I thought this was such a lovely story. Mike Mika introduced his daughter to the Nintendo arcade classic Donkey Kong, but she was disappointed that he had to play as Mario. Why couldn't she play as the princess, and save Mario from the dreaded ape? Mike is apparently the best dad ever, because he hacked the Donkey Kong ROM (using Tile Layer Pro) to swap the Mario and Princess roles. (Ars Technica reported the full story.) Here's the end result:
This reminds me of different Best Dad Ever that reversed the the references to Link in The Legend of Zelda (so the player character would be referred to as "young woman" instead of "young man") but in that case only text was changed, not Link's appearance.
Many games these days provide the option to play as a female character (Mike's daughter was inspired by playing as Princess Toadstool in Super Mario Bros.), but most classic games did not. So it's super heartwarming that Mike was able to make this happen. On a related note, it's also promising to find more positive female role models in gaming. I'm about a third of the way through the new Tomb Raider game (so far, it's very good), and it's inspiring to find such a complex, well rounded and well-portrayed female character. It makes a rereshing change from the usual damsels in distress included only for their short shorts (thankfully lost to Lara in this reboot). More of this, please!
Enjoy your weekend! I'll be trying to finish Tomb Raider.
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