The DS Life: Two screens, one man's shame

The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.

As we're sure you've heard, life is full of tough decisions. The protagonist of this week's photo was presented with two options, both promising serious consequences. He could either, A) Follow management's orders and strap an embarrassing contraption onto his head to promote the company's stupid game, or B) Turn his back on the assignment, hoping he'll be able to find employment elsewhere soon.

You already know how this one ends, but read on anyway for this edition of The DS Life.

It's easy to picture ourselves as uncompromising figures, people with set limits. But "the real world" has no respect for those limits, and like it or not, if we want that paycheck at the end of the week, we'll dance to the company's tune. There'll be no indignant refusals or dramatic exits; life isn't a John Updike story.

Though it's bad enough that the young promoter above had to shill for Juushinden: Ultimate Beast Battlers, another one of those Yu-Gi-Oh-styled card games with an unwieldy gimmick, Konami completely emasculated him by making him wear the ridiculous headdress and puffy yellow shirt. We can imagine the scene that played out between our bow-tied patsy and his supervisor:

Hireling: Uh, I'm not so sure about this shirt, boss.
Boss: What's wrong with the shirt? It's a perfectly fine shirt!
Hireling: Well, don't you think it's a bit too frilly?
Boss: ...
Hireling: I guess I just always imagined myself as a no-frills kind of guy, you know? And this shirt, it's all frills.
Boss: Look, I don't care what kind of guy you are. You can either put this damn shirt on right now, or you can start looking for another job.
Hireling: Yeah, no problem, boss. I'll wear it.
Boss: Good. I'll get the DS helmet.
Hireling: ...

Was it worth it, Konami? Was it worth breaking his spirit just so you could bring in a few more sales for this forgettable title?

Have you ever had to wear a DS helmet? Not literally, of course -- though if you have, we'd love to hear about that too!