How (and Why) I Got Into Gaming 

Hey Clement thanks for the love! I was an actor too before I started my journey with EP. Thrilled that you’ve been digging games and really grateful that you’ve watched and enjoyed our shows! Keep up the great work! ❤️👊🏻

I'm pretty sure the concept of digressing has been heavily CLEMENTED in to the hearts and minds of many.

Growing up in the 90's and 2000s really hits different.

So here are my takeaways: 1. Your mom is the real MVP 2. I'm surprised you didn't plug your playthrough of Double Switch. That was a really fun let's play. 3. It's cool to learn that Geoff Keely has BEEN in the industry. I definitely thought he just kinda randomly bought his way in. 4. Stan Lee as Revolver Ocelot is cool af. 5. I'm really glad you included that bit towards the end about not letting video games become a harmful obsession. I'm sure a lot of people needed to hear that. Fantastic video overall, I really enjoyed this.

The most wholesome thing I took from this video is how much your mom encouraged you in this medium which you don’t really get from many parents since video games had and sorta still do have a stigma of being a waste of time. That was just really heartwarming to hear about.

8:55 See this was back when we HAD time AND patience to slog through a single game for months, getting better and better at it until we beat it, and BECAUSE that may have been the only game we had, we PLAYED it to death and back. Not like today where we have disposable income and 500 games in our Steam library. So many choices that we don't know what to play (so much so that we sometimes spend all the time trying to decide and ultimately end up not choosing anything), and when we finally settle on something we maybe play it for a couple hours and then move on. I often look at my collection (for any console) and dream back to a time where everything was simpler. Back when all I had was my GameBoy pocket and PlayStation 1, and only a handful of games for each. I was starving for new games every now and then for sure, but when I got something new, I PLAYED it... THOROUGHLY!

Clement deep lore? Let's go.

Clement with a mustache and beard is........ something I did NOT expect.

I just got hit by a wave of nostalgia by watching this. Holy cow, the '90s was a different time.

Sir, you are like no other RU-vidr. You post at your own pace, and your videos are always straight from the heart. I will forever reserve a spot for you in my subscriptions even after I die.

i love it when clement talks about his personal gaming experiences. its always so special and fun to hear. cant wait to sit through this one

Been a big subscriber of you since 2009 you and SomecallmeJohnny were big hits of the review and talk of RU-vid when it started to become much bigger

I got into video games when I played Sonic 2 (which was my first video game). I was born in 2005 so I didn’t experience it on console but on my mom’s phone in 2009. If it weren’t Sonic’s unique gameplay genre I wouldn’t be a gamer. It wasn’t til I was 8 til I beat Sonic 2.

i watched you since i was at least 13, i'm 22 now and i'm glad you're still around/uploading :)

Where there any Blockbusters in Canada back in the 90s? That was how I got into gaming. Rented a game for 5 days to see if I wanted to buy it. Sometimes I did, sometimes I did not.

Cant believe how long its been since i first watched The Great Clements Mega Man and Bass lets play

Ohh good, I missundertand the title and read gambling instead of gaming and I think: Daam, this escaladt quickly

This video goes to show just how great gaming can be and how special it is to people. I genuinely love this video.

WOW! What an amazing backstory Clement! 😎 Your mom is really cool! My daddy is a old school gamer too. He used to play the NES and Sega Genesis. My mama used to be an old school gamer too. They also played the Sega Dreamcast! My first console was the PlayStation 2, I think. I played demo games for a bit. The very first full game I ever played is Sonic Heroes and it left such an impression that not only did I get into Sonic, but I also got into video games as a whole! I was 4 or 5 years old at the time. Then when I was 9 years old, I saw my daddy play The Sims 3 and little girl me thought "Maybe this will be fun." So I asked Daddy if I could play, and needless to say I fell in love with The Sims Franchise and I even played the spinoff series MySims and I still play The Sims Franchise to this day. 💕 There's lots of other games I fell in love with like Viva Pinata, Banjo-Kazooie, Minecraft and of course Mario among many others. Now as a 23 year old young lady going on to be 24 in a few months, I'm still in love with video games. I'm so happy that video games succeeded as much as they did and I can't wait to see what the future holds for video games! ❤️

