Page 44 - OSG Presents Classic Gamer Magazine #7

modern
modern

“An Inside Joke”

By Todd Deci
A games before, and since half the challenge everyday activities, such as driving a car or

walking around. All of these conventional
was in guessing what you were supposed
s a video gamer for many years
now, I am probably like most
to do on the spot, it would be the perfect
game elements are easy enough for any-
other people who pursue a par-
multiplayer game for anyone, whether a
one to figure out, of course, but it takes an
ticular interest or hobby: I want
on sight, without thinking. Unless you've
oblivious to even Mario himself. After play-
to share the joys of my pastime with the true console connoisseur or completely internalized sense of context to know them
people I love. I am always looking for ing the game with my wife for less than half experienced the countless classics and
games that my wife might like playing with an hour, however, I've come to believe that clones upon which WarioWare’s mini-
me, for example, because I want her to ex- the exact opposite is true. games are based -- unless you've actually
perience these joys for herself. At the least, Indeed, part of what makes the game lived a little classic gaming -- you're going
I hope it might help her understand a little fun is an urgent sense of the unknown. to have to figure them all out from scratch.
better why playing games means so much You're never sure which mini-game will pop What little story there is to WarioWare
to me. When I heard that the Game Boy up next, or what you'll need to do to be suc- involves the inner workings of a fly-by-night
Advance's WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Micro- cessful at it. But it takes more than lucky video game design studio. Players are in-
game$! was being converted into a guessing or raw human instinct to fully vited behind the scenes, to see the video
GameCube party game, I figured it would know what each little game is about. I be- game industry from the inside. Aside from
present the perfect opportunity to bring an lieve that, at least as much as anything the amusing endowment of mock trust, I
honest dose of classic gamer joy to my else, what it takes to truly appreciate can’t think of a more graceful excuse to
casual-gamer loved one. WarioWare is an intimate appreciation of all make a whole game out of five-second
A few months earlier, I’d borrowed a video games, through the last 30 years. parodies and hackneyed rip-offs. I find the
copy of the GBA version of WarioWare, WarioWare is a commemoration of classic poetic irony and self-effacing humor en-
and I was blown away. Never before had I gaming, as it cheerfully recycles hundreds dearing, and I’ve come to realize that this is
played a game that was so accessible and of little patterns and standards found in the real reason that I find the whole game
familiar, yet at the same time so novel and games dating back to the golden age of so irresistibly charming. With WarioWare,
inventive. The relentless flow of variety was Atari consoles. Yet to the unaware, this ex- Nintendo has shared an inside joke with the
intoxicating, and the mini-games them- tensive collection of comforting conventions rest of us longtime gamers, cunningly con-
selves all felt so natural; so native, even. I is only an insistent barrage of randomness. ceived and brilliantly told. Therefore, I think
never stopped to wonder why I felt this For many of us who have enjoyed the we should be both grateful and wary. Like
way. The day the GameCube version was video games of the last 20 or 30 years, any good inside joke, people who aren’t
released, I was jittery with excitement as I there is no need to think about what to do “inside” just aren’t going to get it. They’ll
finally powered up the console and my wife when we are shown a Mario-looking plat- walk away baffled, if not a little alienated.
turned on the Wavebird. I couldn't wait for form character standing at one end of the And so, perhaps WarioWare is more
her to experience the chaotic thrill ride of screen and an object speeding towards him universally accessible on the handheld than
rapid-action mini-games, just as I had on from the other. We jump. It's automatic. We on the console. It's much easier not to get
the on the handheld. I couldn't wait to see don't wonder what's going to happen when all the jokes if you can do it in private; in a
her swept away, as I had been, in a deluge the object reaches the character. We don't group, no one wants to be the one guy who
of nostalgia and innovation. go through the thought process of deciding doesn't "get it." The next time my geeky
About 20 minutes later, she was flipping when to use our thumbs to press the button old-school gamer friends come over to visit,
off her Wavebird and on her way upstairs to that makes the character jump. These maybe I'll pull out the GameCube copy of
watch the news on the other television. things were internalized long ago, through WarioWare and treat them to the esoteric,
"But…wasn't it any fun at all? Aren't you all the platform games we've ever watched interactive history lesson it provides. Until
going to give it just one more try?" I and played before. We just jump. It's as then, though, I think I'll go buy my own copy
pleaded. "Everyone loses at first -- it's part natural as driving a car, or walking down of the GBA version. That way, my wife can
of the game. It’s…part of the fun!" My wife the street, or any other activity we've done watch the news on TV, and I can join her
is a good sport, though, and it wasn't the so often that we don't even think about how without feeling obliged to explain why each
fact that she was losing that bothered her. we do it any more. little mini-game is so scandalously cool or
It was that she never had any real idea of Not everyone instantly recognizes a consummately clever. Besides, once the
what she was supposed to be doing in the Mario-looking platform game character just news is over, maybe she'll join me in a
first place. Worse, she didn’t understand from seeing him on the screen, though. game of Super Monkey Ball 2. It seems she
why she was supposed to be doing it. There are many people who look at a fluc- really “gets” that one. It’s lucky that I'm a
Where's the fun in that? tuating power bar and don’t intuitively know good sport too.
I had assumed that as a party game, to try to stop it when it's "in the red." People
WarioWare would be the great equalizer. I who didn’t grow up gaming don’t automati-
had imagined that, since most people have cally recognize those crude, pixilated, thor-
never seen any of these particular mini- oughly traditional 8-bit representations of

Classic Gamer Magazine July 2004
44