Mom and young son exchange touching messages via Nintendo platformer.
Being a parent is like being a pro athlete, in that sometimes you might have to play through pain. That was the situation Japanese mother and Twitter user @Girrafe24 found herself in recently as she was battling a headache, but her son, who’s in the first year of elementary school, wanted her to check out the Mario Maker level he’d just finished putting together.
“I made a course for you, Mom, so clear it!” @Girrafe24’s son excitedly told her, to which she somewhat begrudgingly agreed. “OK, but I’ve got a headache, so just one time.”
So she grabbed the controller and started the level, and in just a few seconds she was very glad she did.
After a few steps to the right, Mario is on top of a conveyor belt which carries him through the whole level. There aren’t any enemies, tricky jumps, or other dangers to watch out for, because @Girrafe24’s son designed the level so that she could keep her eyes on the giant brick blocks of Japanese text, which spell out まま (“mama”)…
…だい (“dai”)…
…すき (“suki”)…
…which together makes…
…which translates to…
▼ And that explains the heart at the end.
It’s a doubly sweet design, as @Girrafe24’s son, likely knowing that Mom wasn’t feeling her best, created a course layout where she hardly had to do anything strenuous to clear it, only needing to get on the conveyor belt at the start and hop onto the flagpole at the end.
Needless to say, the video has touched the hearts of parents, gamers, and, well, really anyone with a heart to touch, with online reactions including:
“I can feel my eyes welling up with warm tears.”
“Even though your son didn’t write that message for me, it still put a huge smile on my face.”
“So thoughtful of him to set up the conveyors like that.”
“I don’t think I’d ever be able to clear it. I’d keep running back to the start to see the message again and again.”
If you’re impressed that a kid who’s only six or seven years old could put together such a clever course, @Girrafe24 says her son loves watching Mario Maker videos on YouTube, then trying to recreate what he’s seen and make his own modifications. “I’m an elementary school teacher,” says @Girrafe24. “A lot of parents say YouTube has a negative effect on kids’ scholastic abilities, but I tell my son that if he uses it the right way, he can learn things from YouTube,” adding that she thinks the video sharing site can be an effective way to get useful ideas from around the world.
With the video of the course her son made having racked up half a million views and counting, @Girrafe24 wanted to congratulate him, and decided to return the sweet gesture by making a course for her son filled with celebratory gold coins.
After all, the happiest families are the ones where parents and kids alike are always ready to show how much they love and value one another.
Source: Twitter/@Girrafe24 via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Twitter/@Girrafe24
Insert images: Twitter/@Girrafe24, SoraNews24
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s thinking maybe he should have put together an Armored Core mecha to show his parents how much he appreciate them.