The blue screen flickers with a strange pattern. The white bar scrolls down the screen, counting down from 10. I hold my breath as it hits zero. The game starts with a loud bang and a cloud of green smoke. The kart appears in the middle of a track that looks like it’s made of bricks and pipes. A moustached man called Luigi drives next to me. His kart has red and blue stripes, just like mine but with different colors. We race past a checkpoint marked with an exclamation point. The screen changes, adding more karts to the track: a little turtle, Yoshi, and a pink lady riding a bike. We speed around a corner where a block explodes in front of us, sending a green shell flying. I try to dodge but it hits my kart and sends me off the track. Luigi wins this time. He stops his kart next to me with a big smile. The screen changes to show him winning a trophy, but mine just shows a sad face.