Bonus points if you can tell me which game the various sound effects are originally from.
I was watching Good Morning America when this story was aired and immediately tweeted it to my followers, some of whom probably know my affinity for the Italian plumber turned video game mascot. When the story was complete I followed up with a second tweet (gramatically errant it may be), this time mentioning ABC News Senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. I wanted to let Tapper know that I appreciated that visual aide.
It did not take long for Tapper, an avid Phillies fan, to respond.
I have posted somemusicvideos from YouTube featuring Super Mario Brothers music before, including some from YouTube sensation Brentalfloss. Today brentalfloss has a tap dancing friend to join the Mario fun.
I'll bet you won't be able to resist the temptation try this yourself next time you get up from your seat and walk to the kitchen or bathroom or something. Go ahead! I dare you!
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Today Mario Monday takes a brief hiatus from walking down memory lane and instead looks forward. Don't worry, we'll go back in time next week.
New Super Mario Brothers Wii was released yesterday and it found a nice home at the top of my Christmas list for this year. The highly anticipated Wii release is more than a straight port of the hit DS title of a similar name. The Wii version has multiple playing modes to allow for four player co-op (or competitive) play, something never before seen in a Mario game.
Judging by what I have seen from some select videos and reviews the game play looks to be transported perfectly from the DS version and alot of the familiar game play features of the entire Mario franchise seem to have been included.
I tweeted earlier today that it is nice to see the Koopa Kids make a long awaited return. I had fears that Bowser had killed them off in order to give his entire attention to the younger version of Bowser in recent Mario games.
You can check out a number of reviews online already but I hope to be able to give my own assessment sometime after the holiday season, by which time it may be obsolete anyway.
If you have picked up the game already please let me know what you think of it!
This week Mario Monday take s a look at the final classic game from the series to be played on the Super Nintendo. Thought to be a bit of a high risk-high reward title, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars successfully blended the terrific RPG game play that only a company like Squaresoft, known today as Square Enix and the lovable characters form the Mario universe.
Japanese commercial for Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG is perhaps one of the best role playing games to be played on the Super Nintendo, a system that had a healthy share of awesome games in the genre. The game featured an action-command battle system, which helped make the game more fun. In older RPGs the player typically just chose a command and hoped for the best result. But Super Mario RPG added animations for each move in a battle. As great as the game was it enjoyed limited success as the release of the Nintendo 64 followed just four months later. With the release of the next home console a blockbuster (Super Mario 64) stole the show.
But do not look past Super Mario RPG.
The storyline is somewhat familiar but with a twist. Captured once again is Princess Peach by none other than Bowser, King of the Koopas. After Mario chases down his nemesis and seemingly rescues the captured damsel in distress, a giant sword plows into Bowser's castle and sends Mario, the princess, and Bowser in separate directions. After making his way back to Bowser's castle Mario is told that the stomping grounds have been taken over by the Smithy Gang.
In the journey to save the day Mario must team up with Bowser as well as two new allies. Mallow is a fluffy looking side-kick. Mallow learns that he is actually a prince during the quest as he was raised by a character who found him stranded as a baby. Geno is a little bit more mysterious and very powerful. He possess a great knowledge of many things along the way. Mallow joins Mario's party first and Geno is the second side-kick picked up along the way before Bowser joins the party.
Though the game does not have a true sequel it did set the ground work for future Mario RPG styled games, such as Paper Mario and the recent Mario & Luigi series.
I will be honest in telling you that I have never played this game, but since it is available for download on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console, perhaps I should check it out some day. If you have played the game before please feel free to add your thoughts on the game below to fill in the many missing pieces I may have above.
Mario Monday returns with a look at another classic game in the legendary Mario series, but today we take a look at some classic Japanese commercials to star the Italian plumber.
The first is a joint commercial for a pair of classic Famicom Disk System. The games of course are the original version of Super Mario Brothers 2 and The Legend of Zelda, itself the first in a classic smash hit series. If you recall, in Japan there was the Famicom, which was the original form of the Nintendo Entertainment system, and the Famicom Disk System, which would read specially designed diskettes for the games much like a computer game. The Disk System was a separate add-on in Japan to the Famicom and the idea was never released in the United States. Instead the NES game library would use passwords and codes, or battery back-ups within the game cartridges in order to save a player's progress.
