In the early 90's, the Mario series had many educational games created for varying systems, including the PC.

Mario Is Missing!

Mario Is Missing! is a geography edutainment video game for the PC, Super NES, and NES. It was developed by The Software Toolworks and was released in 1992 for the PC. In 1993, two different versions were made for the SNES and NES, the latter being developed by Radical Entertainment. All three versions were published by the Mindscape Group.

The game is notable for being the first game to feature only Luigi as a playable character, which did not occur again until Luigi's Mansion. Since this game was not actually developed by Nintendo or Shigeru Miyamoto (they sublicensed the characters), it bears little resemblance to earlier Mario titles.

Plot

Bowser has set up a castle in Antarctica, and plans to use many hair dryers from the Hafta Havit mail-order company to melt the Antarctic ice and flood the Earth. He sends his Koopas to different cities across the Earth to steal artifacts in order to fund his operation. Mario, Luigi and Yoshi journey to Bowser's castle in an attempt to stop him. Luigi is hesitant to go in, so Mario goes by himself and is captured by Bowser. Luigi must now rescue Mario from Bowser and save the day.

Gameplay

Luigi progresses through the game by completing levels in Bowser's castle; each floor is guarded by one Koopaling and contains a number of pipes which transport Luigi to a city containing Koopas. Once a floor is completed, Luigi must defeat the Koopaling guarding that floor to proceed to the next.

The main gameplay consists of moving around a city in side-scrolling manner while jumping on Koopas to collect stolen artifacts (pieces of famous landmarks). Luigi then must take these artifacts to their respective locations and correctly answer three questions about the landmark. Once an artifact is returned, the landmark is reopened. During the quest to return all three artifacts to their proper landmarks, Luigi must determine his location in order to receive the assistance of Yoshi by using a device called the Globulator. If Luigi takes Yoshi to the correct location, he can ride him for double the walking and running speed. Once the exit pipe is found, Luigi is returned to the castle as long as he has Yoshi with him; otherwise he will be unable to return to the castle. He can then proceed to another town to do it all over again.

In each city, Luigi is able to question the locals to gain clues as to his current location, the general direction of remaining Koopas, and information about the affected landmarks. He is given a map detailing where the information booths, people and Koopas are in the city where Mario is.

Mario Teaches Typing

Mario Teaches Typing is an educational video game that is designed for teaching typing skills to children. It was published and developed by Interplay, with an official license from Nintendo. It was released for MS-DOS in 1991, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in 1995, and a follow-up entitled Mario Teaches Typing 2 was released in 1996. It features the Mario characters of Nintendo fame. Charles Martinet is often erroneously credited as the voice of Mario in this game, who is actually done by Ronald B. Ruben.

Game mechanics

There were three selectable characters: Mario, Luigi, and Princess Toadstool. There were nine selectable lessons - including Home Row, Top Row, Numbers, Lower Row, among others. The Words Per Minutes setting was automatically set after the first lesson, although this could be changed in the profile menu. After beating a mode, that WPM was raised by 10. If a player was at 55 WPM and beat Outdoors, it would be raised to 65 WPM for Underwater. Additionally, the player could set the minutes he or she played, ranging from 0:30 seconds to 10:00 minutes. There are five modes:

Each mode had two pairs of hands that signified which finger to use; if the letter needed to type was "A," the left pinky finger would be highlighted. If a typist made a mistake, the cursor would not advance until the typist entered the correct key. After the allotted time had elapsed, the exercise would end and be replaced with a chalkboard screen. Players could see their WPM, how many mistakes they made, their accuracy, and the time they set. This was useful for future lessons.

Reception

Mario Teaches Typing was deemed the tenth worst Mario game of all time by Screwattack.

Mario Teaches Typing 2

Mario Teaches Typing 2 is a computer game starring Mario developed by Brainstorm and published by Interplay Entertainment. As with the previous game, Mario Teaches Typing 2 is an educational game designed to teach children to type. Players can choose to select to take a placement test (which is scored based upon accuracy and speed) or participate in lessons (whether in order or selected individually). Also, the sequel has numerous new features, including a customizable certificate of achievement, color coded on-screen keyboard, and customizable lesson plans. Unlike the first Typing game, Mario was indeed voiced by Charles Martinet in this game.

Mario's Early Years! Fun with Letters

Mario's Early Years! Fun with Letters is a Mario game released for SNES on June 1, 1993. It was one of the few educational games for the SNES and had two alternate games with the same gameplay engine, but different things to learn about. The game contains Mario, Princess Peach, and Yoshi on a wooden boat traveling from island to island, learning about grammar and letters.

Mario's Early Years: Fun with Numbers

Mario's Early Years! Fun with Numbers is a game released for SNES on June 15, 1993. It's a game for toddlers that deals with Arabic numerals.

Mario's Early Years: Preschool Fun

Mario's Early Years! Preschool Fun is a game released for SNES on June 1, 1993. This game was developed for children under 6 years of age.

Reception

Mario's Early Years: Preschool Fun was deemed the third worst Mario game of all time by ScrewAttack, citing that it featured "some of the worst voice in video game history".

Mario's Game Gallery

Mario's Game Gallery is a computer game developed by Interplay Entertainment Corp. and published by Presage Software, Inc on February 23, 1995. It was later re-released as Mario's FUNdamentals.

Gameplay

Its gameplay consists of the player competing against Nintendo's Mario in games of checkers, Go Fish, dominoes, backgammon, and yacht (a version of Yahtzee). It is the first game to feature Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario, predating Super Mario 64. The game was rated "K-A" (Kids to Adults) by the ESRB.

Most game pieces and cards are represented by characters from the Mario series. For example, in checkers, one player uses baby Yoshis while the other uses Koopa Troopas; when one of these is kinged, it turns into an adult Yoshi or Bowser, respectively.

Reception

Mario's FUNdamentals was deemed the sixth worst Mario game of all time by ScrewAttack, concluding that there was "nothing fun about FUNdamentals".

Mario's Time Machine

Mario's Time Machine is a video game made for PC, Super NES, and NES. It is considered to be a sequel to Mario Is Missing! In this game, Mario has to go back in time to restore some artifacts that were stolen from their original times and, in the NES version, save Yoshi from Bowser. This game was made in 1993 and was released for PC. A version for the SNES was also made that year. The NES version wasn't released until 1994.

Plot

Set in 1993, Bowser is in possession of a time machine. He went back in time to steal many artifacts from the past, and placed them in what he would consider "...the greatest museum of all time". If the items aren't returned soon, history will be changed permanently. It's up to Mario to stop Bowser from completing his collection.

Gameplay

Reception

Mario's Time Machine was deemed the fourth worst Mario game of all time by ScrewAttack, citing that it was basically "giving a five-year-old fill-in-the-blank questions" with excessive choices in words.

Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up

Super Mario Bros. & Friends: When I Grow Up is a computer coloring game featuring the Mario brothers. The game was released 1991. Players can paint Mario and other Nintendo characters.

References