Drinking and Video Games... The Ultimate Guide

In a time when cars parallel park themselves and the internet is in everyone's pocket it seems only natural that the rise of video games and the popularity of drinking games should come together in an orgy of pure drunk fun. For many years these two have met in college dorm rooms and living rooms but for the first time here at CollegeHaze.com we will break down the best of the best and our personal set of rules when it comes to gaming and drinking.

Gaming and drinking go well together for two main reasons.

1) The ability to "participate" without the use of much effort.

2) The motor skills and reaction times of gaming really put your ability to hold your alcohol to the test.

There's nothing better than dusting off the old N64, untangling the heap of wires attached to all the pitchfork shaped controllers, and cracking a beer for an old GoldenEye smack down with the buds. But we're gonna bring it back a little further first for some of you who still have access to your RF switch and are capable of blowing clean those old cartridges.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) - Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A..... Sound familiar? This sweet little code started it all and gives you 30 lives in Contra.

Contra stands out among a lot of the older NES games that's still amazingly fun to play to this day. With dual player action you and your best bud can partner up against the evil "Red Falcon's" and stop them before they take over the earth. Because of the outdated graphics this game requires a 4 drink minimum but by the time you hit level 2 for the first person shooter mode, you'll swear your NES is a PS3.

Super Mario Bro's 3 - It's a Me! Mario! Sexually questionable partners Mario & Luigi team up again for this 3rd installment of the classic Super Mario Bro's game. This is probably the most entertaining game to play on the NES, the game seems easy enough but we'll see how good your skills are when you play a shot a life. When you die, take a shot, and pass it on. I can't imagine anyone will be able to make it past the second world with these rules (flute cheat excluded).

Super Nintendo - There's only one more lap to go, your in second place when all of a sudden you stumble upon a Red Shell; theres no better feeling then watching your buddy think he's already won until you let her rip. Mario Kart is a must and even the females will love to play. A pretty extreme but fun way to play with up to 4 people is to take as many shots as the place you came in. So if you get 1st - you get off easy and take down one shot. 2nd - Two shots and so forth. If your not very good at Mario Kart you probably won't last more then 2 or 3 races but this can always be adjusted with half shots, or even gulps of beer.

Mortal Kombat 3 - Get over here! Mortal Kombat rose to popularity quickly back in the day due to the graphic violence (Spaghetti sauce blood) and the Fatality scenes. A long time favorite of my own; I don't quite think Mortal Kombat reached its peak until the third game in the series. Let's face it, you're either a Street Fighter kid or a Mortal Kombat fan, you can't have both. While I respect Blanca and all his partners I gotta give it up to the MK3 Clan as they are still just as fun to play today. Half a beer per two round winner and you'll be seeing double fatalities soon enough.

Chances are you've enjoyed a few rounds of Beer Pong in your day, and if you did it right then you played with NBA Jam rules in full effect. 3 made cups in a row put you on fire. NBA Jam is one of the greatest classics when it comes to 1 on 1 play. With classic catch phrases like "Boom Shakalacka" & "The nail in the coffin!" this game will bring back memories in a heart beat. Play a beer a quarter and you'll be buzzed by the 4th quarter buzzer.

Sega Genesis - Road Rash 1/2/3 - One of the first motorcycle racing games on console that looked 3-Dimensional just like the racing games at the arcades. It's fairly difficult playing this game 2 player with a split screen but you can't beat the action and the feeling you get when you crack someone in the dome with your chain going 130 MPH.

Streets of Rage - A perfect game to sit down with a buddy, crack an 18 pack open, and play this one till the end. Good story line, plenty of special moves to master, and your kicking ass and taking names on every level.

Lets be real, no one plays Sega Saturn... Next!

I still remember the first time I played a Nintendo 64, the new Mario game. It absolutely blew my mind and if your around my age than you probably remember your first time playing too. N64 had some amazing graphics, and great titles. I've got to start off this section with giving a shout out to the classic Goldeneye multiplayer game. I can't even begin to explain how many times I've gambled and drank to this game with my best friends. Throw some bets down on a couple rounds of Complex or The Facility and this game will really take you back to the good old days.

Another big N64 title that stands out as a fantastic Drinking Game is NFL Blitz. My buddies and I used to bust out the old fake ID and get ourselves a handle of triple distilled, charcoal filtered vodka and dust off the N64 for some epic games in Blitz. We would usually play a shot for a touchdown, a 1/2 shot for a 40 yard gain, or a 15 yard loss. It all depends how you wanna do it, but this games speed and action will make for a great time with some good friends.

I have to mention 1080 Snowboarding as a great N64 title because it was one of the first snowboarding games I've played with what seemed like realistic snowboard physics. Throw a drinking bet down on some Super Pipe action and let her rip. Just watch out for those blisters cause spinning that joystick around for hours can get awfully painful, trust me I know.