I can not translate exactly what the two are saying, but I would guess the guy is saying something along the lines of "Super Mario Brothers 2 - it's hard!". As Mario says something in Japanese ("Don't hurt me!" perhaps?) the girl probably says something along the lines of "Come on!"
Poor Link is sentenced to the same fate as Mario in his half of the commercial.
The Japanese commercial for Super Mario Brothers 3 is a little bit more traditional. Set to a classical sounding tune you would think Mario is frolicking through an open field by people having a nice picnic. Instead stairs are crumbling beneath him and the Koopa Kids make their first appearance.
Finally today, a look at the Japanese commercial for Mario Paint on the Super Famicom. Much like in the US the innovation of the SNES Mouse was new to Japan so I can only guess that the following commercial makes mention of the new tool. Mario enters the commercial riding the mouse as a way of introducing the peripheral, and I only assume there is a comment about it.
Check back next week for a new edition of Mario Monday as we get back to looking at the actual games. We return to the land of the 16-bit genre with a look at a legendary game in the Mario series, the last Mario classic before making the jump to the 3D world offered by the Nintendo 64.
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Mario Monday takes a step into another dimension as today we take a look at the first Mario game to enter the virtual reality realm with Mario Clash for the much maligned Virtual Boy.
In 1995 Nintendo unveiled the Virtual Boy, the first portable home gaming console to utilize virtual reality. True to the Nintendo pattern, a Mario themes game would be included in the release of the system, and that game was Mario Clash.
Mario Clash took the theme of the original arcade game, Mario Brothers, and added some new twists, including enemies who had since been introduced since the arcade had been created. Rather than bump the enemies from below Mario now was to eliminate the baddies by hurling Koopa shells across the platforms and through the three dimensions.
Here is a comparison of a basic screen shot from Mario Clash and its ancestor, Mario Brothers;
Mario Brothers
Mario Clash
The Virtual Boy saw a limited shelf life and while the red screen had enough to bring down the system itself, the lack of a quality Mario game clearly hurt. The Nintendo entertainment System had Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers 3. The Super Nintendo had Super Mario World. the Game Boy had Super Mario Land and the Nintendo 64 had the ground breaking Super Mario 64. Today the Nintendo Wii has Super Mario Galaxy (and a sequel in the works for next year).
The Virtual Boy's life was counting on Mario Clash, but poor game play, unusual for a Mario game, and limited replay value doomed the system. The lack of ability to save a player's progress also detracted form the game. At the time, battery back-up was all but a minimum for most home console video games. The sound, as with most Virtual Boy titles, was tough to listen too. It was not much of an upgrade over the Game Boy. In fact, the sounds of Mario Clash are worse than anything you would have heard in Super Mario Land, which was a launch title for the Game Boy in 1989.
So what is the legacy of Mario Clash? Sure, it was acknowledged in Wario are: Micro Games as one of 9-Volt's micro games, but ultimately Mario Clash is a game Nintendo probably would like to put behind them, much like the system it was played on. Screw Attack labeled it as the second worst Mario game of all time. The game was available in stores for just three months, but still pays an important role in the Mario franchise's history. Mario Clash was the first 3-D game in the franchise, paving the way for Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64 one year later.
If you are brave enough, here is a video of the game being played.
Feel free to share your thoughts on Mario Clash. If you actually owned it, or have played it, I would love to get your feedback. what did you like or dislike?
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This week Mario Monday returns with a look at the only sequel, although it could be considered a prequel, to the critically acclaimed Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo. Today we take a look at Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island takes place well before any of the games in the Mario timeline. It is also the first game in which the character of Yoshi is the playable character. Yoshi was introduced in the previous Super NES installment of the Mario series and clearly had become a fan favorite. If not for the technical limitations of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Yoshi would have been introduced years before the Super Nintendo came along. Now that it had Yoshi was taking the world by storm.
The premise of Super Mario World 2 is that the stork that had been flying Baby Mario and Baby Luigi was attacked by Kamek the Magikoopa. The wizardly Koopa snatched Baby Luigi but Baby Mario fell to the ground. Baby Mario had fallen on a Yoshi, along with a map, and the Yoshi consulted with the other Yoshis to determine what the best course of action was. Meanwhile Kamek sent out an army of his own to search and recover Baby Mario.
