Post-Holiday Rundown
Dec. 27th, 2009 06:12 pm- OH MY GOD, YOU GUYS. Super Mario Bros. Wii is … is … it’s like three parts nostalgia and two parts COMPLETE CRACK. It takes all the great elements from the old Mario side-scrollers (Mushroom houses, the Koopa Kids, bonus games, pre-Yoshi’s Story Yoshi,* the sound effects, warping, item collecting) and some new elements (the streamlined Wii graphics, Ice Mario, cooperative multiplayer mode**) and mixes them up in a blender as a delicious mushroomy smoothie of Super Mario goodness.
It’s almost strange. Damn game zaps me back over the last … criminy, eighteen years or so? … of playing the everloving buhjeezus out of Super Mario World, working to get EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY SECRET THAT GAME WAS HUGE, swearing and screaming at the evil designs of the creators, and feeling like the world champion whe I got it. A game that makes me think of that one? Reminds me why I love gaming. And why my brother has seriously considered getting a tattoo of my pithy summation of that game: “FUCK TUBULAR.”
This is what I was looking for with the New Super Mario Bros. FINALLY.
- I dumped a book truck today! It was spectacular. I gave it a tug to get it moving in the right direction, but the wheel stuck, so instead of turning, the thing toppled over, spilling nonfiction all over my feet.*** And I’d just gotten the damn thing sorted, too.
A regular patron who seems to want to be my friend helped me a bit and then noted that he’d have fainted of embarrassment if it were him (he seems easily embarrassed, though). I told him that if anything, the cart should feel pretty stupid. It’s the one that tripped, after all.
- Having lost track of our tastes long ago, my aunt has resorted to the ill-reputed but eminently practical solution of just giving us money for Christmas. So today I went shopping online for presents from her. Hooray for Epiphany presents!
- I am staring in some trepidation at a wordlist for the Torn Tongue. Remember how I realized that I tend to sort of fade out of group projects? I’m unconsciously doing that with the Torn World work. I’m sort of self-conscious about a group project, which is paralyzing. I need to get it done. At least I have Langmaker to help me out.
- You know, I could write a whole thesis, point-by-point, with cross-references and proper citations, demonstrating all the reasons why tomorrow is going to suck. But that would make me too bummed out, so you can just take my word for it.
*I blame that game as the final catalyst for the Elmo-ization of Yoshi.
**Okay, some old arcade games had a form of this, but it’s a little bit like comparing a sharpened stick to an iPhone.
***There is a reason I never wear delicate open-toe shoes on this job. Even my sandals have big rubber toes.
It’s almost strange. Damn game zaps me back over the last … criminy, eighteen years or so? … of playing the everloving buhjeezus out of Super Mario World, working to get EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY SECRET THAT GAME WAS HUGE, swearing and screaming at the evil designs of the creators, and feeling like the world champion whe I got it. A game that makes me think of that one? Reminds me why I love gaming. And why my brother has seriously considered getting a tattoo of my pithy summation of that game: “FUCK TUBULAR.”
This is what I was looking for with the New Super Mario Bros. FINALLY.
- I dumped a book truck today! It was spectacular. I gave it a tug to get it moving in the right direction, but the wheel stuck, so instead of turning, the thing toppled over, spilling nonfiction all over my feet.*** And I’d just gotten the damn thing sorted, too.
A regular patron who seems to want to be my friend helped me a bit and then noted that he’d have fainted of embarrassment if it were him (he seems easily embarrassed, though). I told him that if anything, the cart should feel pretty stupid. It’s the one that tripped, after all.
- Having lost track of our tastes long ago, my aunt has resorted to the ill-reputed but eminently practical solution of just giving us money for Christmas. So today I went shopping online for presents from her. Hooray for Epiphany presents!
- I am staring in some trepidation at a wordlist for the Torn Tongue. Remember how I realized that I tend to sort of fade out of group projects? I’m unconsciously doing that with the Torn World work. I’m sort of self-conscious about a group project, which is paralyzing. I need to get it done. At least I have Langmaker to help me out.
- You know, I could write a whole thesis, point-by-point, with cross-references and proper citations, demonstrating all the reasons why tomorrow is going to suck. But that would make me too bummed out, so you can just take my word for it.
*I blame that game as the final catalyst for the Elmo-ization of Yoshi.
**Okay, some old arcade games had a form of this, but it’s a little bit like comparing a sharpened stick to an iPhone.
***There is a reason I never wear delicate open-toe shoes on this job. Even my sandals have big rubber toes.