Friday, March 18, 2011

Birdo, Ostro, and Shyguys! Oh my!

Ok, so I have a couple of questions tonight.  First off, let me explain.  I'm moving, and as such, I've been finding a fuck-ton of shit that I didn't know I had.  I'm a huge nerd, so some of that shit was the collective piles of video game crap that tend to overpower every apartment that I ever get.  Among these gems was the copy of Mario 2 that I've had since, I don't know, the beginning of time.  I decided to open the book and make myself laugh, because I remember thinking it was hilarious that Birdo was a tranny.  I was a little kid, and such things were hilarious.
But here's the weird part.  I don't know if this is just my copy of the book or if they're all like this, but my book calls "Birdo" "Ostro".  I scanned it in for those of you who may be naysayers.  Also, Birdo looks stoned out of his mind here.  But the early artwork was done by Myomoto, so that makes sense.
Anyway, I'm wondering if we might have just been calling Birdo by the wrong name, or maybe mine is misprinted or something.  What's Birdo's name in Japan, is it Ostro?  But it gets weirder; as I continue to flip, I come across this critter here.  Is it possible that we gamers have been calling Birdo "Ostro" and Ostro "Birdo" for so long that they decided to go with it?  I mean, Birdo's getting some screen time with the tennis and whatnot, so her/his name is everywhere right now.
Also...  does anyone remember beating Mario 2?  Are those little cherub things at the end Shy Guys under their robes and masks?  Do you remember being little and some adult would ask you what those were, obviously not being a native to the Koopa Kingdom.  I would reply, "Skyguys".  Usually, for some reason, this would prompt the question, "Why are they wearing masks?"  to which I would always retort, "Um...  because they're shy.  dur."
It broke my heart to suck their masks off on Luigi's Mansion.  Poor little shyguys.