Arcade Memories

Question: What two heroes had to overcome monsters like Gotcha Wrench and Foreman Spike in Nintendo's videogame Wrecking Crew?

Video games today just aren't what they used to be. So much time is spent trying to make better graphics and realistic blood that the escapism is almost lost. We had an Atari when I was growing up and it was used to get away from real life. Pitfall had me swinging on ropes to avoid falling in alligator pits with green triangles trying to eat me up. I had to help that poor pixelated frog get across the busy road without being hit by a big box on wheels in Frogger. A yellow dot with a mouth gobbled up smaller white dots and was chased around by ghosts that looked like a kid on Halloween who had cut some holes in a sheet in the game of Pac Man. And of course the female version--Ms. Pac Man--had that bow in her hair and some lipstick.

When Nintendo came out, the graphics were amazing! Mario and Luigi actually looked more like humans with rounded features. They first defeated Donkey Kong to save the princess and then moved on to their own adventures in the game Mario Brothers. Before they were Super, they were just some plumbers beating up on turtles and crabs and jumping barrels and fireballs. As time went on and games became more complex, everything became almost too real. I didn't play video games because I wanted them to be realistic. I played video games so I could be a plumber who battles with big monkeys, or yellow circles trying to get to the cherries before they disappeared. Here's to the blurry graphics and crazy stories of the video games of my youth.

Answer: Mario and Luigi