The Next Generation of Gamer Geek
Conversations with Acorn about CoX characters.
(Notes: Acorn is my eight-and-a-half-year-old son. He was looking at the pictures I've posted over the last few days, not actually the ones included below.)
Smidge
"That's your character? What does she do, Mommy?"
"Well, she runs really fast."
"Oh! So she's really hard to catch, huh?"
"And she's very small. Way smaller than you, even. But she hits so hard she can knock really big enemies off their feet."
"Whoa. That makes it even harder for bad guys to hit her."
"And she can jump really high, even up on top of a skyscraper."
He laughed, a gleeful chortle. "So bad guys think they're safe, and then they're like, hey, whoa! Where'd she come from! And then she wins."
Pretty accurate, actually.
Johnny Pandemic
"This is my friend's character. He's a mad scientist."
"He's..." (dramatic pause, continued with hushed reverence) "...a SCIENTIST?"
"What can he do? Does he make potions?"
"Actually, yes. He makes potions that can make people feel better."
"What else can he do?"
"Well, he can make poison bombs that go off when enemies run over them. Then the enemies just stand there and choke."
"Cool."
"And you know what? Even rock monsters just stand there and choke when they run over his poison bombs."
"They do?" (Much laughter.) "You know why that's funny, Mommy? Because poison doesn't usually work on rocks. They're usually immune!"
With all of this, I thought Johnny Pandemic was a new fan favorite. But I hadn't yet introduced Acorn to Crash.
Crash Capello
"Whoa, who's that?"
"That's another one of my friends' characters. His name is Crash."
"Wow! He looks almost invisible."
"That's right. That's one of the things he does. He's very sneaky, and can turn invisible, and sneak right up on the biggest enemy in the group. And he hits really hard, so lots of times he can knock down the biggest one with just one punch."
"Whoa. Do the other bad guys just get scared and run away when he does that?"
"Well, no. They notice him then, and then we can all come in and fight. But he's taken out the strongest one before the fight even begins."
"Well, it should work that way. They should make it so when he does that, all the other bad guys get scared and just run off."
Alatan
"Is that one your character?"
"Yes, that one's mine. How did you guess?"
"Well, Mommy, I thought so because you have lots of girl characters. And that one looks like she might be a girl. What can she do? She looks like she can fly."
"Yes, she can fly. But mostly, she uses her mind. She can just think at people, and heal them, or hurt them, or make them stronger."
"That's cool."
Playing Favorites
(I'm getting tired of transcribing this conversation to the best of my memory while also making this interesting to read, so it's straight-up reporting from here out. Mostly.)
Just to see what he would say, I asked Acorn which character was his favorite. At first he chose Al and Johnny, but after a bit more conversation, it became clear that he hadn't realized the three in the picture he was looking at were the same three we had just been talking about in other images. (I suspect he inherited a bit of my prosopagnosia. Sorry, kiddo.)
At that point, he had a clear winner: Crash Capello. I had thought it would probably be Johnny, due to the "He's a SCIENTIST!" reaction. Keep in mind, his kindergarten teacher called him Scientist Acorn after he was better able to explain the change in Pluto's planetary status than she could, along with details about how to determine the temperatures of stars from their colors. He is also very vocal about his love of science in general. So why Crash?
"Well, he's cool," he said of Johnny. "But HE can turn INVISIBLE, and he can get to just the right place and fight bad guys!"
There you have it. Winner of the Coolest Superpower Award, as determined by a poll of our eight-year-old audience members: Crash Capello. Take a bow, Crash.
(Notes: Acorn is my eight-and-a-half-year-old son. He was looking at the pictures I've posted over the last few days, not actually the ones included below.)
Smidge
"That's your character? What does she do, Mommy?"
"Well, she runs really fast."
"Oh! So she's really hard to catch, huh?"
"And she's very small. Way smaller than you, even. But she hits so hard she can knock really big enemies off their feet."
"Whoa. That makes it even harder for bad guys to hit her."
"And she can jump really high, even up on top of a skyscraper."
He laughed, a gleeful chortle. "So bad guys think they're safe, and then they're like, hey, whoa! Where'd she come from! And then she wins."
Pretty accurate, actually.
Johnny Pandemic
"This is my friend's character. He's a mad scientist."
"He's..." (dramatic pause, continued with hushed reverence) "...a SCIENTIST?"
"What can he do? Does he make potions?"
"Actually, yes. He makes potions that can make people feel better."
"What else can he do?"
"Well, he can make poison bombs that go off when enemies run over them. Then the enemies just stand there and choke."
"Cool."
"And you know what? Even rock monsters just stand there and choke when they run over his poison bombs."
"They do?" (Much laughter.) "You know why that's funny, Mommy? Because poison doesn't usually work on rocks. They're usually immune!"
With all of this, I thought Johnny Pandemic was a new fan favorite. But I hadn't yet introduced Acorn to Crash.
Crash Capello
"Whoa, who's that?"
"That's another one of my friends' characters. His name is Crash."
"Wow! He looks almost invisible."
"That's right. That's one of the things he does. He's very sneaky, and can turn invisible, and sneak right up on the biggest enemy in the group. And he hits really hard, so lots of times he can knock down the biggest one with just one punch."
"Whoa. Do the other bad guys just get scared and run away when he does that?"
"Well, no. They notice him then, and then we can all come in and fight. But he's taken out the strongest one before the fight even begins."
"Well, it should work that way. They should make it so when he does that, all the other bad guys get scared and just run off."
Alatan
"Is that one your character?"
"Yes, that one's mine. How did you guess?"
"Well, Mommy, I thought so because you have lots of girl characters. And that one looks like she might be a girl. What can she do? She looks like she can fly."
"Yes, she can fly. But mostly, she uses her mind. She can just think at people, and heal them, or hurt them, or make them stronger."
"That's cool."
Playing Favorites
(I'm getting tired of transcribing this conversation to the best of my memory while also making this interesting to read, so it's straight-up reporting from here out. Mostly.)
Just to see what he would say, I asked Acorn which character was his favorite. At first he chose Al and Johnny, but after a bit more conversation, it became clear that he hadn't realized the three in the picture he was looking at were the same three we had just been talking about in other images. (I suspect he inherited a bit of my prosopagnosia. Sorry, kiddo.)
At that point, he had a clear winner: Crash Capello. I had thought it would probably be Johnny, due to the "He's a SCIENTIST!" reaction. Keep in mind, his kindergarten teacher called him Scientist Acorn after he was better able to explain the change in Pluto's planetary status than she could, along with details about how to determine the temperatures of stars from their colors. He is also very vocal about his love of science in general. So why Crash?
"Well, he's cool," he said of Johnny. "But HE can turn INVISIBLE, and he can get to just the right place and fight bad guys!"
There you have it. Winner of the Coolest Superpower Award, as determined by a poll of our eight-year-old audience members: Crash Capello. Take a bow, Crash.