I had been trying to nab an NES Classic for him for weeks but couldn't find them in stock, so in the end, I wound up digging up an old Genesis from the closet, grabbing some extra games I had laying around, and fixing it all up to look like new. First, I recapped the Sega Genesis so it'd work well. Then, I made some boxes to make the Genesis and games look like they were new-ish: Even wrapped up the console and controllers in plastic like it was all new, and scrubbed everything with a q-tip: I wound up giving him Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 (which are inside that Sonic box I made), World of Illusion, Rambo III, and World Series Baseball 95 (the kid loves to play baseball). I was pretty interested in seeing his reaction to such an old toy for Christmas, and wrapped the console up separately from the games. When I was 6 years old, I got a Sega Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog and it stands as one of the single best Christmas memories ever, and I really hoped he'd like the present like I did when he was a kid. Well, when he opened the Genesis first, he looked at the box and didn't really smile or anything. He was sitting next to his dad, who is 38, and asked what it was. His dad, who loved the NES when he was younger, told him that the Sega was cool and that we should hook it up and play it, but my nephew wasn't really too excited or interested in the present, and went about opening other gifts instead. That's when I pointed out the other box that had the games inside, and told him to open that instead. As soon as he tore the wrapping paper on the front and saw Sonic on the cover, he let out one of the loudest screams of joy I've ever heard from a kid. It was the N64 kid all over again. He flipped his shit. I had absolutely no clue, but my nephew adores Sonic Boom, and watches it everyday. Further, my sister has the Taxman port of Sonic 1 on her iphone, and apparently he plays it all the time. It's seriously his favorite game, and I had no clue. Similarly, my niece, who is 8, also loves Sonic, and she lost her shit too. So naturally, the first thing I did was showed them that inside the box wasn't just Sonic the hedgehog, but Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which they didn't even know existed. After opening the rest of their gifts, we hooked up the Sega to the TV in the front room and let the kids play Sonic 2 with 2 controllers, my niece as sonic and my nephew as Tails. They wound up playing that and World of Illusion together, co-op in both games, all freaking day. This was all at my parents place, and by 11 pm when my sister's family was leaving, they had to basically pry the kids away from the TV to box the sega up. All the while my nephew was asking if he could play Sonic when they got home. Goddamn nailed it. Really great christmas memory to add to my book. Sega and Christmas and Sonic continue to be a big part of Christmas tradition />
Ha, that's really cool, dude. I like how you wrapped up the console to make it appear brand new, nice touch. My 7 year old nephew got an Xbox1 yesterday, so I doubt I could win him over with a SEGA Genesis console! There are of course plenty Sonic games that can be played via X360 backwards compatibility and thanks to me he loves Sonic games!
That's amazing! I have a rather a young cousin who keeps ending up here for... it's complicated. Anyway, he watches the crap out of Sonic Boom himself. He quite enjoys the Mega Drive titles... but, he keeps asking for the level select. Goddamn 5 year old children. :v:
That box is rad as hell, you're a helluva uncle man. Did you just happen to have a black box handy or what? That's some crafty work right there.
My nephew is only 2 right now, but I want to do this when he's old enough. All he cares about is Elmo at the moment.
I keep pretty much every box I own, that black box was the box for a haptic feedback vest I kickstarted a few years back called Kor-FX. It was the perfect size for a genesis.
That's dope ! The amount of effort you put into that present is pretty cool, it's definitely a labour of love. Watching the next generation of kids enjoy Sonic is indescribably awesome. My lil' nephew is hooked on Sonic now too. His mom thanked me (sarcastically/jokingly lol) because he got all the games like Generations, Unleashed and All Star racing this year for christmas for his XBox. When I had Unleashed on my PS3, I let him play and he was hooked ever since. The warehog is actually what got him into Sonic so heavily in the first place. He loved the warehog lol.
Echoing all the other comments in this thread: That is fantastic. It's really nice when people put that much thought and effort into a gift.
Gotta say, as much as I don't really pay attention to the TV franchise, Sonic Boom seems to be serving Sega well. They've always seemed to sneak the seed for Sonic fandom into new generations at just a regular enough interval to keep Sonic popular with kids for decades now.
Throw in Sonic & Knuckles while you're at it. Lol. Also quick question, how long did it take you to put all that together? Refurbishing all that?
And people say Sonic Boom was a bad idea (ok, maybe rushing out Rise of Lyric was a pretty dumb idea) ....but this is what I expected when I was thinking about the entire Boom subfranchise. The show is primarily at young kids but it's also a show that adults can have a good time as well, I'm almost 20 and I get all giddy for a new Boom episode. But enough of that, getting kids hooked into Sonic because of Boom is pretty much what SEGA was going for with this subseries and it's pretty awesome to hear that it's working despite all its setbacks. Way to go man, you rock! You da real MVP!
But it's kind of a shame that their solution was to revamp the world entirely instead of sticking with what they had. It showed a lack of faith for their own character, and while it "appealed" to kids, it sort of tarnished the appeal to everyone else. Plus, Sega's done this kind of thing before. I know quite a few people who got into the series through Sonic X or even the comics, but at least those had a reasonable replica of the games at the time, Boom is practically it's own thing. Still though, it is nice to hear kids getting into "older" Sonic stuff, goes to show how great the character really is. Awesome job Cooljerk! Your story really warmed my heart.
What a lovely story, Cooljerk! This was such a sweet thing to do It's so nice that he loved the gift after you clearly put so much effort into it. It's also nice to see that kids still like classic games! Sonic's appeal is still well and truly intact, it would seem; he's a timeless character, in many ways.