After learning that Baby Mario wanted to save his missing brother, the Yoshis set out on a quest to save the missing toddler.
Game play in Super Mario World 2 is truly unique to the rest of the franchise. Baby Mario rides on the back of Yoshi, who must jump on and swallow baddies that get in the way. Yoshi also has the ability to throw eggs at his enemies. To do so Yoshi must line up a shot using the aimer that rotates on an axis. When the shot is lined up on the target Yoshi hurls an egg at whatever may be in the way.
Yoshi can also speed watermelon seeds at his foes. His number of seeds is determined by the size of the watermelon he digests.
Should Yoshi be attacked by an enemy Mario is vulnerable to be taken away. If Mario is being flown away by flying enemies Yoshi must re-capture the crying baby and fend off the baddies. But Yoshi must hurry because if the countdown reaches zero the game is over.
Speaking of enemies, Yoshi will encounter many familiar and many new bad guys. Goombas, Lakitu, and Koopa Troopas are there to cause trouble as always. The most notable return though is that of the Shy Guy, who was once a part of Mario's dream adventure in Super Mario Brothers 2. So the question must be asked; was Mario really having a bad flashback dream of sorts in Super Mario Brothers 2? Was he having bad memories of the Shy Guys in his adulthood that have been hiding in the back of his memory?
In addition to the traditional game play there are a number of extra hidden in the game. For example, Super Mario World 2 is the first game to make use of the red coin system. Finding all of the hidden red coins in a level will help to unlock secret areas and higher scores.
What leaves an impression on me from this game is the graphics style, which came about as a bit of a controversy at the time. After the wild success of Donkey Kong Country, in which the Super NES had shown off some of the best graphics possible on the hardware, Nintendo pressured Shigeru Miyamoto to use a similar look in the Super Mario World sequel. Miyamoto though was not impressed with Donkey Kong Country and challenged Nintendo to say no to his unique idea. Miyamoto, being the reason Nintendo has been so successful, is a man that the company just could not say no to, so the crayon look stayed.
The game has more of an hand-drawn animated feel to it than Super Mario World. The game also makes beautiful use of the Super FX 2 chip to create some fantastic visuals of sprite scaling in boss scenes. And much like any Mario game, the music hard in the game is catchy and sometimes hard to get out of your head.
Feel free to share your thoughts about this game in the comments section below.
Today Mario Monday sort of takes a moment to reflect in essence as the featured game is Super Mario All Stars for the Super Nintendo.
When Super Mario All Stars is a compilation cartridge of the original Super Mario games on the NES. Each classic had been given a face lift for their 16-bit debut but the basic game play was faithfully restored. All of the game physics, characters and abilities, enemies and secrets were the same, but the enhanced visuals and sound track gave the games a fresh feel.
Why else would somebody who had mastered Super Mario Brothers 3 want to pick up and play All Stars? For North America the answer was easy; to get their hands on the real Super Mario Brothers 2.
Until the release of Super Mario All Stars gamers in North America had only read about the controversy behind Super Mario Brothers 2, and only a small handful of images from the game had been shown on this side of the Pacific Ocean. Finally though Nintendo fans could dive into the one player Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels, given that name on the All Stars pack.
But even without the Lost Levels many Mario experts would have picked up this game. While the games were essentially the same the SNES upgrades also featured a battery back up, allowing gamers to save their progress in the middle of a game. This came in handy when playing such a large game like Super Mario Brothers 3. If you were like me you would typically leave the NES on while you had to go eat dinner, or you had to go run errands with your parents, and would pick up where you left off when you returned home. Not anymore! With the battery saving technique you could save your progress at any time, including your saved warp whistles and hammer brothers suits, turn the system off and avoid fire hazards and increased electricity bills. You could say Super Mario All Stars was an investment for the bill payer!
Let's take a look at the comparison between the original NES versions of the games and their SNES upgrades.
Super Mario Brothers
Super Mario Brothers 2
Super Mario Brothers 3
While most of the general game play in these games was true to its original games, many glitches were removed. Most notable among the bug fixes was the removal of the Minus level in the original Super Mario Brothers.
