Okay. So I'm a tomboy, a Yankee fan, a dog lover. My favorite color is green, I have a lot of amazing friends, and I love old school Super Nintendo games. I'm a low maintenance girl with a great support system and a family I wouldn't change for the world. I love to read, I love to write, and I love to play sports. All these things I know for sure, but what I don't know is how to write an interesting blog.
So I took to asking my friends for advice. I asked my friend Anne what to write about, what about me and my life was interesting. Her advice? She had to be a part of it. I asked my roommate Jaclyn the same question and received the same advice. My best friend, Andrew, gave me no advice at all. But as I was sitting in my bed on this typically boring Tuesday night, it came to me: I'm going to document the trials and tribulations of defeating each Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country game that I own, old and new. This way, Anne and Jaclyn, being that they are my Super Nintendo/Wii partners in crime, will both get their way and be involved in the blog about something I know best: Old school style Nintendo games.
For my Super Nintendo, I own Donkey Kong Country 1-3, Super Mario All Stars, and the original Super Mario Brothers. For Jaclyn's Wii, we own the new Super Mario and Donkey Kong Country Returns. This gives us 7 amazing games that the three of us can spend way too much time playing. Each semester, we pick an order, start new files, and defeat each game, repeatedly taking down Bowser or Kaptain K. Rool one by one. This Christmas we were introduced to our newest challenge, Donkey Kong Country Returns, a game created for the Wii which mocks the old school style of linear play, our favorite style.
At the beginning of the semester, we draw straws to see who will play. As usual, the girls want to play without me. They might not like it, but I'm slightly better as I've been playing video games since the age of four. Anne is a great match for me, but most days I emerge victorious. As we begin drawing straws, we discuss which game we'll be starting off with. The girls decide to play the newest Donkey Kong game when I am named as the spectator. Jaclyn draws a straw to be Donkey Kong and Anne becomes Diddy Kong. And then, play begins.
They create their save file, start the game in Level 1, the Jungle, and quickly come to terms with the difficulty they are facing in playing this game. I realize, as I watch them play, I'm happy to be the spectator. I can't play with Jaclyn. She and I have clashing styles of play. She rushes through, leaving the important trinkets, the signature K-O-N-G letter blocks behind. Keeping up with her is tough, whereas Anne is like me and takes her time to kill each bad guy and get every banana coin and K-O-N-G block.
As they face the first 3 worlds within the Jungle, I notice their frustration with each other. They are yelling at each other and laughing as they attempt to kill each other. Jaclyn knocks Anne off of a cliff, killing her in order to go through at her own pace. Unlike the old DK games, you can respawn at any time after each death. A DK barrel carried by a balloon will float onscreen and in order to reenter the game, the barrel must be popped by your partner.
After Anne's unfortunate fall off a cliff into the fatal abyss below, a barrel floats onscreen. Anne shakes her Wii remote so the barrel will fly closer to Jaclyn (Donkey Kong) but Jaclyn doesn't care. She runs from the barrel, attempting to avoi popping it so she can play on her own.
I laugh.
Anne doesn't.
She yells and continues shaking the controller as Jaclyn continues to move away from her. With the ending of the world in sight, Jaclyn pops the barrel and ends the world. Anne is obviously frustrated as I continue to laugh. She gets up to leave but Jaclyn stops her.
"It was a joke. Don't leave."
Anne doesn't seem amused. "If you're going to kill and not pop me so I can keep playing, then why play 2-player at all?" She has a point but I keep my mouth shut.
"Truce?"
"Seriously?"
"Yup. No more killing each other. We work together." She pauses. "And we play a different game. Deal?"
"Deal."
They shake hands, turn the game off, and begin a new save file on Donkey Kong Country, the original for Super Nintendo. I sit back to watch as they begin the new game, their truce breaking almost immediately. This is going to be a long semester...
No comments:
Post a Comment