New East Digital Archive

Watch the story of Armenia’s velvet revolution (as told by Super Mario)

Watch the story of Armenia's velvet revolution (as told by Super Mario)

11 May 2018

If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all, you may have noticed a small revolution happening in Armenia.

Crowds of protesters took to the streets of Yerevan in April after President Serzh Sargsyan moved to avoid the consitutional limit of two presidential terms by switching to the post of prime minister. Former journalist and parliamentary deputy Nikol Pashinyan became the leading figure in the demonstrations, and was briefly detained by police. After Sargsyan resigned his post, Pashinyan was elected to the prime minister post by parliament.

With Pashinyan now in the process of creating his government, ordinary Armenians are taking stock, looking at ways to express the emotion and turbulence of the past few weeks. And for Video Cavalry Studio, no form of expression could top the eternal language of the Nintendo 64.

Complete with the iconic Mario soundtrack, they created a three-minute video with a pixelated Pashinyan as he bounces his way through Yerevan, picking up mini-loundspeakers instead of mushrooms in a bid to level up.

Other creators have also been imortilising the revolution online — including a slightly more epic offering from Eagle Eye Armenia. Flawlessly edited, the video mixes real-life news clips with movie soundbites to create all the tension of a Hollywood thriller. It’s avaliable in Russian as well as English.

To see more work from Eagle Eye Armenia or Video Cavalry Studio, visit their websites here and here.