Have You Ever Gamed With Your Parents?

[Jam]

Someone in a Discord mentioned this and it got me thinking about how we've all had vastly different experiences of playing video games with our parents.

For some of us we grew up with 'Gamer parents', some of you maybe are the 'Gamer parents', or some had little to no shared experiences of video games with our parents.

Personally my experiences are limited to my dad watching me play FIFA / Football Manager, them getting involved with playing Wii Sports, and them watching me play Guitar Hero/Rock Band. Past that I've never really engaged them with the hobby. It's not something they grew up with, or something they have any interest in. In terms of playing by themselves I downloaded some 'quiz apps' on my dads phone (like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Chase) but they don't necessarily count.

How about you? How has your experience of video games been with your parents or children? I'm guessing it's a lot more prevalent now of parents playing games with their kids.

 

[AgentStrange]

I tried to get my parents to play GoldenEye with me but that didn't work. They really liked Guitar Hero though.

 

[Cooking]

one of my earliest gaming memories is playing Doom with my Uncle. Also played tons of Moto Racer and Need For Speed with my dad.

they don't really game anymore but I'm grateful for those experiences because Doom especially left a big impression on me.

 

[Soulflarz]

Nope my parents basically didn't really note anything I play until I was semi pro in rocket league and making money from it every now and then.

Weird because my dad used to play plenty.

 

[Meows]

I used to play Crash with my dad and he'd help me through difficult parts of Final Fantasy VIII.

Really important memories for me.

 

[Vincent Grayson]

My dad brought home Doom back in 93. And my mom got pretty into Quake.

But as for gaming together, not much really.

 

[DrArchon]

Not much. We played a bit of Wii Sports when it came out, but they dropped off after a bit.

I also helped my Dad with some of the stuff in Myst that he would get stuck on.

 

[TheBeardedOne]

My mom would help me if I needed a second player for a bit, but she wasn't too interested. We did play River Raid together when I was a kid.

I tried to get her to play Super Mario Kart with me, but the visuals bugged her eyes. It's understandable.

She supports my gaming

 

[OrdinaryPrime]

My dad used to play CD-ROM games when I was younger. One time he showed me this game Daedalus Encounter. He just went around trying to hit on anything sentient in the game. It was awkward.

 

[Putfire]

My father is very good at racing games. Nascar, F1, Forza. He is much better than me

 

[nded]

Mostly simple stuff like Wii bowling and Rock Band because that was basically karaoke to them. My dad was obsessed with Virtual Pool for a while.

 

[Acorn]

Yes with my mum. The main reason I play games are because of her getting me interested. Memories of playing games like castle of illusion co op are amongst my most treasured childhood memories.

 

[SavoyPrime]

My Dad was never really into games. But my Mom was really into gaming during the NES, SNES eras. Especially the SNES. I can't remember how many times I would come home from hanging out with my friends and she would be up playing Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and other games lol. She was really into Mario Kart 64 and damn good at it. My friends weren't much competition, but man, my mom was always in beast mode. She hated Peach with a passion. Any time Peach would hit her with a shell or would pass her on some sneak shit, her classic line "That bitch Peach!" would come out. Would always kill me. LMAO

 

[Nights]

As far as I know my Dad was the main reason I even play games. I never played with him specifically though.

My mom I don't really play "with" but I've sat in a room with her and introduced her to Pikmin and helped her through most of Pikmin 2, I also introduced her to Animal Crossing on the Wii and she played that basically every day for like 5 months. She's excited for the Switch one.

 

[Chainshada]

I remember as a kid playing through World/Castle of Illusion with my parents. Other than that it was just some Wii games when the console 1st came out.

 

[Host Samurai]

Played Festers Quest with my dad when I was 5.

 

[Deleted member 19702]

Never, my parents were never into gaming at all. Only once my mom went on curiosity and played an old NES game I can't remember the name when I was a kid, but only once.

 

[Strings]

I played whatever version of Tekken came out on a PS1 demo disc with my mum.

 

[TheBored23]

Not in any real sense. I have vague memories of my dad playing Mario Golf with me, and my mom briefly got into Namco Museum for the Gamecube, but that's all.

 

[Rhaknar]

my mom used to play hella Streets of Rage with me.

