Did you grow up playing Super Mario Bros? How about the Legend of Zelda? Megaman? Did you ever imagine what life would be like if Link (from Zelda) could run around stabbing those stupid goombas with his sword?
Now you can bring Link into Mario world, and stab away. Thanks to Super Mario Bros Crossover by Exploding Rabbit.
I played with Link. Powerups upgraded his sword. Playing Mario with the Zelda theme music is also kind of cool.
Here, to waste the next five minutes of your life, is the life of Jesus, from the cradle to the grave, rendered in 8 bits and 10 seconds. Your mission is to collect 12 disciples.
Some screenshots…
After exploring the topic of Christianity in gaming a couple of weeks ago two things happened.
Firstly, Mika told me about this flash fighting game where you pick a Bible Character and fight other Bible characters.
Secondly, I read this other article on the matter that came with this quote from James Wyatt, a game designer (Dungeons and Dragons) who is also a Methodist minister. Because games are the new literature he appears to be talking about classic pieces of fantasy:
“Games aren’t a place where you are expected to cling to a belief in something that can’t be seen or proven,” Wyatt explains. “It’s a world where the power of gods is demonstrated daily. [The Lord of the Rings’] Gandalf was — almost literally — Jesus walking around with the adventuring party.” I’ll admit to being somewhat shocked when Wyatt, in a calm and fatherly tone, explains how awesome it was to cast aside the preconceptions of our shared faith: “Fantasy has this ability to open our eyes to the enchantment of our world, and to view real things with more wonder.”
To illustrate his point, Wyatt invokes Chronicles of Narnia author (and notable Christian scholar) C.S. Lewis:
“[A child] does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing.” — C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children
I have written a lot about Tetris. I have written a lot about Mario. This site went one better. It combined the two into an online flash game. You build the level for Mario using Tetris. Awesome.
But again, oddly compelling.
“I made this. You play this. We are enemies”