It has been over a decade now since Bungie introduced the Halo series to the world on the original XBox, and two days ago on March 31, 2012, the company bid a fond farewell to the franchise that has spanned five titles and countless priceless multiplayer memories for people all over the world.
Honestly, it doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was sitting in Kill-tacular-tron’s basement with four XBoxes wired together as two teams squared off against each other (one team in his room, the other in his little brother’s across the hall). Racking up kill-streaks, downing bags of Doritos and liters of Mountain Dew, and shouting obscenities across the hall was how I spent many a Friday and Saturday night during my mid-teenage years – and believe it or not I was tazed more than once. Yes. Tazed. By a real tazer owned by a friend I shall refer to as “Mr. Jones” due to his unhappiness over me sniping him from across a level multiple times. It hurt, we laughed, we were young and dumb. These were great times.
As the years have gone on, and multiplayer moved online we all still found ourselves in front of a Halo title several times a month over the years. Trash-talking strangers, giggling over awesome kills, and saving video clips and images as trophies for posterity. I have been cussed out by kids that sounded no older than 13, and in return have taught some prepubescent brats a thing or two on how to creatively string together of words mothers of the world would be apalled by – but it’s all part of the fun; you run, you gun, you take cover, you snipe, you throw that grenade of desperation as you take a final bullet, you careen over a hill on a warthog running over poor saps not quick enough to move out of the way, you trash talk your competitors, you move on to the next round. It’s fu$%ing Halo.
The torch has now been completely passed to 343 Industries who will be releasing Halo 4 later this year, and I don’t think many people are worried about that. While we fans have stood behind Bungie for all the great work they’ve done on the franshise they created, I for one am excited to see where these new guys take it next, and what laugh-inducing (mis)adventures are in store for my friends and I, now in our late-twenties, who will eagerly hop online to wage our own battles against those who oppose us. It will be a new game, but I will still be haphazardly running into dire situations – out numbered and out gunned, Senador Kooch will still be meticulously planning attacks and executing them better than most I’ve ever played against, Bigcheezhead will still be trying to do his favorite thing in the world: sticking a grenade to the face of an opponent, and Kill-tacular-tron will still be humping every man he guns down.
I can’t wait.
To honor the completion of the passing of the Halo franchise to 343i, Bunige has put together an awesome infographic with some amazing stats on the Halo franchise. Obviously, you’ll want to click for the high-res version!
Be sure to share your favorite Halo memories in the comments below!