With the news of the recent re-release of Surge soda to East Coast markets, my mind was brought back to my early 20’s when I lived off of Surge in college. I would game all night and play my Dreamcast until the sun came through the blinds in my dorm room, all while guzzling Surge. Now that it’s back, I can finally dust off my old systems and relive my youth all while I’m pushing forty.
These are going to be the first five retro games I play while drinking copious amounts of Surge.
5) Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III came out after my college years, but I do have fond memories of gunning people down while holding a nice cold can of Surge. I would love to relive these moments on my PlayStation 2 and invite some new buddies over, inputting the armor, weapon, and star cheats and seeing how long we can last. We would trounce through Liberty City causing mayhem and havoc until the decked out police finally put us down, #alldigitallivesmatter. We would also race through the city trying to find amazing jump points and to see where we could land the car; sometimes on top of buildings and other times in the river. The feats would generally be followed by a hearty drink from a beer, but now that we’re all older and can’t hold our booze, Surge will be the drink.
4) Shenmue
I could never get too far into Shenmue when I was younger — I just didn’t have the patience. I would drink Surge to stay awake as I played the talking simulator. I ran all over the place trying to find Lan-Di, but I seemed to be confined to one street in 1986’s Yokosuka Japan. I don’t know how many times I bought a capsule toy or petted that extremely cute cat but none of that alloed me to progress. The second and third discs of the game were so illusive because of my survival-horror fandom, but I remember making my self Ramen sandwiches in my dorm room, firing up my Dreamcast, and popping open a can of Surge. I tried really, really hard to get Ryo his revenge, but it just never seemed to be in the cards for me. Now that I’m older and have a bit more patience in me, I could probably get through this sixteen hour game with a few Surges by my side.
3) Resident Evil HD
This game was also released after my college years, but many scary nights with the original Resident Evil were prolonged by my love of Surge. I remember sitting there with my buddy and my girlfriend at the time in the dead of night, passing off the controller each time someone died. I usually survived the longest, seeing as I’d been playing those games for over six years, so the Surge was more for my guests since they had to stay up late to hold the controller. I can’t remember how many good jump scares we got as we traversed Spencer Mansion, but I’m sure lots of Surge was spilled that night. Thankfully none of it spilled onto my precious Nintendo Wavebird controller, that would be scarier than any zombie.
2) Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
Sometimes I am a hypocrite when I bash Activision for releasing Call of Duty over and over again each year, because when they were doing the same with Tony Hawk and I loved it. Every October I was patiently waiting for the newest addition to the series, and I remember number 3 being the game that completely pulled me into the series. Hours would be spent creating myself in the game with a trusty Surge by my side, then I would skate my evening away. Once my roommate saw how amazing the newest game was, we would take turns trying to beat each other’s high score. The best part was when we bailed because we would get to see our avatars get completely busted on the pavement and railings. Then we’d just get up and keep skating; in real life we would be in traction, unable to drink our precious Surge.
1) Resident Evil: Code Veronica
Little did I know that when I borrowed my friend’s Dreamcast and rented Code Veronica that I would be playing my favorite entry into the Resident Evil series for the first time. I played this game through a majority of the end of my junior year in college, and lost many an evening to it. I remember the joy I felt when I finally saw Chris Redfield back in action; this, of course, was before he became an avid steroid user. Then I was decimated by the poisonous Hunters, yet somehow I managed to stave off complete annihilation and come out besting Wesker and saving Claire. Surge was, of course, sitting next to me, helping me achieve all of these lofty goals. This is probably my fondest memory of Surge, myself, and a console. I cannot wait to relive this when the cans finally hit the West Coast.
What about you, dear reader? Were you old enough to remember the very caffeinated turn of the millennium? Or are you going to have to make memories when you finally get your hands on a can of Surge? Tell us about your wildest Surge-fueled memories in the comments below.