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My First Mario Game

USgamer has been doing these community questions lately and they have done a lot to stoke the fires in my own brain. This weeks question is: What was your first Mario game? This question got me thinking about my own relationship with the flagship franchise which I was introduced to early on but didn’t quite get hot and heavy with until a few years later.

original NES Action SetWhen I was a child I didn’t own a Nintendo Entertainment System, unlike many of my peers. I was one of those poor flock of 80’s kids who had to listen to the cool stories, who had to watch the cartoons, and yet still bought Nintendo Power. I now look back with some longing; a desire to have been more of a gamer at a younger age than when I really got into it. I am sure that in the end I won because of all the time I spent outside with my friend poking rats with sticks or whatever.

When I was 7 or 8 the NES was huge and you couldn’t go anywhere at the time, as a preteen white kid in the 80’s, without hearing about Mario, Zelda, or Castlevania. I even got to touch some of these game when I went to my cousin’s house for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Occasionally, one of my creepy neighbors, the one who’s father/guy who lived upstairs/possible family member, would let me play his Nintendo. It wasn’t until I turned 10 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came out in America that I was able to finally become a full fledged member of the “gamer” community.

So, while Super Mario Bros. for the NES would have undoubtably been my first Mario game – officially. It really wasn’t the first Mario game that I became completely enamored with; that was Super Mario World for the SNES.

world map
Just look at that massive map filled with eclectic worlds!

One of my fondest memories of playing Super Mario World on my SNES was that when I played it I was forced to play it on a small 8 ~ 10 inch black & white TV. Living in a 4 person household, in the midst of the Midwestern countryside, after having moved from Omaha, a much larger city, meant that there were a lot of people vying for TV time on our single 19 inch television in the family room. The only other option we had in our house was that little black & white TV, which nobody else wanted to use besides me.

an old yellow tv
It wasn’t this TV, but it wasn’t much different.

On those all too infrequent days that I was able to plug the machine into the monstrous 19 inch color display, it was like having my eyes healed by Jesus. It looked as though the whole world was given life again. The vibrancy of the green jungles of the opening levels felt insanely rich. The ghost house levels were fun while being the slightest bit scary – the right amount of scary. Each different world was weaved together so well in that game and I feel very special for the fact that I have these two experiences with that game that on other person in the world probably has had.

I remember so many Saturday afternoons spent staring at that dull screen trying to finally make it to Bowser. When I finally made it to Bowser’s castle, my parents bugging me to get ready for church, I had to get ready for church so I only had a few minutes. We always we to church on Saturday evenings. I got to the Bowser fight. I tried two or three times before my parents were going to get really upset with me. I paused the game. When we came back from church while I was waiting for the chili to be done on the stove for dinner I beat Bowser. I am not sure if the power of Christ helped me that day or not (Being that I am an atheist, I doubt it.), but that day is one of my all time greatest gaming memories.

super mario world snes cover artSuper Mario World was my first Mario game. It is also the greatest of all the Mario games, not only because, objectively, it is a meticulously crafted piece of video game history, but also because of all of the personal memories that are completely intertwined in my experience with that game.

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The International 2014 – The Purpleing

the international 2014 dota 2This year more than any other before. are we close to realizing the dream of millions of eSports enthusiasts out there – eSports is…getting there. After watching The International 2014 for over a week, I realized that eSports is a thing. With this years championship being telecast on ESPN – even though it was played on one of the “foreign sports” sister stations – you know the one’s that show cricket or snooker. I had a great time watching The International this year, not that I had watched it any other year, but this year was a lot of fun.

I was introduced to the players and their teams who have made Dota 2 such a captivating game to watch. I learned their play styles and I learned how they played with their teammates. I watched as Dendi tended to march ahead to his own beat. He played intelligently; usually. Of course, because of this kind of play style he got killed in situations that he probably should have not been in. I loved watching Rabbit play Slark. I can’t remember how many kills he got, but he beefed the hell out of that Slark and merc’d a metric ton of dudes. Rabbit became my favorite player. And, this is what I find fascinating about Dota 2, I ended up liking Rabbit because of that Slark game. Not because I ever heard him speak or knew anything about his personality. Not because I knew all about his story, but just because I saw one superhuman feat that made me appreciate his ability. Not only to appreciate his ability, but appreciate the amount of work that he must have to put into getting his game to that level.

teams invited to the international 2014At the beginning of the tournament, I was caught up in the torrent of Liquid support. But, later as I saw the uproar grow more and more nationalistic, bordering on xenophobic, did I end up looking for another team to follow. Part of the nationalistic fervor behind Dota 2 comes from the very real problems of communication and schedule, because of these two issues most of the teams tend to be from the same country, or at least from the same lingua-franca.

Towards the end of The International, I decided that Newbee was the team for me and I’d start cheering for them. They ended up winning the tournament, but I didn’t feel that great feeling of fandom when your team wins. That feeling when the team that you bleed with, the team that makes you cry like a battered lover, the team that makes you want to believe that your guys – your friends- could win win’s.

the audience at the international 2014
Yea! eSports!

These feelings are only feelings that a person gets when they watch sports. Dota 2 has become a sport for me. I don’t think that means that eSports has arrived. I think that I have become one of the unwashed masses that has come to Gabe Newell – that bearded, fat Jesus – and asked him to wash me and prepare me for that heaven that The International 2015 will be.