THE video game was so important to these two young boys that they continued playing even when they were punched and kicked by a group of teens.

The boys were picked on, presumably for hogging a demonstration Xbox console at the Best Denki store at Ngee Ann City at about 4pm last Tuesday.

Their mother, 35, a housewife, had left them in the store and gone shopping.

Timmy, 10, and Tommy, 9, were playing Halo 3, a game they didn't have at home.

We are not using the boys' real names as they are minors.

About two hours later, four teenage boys and a girl approached them.

Timmy said: 'The group came up behind us. They didn't ask us to let them play or anything.

'One of them started saying, 'To play, you must press Reset'.

'When he reached forward, I told him, 'Don't press, please don't press.'

But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

'We asked them to go away and not to disturb us,' Tommy said.

Instead, the boys said the teens started scolding them.

There were two other boys at a neighbouring console - a third console was not working - but the group did not pick on them.

When the brothers ignored the taunting group, the teens became aggressive.

One walked up to Timmy and threw a punch at the boy's right eye.

Instinctively, Timmy flailed his arms to protect himself from the golden-haired teen who attacked him.

Timmy said: 'I held on to the controller with one hand and tried to punch back with the other.'

But Timmy's attacker skipped out of his reach, as Timmy held on to the controller that was tethered to the console.

Meanwhile, his younger brother was being roughed up by two other teens.

Tommy said: 'They kept pushing me around and saying I took my hands off the controller, but I didn't.'

The group decided to leave when Timmy started crying from the punch, but not before one of them kicked the back of the sobbing boy's legs.

Timmy retaliated and, this time, he managed to kick back at his attacker.

This defiance act brought the group back - they surrounded the two boys and shouted at them.

VULGAR LANGUAGE

Five minutes after the incident started, the boys' mother returned.

She said: 'When I saw the group, I rushed over with my handphone ready to call the police.

'One of the guys kept accusing my son of using vulgar language on them.'

Timmy admitted that he did swear at the group because he had been punched.

He then pointed out the teen who had hit him.

His mother said: 'The guy was hiding behind his friends but he said 'yes' when I asked if he had punched my son.

'I was angry because they shouldn't have laid their hands on my sons.'

The teens defended themselves for about 10 minutes.

During that time, her boys continued playing the game and didn't speak up.

In the end, unsure who had started the quarrel, she made both sides apologise to one another.

She then took her sons away to hear their side of the story.

She said her sons were fighting back tears and clenching their fists when they told her what had happened.

'I asked them, 'When people beat you, you should do something. You should run away or ask for help. Why did you still continue to play?'

But they only shrugged.

When contacted, a Best Denki spokesman said that there is no limit to how long a customer can use the demonstration game consoles, and that this was normal in the market.

He said: 'As far as we know, most game shops do not stipulate a time frame.

'Should someone hog the game consoles, our staff member will politely seek the cooperation of the gamers to allow other people to use the consoles.'

He added that they have not encountered customers who hog the game consoles in their stores as they have 'sufficient' consoles.

The spokesman said the 4Dec quarrel was the first time such an incident has occurred.

He said: 'Our staff member assisted in calming the commotion around the gaming area and requested the parties involved to call their parents.'

The police confirmed that a report had been made about the incident and said that investigations are ongoing.