I Casts The Spells That Makes The Peoples Fall Down (Magic Darts, Magic Johnson's Fast Break, The Magic Of Scheherazade)

We have talked, in great length now, about how the entire scope of our project (and indeed, in most projects) has a foundation rooted in Lady Capitalism, the Beginning and the End. This vast expanse goes on for longer than one can fathom, a scheme built on the back of human history. Creation in the name of making money... but creation had that nasty side effect of creativity. Old British people's attempt to make money in 1963 created a transcendent blue box. Middle-aged American people's attempt to make money in 2010 created a fervor of friendship. Old Japanese people's attempt to make money in 1985 with video games intersected with old American's people failed attempt at the same thing two years earlier, and the Nintendo Entertainment System was born. A grey box that uses the CVE of imagination, and computer chips brimming with god knows how much of the Goddess Valya, to bring entertainment and enjoyment to the masses. What other words is there to describe this besides "magic"? Now the magic becomes apparant. Now we delve in.

Magic Darts surprised me. It really and truly did surprise me. I was expecting crap. What I got was... servicable. I have a bit of a history with darts. I never really played the game, but my family has done so quite often. Numerous dart trophies and plaques in my parents' basement, for instance. Even a full-fledged dartboard hung there until recently, unused and taking up space. Come to think of it... that same basement is also where the magic happened with my Nintendo when I was young. That dartboard would have been right there on the wall as I ventured through Darkwing Duck on the weekends, or tried to master the madness of Castlevania II with a hintbook in hand. As it turns out, Nintendo and darts don't make such an odd alchemic mix after all. Magic Darts ended up being a little fun, and I got the hang of it quick. You select the angles of your shot horizontally and vertically, then the power... and you see what you get. It is intuitive and maybe a little fun. Plus you can play as a robot. Who the fuck doesn't want to play as a dart-throwing robot?

Magic Johnson's Fast Break. There's a kind of magic here. A magic that makes the typical trash sports game that I usually dread writing words about... almost good. In a prototype NBA Jam 2-on-2 sort of sense, but without any of the mild insanity that game brought upon the world. No, I almost had fun with this. Not a complete fun, but much more than something like Hoops or Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf. I say almost because there's still that level of intuition I'm missing. Even with two buttons, there's variations on offense and defense that I am missing. Still, it remains satisfying to score a shot. That part is simple enough, you just hit the button when you're near the other hoop. It's defense that gets me. I liked the darts more than this, and yet I am incompetent at both sports in real life. Either way, the fact that both are tolerable as opposed to outright dreck is itself a miracle... but the true magic is yet to come.

Scheherazade beckons with her magic, and I must answer her call. I myself have become the Scheherazade, haven't I? Three times a week I tell the ongoing stories of Nintendo, in order to keep this project from facing its demise. It lay cold and lonely for a long time until I took up the mantle, becoming the new Lord Of Fiction and creating the Valya and the Nightmare... or did the Valya and the Nightmare create me? Whoever created this, whatever cultured brain brought it forth with their ritual... they brought forth a hidden gem. A true thing of beauty. Choose your starting class? Magician, of course. An echo of things to come, the ultimate power in the universe. One who wields the arcane and the alchemic, the divine and the profane. Right now we start out small. We run around in an overworld inspired by Endless Adventure, and swing our sword at bandits. Talk to the townspeople for clues. The high water mark comes when a clue leads us to a pier to the east, near the grassy shores. Our companion finds a "time door". Time itself bends to our will, and we slip 50 years into the past. We fall out of the world, and enter something completely different. A dark place, with trees of teal and blackened skies. The past is a grotesque animal, and so is the password. I want to keep going with this quest. Before we do, one final ritual of magic.

The Magician beckons, and his power shall be great.