Okay, here are the answers for my first entry in an ongoing miniseries of videogame sound quizzes.
Ready?
Not yet?
Okay….
No, really, I have to do this. It’s that or take my meds.
Awww Cute 1 – Donkey Kong
I’m not good at this game, but I really love its sounds and music — the nice little ditty right before you start playing a level, the sounds of Mario’s feet hitting the metal girders, the happy little flourish as you successfully jump a barrel.
Awww Cute 2 – Frogger
Oh, this game… The music, the hoppity hop hopping, all so happy. This game could cure clinical depression, if only those goddammned doctors would just listen to me. However, there is a bit of darkness in the game. The sound of the frog dying when you get hit by a car (or do something similarly stupid) is quite jarring, especially in the midst of all the happiness. You can hear Frogger’s death throes for yourself at the end of the sound file in the quiz. And look at this mean ol’ skull-and-bones that your poor l’il froggy turns into! Oh, mercy.
Awww Cute 3 – Dig Dug
Dig Dug is another personal favorite of mine. The sound effects are secondary to the music for me in this game. One thing I like about the music, and you can hear it in the sound file I uploaded, is that during parts of the game, the music only plays if you are moving. The gaps in the music are me just poised, waiting to kick some Pooka ass.
Awww Cute 4 – Burger Time
I’d be hard-pressed to find a game I didn’t suck at more than Burger Time. It would always make me nervous that this chef never seemed to be in much of a hurry to get anywhere, despite the fact that a gang of anthropomorphic fried eggs and hot dogs was trying to kill him.
Awww Cute 5 – Q-Bert
I almost suck at this game as much as I do at Burger Time. This is the one game in the quiz that doesn’t have some sort of music underpinning the gameplay. It’s just the bounce-bounce-bounce of impending doom.
But hey, look, Q-Bert doesn’t actually die when he runs into a red ball, he just swears like a surly truckdriver!
