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        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
          publication</font></i></b></font></h1>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 10<br>
                February 1, 2000<br>
                </b>
              <b> 
                </b>
              
                <b><i>Birth 

                  of a Gamer:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Waxing Nostalgic</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Heather &quot;elki&quot; 
                  Haselkorn</p>
              
              

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               Ah, 
                the good old days. The days when innocent children could pop a 
                video game cartridge into an NES and play and play until their 
                thumbs were sore and it was past their bedtimes. I remember that 
                time fondly. I decided to try to revisit those days by making 
                use of loony&#146;s massive collection of consoles and games and 
                I discovered, much to my dismay, that sometimes there just isn&#146;t 
                any going back.</p>
              </p>
              Looking 
                at a shelf full of familiar favorites and their new, 3-D reincarnations, 
                I settled on <b>Donkey Kong 64</b> and <b>Mario 64</b>. Both these 
                names brought back warm memories of my old Atari, and of the NES 
                and Super NES that became fixtures in my brothers&#146; room as 
                the years went by. I figured <b>DK 64</b> would be a revamped 
                version of <b>Donkey Kong Country</b>, arguably one of the most 
                fun games in existence. And Mario, well, that&#146;s just <b>Mario</b>...who 
                couldn&#146;t have a good time playing that?</p>
              </p>
              I tell 
                ya, though, you just can&#146;t judge a new game by its previous 
                incarnation. <b>Donkey Kong 64</b> was indeed the brightly-colored, 
                cartoonish game I expected it to be. Considering that I&#146;ve 
                been playing a lot of dark, violent, and frankly, depressing games 
                since this column debuted, the silly plot and childish gameplay 
                were a refreshing change. Basically, King K. Rool and his evil 
                crew of alligators are out to destroy Donkey Kong and his island. 
                They capture his friends and steal the golden banana hoard. Your 
                goal in this game...free your friends and reclaim your bananas. 
                No problem! I envisioned 3D versions of <b>Donkey Kong Country</b>, 
                swinging from tree to tree, throwing barrels, and eating bananas. 
                I hit start to bypass that annoying hip hop sequence at the beginning 
                and began the game.</p>
              </p>
              The first 
                thing I had to do, though, was play a tutorial. I think I&#146;ve 
                complained enough about tutorials, so I won&#146;t make you read 
                through another litany. I did get my first lesson in using a Nintendo 
                64 controller, though. You have to remember that the last time 
                I held a controller was about 5 years ago, and these things have 
                really changed over the years. I am now up-to-date on the proper 
                technique: One hand near the stick thing (sorry, the technical 
                name of this highly sensitive piece of equipment escapes me at 
                the moment) and one hand near the key pad. When did this get so 
                complicated?</p>
              </p>
              I got 
                through the tutorial, all happy and excited and expecting to have 
                tons of fun. And then I found out that I just can&#146;t play 
                this game. First, there&#146;s the fact that the game is not a 
                side-scroller. There&#146;s no reason this should bother me; after 
                all, I&#146;m already used to that in computer games. But for 
                some reason I just couldn&#146;t translate on-screen depth perception 
                from a computer monitor to a television. I had no idea which way 
                to go. I swam around the islands a bit, talking to other characters 
                and trying to find my way to the first level. Fourty-five minutes 
                later, I finally found the island that was actually the beginning 
                of the game. I don&#146;t know why it took so long...I just kept 
                getting lost and basically swimming around in circles. I know 
                that the game does give directions about which way to go, but 
                frankly, I just wasn&#146;t paying attention. </p>
              </p>
               </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              <br>
              Anyway, 
                I finally found the first level. There I am, swinging on vines, 
                climbing trees, having a great time, but getting nowhere. How 
                frustrating! I was almost in tears by the time I just gave up. 
                loony game over, pointed out a vine that I could climb, showed 
                me to Funky&#146;s store where I bought a gun, showed me how to 
                aim and fire, and then basically took over the game until he suddenly 
                realized he already had a saved game which was much farther along 
                than mine. Two hours had passed and I just didn&#146;t want to 
                look at it anymore. I couldn&#146;t believe how disappointed I 
                was. </p>
              </p>
              Still, 
                I hadn&#146;t yet played <b>Mario 64</b>. I figured it would be 
                like all of the other <b>Super Mario Bros. </b>games I used to 
                play as a kid...just plain and simple fun. True to form, I found 
                myself in the midst of a brightly colored cartoon world with my 
                pudgy little plumber buddy trying to save Princess Toadstool. 
                Maybe it&#146;s just my own perverted mind set, but I have to 
                wonder about the beginning of the game. The princess invites Mario 
                to her castle to eat a cake she just baked. Hmm...I wonder if 
                that&#146;s all he&#146;s going there for. Well, the dating habits 
                of video game characters aren&#146;t any of my business, so I&#146;ll 
                just let that thought die there.</p>
              </p>
              Again, 
                I had some trouble navigating the 3-D landscape. Particularly 
                troublesome was the camera. I could never find the right angle. 
                Either I was too close or too far, and at times I couldn&#146;t 
                see Mario at all through the trees and hills. I also got dizzy, 
                which was a surprise because I thought my bouts with simulator 
                sickness were a thing of the past. And there was this one feeling 
                that I couldn&#146;t shake. Call it dejaz-vous if you want. I 
                just couldn&#146;t help but feel that I&#146;d played this game 
                before. Maybe I did, a couple of years ago on a visit to my brother 
                out west, but I doubt it. I didn&#146;t have to learn how to do 
                anything new. I could already jump, run, pick things up, climb, 
                and everything else. It was just intuitive. Within half an hour 
                I had pretty much gotten the hang of moving around, and in spite 
                of getting lost a few times, I managed to diffuse the big Bob-omb 
                in the first level and win a star. For the first time since I 
                began writing this column, I actually saved a game so that I could 
                return to it later. That was really a momentous occasion.</p>
              </p>
              Still, 
                there are a couple of drawbacks (in my book) to <b>Mario 64</b>. 
                For one thing, those pesky camera angles. Maybe that&#146;s why 
                I got so dizzy, all that zooming in and out. But then there were 
                other things. The reason that I loved the old <b>Super Mario Bros. 
                </b>games is that they were so simple. You followed the screen 
                from left to right, jumping on enemies, hitting blocks, and collecting 
                coins. It was perfect simplicity. Although I like this next generation 
                of Mario games, I can&#146;t help but notice that in adapting 
                the game to new technology, its creators had to leave that element 
                of simplicity behind. And it&#146;s unfortunate. Not that this 
                is an extremely difficult game to play, but I just feel that there&#146;s 
                something lacking.</p>
              </p>
              I guess 
                that old cliche is true. You can&#146;t go home again. You can 
                go to a place that looks like home, with familiar faces and names, 
                but something is always different. No matter how many improvements 
                developers make when they update old favorites to new tastes, 
                I can&#146;t help but feel that some of the spirit has been lost. 
                I&#146;ll never touch<b> Donkey Kong 64</b> again. And while <b>Mario 
                64</b> is a great game that I can&#146;t wait to continue playing, 
                I long for the old one. So I think I&#146;m just going to sit 
                in a corner tonight with my GameBoy Color and play <b>Super Mario 
                Bros.</b> until my thumbs hurt and it&#146;s past my bedtime.</p>
              </p>
              </p>
              <p></p>
              <p></p>
              <i>-Heather 
                &quot;elki&quot; Haselkorn 
                actually enjoys this.</i> </p>
              </p>
            <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 