Ready? FIGHT!

"Is this for you?" the cashier said skeptically, looking at me out of the corner of his eye as he placed a copy of Scribblenauts into the plastic bag.

"Yes," I said with a nod and big smile on my face.

He shook his head. "I'm used to seeing people buying violent games. I don't even play. Games are too graphic for me. Pacman and Ms. Pacman. That's what I play. I can't handle much more than that."

His reaction amused me. Nobody expects a 6'3" 22 year-old fellow such as myself to purchase a game featuring a little boy with a weird rooster hat on the cover. I also thought it was funny he actually commented on my purchase. Last time I went to that store I was buying Repo: The Genetic Opera and the animated Wonder Woman movie, and nobody said anything about my double feature selection.

As I left the store I started thinking about my choice in game selection. I grew up with a Sega Genesis and Sonic The Hedgehog. The most violent game I'd ever played up until then was Batman for the Commodore 64. If you open up the box in my closet where my Genesis games reside you will pull out a mascot based platformer. Back in the day, that was the most popular genre. Everything from Lion King to Earthworm Jim fell in that category. Most of my PlayStation and PS2 games are also platformers like Crash Bandicoot and Ape Escape. To this day I still prefer to play games like Ratchet & Clank and Super Mario Galaxy, but when you look at my wish list it's quite obvious my tastes have changed. Fallout 3, Assassin's Creed, No More Heroes 2, BlazBlu. Fighting games, shooters, they're all there. I suck at fighting games, and I don't even particularly like shooters, but I will admit there's nothing more romantic than curling up on the couch with your girl and fragging Chimera Hybrids with an Auger. It's just odd bouncing between Resistance: Fall of Man and Boom Blox Bash Party on the Wii.

When did my tastes change? Not that they've changed much, because I still play "kiddy" games. I always hated violence. Bloodshed made me nauseous. I don't believe in guns (they exist only IN YOUR MIND.) I think some of the blame can be placed on Marvel VS Capcom 2 for the Dreamcast. That was my fist fighting game. There was something oddly satisfying in beating the snot out of Akuma, Megaman, or Gambit without having any real reason to do so. It was kinetic and unpredictable. Unlike other games full of goomba stomping and crate bashing there was no opportunity to relax. It was you versus a Sentinal, Zangief, and a Servebot (most embarrassing loss ever. I managed to beat the two tanks only to fall before the menacing little Lego chef.) Instead of figuring out when to time your jumps and what order to flip switches, this was a true test of my skill as a gamer. It wasn't long after that I began my Stick Striker animation and started watching old black and white samurai movies. My interest in armed and unarmed combat was growing. I downloaded SNES roms of Street Fighter and Samurai Shodown. I still couldn't bring myself to play more graphic games like Mortal Kombat, but I'm more likely to test my might now.

I'm gonna sit back on the couch and pit God against an atheist in Scribblenauts to see what happens.