Trigger warning: if you’re old enough to have played Megaman 2 when it first came out, you’re in for a tough reminder that those years are slipping away faster than you’re probably comfortable with. Halifax ex-pats Sleepless Nights have just done a fresh cover if B.A. Johnston’s classic 2005 hit “My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo.”
Never mind that Megaman 2 is over three decades old now, somehow that seems reasonable, but 2005 is now nearly a decade and a half ago. Almost as much time has passed between the creation of Megaman 2 and when “My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo” was written as we are now from the song’s inception. That’s a scary thought.
B.A. Johnston was practically still a young boy back in 2005. His vocal chords sound like they received a gentle gargle of lavender and carrot juice each morning, instead of the signature sound he’s developed by bookending shots of whisky with getting dropkicked in the throat by the local cleat merchant for the last ten years.
Sleepless Night’s A.A. Wallace says that performing B.A. Johnston’s hit provides him with a wonderful sense of being “slightly less old than him.”
Wallace, despite being old enough himself to remember some now-obscure consoles and games, still has great enthusiasm for console gaming.
“I had a Turbografx first, then a Genesis. I didn’t get an NES until my late teens. So for me: Bonks adventure, Legendary Axe and Space Harrier. Later on: Sonic 3 and Skitchin,” says Wallace, listing off some of his favourites.
“I bought the Megaman collection when it came out for the 3DS and it sucks, but i liked the box so it sat there for a while on a shelf. It had a gold Megaman Amibo in it. Then, like a couple of months ago I was playing Mario Kart 8 on the Switch and I realized you can scan Amibos into that shit.
“Now, I realize Megaman is Capcom but if Ready Player One can exist all bets are off when it comes to brands staying in their lane. So I scanned that bitch and sure enough my AA Wallace mii is wearing a goddamned Megaman costume and everyone is jealousssssssss,” says Wallace. “No Megaman Kart though, which is kinda lame, but it is what it is.”
“I do love the bejusus out of Megaman X.”
The video itself features Wallace’s original Nintendo, give or take a little strategic abuse to get that trademark blink. Wallace says that after hauling out, scraping and bending the pins, his Nintendo now only works 20% of the time, making it 5% less reliable than most.