A relationship CAN survive Super Mario Bros. Wii
Ben and I made a necessary agreement recently regarding New Super Mario Bros for the Wii
We’ve given ourselves permission to smack talk during cooperative gaming sessions, so long as the smack talk and related emotions end when the Wii is turned off. Because some people have different strategies regarding the welfare of their teammates.
*clears throat and looks pointedly in the direction of some people*
It’s an incredibly awesome game and soooo cool to experience in multiplayer mode. Bouncing on each other’s heads, making Yoshi temporarily swallow your teammate, jumping into a safety bubble instead of dying, and so on. Ben and I played together from the start and immediately loved it from a nostalgic aspect (we both played and loved all three NES Mario games as kids). Then we started interacting on screen (bow chicka wow wow!) and suddenly we found ourselves exasperated by the other’s inability to do anything right. It was weird and enraging how our competitive “spirits” came out while we were trying to cooperate.
But now we’ve played more and become accustomed to each other’s (faulty, of course) style of gameplay. The smack talk is loud, foul, and would not sound good if taken out of context. But it’s fun. And safer than kicking wild hyenas! And as long as we both power down our smack talk when the game goes off, it works. Win win, even when you reach your fifth continue because you suck way more than you thought you did!
We are just experiencing the competitive nature of ourselves via the Wii. Some games I kill at, some she kills at, and often the frustration of gameplay adds to the hurt feelings. We don’t talk smack too much, but it can be cutting at times.
I think when you get two people playing together who are both good in their own ways, it’s a little harder than if just one person is leading the way. Frustration = hurt feelings, for sure. And I’ve heard that this is very common!
We’ve turned smack talk during Mario Bros. into a game itself, which has made the game that much more enjoyable. When we are both sucking, we end up laughing together. It works!
“Some people”, eh? Doesn’t sound like anyone I know.
Ha ha, husbande (aka Ben, I presume). Rory got this for Christmas and loves it. I, unfortunately, ran out of eye hand coordination at the Mario Bros. arcade game and don’t play anything, really. Although we are killing on Rock Band. I am so glad we bought this game because now Brad and Rory don’t look at me pityingly because I can’t play video games. I can hit those pitches with anyone, although I can sing nothing like Steve Perry, etc. etc. etc.
Hmm, “Husbande” does sound familiar!
Part of what makes Rock Band awesome is that it’s video game without being a *video game* … if that makes sense. I’m amused watching kids play this new Mario game who have never played any of the original games (what I think of as arcade to Mario 3). They love it for what it is without having the nostalgia.
We had a little of this kind of thing when we first got our Wii and the only game we had besides the one that comes with the Wii was Lego Star Wars. Evidently I “suck” at video games and although I’ve gotten “better” there are still a few things I can’t really do (like crossing molten lava, jumping across vast chasms of doom or missing the swinging pendulums of death…).