How the Super Mario game looks to my wife :)
It finally happened. I bought the Nintendo Wii over the weekend – the first time I have ever spent money buying a device whose clear purpose is to be completely antithetical to the productive use of time. Oh wait, I forgot my TV. Um, and my entire collection of “Way of the Tiger” and “Grailquest” role-playing books. And, come to think of it, my Newsweek subscription :P
Anyway, the kids and I (more on the wife later) had a thoroughly enjoyable long weekend over Vesak Day, bowling, golfing, driving, violin playing (a favourite for Natalie!) and slaughtering hordes of lizardmen (a favourite for Daniel!). And all that on the free games that came with our package. I have no doubt that the package bundles all the rubbish games that no one can sell on their own, but still, it was fun.
It all seems quite normal now that swinging a small wireless white stick causes Dal the Dragonslayer to mirror your action by smashing a helpless log into splinters with his giant red claw, but I think maybe just 5 years ago, this sort of technology would have been utter science fiction. Even now, I imagine that my neighbours think it’s a wee bit odd that I’m leaping around the room stabbing invisible monsters!
Getting the Wii has the added advantage of being able to buy old Nintendo games over the internet. As alluded to above, I’ve never bought a game console in my life, but my wife has told me for years that she is an insane Super Mario fan and that she played a lot of arcade games when she was a kid. This is backed up by her brother, who tells me that crowds of kids would gather around my wife to watch her play 1942 (a WWII shooter) and finish it in 1 sitting with 20 cents.
You have to understand that I find this hard to believe, because this is the woman who thinks playing 1 minute of Baldur’s Gate is 1 minute too long, and that Championship Manager is for sad gits whose teams are rubbish in real life, but still want to pretend they can win the quadruple 7 years in a row.
But after I bought the original Super Mario Brothers off the Wii Mart, I was convinced. She is GOOD. Let me put it this way, when we play the 2-player game, her turn lasts about 30 minutes, and mine lasts 30 seconds if I’m lucky. The amazing part of it is that it lasts 30 minutes for her only because she is PURPOSELY not taking the short cuts (which would make the game too short for her). But she kindly shows the short cuts to me of course:
Lyn: Jump up there and hit the invisible block to get the power up! Then climb up the secret beanstalk!
Me (after I miss the jump and humiliatingly, get killed by a mushroom): How did you even find out there was an invisible block there?!?!
She has TOTALLY figured Super Mario out. Now I know why she wasn’t that impressed with the Mario speed run I found on Youtube. It’s weird, but there is a perverse pride in finding out that your wife is probably the All-Singapore Super Mario champion :)
Anyway, the kids and I (more on the wife later) had a thoroughly enjoyable long weekend over Vesak Day, bowling, golfing, driving, violin playing (a favourite for Natalie!) and slaughtering hordes of lizardmen (a favourite for Daniel!). And all that on the free games that came with our package. I have no doubt that the package bundles all the rubbish games that no one can sell on their own, but still, it was fun.
It all seems quite normal now that swinging a small wireless white stick causes Dal the Dragonslayer to mirror your action by smashing a helpless log into splinters with his giant red claw, but I think maybe just 5 years ago, this sort of technology would have been utter science fiction. Even now, I imagine that my neighbours think it’s a wee bit odd that I’m leaping around the room stabbing invisible monsters!
Getting the Wii has the added advantage of being able to buy old Nintendo games over the internet. As alluded to above, I’ve never bought a game console in my life, but my wife has told me for years that she is an insane Super Mario fan and that she played a lot of arcade games when she was a kid. This is backed up by her brother, who tells me that crowds of kids would gather around my wife to watch her play 1942 (a WWII shooter) and finish it in 1 sitting with 20 cents.
You have to understand that I find this hard to believe, because this is the woman who thinks playing 1 minute of Baldur’s Gate is 1 minute too long, and that Championship Manager is for sad gits whose teams are rubbish in real life, but still want to pretend they can win the quadruple 7 years in a row.
But after I bought the original Super Mario Brothers off the Wii Mart, I was convinced. She is GOOD. Let me put it this way, when we play the 2-player game, her turn lasts about 30 minutes, and mine lasts 30 seconds if I’m lucky. The amazing part of it is that it lasts 30 minutes for her only because she is PURPOSELY not taking the short cuts (which would make the game too short for her). But she kindly shows the short cuts to me of course:
Lyn: Jump up there and hit the invisible block to get the power up! Then climb up the secret beanstalk!
Me (after I miss the jump and humiliatingly, get killed by a mushroom): How did you even find out there was an invisible block there?!?!
She has TOTALLY figured Super Mario out. Now I know why she wasn’t that impressed with the Mario speed run I found on Youtube. It’s weird, but there is a perverse pride in finding out that your wife is probably the All-Singapore Super Mario champion :)
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