Sometimes I wish I was born a bit earlier to experience those retro games from the 80s and 90s when they were new and fresh. Since I was born in 1994, I didn't get to really experience that massive shift from 2D to 3D first-hand. It was nostalgic to see those old videogame shows again. I didn't watch much of Electric Playground, but I loved Reviews on the Run and X-Play. X-Play's comedy skits were hilarious. I still love the Bob & Steve machinima they did with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. I had the same feeling towards G4 and other shows related to videogames; even if I couldn't play some of the games being shown, just seeing the gameplay and hearing them discussed was so cool. Gaming was always just so fun and interesting to me. It's a great message that you shouldn't let a passion or hobby utterly consume you and define who you are as a person. I'll always love videogames and I'm more into them now than I ever was as a kid, but the toxicity and discord online tends to suck the joy away. Best to keep a healthy distance from that.

Answer: Clement got into Gaming because he likes Gaming!

The first time I got stumped on a video game was the Statue Park mission in Goldeneye 007. When 3 year old me figured out what to do I felt like a secret agent myself. 😁

I have the exact same school photo folder

36:35 When that video got into Tommy Tallarico’s skeevyness the first thing I thought about was the Spider-Man PS1 LP. «Wonder what Clements gonna think of him now...» And yeah. About what I expected. Dissapointing when people you like aren’t what they seem.

25:30 your mum sounds way more chill than mine was about what games I played. Me and my dad had to sneak games like "The Last of Us" and "Red Dead Redemption" passed her because she wouldn't let me play/buy them when I was 15. Yeah, she was weirdly strict about what I watched, played etc. She wouldn't even let me watch "Ed, Edd and Eddy" for crying out loud. Lol.

Your mom seems like a lovely person.

33:50 OMG, I actually had some Tips and Tricks magazines

1:55 what the,,, 2074, man u are from the future

Being born in the early 2000s with a single parent it’s sorta the reason I love video games today I got my own PS2 in 2008 and just fell in love with video games ever since, everyone around me was playing different things but I never felt like I was missing out even after jumping on my mates 360 I just wanted to go back to my PS2. Loved hearing your story as someone who’s been watching you since I was in elementary school to someone who is now working a full-time job keep doing what you love man

Man, this video takes me baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. I was born in 1991, but wouldn't own a game console of my own until 1996 with the Super Nintendo, still my favorite game console ever released. Over time, I would learn about games from different sides of the family (ours was a large one as well). One cousin would bring his N64 and we'd all play Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing. Another cousin would bring her own Super Nintendo and we'd play the Super Star Wars games and Illusion of Gaia. Another would bring his Playstation and would be playing Final Fantasy VII. Still another would play bootlegs he got when we visited our other relatives in the Philippines. Regardless, it was a medium that I was happy to see grow and grow with. I'm older now and have other responsibilities, but I will always cherish the memories I made and still continue to make with these games. Thank you, Clement! Thank you for this awesome retrospective on your own experiences!

all the childhood stories with your mom are so wholesome. she seems supportive of your interest in gaming

One underrated G4 show I look back on was Cinematech, which would literally just show gameplay of random games. In a pre-youtube world it was a nice way to see what's out there.

I echo your sentiment of being extremely lucky to be born in the '80s and see gaming proper evolve over the decades. If someone today gave me a modern gamepad and expected me to play modern games as first contact with the hobby I'd be totally lost.

My first 2 games. Super Mario Bros... Mike Tysons Punch Out. My uncle and his nes. 198?. Tiny me.

I basically got into gaming when I first encounter Sonic.

My Older Brothers got me into video games when I was 2 years old. I started with Sonic The Hedgehog back in 1994 and my first Console was a Sega Genesis. The family also had a Super Nintendo too share. So I got my taste of Super Mario, and Sonic The Hedgehog. The rest is history and since I was kid I have kept the games my family and friends got me. So many great memories.

Great video! Enjoyed that quite a bit

1:50 Coming live at you, Clement from the future of 2074!

