Post #72: My Son And Super Mario Bros

We have a Wii U games console at home. Yes, it's not a PS4 or an X-Box, but the Wii's more of a family device and to date, there's never been a Grand Theft Mario on sale. During the autumn and winter months, my son becomes more and more obsessed with certain games and spends ages perfecting his performance. 'Fair enough' you may think, but he does get rather angry whilst doing so - for example, when he loses, he's oft to hit himself in the face or state awful statements such as "I want to kill myself."

His game du jour is Super Mario Bros U. I have helpfully included a picture of the cover below.

I quite like the concept: a diminutive Italian plumber and his lithe younger brother are tasked to save the pink heroine, Princess Peach, from the clutches of supervillain/antagonist, Bowser and his cohort of angry acolytes. It's really quirky: you can hitch a ride on the friendly reptilian back of Yoshi, or zoom around on a cloud. That said, I do get moaned at by my son when I have the audacity to lose a life during a two player game.

I fear that this is going to be a rather protracted half-term holiday.

Post #45 - Me, My Aspie Son and The Nintendo Wii U

Now, there's a problem, well insofar as my son loves to play on the Wii/WiiU, but he really cannot bear to lose.  Usually a defeat concludes in him stamping on the hall floor like a latter-day Rumpelstiltskin - I do worry about him clumping through the Homebase laminate.  He sees a speech therapist/SALT every other month and she's working on his attitude to defeat, but he still plays up.  For example, I've just purchased a new WiiU game featuring Mario, plus his brother Luigi and the other residents of the Mushroom Kingdom(!) but I made the mistake of changing the disc to Nintendoland and beating him at the Mario Chase - it was the first time as he's succeeded every time to date.  Cue: rage, screaming, shouting - the lot.  He calmed down after his father spoke to him for a bit.

To lighten the mood, here's the genius of Jim'll Paint It's Mario and Luigi on Rogue Traders.  It's fab.  Do check out more of his work (plus his merchandise) via http://jimllpaintit.tumblr.com/