Good times.

 

[LossAversion]

I used to play Crash Team Racing and Bloody Roar with my mom. I'm hoping we'll get to play the remaster of CTR when that comes out.

 

[Barely Able]

Dr Mario on NES. Was the only game my dad played religiously as a kid. Also duck hunt. We got our NES in 1988 at the height of Nintendo fever, so that a was the requisite game for my brother and dad to all play together.

 

[affeinvasion]

My dad is only really into casino games which he's played on PC since the early 90s but we would play bases loaded on NES when I was a kid.

I've played a lot more games with my mom. Wii sports, Rock Band, animal crossing, Mario party.

 

[JustinH]

My parents were very anti-video game when I was like... in middle-school or early high-school, but they got so addicted to SSX Tricky when I finally got them to try it. We played it a lot, which was really weird for my Ma especially. My Pop plays games on his PC occasionally and was a huge fan of Sid Meier's Pirates and old like... hex-grid war games.

Every now and then I get Pop to play something with me and a family friend like we all played some Gears 4 Horde a few months ago and had a blast. One time when my parents visited me I had the Rift set up and my mother absolutely loved playing Job Simulator, too.

Dr Mario on NES. Was the only game my dad played religiously as a kid. Also duck hunt. We got our NES in 1988 at the height of Nintendo fever, so that a was the requisite game for my brother and dad to all play together.

Click to shrink...

Oh yeah, my parents did really like playing Dr. Mario on the Gameboy when I wasn't hogging it.

 

[the-pi-guy]

I played Mario Kart Wii with my parents, almost every night for several months. (During the year my youngest brother was born.)

It's one of the few games my parents have played in the past ~20 years probably.

 

[bry]

My dad introduced me to games like Marathon, this Tron mac game, and later years he would play fighting games with my sister and I.
My favorite memory with my dad was playing through Halo CE with him.

Those moments really stuck with me.

 

[Rocketz]

My parents no.

My mother and father in law yes. But that is Mario Kart.

 

[will0wis]

My dad got me into PC games when I was really, really young. He didn't play much himself, he just had lots of old games lying around and he taught me how to install/play things. I remember Doom and Heretic being among these games.

A bit later my aunt would play lots of games with me in the Master System. She actually was the one who finished Sonic the Hedgehog for me the first time because I wasn't so good at playing back then and didn't know what to do at certain points.

 

[sph3re]

Dad and I used to play Donkey Kong Country together, it was pretty fun

I remember my mom loving Puyo Puyo when I was a kid (specifically Kirby's Avalanche). She got... pretty into it, lol.

 

[Zaied]

I used to always watch my dad play Resident Evil 3 back in the day; I recall him at least getting close to the end, if not beating it. Also, Driver and Vigilante 8 to round out the PS1 era. Aside from that, it was mostly sports games like NBA Live, Madden, NCAA, and MVP Baseball that we would play.

 

[Laserbeam]

My mom and dad really loved the Donkey Kong Country games back in the day.

Part of why I think of them so fondly is the memory of getting them on Christmas and it being a whole family affair as we played through them. It was really weird and just about the only time that ever happened.

Even weirder/cooler is they also got my grandpa and grandma playing. And they were pretty damn good. Grandpa actually amassed a pretty fucking great SNES collection.

Oh, my dad also loved Crusin USA on the N64, probably because it was so damn simple. He just had a good time powering through it.

 

[Deleted member 12790]

My dad and I used to sit on the floor in the living room and play Hang On taking turns when I was a kid. That was his favorite game.

My mom liked Gangster Town. We had two light guns, so she'd play with one in each hand. She was actually the first person in the family to actually beat the game.

 

[TheRyzzl]

Yup! I used to whoop my dads ass at golden eye and in return he'd destroy me in Madden or whatever other sports game he was in to. Good times.

 

[NoKisum]

I only have one vivid memory of such. We had got a Dreamcast, and my dad saw my brother and I playing SoulCalibur. He said he wanted to try, so I passed him the controller. It was my Mitsurugi versus his Astaroth. He just kept spamming his wide upswing and I lost. Reduced my SC time afterwards.

