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Mario & Sonic haven't always been te fun loving happy-go-lucky stars that we know today. At one time, the height of 2D platformers to be exact, the only thing they understood was cold, hard cash.
Why? Well that's what I'm going to tell you as we embark on a story. It's not too exciting, but why not?
When 2D gaming first started, characters were paid in units; while some people get paid in hours, and other get paid in the amount they do, the life of a 2D character was very different. They get paid on how many times people don't call their game obnoxious. Strange? Certainly! They start at a certain price, depending on how hard they worked on the game, and then each time someone calls it obnoxious, about £5 is deducted.
But for a while, that wasn't a problem. The problem started when the competition got tough. On the back of Donkey Kong games, Mario games and even Sonic games it would claim that the other game was obnoxious. Eventually, this led to all three characters, and many more, getting into serious trouble. Drugs and alcohol seemed to be an everyday part of video game heroes and each game would try to lose the other more and more money.
This led to all sorts of even worse problems. But here are a few techniques that were by the big games companies:
The most obvious one of all was to hire someone to constantly say a game was obnoxious. This was really where the money was back then. $500 an hour, and in England it was about £450. The first company to do this was Sega. Sonic was getting distressed because he had to wear very old (Now brown) trainers. His red trainers were his life, so he pulled out all the stops and thought this one up. It left Mario and Donkey Kong especially in a hard place, so they did the same and all hell broke loose. Not long after, this was banned, from then onwards it was only one obnoxious per-person.
Another dastardly trick, which I mentioned before, was to write that the game the consumer had bought wasn't like another platforming game, using the word obnoxious to describe it. This meant that more and more people, especially those who read aloud, were losing video game stars money. Mario started this off. Because he is also a graphics designer, it just came over him when he was making his Mario Bros. 3 box. Then it became compulsory from then onwards.
The worst of all though was the 'Catchphrase' attempt. Characters would make catchphrases that would try to make kids say it more and more often. These included 'I'm too fast for you obnoxious Donkey Kong' [Sonic], 'You're-a as obnoxious as-a Sonic!' [Mario] and 'I'll throw barrels at you like I did to that obnoxious Mario!' [Donkey Kong]. These characters weren't to be messed with!
Luckily, everything is okay now. The obnoxious unit was soon abolished and characters get a proper wage. The amount of 2D games is slowly building again, but they'll never forget the horrors that went on...
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
Why? Well that's what I'm going to tell you as we embark on a story. It's not too exciting, but why not?
When 2D gaming first started, characters were paid in units; while some people get paid in hours, and other get paid in the amount they do, the life of a 2D character was very different. They get paid on how many times people don't call their game obnoxious. Strange? Certainly! They start at a certain price, depending on how hard they worked on the game, and then each time someone calls it obnoxious, about £5 is deducted.
But for a while, that wasn't a problem. The problem started when the competition got tough. On the back of Donkey Kong games, Mario games and even Sonic games it would claim that the other game was obnoxious. Eventually, this led to all three characters, and many more, getting into serious trouble. Drugs and alcohol seemed to be an everyday part of video game heroes and each game would try to lose the other more and more money.
This led to all sorts of even worse problems. But here are a few techniques that were by the big games companies:
The most obvious one of all was to hire someone to constantly say a game was obnoxious. This was really where the money was back then. $500 an hour, and in England it was about £450. The first company to do this was Sega. Sonic was getting distressed because he had to wear very old (Now brown) trainers. His red trainers were his life, so he pulled out all the stops and thought this one up. It left Mario and Donkey Kong especially in a hard place, so they did the same and all hell broke loose. Not long after, this was banned, from then onwards it was only one obnoxious per-person.
Another dastardly trick, which I mentioned before, was to write that the game the consumer had bought wasn't like another platforming game, using the word obnoxious to describe it. This meant that more and more people, especially those who read aloud, were losing video game stars money. Mario started this off. Because he is also a graphics designer, it just came over him when he was making his Mario Bros. 3 box. Then it became compulsory from then onwards.
The worst of all though was the 'Catchphrase' attempt. Characters would make catchphrases that would try to make kids say it more and more often. These included 'I'm too fast for you obnoxious Donkey Kong' [Sonic], 'You're-a as obnoxious as-a Sonic!' [Mario] and 'I'll throw barrels at you like I did to that obnoxious Mario!' [Donkey Kong]. These characters weren't to be messed with!
Luckily, everything is okay now. The obnoxious unit was soon abolished and characters get a proper wage. The amount of 2D games is slowly building again, but they'll never forget the horrors that went on...
