, Just one more game.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Sensible World of Soccer is available on Xbox Live Arcade for 800MS Points
Reader Questions:
Q: What games did you play with your brothers/sisters when you were young?
Q: Do you still play with your siblings?
Q: Have games ever helped you bond with somebody?