For over three decades, Mario has been the hero of the iconic Nintendo video game Donkey Kong. But the tables have now turned.
When Mike MIka’s daughter wanted to play at Pauline, the damsel-in-distress in the coin-op classic, Mika went to work by hacking the NES version to turn Pauline into the hero of Donkey Kong. The Oakland father who will not only win the Father of the Year award, also happens to be a creative director at a game design studio Other Ocean Interactive.
From Mika’s Facebook page:
“My 3-year-old daughter and I play a lot of old games,” “Her favorite is Donkey Kong. Two days ago, she asked me if she could play as the girl and save Mario. She’s played as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2 and naturally just assumed she could do the same in Donkey Kong. I told her we couldn’t in that particular Mario game; she seemed really bummed out by that. So what else can I do?”
The hack took Mikafourteen hours, but it was well worth it. When asked why, Mika explained that it was simply to make her daughter happy.
“I didn’t set out to push a feminist agenda, or try to make a statement,” he said in a post on Wired. “I just wanted to keep that little grin lit up on my daughter’s face every time we sit down to play games together.”
The feels… now if only I can find a place to download this Donkey Kong hack…