Mystic Snake – 1GUU

For the past twelve hours I have been thinking entirely in terms of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: I keep envisioning myself blue sparking. Blue sparking around the enemies in the game I’m playing. Blue sparking around the hall. Blue sparking around my kitchen table.

I loved the game the first time I played it. It was easy to jump into, and it gave you a sense of speed not through being faster than other racers, but by the sheer chaos of what was going on around you. Whether you were facing an incoming shell, a pair of racers bobbing and weaving through your path, or a trio of giant pirahna plants ahead attacking riders who came too close, there was always some impending doom that you had to avoid. Because you received more powerful weapons the farther away from the lead you were, there was always a hope for redemption, and always a paranoia about the people behind you. You know, the ones that wielded weapons even more powerful than yours?

I was obsessed with the game when I learned how to blue spark. All the on-screen chaos became perfectly controllable: a matter of judging the right angle at which to slide down the course and around the corner, of how hard to yank my vehicle to dodge an obstacle, whether I was coming in hard enough to snag the item box or not.

The kicker was that I could do it. Heck, I could do it wonderfully. I no longer just held down the acceleration button down a straightaway, I drifted down it like a snake, relying on the continual speed boosts to propel me faster than I could have gone just driving straight. I was constantly in the zone, each successful powerslide a work of art that I brought about with my own hands.

I believe that my mind is using the memories as an antidepressant, an upper. By constantly reliving my successes, I’m kept in a state of euphoria. It instills confidence into me about my skills and my judgement, my ability to predict what needs to be done and then take decisive action. My mind is cheering me up. My mind is a good friend.

For the past twelve hours I have been thinking entirely in terms of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: I keep envisioning myself blue sparking. Blue sparking around the enemies in the game I’m playing. Blue sparking around the hall. Blue sparking around my kitchen table. Blue sparking around my worries. Blue sparking around my concerns.

When I blue spark, I feel like I can go anywhere and do anything. The problem is when I can’t, and when blue sparking becomes an obsession instead of a tool. I become so overwhelmed with the need to blue spark that I don’t pay attention to what is in front of me, and tumble face first into the problems blue sparking was supposed to avoid.

My mind means well but sometimes does more harm than good. Like my dependence on constant blue sparking, I have become so reliant on my mind’s tricks that I’m not sure how well I could function without them. I just have to keep practicing and hope that one day I can finally obtain the control it makes me believe I have.

4 comments on Mystic Snake – 1GUU

  1. was that an essay for some english class?

    i like the repetition about blue sparking from the 2nd-to-last paragraph. it was a natural flow from your previous statements, but also contains a sense of warning, of the reader saying to herself, wait, i’ve read this before. why is he repeating this? it also naturally reads faster, which adds to the legitimacy about the dangers of blue sparking.

    1. Man, I wish I had written something like that for an English class – I probably would’ve gotten a pity A.

      I originally intended this post to be fanboy squealing about Double Dash transitioning into a nice general update, but my thoughts evolved and I flowed with them.

  2. All meaningful metaphors and personal reflections aside, blue sparking is a bitch. I have never managed to do it without flying off the course or crashing into something. Blech. I find I perform way better by simply driving and only drifting on turns. Oh, and I don’t know if you’ve tried it yet, but Mario Kart DS is a new experience.

    1. I can teach you 😉 . Snaking is very funky, but drifting is useful once you get the hang of it. Come over sometime!

      I also don’t have a DS; the one I play with is my brother’s. He has cool games like Kirby: Canvas Curse and Brain Age, but no Mario Kart 🙁 .

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