Playstation - A real break through for all video game consoles, this 32 bit beast was the first of its kind to have better looking graphics than what we were accustomed to, interactive 3D worlds, and almost life like physics. This made racing, fighting, and sports game play and look like never before. Our favorite classic Playstation game? Tony Hawk 2, I've spent hours gambling and drinking to this game with my best buds after school and on the weekends for a long time. With the addition of the manual in TH2 opened up bigger combos, and almost unlimited options when it came to gameplay. Crack open an 18 pack with a few friends and step up to a game of Horse, this game will keep it coming for ages!

Anyone remember 9/9/1999??? I do, the debut of the Sega Dreamcast, of course I didn't get mine till Christmas cause my parents don't understand what pre-ordering is but hell, I love em anyway. I still get a tear to my eye when I think about the Dreamcast console, in my opinion it was the greatest console to ever come out. It was unique and had amazing games to play for hours. The invention of the little Game Boy screen in the controller was a huge breakthrough that should still be applied to this day. The ability to pick Madden plays without your opponent seeing it on the big screen was undoubtedly the greatest idea of the Dreamcast. But for some sad reason the Dreamcast failed and was out of the limelight by the time the Xbox was introduced.

Some great Dreamcast titles to drink to are Soul Caliber and Crazy Taxi. The soundtrack to Crazy Taxi still plays on my stereo to this day and the concept was unique and fun all the same. Soul Caliber had some of the most amazing fighting game graphics to date and a whole heap of new characters with weapons to get away from the standard Sonic Boom for a couple hours. Grab a buddy and a 5th of Whiskey and you'll be fighting each other by the end of a few Soul Caliber battles.

Now its time to talk Xbox. Microsofts introduction into the video game world was a bold move that paid off well for the company. A unique and redesigned controller felt so awkward to me at first and now I can't imagine how I ever played games before without 2 joysticks. Undoubtedly the greatest shooter game of all time, Halo was the landmark game that shot the Xbox to instant stardom. Grab a Warthog, wait for your buddy to jump on the turret and then start creaming the competition, just watch out for those sticky grenades, they'll get ya every time.

PS2 was a great little gaming device that brought back some great titles we've grown to love from the original Playstation. Metal Gear Solid, Fight Night Round 3, and Twisted Metal Black are just a few.

Well we've finally made it to the level of current video game systems we're all familiar with today. True 3D graphics, dolby digital surround sound, and even games that involve your whole body.

With the ability to play games over the internet you no longer need to live in the same city or state as your drinking buddy and can do it all wirelessly. A good friend of mine and I would play Fifa World Cup Soccer on Xbox 360 against each other when we lived together for about a year. I got so addicted to playing Fifa (we call it Beerfa) that once I was relocated for school we bought another copy of the game so we can play over Xbox Live. You make a goal, your opponent chugs half a beer. If it's a header, its a full beer. If its outside the box, its a full beer. Red cards are a half beer. Penalty shot goals are 2 beers and so on and so on . This is my favorite drinking video game and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes drinking or video games. To be honest, I think Soccer is a very boring and lame sport to watch but for some reason Fifa is just an incredible game to play. Of course I don't want to leave out Skate or Skate 2 because these are also awesome drinking games to play. A lot more difficult than your old Tony Hawk game these Skating games are the future of control and style for the skate genre.

PS3 is one incredible machine. It has a Blu Ray player and life like graphics to boot. With internet ready games this console too has the ability to play with your best friend from elementary school halfway across the country. Grand Theft Auto 4 multiplayer is a key game for drinking online. Steal a car, get a hooker, and beat someone to death with a bat... This game has it all.

Wii introduced a whole new way to play games with its motion sensor controller. By far the best party gaming device the Nintendo Wii has allowed us to play a whole round of golf in our living room. Even Grandma and Grandpa can get in on some Wii Bowling. I had a Nintendo Wii with just the Wii Sports game it came with for over a year, and never got bored. Sip down a 40 and you'll be telling your buddy to "Mark it 8 dude" before the 5th frame. Step into the future with Wii Mario Kart and you can send a red shell straight to your friends face in 3D. With awesome steering wheel controllers and hours of gameplay, I recommend this as a must for your first Wii title purchase.

And when it's all said and done with a couple months of drinking video games you might want to consider getting a Wii Fit to get back in shape for the summer.

Video games have come a long way in the past 2 decades and no matter what kind of games you like to play, there's a drinking game that can go right along with it. From old school NES games to PS3 there are a variety of consoles to choose from and games to play. You can pick up one of these old consoles with a game or two for around $20 in some cases. So grab a few friends, tell them to bring the booze, and untangle those old controllers because drinking and video games are here to stay for a while.

-Tommy Wheeler

www.CollegeHaze.com