"Finally… I felt like it should be a game I was already intimately
familiar with. A game I could not just approach, but return to in the writing.
Aside from (likely) making the project that much less diffcult, it would be
appropriate to the intended tone. Not just some dry, academic deconstruction
but an involved, emotive journey.
I should be a game I loved."
― A typo that says a thousand words. From Bob's SMB3 book [Pg. 12] (Emphasis mine)
Bob, realizing his dreams to be Mario on some Halloween night (And possibly fapping after).
On July 1st 2013, Bob published a book on his favorite game of all-time, entitled "
Super Mario Bros. 3: Brick by Brick", the basic idea of the book is to try dissecting a video game in a similar manner to film criticism, poring over every detail and every frame, which in fairness isn't a bad idea, but the choice of game, Bob's planet-sized ego, his lack of brevity and the abysmal lack of focus really make this book difficult to get through..
The book itself consists of 3 parts:
- An introduction on the origins & history of Mario, Miyamoto..etc.
- A massive, and I mean massive powerleveling part, in which he describes his life and his imaginary relationship to Mario.
- A Let's Play of Mario 3, done in text form (yes, really). With some more powerlevelling too.
However, fear not fellow Kiwis, for I was
stupid idiotic autistic brave enough to excavate the depths of this book of autism, and returned alive and somewhat well to deliver the details. Bob makes several lulzy statements and confessions in this book. Both about his life, vidya and his
obsession special relationship with Mario:
- He includes Shigeru Miyamoto in the dedications, "For saving my life more times than he knows".
- He identifies with Mario because they were both "born in the same year" and he can't remember a world without him [pg. 26].
- He compares the 90's console wars to the Vietnam war. [pg. 41]
- He carried a SMB2 Mario figurine as a good-luck charm through grade school. [pg. 30]
- He forced himself to like the 1993 Mario film as he "needed it to be good" because "Mario is my friend". [pg. 40]
- Had problems at school, to the point that his parents got a recommendation to put him on Ritalin & some other drugs, which they refused. and received intermittent therapy for anger, attention and authority issues. [pg. 31]
- Compares the significance of him seeing the 1st known footage of SMB3 (in The Wizard film) to that of the JFK assassination and 9/11. [pg. 33]
- Says that Yoshi's Island "broke his brain" because its ending revealed/retconned that Mario & Luigi grew up in the Mushroom Kingdom, and not Brooklyn. This happened while he was a fucking high school senior. [pgs. 42-44]
- His 1st film criticism gig was moonlighting for a local cable access show, from which he was later fired for not going along with the fundie show owner's opinions on Passion of The Christ, his termination meeting was in the show owner's van in a parking lot, in which he feared for his life because the owner did freelance security work, and was "on the job", or so he claims. [pgs. 49-50]
- Admits to spending multiple hours in his car playing on his Nintendo GBA/DS, waiting for his whole family to go to sleep before he returned home. He claims that this was because he wanted to access the computer in peace and make videos (Yeah, right). [pgs. 51-52]
- That he moved out of his parents' house at the young, young age of 31 (July 1st 2012, to be exact) [pg. 207]
One aspect that is quite striking to me is how he dealt with his grandmother's illness and eventual passing, he keeps electing to play SMB3 instead of focusing on supporting his family through their ordeal, and when she dies, he barely attends the funeral, instead he goes out to buy an air conditioner and doubles down on the gaming [pg. 194].
His love-boner for the Marvel movies also sees its genesis in the book, with him mentioning that he watched the Avengers film FIVE. TIMES. [pg. 118]
Also, Mario is/was clearly Bob's Sonichu. He keeps adding those elaborate fantasies about how the plot & world of Mario keeps growing between its iterations, to the point of describing SMB3's plot with his trademark delusion and lack of brevity:
“War & Peace” it isn’t, but just-the-basics storylines were par for the
course in this era of gaming. Even still, it provides a bigger picture of the
Mario universe than had previously been established: this is the frst mention
that the Mushroom Kingdom is only one part of a larger world, primarily, but
it also establishes that the starting point this time around has not quite settled
into the “Peach always gets kidnapped” groove it would in subsequent games
– while the Princess does indeed wind up abducted at the beginning of World
8, the main story of the game has her in the role of commander, dispatching
the Mario Bros. to the Seven Kingdoms to deal with Bowser’s assault.
In fact, given that both sides of the conflict are delegating the war-fghting
to subordinates this time around, SMB3 marks the frst clear delineation of the
Troopa/Mushroom conflict as a long-term military conflict rather than mere
isolated attacks by Bowser. Left unmentioned in the written story but implicit
in the game itself is that Bowser has amassed a mechanized military force
for this particular engagement, outftting his children with heavily-armed
Airships and protecting his own Kingdom with tanks, jets, and battleships."
― Bob Chipman, channeling his inner CWC [pg. 67].