If you are looking for this game on the Wii's Virtual Console, you can likely forget about it. Nintendo has no plans to release this game as each game, in its original form, is already available for download on the service.
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This week we return to the normal Mario Monday feature with a look at a game that is not exactly a game, but a creative tool. The Super Nintendo was one of the greatest video game systems, and Mario Paint was probably one of the more innovative ideas on the system.
As someone who spent many hours in my younger days both playing Mario games and drawing lots of things like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, original game level designs and mazes, imaginary super heroes and more, Mario Paint, I feel was made just for me.
In 1992 when Mario Paint was released I was already finding myself playing around with MS Paint, packaged with Microsoft Windows, but wishing there was a more fun way aside from Kid Pix, which was starting to be outgrown by me.
Mario Paint took the fun of Kid Pix, mixed in some Nintendo flavor and added some entertaining features like music composition, animation, and an addictive game.
Mario Paint allows the creative gamers to draw whatever they want using tools like a pencil, paint brush, or rubber stamps. Aspiring artists can use a slate of Mario influenced sprites that are available to use as well as create their own stamps. Mario Paint was so detailed one could actually recreate an exact scene from a classic NES title, and some SNES titles.
One of the most popular parts of Mario Paint was probably the music composer, which gave the musically inclined a number of different icons that represented different musical instruments. While the notation was limited to the key of C and just sixteen bars of 4/4 time if you were creative enough and edited your pieces just right you could recreate some famous works of art.
Here is one compilation of music from Super Mario Brothers 3 using Mario Paint's music mode...
Here is another piece inspired by the character select screen in Super Mario Brothers 2...
Evidence that the music feature of Mario Paint was the best part comes in the form of Mario Paint Composer, a piece of software the takes the guidelines of the original music feature and expands on it greatly. This program is the music editor of choice for expert Mario Paint musicians, as the program provides an expanded instrument selection and allows the composer to utilize sharps and flats.
Here is one example of a remixed song using Mario Paint Composer...
Using the animation feature opened up a new realm of creativity, bringing all of the features of Mario Paint together. The animation mode allowed gamers to combine their illustrated backgrounds, customized music, and four, six, or nine frames of animation in one piece. Or if you wanted to mix things and edit things on your own, you could put together a real masterpiece...
Another shining example of how with enough creativity Mario Paint can really open the doors for you is Homestar Runner. Did you know that the very first Homestar Runner cartoon, which has gained a cult following on the internet, was animated through Mario Paint? As Homestar himself might say, "It's true."
Of course, to use Mario Paint Nintendo fans had to use the innovative SNES Mouse, which came packaged with the game along with a sturdy mouse pad. Much like Windows came with Solitaire and Minesweeper as a way to get people familiar with the computer mouse, Mario Paint came with an addictive game that pushed your mouse moving and clicking to expert levels; Gnat Attack.
In this game the player uses a fly swatter to rid the screen of an onslaught of insects and flying bombs. At the end of each stage is a show down with Watinga, a giant robotic insect set to destroy your fly swatter.
It is no secret that Mario Paint is one of my favorite games on the Super NES, although it is hard to consider this a true game on many levels. Regardless, the dream of one day being able to dive into an updated version on the Nintendo Wii, which would have so many possibilities at this point, remains just that; a dream.
What are your thoughts on Mario Paint? Were you as big a fan of this game as I was or did you quickly find yourself bored with this and inserting your copy of Pilotwings or F-Zero back into your Super NES? Go ahead and share your thoughts in the comment section.
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Mario Monday is on break for one more week. Instead check out this latest offering from the Angry Video Game Nerd, as he discusses a pair of educational Mario games.
With the launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System Mario was bound to expand on his empire and game library. After spending years stomping on Goombas and kicking Koopa shells, Mario had a desire to hit the race tracks. Taking a page from the success of F-Zero, Super Mario Kart took the racing genre to a whole new dimension.
Super Mario Kart for the SNES is still one of the most successful games on the system and launched a franchise of its own. Before the days of online multi-player races and the Wii Wheel, Super Mario Kart was simple, yet addictive with its four cups, time trial mode and the exciting battle mode.
