Thanks to all the ghosts – A Super Mario Bros. Wonder tale – Part 1

Chapter 1 – Follow me!

I´m walking in this puzzling park. No danger around, no hazard, just a peaceful walk in the park. I mean, there are ghosts, a lot of them. I don´t trust them but they might be friendly. At least, I think. I haven´t paid much attention to them before.

Anyway, I´m in this park looking for coins to get a wonder seed. I need five of these flower coins, and so far, I have found four of them. Now I am just running around, and I`m not gonna lie I am a bit lost. I´ve seen these pipes before, these not so invisible blocks, this hole, this mushroom… Yeah, I am lost, I have no clue where the last coin is.

The ghosts are still around. Few familiar faces, few new ones. Oh god, I´ve been here for too long. I swear this ghost looks like me, but they are just yellow. Look, they are even doing what I just did. Wait, what is this sign? This wasn´t here before, was it? Oh… It must be here. The coin I am looking for should be here, but where?

Yoshi`s ghost seemed to have noticed me. They give me smiles, or at least I think it is for me. They come to me and start jumping around, moving left and right, and jumping and jumping. I think they want to help. I don´t like the idea of ghosts helping me, I don´t trust strangers, even less strangers that are ghosts. They put a sign on the floor and kept jumping.

Fine. I think I know what they want me to do. I pull a pipe. They keep jumping and smiling. When the pipe reaches its right place it gives me what I was looking for, my last flower coin. I am amazed by the situation; a ghost was nice to me. I am so amazed that I forgot to say thanks. I take my wonder seed and leave the park.

 

Chapter 2 – We can do this!

I have seen Luigi and Princess Peach overcome this climbing to the beat, I have seen a few other ghosts, give up I presume. And here I am, spending the last 10 minutes trying to overcome this. I am not alone though. This whole time Yoshi was with me. Might not even be the same Yoshi as before, very likely not, but who cares at this point? It is a familiar face and that is what I need.

We are racing the lava. As soon we jump to the first platform, the lava starts rising and we need to climb as fast as we can with precision and timed wall jumps. Nowhere is safe but the end. Each platform and wall disappear after seconds that they spawn.

I die. There is no pain, I know I will be back in a matter of seconds. A new try and I see Yoshi die. A few jumps later I follow the same destiny. We are back at the beginning. We try a couple of times more and by couple, I think I mean at least five times. At this point when I die, I would rather wait for the ghost of Yoshi to appear and we can try again together somehow. I think that I see Yoshi respawn as a confirmation that I am not that bad and that there are others with the same struggle. And they seem to be doing the same. They die, I keep going until I die and soon, I respawn there they are.

This time something is different though. Yoshi is on the edge. They jump and jump and jump on the same spot. What are they doing? They do one… two… three… four jumps… a stop and repeat it. No no no, now I get it, they do one… two… three higher jumps, and one small jump. I think they are signaling their rhythm. I accept the invitation to the dance. I mimic their movements. We keep doing it for a few more cycles. One, two, three… I feel synchronized… And we go.

We´ve done this first part so many times with perfection, yet I somehow miss my second jump. I´m a full ghost for the next five seconds before I am back to the beginning. I swim in the air as fast as I can to reach Yoshi, knowing that they cannot stop. I reach them and that is what I need to respawn on point. There is no time to celebrate. We are reaching the same platforms that we have been struggling with lately. Less than five seconds separates us from the flagpole in the end. A sequence of eight tight wall jumps and we are done.

One… my hands are sweaty.

Two… my heart is beating fast.

Three… this is it; this is the try we will make it.

Four… my hands are shaking.

Five… Yoshi dies.

Six… I doubt myself.

Seven… Yoshi ghost follows me, and I am holding my breath.

Eight…

 

 

 

 

I´ve done, I cross the safety line. Yoshi reaches me to respawn in safety. We´ve done it. The flagpole is just on our side.
We jump, we sing, we smile, we go up and down, left and right, greeting and celebrating with each other. We overcame the obstacle, and we did it together. And we will probably never see each other again. And that is fine. I am learning to trust in ghosts though.

 

 

To continue reading: Part 2

 

Screenshots from Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo 2023) taken by the author.

Basic information:

Publisher: Nintendo EPD
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: October 20th 2023
Genre: platform
PEGI: 3

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