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
Very well done as the challenge was particularly hard and you wrote it well :-)
Mario & Sonic haven't always been te fun loving happy-go-lucky stars that we know today. At one time, the height of 2D platformers to be exact, the only thing they understood was cold, hard cash.
Why? Well that's what I'm going to tell you as we embark on a story. It's not too exciting, but why not?
When 2D gaming first started, characters were paid in units; while some people get paid in hours, and other get paid in the amount they do, the life of a 2D character was very different. They get paid on how many times people don't call their game obnoxious. Strange? Certainly! They start at a certain price, depending on how hard they worked on the game, and then each time someone calls it obnoxious, about £5 is deducted.
But for a while, that wasn't a problem. The problem started when the competition got tough. On the back of Donkey Kong games, Mario games and even Sonic games it would claim that the other game was obnoxious. Eventually, this led to all three characters, and many more, getting into serious trouble. Drugs and alcohol seemed to be an everyday part of video game heroes and each game would try to lose the other more and more money.
This led to all sorts of even worse problems. But here are a few techniques that were by the big games companies:
The most obvious one of all was to hire someone to constantly say a game was obnoxious. This was really where the money was back then. $500 an hour, and in England it was about £450. The first company to do this was Sega. Sonic was getting distressed because he had to wear very old (Now brown) trainers. His red trainers were his life, so he pulled out all the stops and thought this one up. It left Mario and Donkey Kong especially in a hard place, so they did the same and all hell broke loose. Not long after, this was banned, from then onwards it was only one obnoxious per-person.
Another dastardly trick, which I mentioned before, was to write that the game the consumer had bought wasn't like another platforming game, using the word obnoxious to describe it. This meant that more and more people, especially those who read aloud, were losing video game stars money. Mario started this off. Because he is also a graphics designer, it just came over him when he was making his Mario Bros. 3 box. Then it became compulsory from then onwards.
The worst of all though was the 'Catchphrase' attempt. Characters would make catchphrases that would try to make kids say it more and more often. These included 'I'm too fast for you obnoxious Donkey Kong' [Sonic], 'You're-a as obnoxious as-a Sonic!' [Mario] and 'I'll throw barrels at you like I did to that obnoxious Mario!' [Donkey Kong]. These characters weren't to be messed with!
Luckily, everything is okay now. The obnoxious unit was soon abolished and characters get a proper wage. The amount of 2D games is slowly building again, but they'll never forget the horrors that went on...
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
Why? Well that's what I'm going to tell you as we embark on a story. It's not too exciting, but why not?
When 2D gaming first started, characters were paid in units; while some people get paid in hours, and other get paid in the amount they do, the life of a 2D character was very different. They get paid on how many times people don't call their game obnoxious. Strange? Certainly! They start at a certain price, depending on how hard they worked on the game, and then each time someone calls it obnoxious, about £5 is deducted.
But for a while, that wasn't a problem. The problem started when the competition got tough. On the back of Donkey Kong games, Mario games and even Sonic games it would claim that the other game was obnoxious. Eventually, this led to all three characters, and many more, getting into serious trouble. Drugs and alcohol seemed to be an everyday part of video game heroes and each game would try to lose the other more and more money.
This led to all sorts of even worse problems. But here are a few techniques that were by the big games companies:
The most obvious one of all was to hire someone to constantly say a game was obnoxious. This was really where the money was back then. $500 an hour, and in England it was about £450. The first company to do this was Sega. Sonic was getting distressed because he had to wear very old (Now brown) trainers. His red trainers were his life, so he pulled out all the stops and thought this one up. It left Mario and Donkey Kong especially in a hard place, so they did the same and all hell broke loose. Not long after, this was banned, from then onwards it was only one obnoxious per-person.
Another dastardly trick, which I mentioned before, was to write that the game the consumer had bought wasn't like another platforming game, using the word obnoxious to describe it. This meant that more and more people, especially those who read aloud, were losing video game stars money. Mario started this off. Because he is also a graphics designer, it just came over him when he was making his Mario Bros. 3 box. Then it became compulsory from then onwards.
The worst of all though was the 'Catchphrase' attempt. Characters would make catchphrases that would try to make kids say it more and more often. These included 'I'm too fast for you obnoxious Donkey Kong' [Sonic], 'You're-a as obnoxious as-a Sonic!' [Mario] and 'I'll throw barrels at you like I did to that obnoxious Mario!' [Donkey Kong]. These characters weren't to be messed with!
Luckily, everything is okay now. The obnoxious unit was soon abolished and characters get a proper wage. The amount of 2D games is slowly building again, but they'll never forget the horrors that went on...
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS