Tag Archives: Bowser

UWG Top Ten: #3- Super Mario 64

I can distinctly remember the first time I played Super Mario 64.

It was the last time buying a video game console was a family event. My father had purchased a Nintendo 64 the day it released and brought home one of the two launch titles for the system.  This was the third time over 11 years that we had all gathered around the television to watch our favorite plumber run and jump across the screen.  After hooking up the console to the TV in our den, my father passed the torch of first play to his sons; handing the controller to my brother.  I slid the power button on, and sat by my brother as the Nintendo 64 launched in our household.

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Beating Bowser is the Key to Happiness

Image by Flickr user Connor Kiss
Image by Flickr user Connor Kiss

The first video game I ever fully beat was Super Mario 3. And it what a glorious day that was!  Browser was no more and I had saved the princess! My siblings were too young to decipher my song of joy, my dance of elation, or my nanny-nanny-boo-booing to all those who had yet to overcome Boswer. I stood tall in my moment of victory!

Just recently, I sped through another playthrough of Paper Mario, and I’m still reeling from and reveling in my oh so sweet victory over Bowser. I’ve played a plenty Mario/Yoshi games throughout my gaming life, and I’ve beaten most of them. And no matter the span between playthroughs or my self-conscious thoughts about how I should be playing something more “age-appropriate,” there’s something incredibly satisfying about sending that mean ol’ dinosaur to his doom. And something very nerve-wracking. Or maybe that’s just me. By the end of Paper Mario my hands were shaking and all I could squeak out was nervous laughter. There’s something about completing  Mario games that’s fundamentally fulfilling. Even if I don’t get ALL the coins, ALL the power-ups, find ALL the secrets, just getting ALL the way through to the credits of any given Mario game makes my gaming soul happy.

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