Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Mario Brothers Are Back


Sure, I've said that I don't sleep. I've said I'm busy. But I've also suggested that all work and no play makes Sarahlynn a sad, dull girl. So I play, too!

When dinner's in the oven and the girls spontaneously go downstairs to play for a few minutes, I break out the Wiimotes. When the girls go to bed on time and I want to goof around before picking up my freelance project, I break out the wiimotes.

Paul and I are playing the new Super Mario Brothers for Wii. We got it on vacation over Thanksgiving and our first experiences were with four person cooperative play with Paul's sister and her husband. Chaos! Impossible! Also, hilarious. My throat began to hurt from laughing so hard.

Since we've been home, Paul and I are questing together. This is both good and bad. In the hard stretches, it's really nice to be able to rely on someone else. If your character dies, your partner can pop your little safety bubble and bring you back into active play. And when you feel like you can't stand to fight through a stupid dungeon one more time, maybe your partner will stomp the monster and complete it for you.

On the other hand, I tend to play worse in cooperative play because I know I'm not fully responsible.  And with the way the game's set up, your partner tends to kill you a lot.  Inadvertantly, of course.  But say I'm jumping up through a series of sliding ledges.  If I stop or slow, I'll fall off.  But if my partner isn't keeping up and he falls off the bottom of the screen as it scrolls upwards with me?  He dies.

Paul (aka Luigi) also tends to jump on my head and shove me off cliffs a lot.  This problem happens much less frequently now that we've acknowledged that he simply must lead.  I don't mind following a lot of the time.  And here we are back at my review for The Surrendered Wife!

Seriously, I think it's great for couples to play together, whether it's tennis or board games or Nintendo.   And home-based games are fabulous once schedules are tied to wee ones.  (That was a tiny wiittle pun.)  Maybe this is WHY my freelance project is dragging on so long and WHY it takes me forever to finish editing a completed novel.

Or maybe it's what keeps me sane so that I can continue working.

3 comments:

Rob Monroe said...

SO much fun to play that game! The four player was a blast - but I could imagine that it's a really hard game by yourself...

Topher said...

It was super fun when just Corbett and I played, and although it was fun with his niece & nephew (8 & 6), it was much more frustrating as they often would push us off a cliff. Many times we would yell, "go into the bubble!" so they could just tag along as we went through the hard parts.

We made it within a week to World 8 (not with the shortcuts, we solved all 7 worlds), and finally on 8-3 we couldn't play anymore, it was too hard for the kids at that point, and C and I were just angry...not the best game attitude...

Sarahlynn said...

Rob, I think it's easier without all the "noise" of 4 extra people. I frequently finish levels alone that I simply couldn't do with Paul. But there are some places where I just suck and he's better, too. :-)

Chris, I get that rage! We quit (World 6-mini castle) last night because we were beginning to snap at each other. When it goes from fun to stressful, time for a night off!