"Well, shoot, I don't have anything better to do..."
The Red earth pony with a yellow-green and orange mane sat on the bed for a few minutes, pondering why he liked the Ninpony Entertainment System and its alter-ego, the Famicolt.
"Oh, I know why now!", he thought out loud.
"Obviously it revived Equestrian video gaming as we know it.", he continued out loud. "Without this, all of my friends wouldn't be able to like their consoles, either." after lecturing himself at his lonely house, he stepped out of bed, and into his living room, where he held a classic TV and an HDTV at his disposal. He usually preferred the HDTV, out of quality. He then jumped straight to the Ninpony.
"Which game should I play first?", he asked himself. "I sure have a lot of sucky games. A lot of my games are pirated from Saddle Arabia..." He then trotted over to his huge shelf of Ninpony games.
"Hell, let's just play Action 52." Without delay, he slid the cartridge out of the shelf and popped it into the NES-101 System Model. He had to use the new model because his old model had worn out. He slid the switch and the screen flickered, displaying the intro.
“So, what game should I play in Action 52?” he said, scrolling through the main menu. “Ooh, I know! Starevil! It’s what it says on the list anyway.” He then selected the game, then pressed start.
Just then, he heard a knock at the door.
“I wonder who that could be? I wasn’t expecting anyone.” He trotted to the door, and opened it, to see his friend, Tagger B33, His unicorn friend.
“Oh, Hey!” Tom said to Tagger, surprised to see him.
“Hi, how are you today?” Tagger replied.
“Oh, I’m fine. You?”
“I’ve been good.”
Tagger and Tom both trotted back to the living room, sitting in front of the TV. Tom grabbed another controller and plugged it into the system.
“Did you know that the maximum amount of colors for the NES at the time was around 52?” Tom said.
“No, I didn’t know that,” Tagger replied.
“Yep.”
Tom started a 2-player game, and the words “Level 1” with a subtitle of “Player 1” lit the screen dimly. “Let’s see this game in action!” Tom said. Suddenly, an 8-bit airship appeared on screen for Tom to control, since it was his turn. “Woah, shit!” he blurted, as his airship almost crashed into a wall. Small hordes of enemies tried to attack him, but he had good reflexes, either veering out of their way, or sending them to their fiery fate. “Take, that, freaks!”
After about a minute of this, the words “Level 1 Complete” appeared on screen. Then, right after, the words “Level 1” with a subtitle of “Player 2” appeared, while Tagger said, “That was impressive.”
The screen flashed a familiar red color, as the airship spawned to fly into the distance, soon meeting with a very simple depiction of a canyon wall. the simple sprite climbed up the wall as the level started. Quickly, the little sprite started to travel to the right, as games of that time often did, only to be met by the enemy. With the character’s weapon at the ready, he was prepared to take on this threat. Tagger started inputting commands into the simple controller, causing the valiant hero to react to his surroundings by blasting at the enemy in nothing more than defense actions, doing everything in his programmed power to survive the onslaught of enemies before him.
Tagger, just as determined to see this level through to the end, and made sure to plan his moves out for the agent of justice in his command, as he had very little health to spare. Various grunts of concentration, and frustration escaped Tagger, as he had only played few other games before this one, but he was determined. The last enemy before the level’s end came at our lone hero, in what would become a face off of the most epic in nature until, just as he appeared he was dispatched with haste by the unnamed hero.
“Wow, that was a great first level, I wonder what’s coming next,” Tagger asked, turning to Tom, who was the master at games like this.
“Well if you thought that the first level was cool, you just wait till we get mid game,” said Tom.
The words “Level 2” paired with the words “Player 1” appeared, as the screen flickered, then went black.
“What the hell?” Tom said, as he stared in disbelief at what was a black screen, his friend Tagger joining him with his expression. “That was sad,” Tagger said, looking kind of dissapointed.
“Don’t you worry, Tagger, for I have hundreds upon hundreds of other titles!” Tom said, proudly. “Well, which one do you want us to play?” Tagger replied.
“Contra.”
“Contra?” Tagger said, with the slightest look of confusion on his face.
