Epic Gaming Moments

Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, despite being one of Lucas Arts’ most excellent offerings, never really took off in the Philippines. It was released in the early 2000's, when internet cafes had started to pop up everywhere and charged just P30 per hour. It was always a disappointment when my brother and I would visit Blue Skies on Katipunan Avenue, one of the more popular internet cafes in our area, and find nobody playing JKII. It sucked for me because, to be frank, I ruled at this game. I was terrible at Starcraft, decent at Counter-Strike, and nigh-invincible at Jedi Outcast. Sometimes, though, we'd get lucky and people would join a multiplayer game that we set up.

This is about one of those times and a moment that I will never forget.

Though it was the default running speed, I was moving far too slow for my liking. Low on health, zero shields, and – to make things worse – an opponent hot on my tail, peppering me with Force lightning (I was just beyond his lightsaber's reach). A few moments earlier, we'd exchanged blows and I came out the worse for it. After that, all I could do was flee while using Force healing to keep myself alive. And that's when I saw this pillar up ahead and an idea occurred to me.

I had tried "wall runs" before, but mostly just because it looked cool. It wasn't a particularly useful thing to do in combat. But I knew that it worked on pillars (though the timing was very tricky) and maybe, just maybe, my opponent didn't. As I neared it, my anticipation grew. I approached the pillar at a tangent and, luckily, strafed into it and pressed jump at just the right moment. I watched as my character began to round the pillar, running along its surface. Just before pulling a complete 360, I pressed jump again and landed on the ground behind my would-be hunter. He just stood there, probably where I was just a second before, looking from side to side. I struck him down. You know that moment in Top Gun where Maverick slams on the air brakes to shoot down the last bogey? Crazy. I could hardly believe it worked.

Glancing to my left, to the booth where my brother was sitting, I found him watching my screen. By the wild grin he had, I could tell he had seen everything. I tried to say something cool and witty to commemorate the occasion. All I managed to blurt out was "Holy ****."

We've all got these moments, these memories that decorate the trophy halls in our minds. Feel free to share them in the comments section below.