Ever since I rented Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, my two-year old daughter loves to watch me play Mario games. The title is the first thing she says to me when I walk through the door. She’s been watching me play video games since I could prop her up on a pillow (she watched me play Wind Waker all the way through) but until recently, they were just pretty colors on the screen with funny sounds.
Now that she’s realizing what is going on, now that she internalizes what she sees, it’s been a lot of fun to play games with her. I enjoyed the week of Paper Mario together, it was a fun game. (I didn’t get very far before I had to return it, unfortunately). I’ve gone back to Super Mario Sunshine and she loves that and I finally got around to opening one of my Christmas 2004 presents, Mario Power Tennis.
Super Mario Sunshine has been a mixed bag. It is still a really fun game with moments of insane difficulty and frustration thrown in. I still feel nostalgic when I hear the old-school Mario songs. I think Mario Sunshine is underappreciated.
Mario Power Tennis, on the otherhand, is pretty fantastic. The tennis is fun, the mini-games are a blast and while I haven’t tried the multiplayer yet, I’ve heard it rocks. I haven’t played a tennis video game in ages but Mario Power Tennis has filled the void, in the same way I hope the new Baseball, Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball game can fill another void. Oh, that Pennant Chase is like SNK’s Baseball Stars. (But what about Mario Baseball? I’m so confused!)
The best part of all this is my daughter is getting a history lesson in Mario-lore. She already can tell the difference between Princess Peach and Daisy and she knows Mario is in the red and Luigi is in the green. I couldn’t be a prouder dad right now!