Released in the United States in September of 1992, Super Mario Kart quickly became a must-own game for every SNES owner. Obviously the fact that the Mario cast and worlds were featured in the game many fans picked up a copy just to have another Mario game. Had this game not been branded with Mario though the game would still be a great game due to its smooth game play and re-playability with battle mode.
Super Mario Kart features eight racers with four unique styles of play. Mario and Luigi were the average kart drivers. Yoshi and Princess Peach were quick accelerators while Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr. were slow starters but could reach the highest speeds. Toad and Koopa Troopa (my kart racer of choice) provided the best control but lacked the highest speed.
Competition consisted of three cups; Mushroom, Flower and Star. Conquering these three standard cups would unlock the Special Cup.
Super Mario World plays a heavy influence on the course layout in this game. Ghost Valley courses are designed with the ghost houses introduced in SMW, as are the Choco Island courses and Donut Plains tracks.
The Special Cup introduced the legendary Rainbow Road, a course that would be adapted in each of the future editions in the Super Mario Kart series. Mastering Rainbow Road took patience, and to this day it will still give kart racers fits as there are no borders to keep the driver from falling off. This frustration would be somewhat fixed in the future, but Rainbow Road generally represents the toughest stage in all of the Mario Kart games.
Perhaps the greatest part of Super Mario Kart is the vast array of items that the drivers can use. The items that can be picked up ranger from coins (which help increase speed), mushrooms (giving the driver a speed boost), and banana peels (which cause opposing drivers to spin out). Of course the most coveted items are the lightning bolt (which zaps all opposing racers and shrinks them), the starman (giving the racer temporary invincibility) and the red Koopa shell (which acts as a homing missile on the racer in front of the driver).
The red Koopa shell was probably the most useful item in Super Mario Kart, but it came in handy the most in the battle mode. In battle mode two players drove their karts around a specially designed course, picking up various items with the goal of popping the opposing player's balloons. The first driver to have their three balloons popped would suffer defeat. Red Koopa shells all but guaranteed a popped balloon but the more experienced kart drivers could find ways to defeat the red shell.
Super Mario Kart took advantage of the Mode 7 graphics processing on the SNES> Mode 7 was "a form of texture mapping available on the SNES which allows a plane to be rotated and scaled freely, achieving a pseudo three-dimensional appearance." (Source) Mode 7 gave game son the SNES a unique visual appearance that set it above the level of the Sega Genesis. Today it looks primitive but the ability to have a camera spin around a character and rotate the playing field the way it does was ground breaking at the time and visually stunning.
Super Mario Kart also utilized the, at the time not so common, split screen view. The top of the screen was used to show you the driver and the course. Meanwhile on the bottom the player could get a view of the entire course map as well as where the other drivers were located. The map screen could also be used as a rear view mirror by pressing the right button.
In two player mode though the bottom screen would remove any maps and rear mirror functions and act as the playing screen for player two.
The original Super Mario Kart has yet to be released on the Nintendo Virtual Console (although Mario Kart 64 has been released). The only way to play the game today is by hooking up your old SNES and plugging in your controller of choice. Grab a friend to play along and relive the memories of 1992 all over again.
After the success of Mario's debut on the Super Nintendo, the famous plumber made a return to the portable Game Boy system. The sequel to Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins picks up the story line from where the original portable adventure left off.
As the commercial suggests, Wario, a bizarro world type Mario has taken control of Mario Land and Mario's palace. Wario has stolen the six golden coins, which provide access to Mario's Castle, and spreading them out to six unique areas Mario would have to reclaim them by battling numerous enemies, both familiar and new. Mario also could use power ups, as usual, including Rabbit Mario, allowing Mario to slowly fall to the ground.
Super Mario Land 2 saw many improvements over the original portable adventure. While Super Mario Land used pixelated graphics reminiscent of a TI-83 game, SML2 used actual game sprites to depict Mario and other characters. Many of the game play aspects were carried over from Super Mario World (actually Super Mario Brothers 3) as well. Mario can advance to various stages in the order of his choosing on the world map. One aspect of the game that may be slightly influenced by previous games is the casino.