The part about the arcade games at the theme park resonated with me. I was the exact same way when I went on my first super expensive vacation when I was 9. I was explicitly told not to waste time/money on games when we were supposed to be having fun at a theme park.

Finally a Clement lore video. It felt like the same format as the Final Fantasy retrospectives, and I love that. "And that's the setup to MY LIFE. Now the gameplay..."

This was a ton of fun. Thanks for sharing this Clement.

You and your videos are so awesome!!! Keep up the incredible work!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Great video, it's nice to hear your personal experience with gaming. Yeesh i can relate to being too hyper-fixated on gaming at a young age, but on a more positive relatable experience I'm also glad i gotta try out games across different companies as it helped to make me more open-minded towards gaming and things i enjoy in general now that i think about it.

This video was such a great watch and just made me so fascinated and makes me think back on my earliest video game memories and just make me feel good, thanks a lot Clement, it was great hearing your story

As someone who also had a laserfocus obsession with video games, I relate to that part of the story so heavily. For a good while, it wasn't even video games in general I was obsessed with, it was Pokemon. Pokemon Emerald was my first ever video game, which is likely why I got so attached to the franchise. After a while, my obsession grew from just Pokemon to video games in general, but I still admit it was a bit unhealthy haha I remember being over at a friend's house and only wanting to play the games they had instead of playing outdoors, just like the story you said. Thankfully I became way less obsessed as I grew up and now I'm a lot more socially aware so all's well it ends well I suppose :)

Beautiful video

I really hope that this becomes a series of vids. Its so entertaining! : D

You're awesome as always Clement

Great video, Clement! Always interested in hearing stories like this. Cool to see we had similar gaming related experiences growing up.

Thank you for this video Clement. I've mainly stuck around to watch your Final Fantasy video over and over again, but this was a fantastic video brotha

I really love the pacing to your videos. They're always so engaging that I tend not to realize how long I've been watching lol. Great work as always.

Honestly, this video made game my day. Thanks for sharing your gaming experiences!

11:57 - Yep, there it is. It wouldn't be Clement if he didn't reference Sonic 2. I'm not a massive gamer, that's more my wife's area, I consider myself to be more of a movie guy, but I still remember my introduction to Sonic 2, and I owe my future in gaming to that. I'm in elementary school, reading a Sonic magazine. My after school club had a small magazine section, there just happened to be Sonic, I'll take it. I'm just reading a casual comic strip (an old version of Sonic came back from the future and now he's working for Robotnik?!), and I glance over to a corner of the room, and there's someone playing Sonic 2. It's on what I believe on a 25-30inch TV. One that looked standard for any normal adult, but for an impressionable 6 year old, it was massive. The first level I saw, sure enough, was Chemical Plant Act 2, and it was the water section. I went over, fascinated by it. I was terrible at the game, I still am, but I loved it. The game's multiplayer may have only had 3 levels plus the Special Stage, but we played that for hours. Like I said, I'm not a big gamer, but I owe everything to Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

Dude love your video as a kid nice to see your backstory.

Dang it, catchie story time Video. It really brings up my memorys about my connection to gaming. Thanks clement and may the force stay with you.

"I can't stop Barney to stop moving" *...like.. forever?* 👀

great video, very genuine content and also cool mom

man i love long form, talky content like this. keep it up. also looking forward to that starfox vid

Always a good day when Clement uploads. I've been watching your content since I was 12. Coming on to 22 now and multiple accounts later, seeing your videos and hearing your voice feels like running into an old friend. Thanks for being here.

After watching your channel for over a decade this was a real treat, I'm glad that the patrons and myself voted for this!

I really like this showing more of your history and how you got into gaming Clement. I can see why this was chosen for the Patreon vote as it's a unique topic for the norm.

Dude when the song from that marine land commercial hit my ear drums I felt a feeling I can't describe, not unlike nostalgia, but dissimilar as well. I had forgotten it, but then it was like I always remembered it. I'm your age, and wow it made me feel....idk what. It's not totally pleasant.

Growing up during the 90's and 2000's really was a different time. Simpler times. I really can't put my finger on it but something just felt so right about being introduced to games during these times. This video definately hits home for me since my gaming introduction was pretty similar to this. Sonic 2 was my first game :)

You can talk about anything you want, Clement. You are a relaxing and entertaining dude to listen to (I even listen to your videos at bedtime).

