“The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night”

From: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

Genre: Video Games

Who said it?: Narrator?

The story behind the quote: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest is pretty much known as the black sheep of the series. While the first game focused on platform jumping and a brutal difficulty level, Simon’s Quest took a totally different direction. It was now an RPG, where you need to talk to people and collect items. Because it was such a departure from the original, it wasn’t embraced by fans. It does have some unique tricks, such as using items to overcome obstacles and the day and night transitions (where the enemies become tougher at night).

Anyway, the quote will pop up during the transition to morning from night. A box will appear to the left of the screen, signalling the end of the night, which can be a relief to players when they are just starting out with a low level.

Geek wisdom: Time does heal all wounds. We can be deeply hurt by the actions of other people, especially those close to us. At the start, we can feel that we will never be able to forgive them. Heck, we can even not talk to them for years and years.

However, as time goes by, the intensity of the pain that was inflicted magically starts to fade. We then remember the good times we had with that person and the hurtful action that was done becomes a distant memory. Once this happens, forgiveness become easy.

“A winner is you”

From: CPro Wrestling (NES, Famicom)

Genre: Video Games

Who said it?: Narrator

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from a classic video game on the NES simply entitled Pro Wrestling. While very limited in the number of moves, Pro Wrestling was actually unique in the sense that each of the different wrestlers had their own specialty moves that only they could use. For example, Fighter Hayabusa had a move called the Back Brain Kick that was unique to him while The Amazon had the Piranha Bite and the Outlaw Choke.

Anyway, the quote will pop up after you (obviously) beat any of your opponents on your road to fight the champion, The Great Puma. It became very popular very early on because of it’s hilariously incorrect grammar. It’s also known to be one of the first known instances of Engrish (named for the fact that Japanese usually substitute the letter R when trying to say the letter L).

Geek wisdom: While it is inadvertently funny, you can still extract some wisdom from it. Basically, you do have to celebrate each of your victories. Even the small ones. While its great to be focused on the task at hand (becoming the champion in the game), make sure that you also be proud of all of the small good things in life that you encounter along the way.