In the casino on the world map Mario can gamble coins he has collected for extra lives. This is very similar to the end-of-stage bonus game in the American Super Mario Brothers 2. Games of chance also appeared in Super Mario Brothers 3 as well, with memory card games and a slots inspired game.
Clearly though the legacy of Super Mario Land 2 is in the character of Wario. The evil version of Mario has gone off to star in his own line of games and has become a favorite character in plenty of Mario spin off games like Mario Baseball, Super Smash Brothers, and more. In the original instruction booklet Wario was mentioned as an old enemy of Mario who was jealous of the hero's fame and fortune. Who can blame him? Mario was the star of Donkey Kong and received his own video game changing franchise of games. Wario on the other hand? Well...there is Wario Ware, right?
Like its predecessor, Super Mario Land 2 was not produced by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto. The music for the game was catchy, of course, but never reached the fame that other Mario themes have received. The game play was smooth though, which made for a great game. The original Super Mario Land may have more fans but Super Mario Land 2 is a worthy game itself. Perhaps it is because this game was molded off of the game engine used in Super Mario Brothers 3, the greatest video game of all time. With a 4 megabit game cartridge, this was one of the largest Game Boy games at the time it was released.
In 1991 Nintendo introduced the much anticipated successor to the smash hit Nintendo Entertainment System with the aptly named Super Nintendo Entertainment System. As a young Nintendo player growing up I naturally learned as much about the system as I could through my subscription to Nintendo Power. I had saved up my allowance for months and was a proud owner of the Super NES soon after its August 1991 release.
As cool as I thought it was to be the first kid on the block to own a Super NES (most kids fancied a Sega Genesis at the time) I was more excited to lay my hands on the pack-in game (remember when systems came packaged with a game and two controllers as the standard?), Super Mario World.
At the time Super Mario World was pegged as the greatest Mario adventure ever, and it may in fact still be. While Super Mario Brothers 3 took the series to levels it never reached before, Super Mario World took those changes and enhanced them. Super Mario World took the traditional Mario storyline and took it further with a new land to explore, a new power-up, many new enemies and some new friends.
Super Mario World takes place in Dinosaur Land, which I assume is adjacent of the old Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach (of course) and taken reign over Dinosaur Land with the help of his kids from Super Mario Brothers 3. Each Koopaling took control of a castle that would stand on Mario's way to tracking down Bowser. Along the way Mario would encounter many familiar baddies, such as Goombas, Koopa Troopas, piranha plants, and more, but these traditional foes took on new looks in Super Mario World. Goombas were more difficult to defeat. One jump would not kill them as before, but turn them over. Mario could then pick them up, similar to the ability to pick up a Koopa shell.
Also an army of new enemies made their debuts in Super Mario World. Underwater stages now featured Rip Van Fish and Urchins. Many land stages featured new foes like Chargin' Chuck, Dino-Torch, and .
Gone from Super Mario Brothers 3 were the different suits, such as Hammer Brothers and Frog, as well as the popular Raccoon Leaf. Super Mario World did not take Mario's flying ability away though, and introduced the feather, which provided Mario with a cape. The cape, when used properly, allowed Mario to fly over great amounts of land but could also be used as a weapon. Spinning with the cape would wipe out enemies if they got too close. Mario also had the trusty fire flower available to him. But the most important addition to the Mario family was the famous green dinosaur, Yoshi.
Yoshi quickly became a fan favorite and would eventually go on to star in his own line of games, garnering much more attention than Mario's brother Luigi. Yoshi was the ultimate weapon for Mario as he could gobble up many enemies (giving Mario a coin in exchange), walk on many foes that Mario could not, and could also be used to give Mario a boost when the plumber jumped off of his new green dino friend. Who amongst us has not used Yoshi to save ourselves at least once?
While the most common Yoshi was green there were also three different colored Yoshis hiding in the secret Star World. A red Yoshi would breath fire. Yellow Yoshi's caused an earthquake. Blue Yoshi's could fly. The ultimate combination was a caped Mario with a blue Yoshi.
Super Mario world was a monumental game for Nintendo. There was not better way to introduce the Super Nintendo to consumers than with one of the best Mario games of all time. Sega was blasting Nintendo for their delay in bringing the SNES to the United States and would point out the Genesis' superior "blast processing". But when gamers got their eyes set on Super Mario World it was painfully obvious that the Super Nintendo was capable of a lot more than critics thought.
