Friends

Last weekend, I had the fortune of hanging out with one of my best friend from high school. Laha (his nickname) and I have been friends for over 13 years. There were times where we were out of each others lives, but over the years we have reconnected. This year, I am trying to host more hang outs at my house, since I now have the space and resources. It amazes me that after all these years (and now that we are all almost close to our thirties *rip*) we can just hang out and be goofy without our parents trying to get us to do something else instead of playing video games.

The original plan that day was for him and my brothers to come and hang out for the day. My brothers could not come unfortunately, so it was just Laha, my wife, and myself. This did not stop us from having a good time since we had all the entertainment we needed. I was in the middle of playing Dark Souls 3, so I got to show off my sick cool moves on how to die in different ways. After that, we decided to increase the chaos by playing New Super Mario Bros Wii U Deluxe Special Edition Gaiden Arcade Edition 2: Electric Boogaloo Featuring Dante from Devil May Cry with Funky Mode & Knuckles. I still believe a game like classic Mario was not meant to be played with four people, but it does make for a chaotic time.

But do you know what is more chaotic than that? Mario Maker.

After getting past the first world in NSMBWUDSEGAE2EBFDDMCFMK, we switched over to Super Mario Maker 2 and played each other’s levels. Once again, adding multiplayer to classic Mario is a chaotic time. We told each other that we would have to create new levels in order to top the craziness that we have already unleashed to the world.

The real MVP of the evening however went to a little game called Overcooked. If you have not played Overcooked before, it is a cooperative game where you have to work together to fulfill customer request. Each stage has you preparing something different or adds new items to the menu as you progress. It is everyone’s job to work as a “team” in order to get a high score in order to advance. The first two stages are simple enough and allows players to get the hang of things and to assign roles. After that, good luck trying not to kill each other.

By stage 1-3, we had gotten the hang of working together and working at optimal pace. When it came time to splitting the room apart and us going back and forth, that was when the real fun began.

I will now provide a transcript of how we communicated to each other:

Cat: We need an onion!

Laha: Onion!

Me: Onion!

Cat: Onion!

Me: Onion on the floor!

Cat & Laha: ONION! ONION!

Cat: What is this mushroom in here!? I need ONION!

Me & Laha: ONION! ONION!

Cat: No! We need tomatoes for tomato soup!

Laha: ONION!

Cat: NO! TOMATO!

Laha: #$&#%^@&

Me: $*&#%#*&$

Cat: STOP CUSSING IN THE KITCHEN!

Laha: *send soup out* Here you go $^#%#&

Cat: WHERE IS THAT TOMATO!?

Laha: KITCHEN ON FIRE!!!

Cat: I NEED A BURGER WITH THE WORKS!

Me: *chopping meat* I’M BEATING THE MEAT IN HERE!

Laha: PLAIN JANE COMING UP! VEGGIE BURGER! $*#(^%@$(*#^@

Cat: I NEED AN ONION!

Me & Laha: ONION!

Cat: ONION

All: ONION! ONION!

This continued for the rest of the night. I love these people ❤

When you think of games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, or Dokapon Kingdom (for those who know what this game is), you think of party games that can get competitive, but at the end you have a good time with who you are playing with. You may play one game of Fortune Street and get mad at your friend for making you play Fortune Street, but in the end, your friendship is still intact but questionable for a while. However, there exist on franchise that no matter who you play with friendships end, controllers get destroyed, and lives end.

I am talking about Mario Party. Maybe Monopoly on a bad night, but for this story I am talking about Mario Party! We all have our own horror stories of how someone screwed you over or the game decided that it was your turn to experience Hell on Earth. This post alone may trigger some repressed memories that you may have. I guarantee that most people do not walk away from a game of Mario Party without some hatred toward the people they played against.

This story takes place back when I was in college. I had a friend that I would hang out with regularly and we would play games on her Gamecube often. For the purpose of this story, let’s call her Buttons (because of all the ones she pushed for this one). The Mario Party of choice that evening was the fourth installment, a personal favorite of mine. I represented ya boi Luigi like I tend to do and Buttons was fond of Peach. The setting was with computers set to hard and the board was Shy Guy’s Jungle Jam I believe. We played for twenty turns with no handicaps. From there the game played out normally with races to the next star and one upping each other in mini games.

The turning point of the game came at the end of the game. With two turns left, we were tied for first place. Last turn she had managed to obtain a magic lamp, which takes you automatically to the star. When her turn came, she used the lamp to teleport to the star space and was able to collect one.

Then came the real scummy part.

After collecting a star, a scene is played showing where the next star location is.

The star spawned three spaces away from her. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

It is at this point that I wanted to start calling hacks. What are the chances of something like that happening!? And of course Buttons was sitting over there with the biggest **** eating grin on her face and saying the game knows who the queen of Mario Party is. But, the game was not over yet. The star was three spaces away and there was a chance that the die could roll a 1 or a 2. I had seen crazier things happen in Mario Party, but something like this was what I needed to not throw my controller across the room. Buttons goes to roll her die…..

She rolls a 10.

WWWWWHHHHHHHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

At this point I am out of my seat and calling all of the hacks. Buttons is dying of laughter in her seat. It was as the game just knew it had to piss me off somehow and rub the salt into my wound. Buttons goes to collect her star and I was left to watch as Peach pranced around the board like she owned it. In the matter of one turn, I went from being tied for first to second in the blink of an eye. The star respawned to the other side of the map far away from the harpie queen that and took my life and turned it upside down. Surely, the worst had to be over by then right? Right?

It got even worse.

Peach took her last seven moves on the board and landed on a blue space. Then, a hidden box appeared……….

There was a star inside the box.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I believe I walked out of my apartment when I saw that. As the door closed behind me, I could hear the shrieking laughter from Buttons. The game stared at me and asked itself how it could ruin my day further. It handed Buttons a golden gamecube controller that had the power to make others bend to her will, and gave me a gigantic middle finger. Never had a game targeted me specifically and decided that it would do everything in its power to humiliate me. I returned to the room with Buttons sitting high on her throne; laughing at the insect who would try to dare take her status as ruler of Mario Party.

The game ended with Buttons winning two extra stars during the Bonus Star section. She won 9 to it doesn’t matter.

We have not played Mario Party together since.

Tales From The Backlog

The Co-op Tales: ONION!

The Co-Op Tales: A Party of BS