Pikachu doesn't like me...
Back when Callista was 3 (or so) we bought her this video game called Hey You, Pikachu.
The idea was that you were supposed to talk to Pikachu into a microphone and ask it* to do stuff. At the time, she liked watching, but expressed little interest in actually playing, so Bill and I struggled with it instead.
Basically, you're supposed to "make friends" with Pikachu and go on all these various adventures with it. First, you find it in the wild, and give it stuff. As Pikachu gets more friendly with you, it meets you outside your door in the morning, etc. One of the games involved finding various vegetables in the woods to make soup, and we simply could not get it to work. Pikachu kept picking up random crap and we kept ending up with "mystery soup". (Bulbasaur would have a "dizzy" face at the end, indicating the soup was bad.) Then, there was this game where you had to feed the Caterpies (pronounced catter-pee) and help them evolve. We somehow kept messing up, the Caterpies kept dying of starvation, and Pikachu was getting way pissed. Eventually, it stopped coming around to our door in the morning. The game was so hard, that we soon figured there was no point in encouraging Callista to try.
So why am I mentioning it now? Well, Callista (who is now 7) found it and wanted to try it out. Bill set it up for her, with more than a little concern that she would get really frustrated with it.
But no! As a matter of fact, she's doing extremely well with it! Not only was she able to successfully feed all the Caterpies, but she got a ruby for it. And Pikachu likes her so much that now he's sleeping in her bed at night.
I cannot figure out why she excels in this and we aren't. I have a few theories though. Like, maybe it understands a child's voice better than an adult. Or, maybe we were overthinking it somehow. Both of those are very possible. Just goes to show that you think you're smart and educated and accomplished, but that sure doesn't make you good at everything!
* that's how they refer to Pikachu in the game - as an "it"
The idea was that you were supposed to talk to Pikachu into a microphone and ask it* to do stuff. At the time, she liked watching, but expressed little interest in actually playing, so Bill and I struggled with it instead.
Basically, you're supposed to "make friends" with Pikachu and go on all these various adventures with it. First, you find it in the wild, and give it stuff. As Pikachu gets more friendly with you, it meets you outside your door in the morning, etc. One of the games involved finding various vegetables in the woods to make soup, and we simply could not get it to work. Pikachu kept picking up random crap and we kept ending up with "mystery soup". (Bulbasaur would have a "dizzy" face at the end, indicating the soup was bad.) Then, there was this game where you had to feed the Caterpies (pronounced catter-pee) and help them evolve. We somehow kept messing up, the Caterpies kept dying of starvation, and Pikachu was getting way pissed. Eventually, it stopped coming around to our door in the morning. The game was so hard, that we soon figured there was no point in encouraging Callista to try.
So why am I mentioning it now? Well, Callista (who is now 7) found it and wanted to try it out. Bill set it up for her, with more than a little concern that she would get really frustrated with it.
But no! As a matter of fact, she's doing extremely well with it! Not only was she able to successfully feed all the Caterpies, but she got a ruby for it. And Pikachu likes her so much that now he's sleeping in her bed at night.
I cannot figure out why she excels in this and we aren't. I have a few theories though. Like, maybe it understands a child's voice better than an adult. Or, maybe we were overthinking it somehow. Both of those are very possible. Just goes to show that you think you're smart and educated and accomplished, but that sure doesn't make you good at everything!
* that's how they refer to Pikachu in the game - as an "it"
posted by Barbara Preuninger at 11/16/2006 11:32:00 AM
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