Will You Be My Player 2?

As a child I watched my brother play games from afar, always intrigued by what he was doing on the NES, but not clever enough to grasp the complexities of his favorite titles, Pirates! being perhaps his most cherished. As I grew, however, I learned how to play on my own. My skills increased greatly, but I still felt that urge to watch him at work.

As my skills increased even more, watching became less desirous; I wanted to play with my brother. Early 2-player titles like Mortal Kombat curbed that desire somewhat, but I still felt "off". It seemed odd that in order to have fun in a video game with my brother I had to play against him, which could only end with my defeat or his. Neither of these conclusions seemed best to me, and I wondered if it was possible for us both to enjoy the spoils of victory together.

It was during this period of conflict in my life when some wise soul purchased Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Secret of Mana is an extremely unique title; it was one of the first action-rpg's, but that pales to the fact that a second or even a third player could plug in a controller and take control of one of the three protagonists, the boy, the girl, and the sprite.

Imagine if you will, that you are a little kid whose role-model is his bigger brother. Got it? Now imagine that you are this same child and someone gives you a key that takes you and your brother to a magical world where the two of you have to work together in order to become heroes and save this world.

I was in heaven.

I became so enamored with this game that I pestered my brother to play it with me every single day. My brother eventually grew disinterested in the game, and while he humored me for the most part, he played less and less as time went on. Eventually my requests to play became irritating to him, and I had to ask him in nicer and more obtuse fashions. It grew to the point where I could no longer even mention the game's title, referring to it instead as S.O.M. Finally, one day, he stopped playing the game entirely.

My brother and I still played games together, and if a game had the words "Co-op" or "2-Player" on the box we would almost always pick it up. We had fun with these games, but it was never that same kind of journey as Secret of Mana once held for me. As we grew up my brother's attention shifted away from video games, while I grew to love them more and more.

The years passed and I grew interested in Secret of Mana once again; the desire to finally beat it expanded within me. In my spare time I played, and soon enough I was rewarded with the end credits.

I was happy that I had finally beaten the game that truly inspired my love for video games, but I couldn't get over the feeling of sadness that the end had instilled in me. During the final sequences, the boy, in order to save the world, seals away all of the magic in the world, so his ally, the sprite, is forced to leave his friends forever as he is a part of that magic. The final shot of the boy and the girl overlooking the mana tree had me in tears.

My brother always played as the sprite.

I love my brother, he is one of the greatest people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. He was an amazing friend to me as I grew up, and an even better brother.

One day I hope to sit down and beat Secret of Mana with him.

Together.