My personal Call of Duty

I think it's about time I picked up where I left off.  I vaguely remember shooting people...I don't know what country they were from.  As I recall, we were being invaded.  Will my muscle memory activate?  I don't know.  I'm not sure I'll remember how to reload.  Strategy?  Try not to get killed I guess.

I last played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in early 2009.  So it's been a good 5+ years, but I feel like now is the time to pick it up again.  I don't know if my PS3 will even remember I played it or just make me start over.  "Who are you, bro?  Do you even game?"  I can hear its mocking questions now...

My video game life started in 1982 or so with the ColecoVision that my parents bought for us.


Donkey Kong was my favorite, although I'm pretty sure we had Frogger as well, which I also enjoyed.  Qbert not so much.  My neighbor down the street had an Atari, and he would let me watch him play, which was THRILLING.  I might have gotten to play one game for every 100 of his.  Maybe.

I graduated to a Nintendo a few years later and made defeating Super Mario Brothers 2 my own personal vision quest.



Eventually I succeeded, but at great cost to my thumbs.  Tecmo Bowl was totally rad on Nintendo.  Lawrence Taylor and Walter Payton were both pretty awesome on that game, but Bo Jackson was completely unstoppable on one particular running play.

Mike Tyson's Punchout was memorable for many reasons, including my favorite opponents, Soda Popinski...

...and King Hippo.

I also have a soft spot in my heart for Duck Hunt and what at the time seemed to be an amazing technology that allowed the TV screen to register hits from the gun.  It was magic.

In college, during my senior year, my roommate Jud had a Sony Playstation, which was a huge leap in graphics from the Nintendo.  It was then that I played my favorite video game of all time:  Twisted Metal 2.

With a soothing and tasteful soundtrack provided by jazz legend Rob Zombie, this game occupied many, many hours of my final year in college.  In fact, I remember my fraternity brother Ken skipping one of his finals to play this game in my living room (as I recall, he had a guaranteed "D" even if he skipped it).

Eventually I would buy a PS2 and explore the many iterations of Call of Duty.  I sure do love to kill Nazis.  My PS3 has known only first-person shooter games, with COD:MW2 the most prominent.  Perhaps I will take up arms and defend America again soon.