As always, feel free to share your memories of Super Mario World in the comments section!
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Before Nintendo had officially moved on to the next generation of gaming he left the 8-bit universe with one last golden nugget. Nintendo used Mario to put together the most successful Tetris clone known to the gaming world, Dr. Mario.
Dr. Mario took the addictive game play of Tetris and threw in their own twists. Rather than pile up bricks in straight lines the object was for the plumber-turned-doctor to rid the jar of various viruses. Gone were the Koopas and Goombas and in were three different colored viruses; Fever, Chill and Weird. To defeat these viruses Mario had to stack three same colored vitamins on top of the virus.
Sounds easy, right? Of course it starts out easy, with only three or four viruses posing a threat. Naturally as the levels increase, so does the threat of a breakout of the virus. Not only do the viruses continue to populate in the jars but the speed at which the vitamins thrown by Dr. Mario also increases, similar to Tetris.
The thought of Mario in a puzzle game came off strange at first but once anyone took their try at the addictive puzzler, they were hooked. But it is not just the quality puzzles that make this game what it is. The multi-player modes also play a factor.
Multi-player modes on the NES were great because each player could set their own difficulty levels, which made it great for first time players and seasoned video game doctor-plumber wannabes alike. An experienced player could choose faster speeds and more viruses to defeat while a rookie could select a much easier goal.
The NES provided just 2-player play though, which of course was normal for those days despite the four player adapters that were available. I however prefer to the 2-player mode on the Game Boy, probably because I have played that version more than any other.
In the days of the Game Boy there was no Wi-fi connectivity options and both players had to have a copy of the game, as well as a link cable. I spent many long car trips beating my sister in Dr. Mario (and Tetris), although she can handily beat me on the NES version today.
In Tetris when one player cleared multiple lines the excess would pile would raise your opponent's stack, causing panic at the most inopportune times. In Dr. Mario rather than raise the viruses and already placed pills, random pill halves would fall from the bottom before the player's next pill was used. Would a different colored pill half cover up what your opponent was building up? Hopefully.
But what is the best part of Dr. Mario? Definitely the music. Who will ever get this theme out of their heads?
As great as the Fever theme may be, I have always been somewhat partial to the Chill theme...
Dr. Mario still lives on today. The character of Dr. Mario has appeared in the Super Smash Brothers series and the game is still thriving today in the form of remakes. You can find it on the Nintendo Wii under the WiiWare titles for example.
If I had to choose between Tetris and Dr. Mario I would find it near impossible to pass up the classic Russian puzzler, but my favorite plumber would definitely suffice as a replacement.
DISCLAIMER: The Angry Video Game Nerd, while hilarious in his own style, may not be suited for everyone. If you are easily offended by strong language then I urge you NOT to watch the below video. This video is rated R. I usually try to avoid strong language on the site, but I couldn't keep from including this video.
I mentioned in this week's edition of Mario Monday that the movie The Wizard was used as a marketing tool for the release of the third Mario adventure. As you might expect, it was not great. The Angry Video Game Nerd put together a review of the game and the movie last year and I felt that sharing his video here was appropriate this week. It is about 17 minutes long but if you have the time and can appreciate the nerd factor focusing on old school Nintendo, you will enjoy this.
When we took a look at Super Mario Brothers 2 a couple weeks ago one of the follow up posts highlighted this percussionist, Andrea Vadrucci, who compiled a mix to the music from the game. Lucky for us he also had put together a mix of drum beats to the music from Super Mario Brothers 3, which was the feature of this week's edition of Mario Monday.
Brentalfloss is a musical mastermind with a passion for Nintendo games who built his reputation on YouTube and now has joined the gang of ScrewAttack. He is most famous for his musical tributes to the 8-bit classics such as Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Super Mario Brothers 2, and Tetris. In fact you may remember him from one of the follow up posts to last week's Mario Monday when I shared a video of Brentalfloss played the Super Mario Brothers 2 character select screen on piano.
