Two good games

I am good at two computer games and two only.

The first is Tekken 3. It's a punching and kicking game, where some of the punches and kicks are extra magical. I usually play as Xiaoyu, Hwoarang or Lei. I can do a mean Yoshimitsu if needed, but I don't enjoy it. I will play as Eddy if someone isn't expecting it, and I do enjoy it.

I used to do the sound and lights for plays at school. Amongst the equipment, behind the stage, we had a small nook where someone hid a knackered Playstation 1 and 14" TV, and we played it every break at school for two years. The combos are deeply, deeply ingrained in my brain. I guess because I learnt them during a very formative period in my life. I picked it up again the other day after more than 20 years off, and pulled off a 9 move combo in the first few mins.

I have a nagging feeling these combos might be the last thing left in my brain as everything else rots around them. The last months of my life spent in a care home, hammering out Phoenix into Wave Crest Power against unsuspecting victims.

The second is Monkey Target 2, which is a party game in Super Monkey Ball 2 on the Gamecube. The objective is to launch your monkey down a ramp and into the air, open the wings, and glide down onto targets of different sizes in the sea below. I am very good at this. I can land this bloody monkey on a tiny speck in the ocean, from miles out, in high winds. This is how people get recruited to be drone operators.

Again: formative years. I played this for hours in a student house on George's Gamecube. I played this again a few years later with Tom and I vaguely remember him crying with laughter at how good I was at it.

I am not good at any other computer games. Do something productive with your 10,000 hours people.