Fast forward about 10 years and you've got two adults swearing at each other, at the characters, and at the game in general. Mario Party is arguably the easiest game to rage on (Apart from Sonic the Hedgehog - but we'll get to that in another post...)
I had a much different feeling while playing through it as an adult. I quickly realized that the characters are essentially playing for their life! It's a modern Lord of the Flies! These cute little characters are cheating, stealing, and racing the way to the top in order to save themselves. Just take a look at the end of the game...
One character wins (and is saved), the rest just fall into a pit of nothingness. I might be taking this too far, but I began to though about the mechanics of the game and the morbid nature of the gameplay. First of all, let's look at the mini-games. Basically all 4 of the characters compete; either all against each other, two vs. two, or one vs. three. Winner gets some coins, loser gets nothing. But look carefully at the end screen of the mini-games. Fifty percent of the time the loser can be seen almost being killed! Whether by rocks, falling to their doom, or just disappearing. Their lives are on the line!
The game also encourages players to cheat, steal, and basically do just about anything to get another star. All those capsules, hidden blocks, duels just aide in the massacre. Don't even get me started about Bowser or Donkey Kong.
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| This is right before Boo falls to his uh, death. I'm not really sure how that works when you're a ghost... |
I'm convinced the stars are the ones behind it. They've trapped the characters in some dream world for them to duke it out. I might just be paranoid, but this game is all about survival of the fittest.
"The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering."
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Well, I hope you all have a Happy Easter and a lovely long weekend. I'll be doing a Portal 2 review for the next post, so be sure to check back in (or just subscribe and make life easier).
As Always,
LadySnip3r
PS. Have you ever played a game as a kid that you ended up having a totally different feeling playing through it as an adult? Comment and tell me about it.
2 comments:
Yes, several actualy, though the one that hurt the most was Final Fantasy 8. I always felt that I was Squall, a lone wolf with no where to go. I would find my Rinoa. Within days, I found a girl on the net. She was dressed as Rinoa, even had the dog. The most beatiful girl I had ever seen. But then, time passed, and I stupidly drifted away. I didn't act on my love, I just squandered it.
I wonder where she is now, playing hide and seek with me around the net, while we could be chatting about it peacefully.
I more feel like the games that I played as a child weren't quite that morbid. But going back to them now as an adult, I just couldn't believe that I played through the entirety of them without the internet. And most times even without the 'Classified Information' section from Nintendo Power. It just surprised me at how much, as a child, I persevered to play through and let alone finish an entire game. Just a different take. ;)
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