Rewind to the summer of 2006. At the time, I was jobless and looking for work. In between looking on every internet job site, the paper, and hitting the street, I’d get in a few moments of gaming in. Sometimes a lot of moments. Though I was in a bit of a bind as the only new games I really wanted to play were sixty bucks. Seeing as I was jobless, that wasn’t feasible. Nothing the wife likes to hear more then “Hey babe, while you were out working today, I spent the equivalent of five hours of your paid time to buy this game!”. So because I enjoy sleeping in a warm bed, I choose not to go down that road.
Luckily I had a few spare Xbox LIVE points burning a hole in my digital pocket. I perused around for a good Xbox LIVE arcade title. I had heard through the grapevine the boys over at Bizarre Creations, creators of Geometry Wars, had developed another game called “Boom Boom Rocket”. I tried the demo out, and it wasn’t too bad. It was decently cheap, plus I had a few friends who owned the game. So I thought it would be good competition to see who could get the highest score.
Boom Boom Rocket is basically DDR with a pad. Sounds weak, but it’s strangely addictive.
Now I’m no DDR master by any means. Nor was I even close to the best at Bizarre Creation’s last game Geometry Wars. So it makes sense that I should be only mildly decent at this game right? Well, that’s not true. I wasn’t good at the game. I wasn’t even amazing at the game. I was a BEAST! This is by no means a boast or a brag, but for some reason, I was really good at this game. I played and played until, one day, I was second on the combined leaderboard of the hardest setting. Not just my friends list, but the world! I couldn’t believe it. I mean I never set out the break any records, I just hoped I would have a decent score to compare to others.
And now, years later, I’m still up there. Not as high as I once was (I’m now number eight in the world), but still much higher then any other game I’ve ever played. And again, I’m not even sure how. Boom Boom Rocket somehow brings out the idiot savant in me. More idiot, less savant I’d say.
Funny thing about it all, if I could choose one game to magically be the best at, Boom Boom Rocket would not even be on my top 100 list. It’s not because it’s a bad game, there’s just so many other games I wish I was a master of *tear* Street Fighter IV *tear*. Plus it’s not like you get much video game cred for being one of the best Boom Boom Rocket players around. That’s not one of those accomplishments you usually brag about to friends and family. Most would understandably say, “Huh, what game?”. But here I am, master of the Boom Boom Rocket arena. Life is strange I tell ya.
It got me thinking, what’s the game you’re good at that you never thought you would be, or you just shouldn’t be? Post a comment and let us know.
Oh, and as a bonus, if anyone can beat my combined hard score on Boom Boom Rocket, I’ll give you…..ummmm… well, I’m not sure what I would give you, but if you do, I’ll find something amazingly good for your efforts. Trust me.
BTW: It just occurred to me that Boom Boom Rocket has the same rhymey timey name as Dance Dance Revolution and a very close acronym (DDR and BBR). Yes, I know, I’m a little slow here.
