BANG!
I open my dorm door to see a few of my friends with eager smiles on their faces. In one of my friend’s hand, beholds “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3." With sly smiles across all of our faces, we already starting prepping the PlayStation 3. Even as young adults, we still find solace in indulging in our middle school passions from time to time. Multiple times throughout the week, all of guys from the dorm floor seem to find their way back in my dorm, ready to snatch victory. It is inevitable, however, for contentious debates to break out throughout the game. The reasons for these debates vary, but they certainly could test friendships if they get out of hand. So here is my quick list for video games that you lost friends over.
1. Any Call of Duty game. Ever.
Whether it was Black Ops, Mod. Warfare 2&3, or World at War, it was very easy to lose friends over these games back in the day. In every friend group, there was always that one notorious “Screen-watcher." He would find where you were by looking at the screen you would be playing on, and plot your death accordingly. I’m not going to mention any names…(KYLE cough cough**) but every friend group had that one kid. Noob-tubers (those who frequent excessive use of the grenade launchers, like yours truly) and people who loved knives were also frowned upon.
2. Super Smash Bros.
Ah yes. Super Smash Bros., with addition to Melee and Brawl, helped to define a generation of gamers from the later 90s into the 2000s (also Super Smash Bros for the Wii U is great, but not enough people play it). It was easy to get fights over this tremendous game series. As long as you nudged a player off the screen, it was a win for you and a loss for the opponent. Sounds vague? Oh it was. Countless ways of winning the match (through legit skill and beginners luck) caused many friendships to be tested. Captain PUNCHHH!!
3.Mario Kart
Nintendo, you have outdone yourself again when it comes to killing friendships. This fantastic video game series had you race against your friends in head to head match-ups, filled with different power-ups to use against your opponent. Banana peels were spawns for the devil for some players, as it turned a comfy 1st place finish, into a dead last finish, that usually would follow with a mental collapse by the player.
4. NBA2k/Madden/FIFA
This expands to many sports video games, but I’ll stick to these big three. These games are all terrific, as they allow you to play as your favorite football/basketball/soccer team in a head-to-head match-up against your friends. Now there are very legit ways of winning these games, I will not deny that. But how many times have you walked away from those games feeling cheated by the game itself? Maybe your friend hits a terribly-released shot to win the game. Maybe you fumble the ball on the five yard line, and your buddy takes it back to the end zone. Maybe the refs in the soccer match call a preposterous yellow card on you in the box, and you lose because of a penalty shot. In any case, you always quickly forget once it happens to the other guy.
