It’s been great to see Xbox really getting into its 20th Birthday celebrations this week, but let’s not forget that something else - or rather someone else - is also turning 20 today.
Two decades ago on this very day, Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone was released for the original PlayStation. I honestly can’t remember if it was a good or bad game in the grand scheme of things. I remember finding it way harder than it had any right to be, and the Quidditch sessions sent me into fits of white-hot rage far beyond what a normal eight-year old boy should have to experience. But it doesn’t matter. The legacy of Philosopher's Stone isn’t in its gameplay. The legacy of Philosopher's Stone is, and always will be, PS1 Hagrid.
The low-poly groundskeeper has become something of a mascot for a generation of disillusioned 90’s kids who are barreling towards 30 and have absolutely nothing to look forward to besides a crumbling economy and a worsening climate crisis.
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We can relate to the cold, dead look behind Hagrid’s poorly rendered eyes, because it’s a look we share every morning as we ride an overpriced train into an underpaid job. If souls had faces, mine would look like PS1 Hagrid. That droopy face. The perpetual frown. Hagrid is doomed to walk through an increasingly irrelevant virtual world for all eternity. Not quite dead, but not quite of the living. No wonder we connect with him.
Happy Birthday, PS1 Hagrid. You’ll always be one of us - whether we like it or not. And we really, really don’t like it most days.
Featured Image Credit: EATopics: Harry Potter
