The Catholic Game Nerd

My 4 year old son is good at Contra.  I don't mean Contra 4000 or whatever the latest spin off is.  I mean Contra for the NES (one of many classic consoles in my possession).  Up up down down left right left right b a start.  Contra code.  Konami code.  You know what I'm talking about?  Here's how I discovered my little prodigy.

Last week, I was playing Super Mario Brothers 2 (the American "Marioized" version of Japan's Doki Doki Panic for the Famicom) trying to gear up for a speed run (I haven't played SMB2 in 7 years I bet).  My four year old son tells me he wants to play a game with me.  Well what better game to play with your son than co-op multiplayer classic Contra?  So I load it up, set us up with 30 lives via "old faithful", and go to work.  We played till all of his "mans" were gone and he had stolen all of mine.  Once I died, I decided to read, but he wanted to play some more.  No worries, I set him up with 30 lives and let him play all by himself.  No instructions, by the way, just let the kid punch around and figure it out.  First time through, he uses up most of his lives but makes it through level 2.  Start over at the beginning (I'm sensing an experiment).  2nd attempt, he makes it to level 4 on his 30 men.  The kid has good hand eye coordination to say the least.  He's figuring out bosses, enemy attack patterns, and such, then modifying his play to win.  

Maybe all four year olds can do this, but I am very impressed with his ability to pick up the game and work towards mastery.  Yes, I know this is just a video game, but it is an accomplishment nonetheless.  Plus, it gives me an excuse to play video games, because we're playing together and laughing and having a good time.  Game over, and it's time to read some Spider-Man and Bob the Builder.  I'm telling you, if you don't have kids, go get some.  They are pretty remarkable, and they will surprise you.  

And if you have an old console, dust that baby off and give it some play time.  You won't regret it.