I’ve always wished I could experience the early days of gaming or just even remember my early days because reminiscing about those times always gets me to smile and remember why I like games so much.

A Garfield gumball machine sounds awesome.

I first got into your stuff back in 9th grade when I saw Mega Man Maverick Hunter X Day of Sigma and it just went on from there. It got me to start my own gaming channel. At 18, I did the first titled Longplay of Sonic 4 ep 1 iOS. Now I’m doing a Sonic riders Longplay. Thx, clement! Perhaps one day I’ll be patreon supporter.

The Insane Lore of Clement: Made with as much love and care as Tekken. Good Stuff!

This was such a good retrospective. I was really moved by your mom going our of her way to bring games to you, my parents were kinda the opposite. My mom was okay with me playing games, buy only ever got games based on either shows, movies, game shows etc. and my dad just never liked me playing games cause he was worried I would get addicted, which caused a big strain on our relationship that's been a challenge to get past for me even to this day. I was born in 2002 so I always had access to the internet, though it was still really early and most games I learned about at the time were from random gaming magazines I got from the library or going to my local retro game stores that introduced me to so many games. Just looking back on those simpler times was really nice and it sparked some really good memories

I’ve really been enjoying these longer video essays. I’ve been subscribed since about 2008 I was like 7 and now I’m 21 years old.

God. I've been watching you since the 10 min Mega Man playthroughs. What a wild ride. Keep up the great work.

Mom is definitely the mvp

I do miss your LPs, but I don't mind this new style of your channel. I've beenhere since the S3&K LP, and have stuck by you ever since. You were actually the first channel I ever subscribed to. I know you said people stopped watching your LPs after Sonic and Megaman ended, but just know I always tuned in no matter the game. I watched the Mr. Mosquito LP twice, so I'd consider myself an avid supporter. Keep doing your thing bro!

OMG CAN WE PLEASE GET A HOW AND WHY I GOT INTO ANIME FROM CLEMENT?! now that we know where u grew up it would be fascinating to see how u got into anime and the evolution.

Clement I started gaming in the late 2000s and when I started watching your channel I got on board with gaming thanks to you and somecallmejohnny.

Holy cow ... You really pulled on some heart strings with thoes shows. Im glad im not the few that were highly influenced and CRAVING the next episode.

Never thought Clement would be so relatable, god damn, I also grew up in a small town (this time, in the middle of the state of São Paulo, Brazil), and my first console was ALSO a SNES, which I still strongly believe is the greatest console ever made, but as a child born in '97 (and with a brother, no less), I had a strangely similar, yet different childhood - PC Gaming is what I'm into most, and in fact, the very first game I remember playing is Mega Man The Wily Wars, on a genesis emulator, in my dad's old PC back in the very early 2000s. Still emulate games from various different consoles and portables to this day, the habit never went away. Just like how you learned how to read better thanks to video games, they taught me english, and YOU taught me how to actually speak the language, showing me the correct pronunciations for a wide variety of words without even realizing you were helping someone, and I think that's pretty cool. My experiences with gaming shows and magazines were more limited, however, Nintendo Power WAS a thing here and apparently it did well enough, but I only got to see very few issues my brother borrowed from his friends at school, Electronic Gaming Monthly also existed here and we did buy a few issues (and we still have them, they even separated console and PC gaming into two different mags), and G4 aired here in Brazil as well, but I only caught a few episodes because they aired pretty late, I still vividly remember one episode where they showed Devil May Cry 3 and Gunstar Super Heroes, which are games I love now, but for DMC3 I only got to experience it much later (Gunstar Super Heroes could be easily emulated even back when it came out, though). Also, a few more things, back when our SNES still worked, one of the games my brother borrowed from one of his acquaintances at school was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, it had a box with a manual and everything (or at least I assume there was a manual, this was a long time ago), my child self's mind was amazed by it, because at that point, we didn't own any boxed games and that packaging looked phenomenal, the game itself looked mysterious and seemed gigantic, so yeah, we do share some good memories with that game. Still my favourite Zelda to this day, with Breath of the Wild in second. My brother in general introduced me to so many games that I watched him play back in the day, only for me to play them myself more than a decade later, like Quake 4 and F.E.A.R., which are to this day two of my favourite First-Person Shooters. Last, but not least, at 32:55 you talk about Wonder Project J2 and lamented how it never came out overseas, but I do happen to know that in 2007, the game received a fan translation, so if _really_ wanna go out of your way, you can actually play that in english, I heard the translation isn't perfect, but hey, like Inafune would say, it's better than nothing. It's actually 4:20 AM right _now_ and I'm feeling really sleepy, so take my pseudo-incoherent rant with a grain of salt, but that's it. Looking forward to the next video, and if you ever feel discontent about the frequency at which you're uploading videos, Clement, just remember that you can't just drop a nearly hour-long video and expect it not to take at least a month and a half to make, crunch ain't good, I have a friend that also makes videos on RU-vid and I'm constantly worried about your mental states because I care, but ultimately I can't do anything for you guys, so please take care.

