Somerville, MA- After a night
of beer drinking last Sunday, Cambridge resident Bill Prince, 35, woke
up Monday morning to discover that Sonic Spinball (800 Wii points)
had been downloaded to his Wii Virtual console. "I'm not 100-percent sure how
this happened," Prince said. "I never owned
a Sega Genesis. None of my friends owned Genesis systems. And I'm definitely
not a Sonic fan, or a pinball fan. I was a Nintendo man
growing up."
Prince, who admits to consuming somewhere "in the vicinity" of 12 to 14 beers that night,
isn't alone in finding the some of the Virtual Console's bottom-of-the-barrel offerings mysteriously winding up on Wiis after a night of overindulging. An informal poll of U.S. gamers revealed that
eight out of 10 Wii owners have at least one embarrassing Virtual Console purchase—known colloquially as a "drunken download"—currently vexing
their machines. Whether it's Sonic Spinball, Bonanza
Bros., or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
, a growing number of gamers have a blemish or two on their Virtual Consoles.
"Seeing Sonic Spinball
every time I turn on the Wii now is depressing," Prince
says. "It's right there, mocking me. It's like having someone say,
'Hello, Jerk,' every time I use the Wii." Prince said that he feels especially
self-conscious whenever fellow gamers drop by his Union Square apartment.
"My friend Don came over this week, and as soon as the Wii powered
up, he spotted Sonic Spinball and let out a scream and said, 'What the hell is that thing doing on there?' "
In a surprising turn of events, Prince
found himself coming to Sonic Spinball's defense. "I said,
'Come on, man, it's not that bad. Actually, Sonic Spinball really is
kind of fun.' I told him to try it. He refused. We got into an argument.
Then he left. I haven't talked to him in three days. Don is a judgmental jerk sometimes,
but I'm starting to miss him. We used to have some epic WiiSports Tennis wars."
