Excellent memory is Mario’s greatest power-up

Got the yellowing, but still lovely SNES all set up last night, which meant that, naturally, Tara and I played some Super Mario Bros. 3 for a bit. Well, more like an hour and change. Because that’s just what happens. Time flies when you’re stomping goombas, opening item chests, and…playing that memory card mini-game that randomly appears on the overworld maps.

Remember that? You only got two chances to guess, and if both were wrong, well, that was your opportunity swarted. Good luck remembering what cards you flipped and where they were on the playing grid because the next time that mini-game might show up could be much later on. I used to scribble notes down on paper as a kid, crudely drawn diagrams and other rushed recreations, but I really don’t think I ever got to complete the full memory card game before.

Until last night, that is.

Only took three instances to clear the board, too. And for some reason, I really thought you got something special for doing that. A warp whistle, perhaps? I had no idea that you were already gaining items in the process. No idea. Like, if you flip the 20 coins card and match it with another 20 coins card…well, you got 20 coins for that. I was really hoping for an explosion of 1ups at the end of the whole thing. But it ended without a bang, and it was back to tackling level after level for the two of us.

In this time of the Internet, no secret is truly secret for long, no mystery still a mystery. It’s easy enough to look up the answers to all the memory card games online, but that totally ruins the fun. And I never had such an oppurtunity as a little kid on Christmas morning just plowing through the game in a fever of excitement and joy. I just had me and my brain full of Other Things to remember; it was hard going, and I probably only ever matched one or two cards, not even realizing that those items in my inventory were from there. Oh well. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle. We stopped somewhere around World 5, no skipping either, each with about 20+ extra lives already.

A night of Tekken 2 and Tony Hawk

Progress is slowly being made on setting up the living room at the Leaky Cauldron, with the most important part being the entertainment section where all the videogame systems go. Right now, we only have the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 up and working; the Wii and SNES will come later once we find all the wires and space for ’em. This is a little embarassing, but I only noticed that there were more audio/visual ports in the back of the TV as we moved it from apartment to apartment, and that means having multiple systems plugged in and ready to go without having to switch wires in and out all the time. Go ahead, call me a n00b. I deserve it.

Tara wanted to play some games last night, and since we were having trouble finding a certain wire for the SNES we went with some ol’ PlayStation games because, well, the majority of my Xbox 360 games are very much single-player experiences. Watching me play Fallout: New Vegas actually puts her to sleep, she says–but she means that in a nice way. Evidently, the sounds from V.A.T.S. and menu clicks are like white noise to her, very soothing and not distracting at all. To each their own, I guess.

First we rocked some Tekken 2, a game that really has not aged well. Those blocky, stiff characters really stand out as…blocky, stiff characters. Especially the bigger dudes like King and, um, Paul Phoenix’s hair. And speaking of characters, I didn’t have all of them. Must have erased my memory card save a long time ago, but now I’m itching to unlock everyone again just in case we ever feel the need to play a fighting game again. Having options is nice.

I remember when I first got my PlayStation; it came with a demo disc that had a slew of interesting titles on it. One was for a couple of rounds of Tekken 2, and it was all I played. Over and over and over. The same two characters, the same boring black background level, the same time limit. But over and over I played, trying to learn all the moves and throws, loving every instant replay it showed me. I remember thinking this was THE game to get, and soon after I did get it. And still have it. Playing it now, I can obviously point out its lack of depth (and side-steppin’), but it’s still a classic fighting game, with fun characters and bizarre snippets of FMV.

After a couple rounds, we moved on to some Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. Oh boy. Tara was Wolverine and I was that Eyeball logo character. We did some free-skating in Suburbia and Los Angelos, falling down a lot and constantly goofing up strings of tricks, and then created characters in our own likeness. Well, mine could’ve been fatter. Did some more skating, skipping every rap song in the playlist. Was a lot of fun actually, and now I really want to revisit some older games that I haven’t played in a good ol’ while. Too bad Fallout: New Vegas is here, demanding the majority of my free gaming time. Yes, “too bad”…ha!

Inching closer to Ramona’s final evil ex

Twins are cool. That’s just a fact.

And over the weekend, Tara and I took down two of ’em, at the same time, thus earning ourselves the following Achievement from Scott Pilgrim VS. The World: The Game:

Twin Dragons (10G): Defeated the Twins simultaneously.

To be honest, it happened too fast and too easily. I mean, we had so much trouble staying alive against Todd and Roxie; I figured the Twins were gonna be a handful of ass-whoopin’, but no. I got both of them cornered up in the top left part of the screen and slashed away with a stolen ninja sword while Tara took care of any nearby goons. Within seconds, one of the Twins was flashing yellow, an indication of his low health, and then boom–KO!!! Both dead. Both within milliseconds of each other. I really thought killing two bosses at the exact same time would’ve been tougher than that, but it was almost mindless how it went down.

Here’s hoping NegaScott or Gideon toss up a better challenge. Granted, there’s no Achievements tied to them so all Tara and I need to worry about is staying alive. I’ve hit the level cap with Scott, but she’s still climbing the experience ladder with Kim. I have to wonder if maybe I was a bit overpowered for the Twins? I doubt that though because just the level’s regular enemies put up one stink of a fight. Hmm. Can’t wait for the DLC and patch to help balance out the difficulty issues. Still need to get online access though…