Great video, Clement! I also really miss the days of G4 and Electric Playground at their peak. Kinda sad how that G4 reboot thing panned out.

I started gaming with a Nintendo DS that came with Mario Party. Back in 2007 or 2008, when I was 4

I recently found a few old issues of Nintendo Power from the one year I had a subscription and got another look at all the games I was never able to play as a kid like Lunar Legend, Skies of Arcadia, etc. Even though it's easy to emulate those games now, I definitely remember always having a blast going through each page thoroughly

Truly are the GREAT Clement

I loved seeing how you have achievements of Lego games. I'd love to see your cover those.

every time clement uploads i am completely and totally taken back by how great a creator he's become. has been and will be one of my favorites forever

great video

This was a legendary video.

Whoa. Is that Clement, or Caddicarus? All jokes aside, I enjoyed this video. Keep rocking, my dude.

I remember finding the arcade at MarineLand when my family went to Niagara Falls around 2001, that was the first time I ever saw or played an SNK cabinet with a Fatal Fury game (my favorite fighting game series). Never thought I would be so happy to find a place with sealife and arcade cabinets all in one location.

my first conscious memory was playing mario kart double dash on the game cube its always fun to hear someones gaming origin story

The Legend of The Great Clement.

I was born in Jan that same year and had the exact same reaction to Mario when I first picked it up at a cousins house lol I discovered it 3 years after you though, I can still smell that cartridge like it was yesterday

The only game I remember playing on a windows 95 computer, was Spy Fox Cheese Chase at my grandparents house. Never actually finished it but this video made me remember it

been watching this channel for nearly 10 years now holy shit

Honestly i can totally relate to that mindset growing up. When there's no games around it was a normal day, when seeing a game you havent played before "Oh! Oh! let me try that!" I remember playing things like Goof troop, tiny toon adventures, Spyro the dragon and Tony hawk because of that.

The first video game I ever played was the 1995 point-and-click game, Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. My first console was the Nintendo 64 which I got on Christmas 1999 when I was 6. My favorite video game of all time is A Hat in Time.

15:35 I have a specific memory of my mom never wanting to play a video games with me unless it was Pokémon Battle Stadium. Why? Because she could beat me in it. Every. Single. Time.

Love more lore on the Great Clement

I miss ur donkey Kong walkthrough believe it or not it always put a smile on my face

As someone only three years older, you tapped into that time of video gaming evolutions better than anyone I’ve seen. Not just the technology and the games, but the environment around them. The gross-out ads of the 90s, the huge gap “Diehard Gamefan” left behind when it went kaput and when “X Play” was essential entertainment. Well done, sir.

Seeing that near launch SNES as un-yellowed as it was, is quite the surprise and treat. If it looked aged, it certainly didn't show on camera, and that's pretty special

I greatly relate to you. I was born in 93 and growing up we had an NES, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo with all the games with the iconic characters you would think of. I have special memories playing the N64 and then getting a PS2 after that, as well as various handhelds. I remember the gaming channels like X-play and the others very well. Today I may not be a gamer anymore but I think growing up playing these games helped my imagination and dreams grow.