“Yeah, Contra. It’s this really cool horizontal shooter, and the best thing? It’s 2-Player cooperative!”
“Cool!”
Tom then looked for the game in his huge shelf, and found it in the C shelf. “Can you help me get it out, please?” Tom asked Tagger. “Sure, I’ll help,” Tagger replied, eager to help. He then used his telekinesis powers to grab the game cartridge out of the shelf, and handed it to Tom.
“Thanks!” Tom said, as he put the game into the top of the system, both controllers still plugged in. “You’re welcome,” Tagger replied to Tom. Tom then slid the switch, and the HDTV screen emitted a flicker, with the display registered as NTSC. Then the logo appeared on screen.
“This is awesome!” Tom stated, glad that he wasn’t playing alone, like he did everyday.
“It looks like it,” Tagger replied, staring at the fancy, but 8-bit title screen.
“Let’s enter the cheat code, then play the game,” Tom said, as he entered the cheat code any Equestrian video gamer would know. Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Select, Start. The game started right then, displaying the words “Level 1, Forest” and both 2 player’s stats. Player 1 had 30 lives, and Player 2 had 30 lives.
Now it was time for action. Both Tom and Tagger were thrust out of the left side of the screen as brother stallions defending the world from an alien invasion, as they looked at the challenge ahead of them. Now, they were charging to the right, looking ahead for the dangers that come. Then they started to face a horde of incoming enemies in the forest, a bunch of other ponies trying to defend the base of the aliens. Both Tom and Tagger had very good reflexes, jumping and shooting everything, eradicating the massive hordes of enemies charging towards them with ease. Finally, they made it to the front of one of the bases, trying to defend each other from the open fire coming from the base and the heavy horde of enemies still trying to hinder them.
“Watch out!” Tom said, as the horde of enemies became too much, and they both let up, losing a life. “That was epic, but we got 29 more lives.” Tom said. “It’s not like I felt like quitting anytime soon,” Tagger replied. They both respawned on screen, taking care of the rest of the enemies and blowing a hole in the base so they could enter it.
The screen showed the end stats, with the utterly satisfying words “Level 1 Complete”, as Tom did a celebration dance. Tagger just sat there, smiling at the current victory they had just accomplished. “That was fun! Let’s do another level!” Tagger said in excitement. “I’d be glad to play a few more levels!” Tom replied, as happy as a horse. the screen now had the words “Level 2, Base” on it, with both 2 players at 29 lives. they both spawned in what looked like a 3D environment, with them both standing forward, advancing towards the core of the base. They were dodging enemy fire and destroying door and door again, going farther as they did so. The enemy was throwing grenades, and one ended up hitting Tom. “Oh, damnit!” He said, as his character flew. He lost one life, leaving him with 28. He resumed the ravaging of the base with his friend. They eventually reached the base’s core, and it was dark. All of a sudden, a huge alien cyborg came out of the dark to greet them, with his missiles at the ready. The pair of friends had their machine guns at the ready, unloading their bullets upon the huge monster robot with what was almost practically fury. eventually, the boss suffered its fate and exploded, leaving the opening to another stage. The words “Level 2 Complete” were shown on the screen, with the end stats of the level. The two friends did a hoof-five, as the next level loaded, and the text “Level 3, Waterfall” appeared.
“I do believe this game has a password. Most games from PONAMI have one.” Tom stated.
“So you want us to save the password, maybe for another day?” Tagger replied.
“Eh, this game, as easy as it seemed, was really tiring.”
“I guess it was.”
“Are you gonna go?” Tom asked, as he switched off the console and unplugged Player 2.
“Yeah, I gotta get back home.”
“OK then, it was nice playin’ with ya’!”
“That was totally awesome, we should really do this again sometime.” Tagger said, as he went out of the door and waved goodbye to his good friend.
After Tagger left, Tom was thinking to himself. Well, that definitely convinced me. Now I finally remember completely why I love the Ninpony so much. It was the great revival of the Equestrian Video Game Market, with the inception of Super Mareio Bros. That’s what I love so much. With that thought, he grabbed the game out of the shelf, and started playing it, satisfied that he gave another person power… Ninpony Power.