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

My mother is one of the best puyo puyo players I've ever seen. Probably would have been fun to watch on twitch if that was a thing when she used to play it nearly every day.

 

[Chixdiggit]

Best memories with my Dad was playing games with him as a kid. These days he only plays Texas Hold em Poker on his Nintendo Wii.

 

[melodiousmowl]

once, back in the 80s my dad played zelda with me shortly after getting the game.

to be fair, he did write a few weird apple// games

 

[Huey]

I just sat down with my dad recently to show him the locomotives in Red Dead 2. He's a huge train aficionado and was just absolutely blown away... and then blown away by the whole world and just the experience of the old west.

In terms of really sitting down to "play" something though, not really.

 

[N64Controller]

My mother used to beat some bosses for me, the one I remember the most is the Axem Rangers fight in Super Mario RPG. I was getting so angry and had a really hard time. She had done it in her playthrough, so she beat it for me while basically reminding me that the major reason why I was failing was because I couldn't see straight because of anger, so I just had to be patient.

She went through games like Super Metroid, ALTTP, Mystical Ninja, Mario Kart, Aero the Acrobat. It was cool seeing her go and get to levels I just couldn't get through. She didn't follow through with 3D games and hasn't been gaming on console since we got our Nintendo 64. And pretty much not at all until the rise of Facebook and mobile games.

 

[Van Bur3n]

My father tried to play L4D with me. He couldn't figure out how to look around and gave up.

 

[Castor Archer]

I play Yakuza mini games with my dad regularly. We used to play a lot of Monkey Ball minigames, and these are pretty much the same thing. We also play Overcooked, Super Mega Baseball, Golf Club, and Tecmo Bowl.

 

[Camstun187]

Yes.

Christmas 2001 - Super Monkey Ball's Monkey Billiards with my dad

We used to go at it on space cadet pinball on any version of Windows, as well.

 

[B00T]

Grew up playing RPG's with my mom and played strategy games and shooters with my dad. They both still play stuff daily, my mom is going through Octopath and my dad is still addicted to PUBG. My whole family games and it's great.

 

[Slappy White]

My dad and I used to play Kung Fu on NES back when I was a little kid.

 

[Trisc]

Nah, my dad's always been more of an analogue nerd than a digital nerd (he was born in 1960). He only just recently learned where the input button was on the TV remote, and needs my help when it comes to downloading comics on his iPad. Getting him to play a video game would be a real struggle, considering he vastly prefers putting his free time towards movies and comic books than dropping $300+ on a machine for a medium he's only known to exist in these places called "arcades". The best he can manage is Galaga.

Oddly enough, he loves the fiction behind video games, which is why our bookshelf back home is dotted with novel adaptations of video games. His favorite series? Halo. It's thanks to him that I actually have such an in-depth knowledge of the Halo canon. If not for his interest in those books, I likely never would've invested myself so deeply in the series. He's never played a Halo game beyond picking up an OG Xbox controller and shooting the ceiling for five minutes in Halo CE, but he genuinely enjoys the stories told in that universe.

I might get him an Xbox One and the Master Chief Collection for his birthday this year, so I can finally play all the games with him and show him what the world he's only known textually really looks like.

 

[KiLAM]

I have played The Last of Us, Uncharted series, Beyond:Two Souls( Don't @ me) and Shadow of the colossus with my Mom. She only plays when I sit with her lol. But she LOVED every game she played and couldn't stop talking about it once we finished. Shadow of The Colossus and Beyond Two Souls(again, don't @ me) are her favorites. I moved out recently so we haven't had much chance to play again sadly though. Definitely plan to play more games in the near future.

 

[YourFriendLevi]

Me and my dad play Gears of War together. We can't wait for Gears 5 to come out.

 

[Overture]

I played Pang with my father and Puzzle Bobble with my mother. Other than that, only Wii Sports with both of them. My mom doesn't really game, outside of Puzzle Bobble clones I guess, through facebook or whatever, and my dad used to play some racing games (he loved Viper Racing) but they don't game too much.

 

[Sectorseven]

My mom would only play Wheel of Fortune.

 

[giapel]

I remember playing an old DOS golf game with the whole family, then some version of Links with my mum. I've also played a lot of point and click adventure games with my dad. But that's about it I think