Friday, April 11, 2008

You Have To Burn The Rope ...


Take a journey with me ... back ... back in time.

Back to when video games were video games ... and controllers had two buttons ... one jumped, one fired ... and that's all you needed.

Remember staying up all night just to beat Mario Bros? Better yet ... remember beating ZELDA? OMIGOD ... the thrill of finding the last Tri-Force piece and saving Princess Zelda?

Now most games (with the exception of Guitar Hero) are a marathon exercise in futility. We've discussed this around the house and it's obviously an age thing.

The girls are completely comfortable with hitting five buttons at once ... opening their inventory while doing a backflip over the enemy while energizing their weapon. Meanwhile, I play the same game and College One ends up spending the evening yelling, "Hit the square ... the pink square ... THE ONE ON YOUR LEFT."

New games (again, with the exception of Guitar Hero) are just too hard for geezers like me. A couple years ago, we bought "Destroy All Humans" for Mr. ThirtyWhat and, like every other game, I could only make it through about the first three levels. I got so frustrated that I finally looked online and got a cheat. People ... even in god mode I couldn't beat the game. Seriously ... GOD MODE. How hard is a game when you can't beat it while being invincible???

But ... all that's changed now.

I give you ... "You Have To Burn The Rope" ... the perfect game ... with the perfect ending. Play it ... and relive the golden days of Mario when you actually got to see the ending of a game.

Be sure you stick around for the song ... the song is what makes it. Afterwards ... maybe watch a video ... or press refresh and start again.

Look at me still talking
When there's science to do
When I look out there
It makes me glad I'm not you
I've experiments to run
There is research to be done
On the people who are still alive

Jonathan Coulton - Still Alive

8 comments:

  1. That song was so definitely worth it. The whole experience took me back to the good ol' days. Thanks, Thirty for helping me make Friday a good day.

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  2. Anonymous10:28 AM

    Great post, 30What.

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  3. Wasn't that a hoot? It's a great way to start the weekend ... :)

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  4. Yeah, I finally succeeded at something!

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  5. Anonymous11:24 AM

    That's my kind of video game, one I can actually beat!

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  6. Anonymous7:15 AM

    You forgot being able to rotate the camera at the same time :D It's the source of all your motion sickness.

    I tend to find that my generation is in the middle of this. Believe me, I love me a good mario game. I remember the days of old (well, grade school) and that's all ANYONE could talk about was mario, and how THEY beat Bowser, but then the next kid would say "well I beat bowser too" "well I beat bowser and kicked his babies and stole his wife!!" well, maybe not that last part, but something like that.

    All those games, we adored. Sonic the hedgehog was another great. Everyone and their brother had the SNES, and when the N64 came out, there was much rejoicing. I think that was the first time in my life, I knew that I needed the "it" thing for christmas. Course, the N64 is also the start of the downhill of simple games. Suddenly, there was an introduction of joysticks.

    When the N64 came out, I was in 4th grade. I had been playing video games since I could remember (and before I could, I remember watching my dad play. Distinctly, I remember watching him play the first Final Fantasy game--- which I still play to this day). So I knew the value of a good video game. But- I was only in 4th grade. I still had YEARS of video game playage to learn how to handle the new controls. And sure, everyone had years to learn the new controls- but it came at a crucial time in my video game life and we were able to GROW UP learning how to use the controls. It just became ingrained in us that to accomplish something, you have to be able to spin, jump, rotate, and cycle thru inventory at the same time.

    So yeah... I can see where you guys are coming from. While you guys have had YEARS playing video games, the majority of it was with simple buttons, while I've had years playing video games, the majority of it has been with complex buttons. It's just a matter of what you're used to.

    And, you know, it could just be that I'm a master when it comes to video games :D

    But yes- I do enjoy a mindless simple game every once in awhile. But I also still love my dialogue heavy, complex RPG games :D

    (although... I must say.... I didn't enjoy "you have to burn the rope")

    ~College One

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  7. GASP! You didn't like the GAME? Seriously? Okay ... the game is silly ... but surely you like the song at the end?! I think it could've been a take on the Portal song, don't you?

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  8. Anonymous3:58 PM

    ummmmm.....sorry, no didn't like the song either :P

    Sometimes ya get a hit, sometimes ya get a miss.

    ~College One

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