My Encounter With the SNES

My first experiences playing Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
On
January 19, 2007
As a child I never enjoyed shopping with my parents, unless they were buying me toys or candy. But one particular rainey day spent in the Walmart Electronics Department would change all that. I happened to wander away from my mom, who was browsing through the camera isles for film, and came across a long line in the video game section. Like most of the children that were waiting in the line, I was intrigued by the flashing lights and sounds that were coming from the end of it. Curiosity gave me the patience to wait in line long enough to find out what was going on, and as the line crept forward slowly I now knew why it was as long as it was to begin with. What these children were waiting for was a chance to play a new video game on an entertainment system that was released just a month ago. Playing video games at a department store was unheard of to me, but I didn't care. At this point I was willing to do anything to kill the bordem that was looming over me. When it was finally my turn to play I was greeted with a sleek, futuristic looking video game console with blue "Power" and "Reset" buttons and the words Super Nintendo Entertainment System on the top of it.

I studied it, trying to figure out a way to turn it on because it was locked inside of a glass casing (I guess to prevent theft). Then suddenly the television monitor that was perched above the unit started to flicker and it turned on by itself. Not knowing what to do next I grabbed one of the controllers that was hanging through one of the holes on the glass casing and started pressing the foreign blue buttons on top of the light gray panel.

Nine buttons instead of six? Gray, black, blue, and light blue colored buttons, instead of the standard black, red, and gray colors that I was used to? What was going on here!? It was all so overwhelming to me. After a few moments of astonishment, I focused my attention on the monitor which now had the words, "Nintendo Presents" up on the screen. Getting excited, I started hitting the control buttons to skip the preview screen and start the game, missing the short story which had Super Mario riding on some green dinosaur who could eat things.

Once the game began, after reading another story involving Princess Toadstool being kidnapped again, I was instantley mesmerized by the bright colors and sound that were displayed on the world map. Much like Super Mario 3 you could pick your levels from a world overview. I moved Mario onto one of the yellow dots on the path he was on that I assumed was level one, and preceeded to hit one of the control buttons.

The level took place in a jungle or forest type setting. Using what little skills I had to play the game, I began running through the level with a great sense of enjoyment overpowering me. It was hard to play and not become hypnotized by the spectacular graphics at the same time. This was some of the most amazing graphics I had ever seen outside of an arcade.

I was instantley addicted to the game within one minute of playing it, even though I didn't know squat about the contols. After running through the level and continuously dying at the same exact part where some weird mole creature jumps out of the ground, I figured that it was time to get my mind off the superb graphics and actually try to jump on it and kill it. I figured it would be like the other Mario games and it worked! By pressing the "A" button Mario would jump in the air and spin at the same time. I used this new maneuver to kill those annoying moles with one hit. "In your face moles!" I yelled, forgetting that there was still a line of people waiting in line to play behind me. I also used this same technique to kill the turtles and the pirahna plants that would jump out of the pipes throughout the level (even though it didn't actually kill them it only allowed Mario to jump on them unharmed). I could now even hit some of the question mark boxes that were scattered around the level. Alot of them contained coins and mushrooms inside, but then there was one that actually had the green dinosaur in it. I became ecstatic. I can now ride the green dinosaur and eat things just like Mario was doing on the preview screen. Frantically I jumped on its back and it made a strange noise. I guess that meant I was on. I rode through the level until I saw some fruit and by pressing the "Y" button I was able to make the dinosaur's tongue dart out of it's mouth and eat the fruit. Who would have thought that this game would have so much to offer! Unfortunatley, I couldn't figure out how to get the dinosaur to jump because every time I tried Mario would just spin off it's back, and then I would try to re-mount it only to end up jumping off the dinosaur again. This would end up resulting in numerous more deaths, but I didn't care I hadn't had this much fun while shopping before in my life.

Unfortunatley, the game was set on some kind of timer, and it shut itself off on me as I finally was figuring out how to jump while riding on the dinosaur at the same time. The game might have been over, but my addiction wasn't. I had to keep playing. I didn't care that there was a long line of people waiting behind me to play. Pretending like no one was there, I started to play the game again. No sooner had I started a new game, then the screaming and crying from the little kids waiting behind me started. I tried my hardest to ignore them. It wasn't my fault that the game turned itself off on me just as I was starting to play. Those stupid kids were just going to have to learn to deal with it. So I chose a different level on the map. This level looked like it took place in some kind of dome land. I ran through the level using the skills I had learned from the previous forest level and applied the spin move to the baddies when needed. I was disappointed to find that the dinosaur was not anywhere in this level, unless I had missed it somewhere.

My mom soon found me attatched to the controller with my eyes glued to the game on the T.V. screen, and gave me the usual warning of,"We're leaving now or I'm leaving without you." I almost considered staying behind, if not for all the pissed off parents with their upset children waiting in line behind me to finish playing. I had to let the game go, but only for the evening. I ventured back to the Walmart plenty more times to play until I became so good that five minute intervals of playing just wasn't enough time for me, I had to own this Super Nintendo system for myself. With enough begging, pleading, and somewhat decent grades in school my dad went with me to the pawnshop to buy one.

After years and years of playing tons of different games on it, I will never forget that rainey day I spent playing this great video game system for the first time.
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