Monday, February 05, 2007

D'oh

Since our DVD player/recorder went on the fritz, we've been using our PlayStation2* to play DVDs for Scooter. This serves the purpose of giving us some time to decide what specific new model we want to buy without pushing us to choose something impulsively--because going without a DVD player is simply not an option. The biggest downside is that our PS2 is an old enough model that it doesn't have an infrared sensor, so we can't use a wireless remote on it. On the other hand, Scooter has been enjoying the fact that he has figured out some of the controls (push the X, highlighted item is started).

So Trillian decided to introduce him to the game aspect of our PS2. We don't have that many games, but apparently we have two Simpsons games--I remember Road Rage, but not Hit and Run. She decided on Road Rage and set it to the "Sunday Drive" setting. After choosing a character, you can drive around a section of Springfield; if you so desire, you can pick up passengers and ferry them around.

At first, Scooter sat on Trillian's lap as she drove Homer around (badly). Scooter cracked up as she crashed into trees, light poles, and other cars. Then he took a turn, driving with less purpose, mostly going directly forward and backward with great enthusiasm. On occasion, he'd make the car turn in dizzingly tight and fast circles.

Of course, we realized once the game was on that maybe we hadn't made the wisest choice. Nothing major--OK, so I'm totally dismissing the fantasy violence--but Homer has a few phrases that are generally not approved for three-year-olds. Things along the line of "Ow, my ass."

So after our play session last night, Trillian put the Simpsons games away and got out Harry Potter (rated E for Everybody), saying we'd head him that way the next time he played. But tonight? "Wanna play yellow Homer**," he says and immediately opens up the media storage, going straight for the game.

Oh well, it's not like he hasn't heard those words at home before (yes, I'm looking at you, Trillian). If he decides to use them elsewhere, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

* Yes, we have a gaming system. It's not quite so frat-ish as it sounds. Trillian's parents got it for us many Christmases ago, mostly because they were getting one for her brother.
** This is what he calls the Simpsons.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know what the flying f*%^ you're talkin' about woman. He probably heard sh*& from some punk a@# kid at preschool.

Bea said...

Oh, the weirdness. My ex was the producer on both of those Simpsons games. I've never heard of anyone actually playing them before.

Mouse said...

OK, B&P--that's beyond bizarre. I don't even know what to say.

I don't play on the PS2 often, but when I do, I can only play non-dying games. Simpsons is perfect since you can drive around like crazy without any true repercussions--Ralphie just bumps along in front of your wheels when you hit him. When my younger sister got her Nintendo (mumble) years ago, I just could not play Super Mario Brothers; that the characters could die was way too anxiety-provoking.

And to be fair to Trillian, while this is not a word he picked up at school, Scooter today decided to stuff an entire apple slice into his mouth at once--that really does have to be a school-thing.