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As I fell asleep on my 23rd birthday, Super Mario Bros. 3 fell over my world like a net. All of it, all at once, was upon me. I remembered the grueling wait to get the game. I’d never had to wait for anything that long. I wanted to speed time forward. I wanted to take a warp zone.
Now, there’s no rush. Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2, Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine come my way, and I take each one in turn. I live slowly, measuring out the past happy times and the happy times to come.
I’ve turned the television back on. It’s been so long since I’ve looked at save menu on the screen. Mario is still waiting to land. I pick the controller off the floor, and consider pressing the start button. I don’t. This old Super Famicom controller is smooth, like the PlayStation2 controller was in Akihabara.
“You’re such a big kid.”
Wasn’t that what the girl had said?
Well, so what if I am?
“Twenty-three, and still playing videogames,” my mom would say.
I press the start button, and Mario lands atop a turret spitting flame. Then I pause the game. In that one second of playing, my temples have broken out into a cold sweat.
How did I ever get this far? I wonder. Have I really been playing this long? I can’t be at this part already.
I couldn’t have gotten this far non-warp. I think I might have warped somewhere along the line.
When Tim is not playing Super Mario Bros. 3,
he may be reached at tim@insertcredit.com.
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