Spike Spiegel is my pilot boyfriend!

I don't play a lot of video games. They tend to interfere with the writing. But one I do play is Star Wars: Battlefront. That's because it's a game my husband and I can play together on the same team. Quin is ultra-competitive, so games with head-to-head action are a bad idea. If I manage to win one game in seven, he's all pissed off. But in Battlefront we can work together to win battles (and if I beat his kill count one in seven times... well, you get the idea). He usually plays a Wookie, storming into battle with gernades a-launching. I like to be a sniper, climb something high and shoot till I'm empty. I usually get a pilot to stand behind me and give me ammo packs. Sometimes I get two competing for my attention. I call them my pilot boyfriends. "Do you need anything? Can I get you another drink?" It must be the tight leather pants the sniper chick wears.

So anyway Quin bought Battlefront II. Since most nights I work, he's been playing alone (then coming down the stairs to interrupt my very important work to tell me all the cool things he's doing upstairs). But he says the controls are different and I really have to try it out alone before we play together so I don't interrupt the game to futz with my controls. So I gave up a day's writing time to play video games (for the sake of marital bliss, OK?). As it turns out, once I flipped the Y-axis on all the options I was fine control-wise.

Graphics are cool...flying in space (ugh, too hard)... blah blah blah... Wait a minute! I just head-shot a Stormtrooper and that man that said "Nice shot!" was Spike Spiegel! Then I get clipped and he says "I'll have you fixed up in no time." How cool! Spike Spiegel is my pilot boyfriend! I love this game.

Disclaimer: Technically, the voice actor's name is Steven Blum (sometimes Steven Jay Blum) and he does millions of games, but this is the first one I've had with him on it. He'll always be Spike Spiegel to me (and he'll always be saying "Hey! That pooch-bagger's mine!"). Spike Spiegel for those who don't know is from Cowboy Bebop, one of my most-watched DVDs, and is of course the name of my newest cat. Mr. Blum also does the voice of Mugen on Samurai Champloo which is another really cool show. My personal jury is still out and whether it's cooler than Bebop. The animation is better, and it takes place in Japan in the age of the samurai, which is cool, but the female character Fuu seems to exist just to get captured and forced to work in brothels (although she always gets away before actually... performing a service).