Meet the Staff: Delriach

Some new staff members have joined TSA recently, and we thought you’d like to know more about them. So, over the coming weeks we’ll be talking to our new staffers about various things, in a similar way as we have done previously. It’s the return of Meet the Staff! So here we go, with Delriach first…[drop2]

Name: Isaac

Age: 24

Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois

Living now: Chicago, Illinois

Gamerscore/Trophy Level: Pathetic/Level 16

Random fact about yourself: I take pictures of a mini Chun-Li at various places I go to…

Q: So, what kick(up, down, punch, megakick combo!)-started your gaming hobby?

A: My brother is the reason why I game. I still remember playing Contra on the NES and dealing with those annoying visual glitches that required you to blow on the cartridge until you passed out. The game that really changed everything for me was Sonic the Hedgehog. The music, the character, the platforming, the speed. I loved it all. It was at that time that I started getting really into gaming beyond just playing it. I wrote about gaming, drew my own comics, talked about it nonstop, and begged my mother to buy me anything Sonic related.

When I first played Street Fighter II Champion Edition it was at a convenience store a relative owned at the time. I couldn’t reach the cabinet at the time but someone lifted me up so I could play. I had never played a fighting game before and it was really a different experience. It wasn’t just about run and gunning or jumping at the right time. I had to figure out how to beat an opponent. Sure, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I loved the sense of competition.

My love for gaming only grew stronger as the years went by. When variations of Street Fighter II came to the Genesis and SNES things really took a different path. I would play for hours at a time trying to win at least one match against my brother. It rarely ever happened. He was just way too good and I couldn’t even perform special moves at will. I cried a lot. I remember training against the AI a lot, but I couldn’t even beat the game on my own. I would always get stuck on the fight against Vega no matter what. The only time I could ever beat him was if I used Chun-Li. Ever since then, she became my character of choice. She was fast, her hits were strong, and those kicks were very easy to do. She was perfect for me.

Fighting games really became something else for me. I would go with my brother to the few arcades in our area. We’d play Samurai Shodown, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II, pretty much anything in the genre. Whenever a new console came out we always made sure to get a fighting game first. Street Fighter Alpha for the PSone, Tekken Tag for the PS2, Virtua Fighter 5 on PS3, etc. In high school I would go to a friend’s house in a group just for fighting game nights. It was a blast.

More than a decade later, I played against my brother in Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. I destroyed him. All those years of torture and tears finally paid off. Sure, we hadn’t played against each other in over ten years but that didn’t matter. I got my retribution. It was also my way of saying thank you to him for introducing me to gaming. I wouldn’t be the same person if it wasn’t for him.

Q: We all know you like playing (fighting) games and writing about them, but what else do you do in your spare time?

A: I play pretty much any and all games. I’ve just been really focused on fighting games a lot recently. There’s just so many people to play now. The level of competition is far greater than I could have ever imagined. It really takes me back and that’s what keeps me going. In my spare time I don’t really do anything that isn’t related to gaming in some sense. Whether it’s reading forums, participating in discussions, or just thinking about games. It’s what I do and it’s what keeps me going. Obviously I do other things but they aren’t really that important to me.

Q: Got any embarrassing stories to tell, from the land of America? Go on, spoil us!

A: I have one embarrassing moment that I’ll never get over. At last year’s E3 I had made an appointment with a certain publisher to get some hands-on time for an upcoming game. Everything was all set. I was making it on time to pretty much everywhere I had to go at the time. Or so I thought. It turns out that I was still thinking I was in Chicago and I was off by a couple of hours for nearly everything, including my appointment for that day. When I went over to the receptionist table I was told that I already missed my time. I didn’t really know how to react but I felt pretty stupid. I completely forgot to change my watch to a different timezone. Sigh.