Luckily for me last week he released his latest edition of "What if...had lyrics?" series and it focuses on none other Super Mario Brothers 3, our featured game this week in Mario Monday. Like I said before, this week's Mario Monday will have a bunch of follow ups as the week progresses, so be prepared.
This is the one I have been waiting for. This is the one that inspired me to create this little weekly feature. This is the one that will probably have five or six follow ups. You see, today we discuss what I consider to be the greatest video game of all time.
Wait, that was not enough build up. Let me try that again...
Super Mario Brothers 3 arrived in the United States a year and a half after its debut in Japan in October of 1988. After the bizarre Super Mario Brothers 2 was rushed to the US because the third game was already in production, Nintendo fans were thirsty to see what the big fuss was about.
Never before had a game practically driven the production and sales for a movie like Super Mario Brothers 3. The only reason kids begged their parents to go see The Wizard was so they could get a glimpse of Super Mario Brothers 3!
Super Mario Brothers 3 was Mario's biggest adventure to date. Bowser was back and not only had he taken Princess Peach captive, but he also got his kids in the act. Each Koopa Kid stole the magic wands possessed by the kings of each world and transformed them into different creatures. It was up to Mario and Luigi to save each kingdom's king and pick up clues to find where the Peach was being held by Bowser.
The familiar cast of Mario characters returned, including Goomba, Koopa Troopas, Cheap-Cheaps and more. The Koopa kids, known as the Koopalings, made their first appearance in the Mario series. Each Koopaling had their own character traits, and they were fought in order from youngest to oldest. The concept being that the oldest Koopa heir would be the most difficult, and he was.
Larry Koopa is the most basic of enemies and presents little to no problem. Morton Koopa Jr. can make the ground shake when he jumps in the air. Wendy throws giant candy cane rings around the room. Lemmy would bounce balls off the walls. Ludwig von Koopa could make the ground shake and he was the quickest of the bunch, providing Mario one last test before advancing to the final level of the game.
Anybody who has played Super Mario Brothers 3 will agree that this game is all about the power ups and the warp whistles.
In addition to the normal Super Mario, Fire Mario and star man power for invincibility, Mario was given a new ability to fly. The most common way to fly was to become Raccoon Mario by grabbing a leaf. Mario would grow a tail and ears and could now attack enemies by whipping his tail. He could also fly when running fast enough. The Raccoon form was planned for the Super NES debut of Mario in Super Mario World, but it was replaced with the feather and cape combination. Raccoon Mario, to this day, is still my favorite form of the plumber.
In order to maneuver throw the water levels with greater ease Mario could put on the first of his new suits, the frog suit. Putting the frog suit on limited Mario's effectiveness when above water, but when under water Mario could move as fast as a fish and avoid enemies easier. Of course if he wasn't careful he could just as easily swim right into an onslaught of baddies too. The frog suit came in handy in level three, the water world.
Perhaps the most hyped suit in the game was the Tanookie Suit. Donning the teddy bear-esque outfit gave Mario the same abilities as Raccoon Mario, but also added an ability to become a statue for a brief moment. When in statue form enemies would walk right by Mario without causing damage. Personally I never really used the statue feature but it was a cool trick to do.
Finally there was the rare Hammer Brothers Suit. Putting on this suit gave Mario the same abilities of the pesky Hammer Brothers, allowing Mario to throw hammers at his enemies at different ranges. The shell on his back, when ducking, could also shield Mario from incoming fireballs.
The most requested item to return to the Mario franchise though must be Kuribo's Shoe. This green shoe was worn by Goombas in Level 5-3 and if knocked out of the shoe from below, Mario could take over and bounce around in it for the remainder of the stage. With the shoe Mario could stomp on enemies he could not before, such as Spinies and Pirahna Plants. Unfortunately the item could not travel from stage to stage and had to stay in 5-3.
Then there were the Warp Whistles. Hidden in three secret spots the Warp Whistles would call a tornado to carry Mario from wherever he was to the Warp Zone. From there Mario could cut his adventure short and jump ahead a couple levels. Using a warp whistle in the Warp Zone at any point could take Mario straight to level eight, where Bowser was holding the princess captive.
Super Mario Brothers 3 had so many great elements to it that made it such a success. There is too much to review in one post so be sure to check back through the week for the appropriate follow ups on this game.
