Resident Evil Memories

When I was a kid I couldn't play through the first segment of RE2 because the noises the zombies made scared me too bad.

That sounds like 5 which wasn't on the Wii. There were ports of Zero, 4, REmake and those lightgun games. The 4 port was a lot of fun actually.

I got the Playstation on my 18th birthday in September of 1996. RE was one of the first games that I rented, and did so within the first few days of enjoying this awesome new system. When I turned it on the sound was fine, I watched the intro with no problem, and was pumped. But then when the actual gameplay started I noticed that I only got the ambient score and sound effects, no spoken dialogue. I saw Chris and Jill and Barry and Wesker gesticulating as if they were having a conversation, but nothing came out.

I went to the rental store and tried another copy, but got the same result. Finally I realized that somehow, in a way I still don't understand, the Playstation machine itself was the problem. I swapped it out with a new machine and finally got to hear the voices that had previously been missing. As my cousin aptly put it, I was probably better off sticking with the first one.

On another occasion a few months later I was in an apartment where a bunch of other guys loved to hang out because my place was the biggest and I had all the cool video games and so forth. We all watched as I played RE and got to the point where you discover the diary of a transforming zombie who begins by talking about how itchy he is and how hungry he's getting, a diary which finally ends with the simple words "Itchy. Tasty". I laughed so hard - I don't even know why - but I found it the funniest thing I'd seen in years. I decided that this was our little gang's credo, our calling card. I grabbed a permanent marker and ran all over this crummy apartment complex writing "itchy tasty" all over all kinds of surfaces - in the local bulletin board, on the underside of toilet lids, on mirrors, on the inside (latching side) of doors, etc. At one point one of my buddies stole a giant roll of toilet paper from the bathroom (you have to understand, this place treated its tenants like #########, we were just rebelling as 18-20 year-old kids, making the best of a crummy situation). I insisted that the guys wrap me up in the toilet paper like a mummy - just COVER me with that crap - and I would slowly shamble after them as they pretended to cower and scream, threatening them with repeated drawls of 'ITCHY TASTY, ITCHYYY TASTYYYYYY" the whole time. Becuase the security cameras were on a short delay I then quickly tore off all the toiler paper, we ran down to the first floor of this place where the frot office was, and went to the desk where we pointed to the security monitors behid the exasperated prick of a night watchman. He turned, saw the recording of us chasing each other like children, then just shook his head in disgust and returned to his crossword puzzle.

There's no way to properly instill a sense of just how much the term "itchy tasty" meant to myself and my friends at this place during that half a year between late 96 and early 97. We said it in so many conversations, we greeted each other with it. To use it was just this stupid little thing that was special to us, this hilarious thing that when taken out of context would make no sense to anyone else. It was "ours", you know? It would take a good 25 years before I started hearing other people, sich as the Youtube group the Super Best Friends, casually throw that exact same term out with an equal lack of context and I swear it almost made me tear up. It wasn't just a nostalgic reminded of a very specific and long-gone point in my youth, it was as if I'd discovered someone else who understood the humor of the term, the magic power of the "code". Since that time I've actually seen several things from Tshirts to podcast titles that are named "Itchy tasty" and I can't help but feel like I was somehow ahead of the curve or something. Good times.

Hiding from Jack in RE7 didn't "scare" me (I was 40 when I first played, I don't get scared by most things anymore) but I found it enjoyably tense and sometimes even physically uncomfortable. The stealth sections of that game are my favorite by far.

LOL thank you. RE had some noteworthy moments in my life. :)

I remember playing RE 7 for the first time. At first, I immediately assumed it was another cheap knock off zombie game, like Left 4 dead, or Last of us. I was happy to have been proven wrong, its a really unique story, with interesting ways, to make horror, and though I was slightly disappointed with RE Village, I was still happy to have been introduced to this franchise.