Gameplay

Recurring gameplay elements

The Super Mushroom is a power-up from the series. It is, traditionally, about the size of Mario, and has an ivory stalk below a red and white (originally red and orange) spotted cap. Originally, it was shaped after a common mushroom, but since Super Mario Bros. 2 it gained a more cartoonish shape, with an almost-spherical cap and a stubby stalk. Shigeru Miyamoto stated in an interview that the Super Mushroom was created by chance. The first sketches of Mario turned out to be too big, and they were forced to shrink them. Then the development team thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow and shrink by eating a magic mushroom.

1-up Mushrooms are common items that appear in the games, introduced in Super Mario Bros.. These mushrooms have green caps with white spots (originally orange caps with green spots). When Mario picks up one of these mushrooms, he will be given an extra life. In Super Mario Bros., 1-up Mushrooms are hidden in invisible ? blocks in some levels. In 3D games feature mushrooms that will only appear if Mario walks over a certain spot, along with stationary 1-up Mushrooms.

A Fire Flower, introduced in Super Mario Bros., transforms Mario into Fire Mario, Fire Mario has the ability to throw bouncing fireballs as weapons at enemies, defeating most enemies. Super Mario Galaxy was the first 3D game to include this power-up.

The Starman is a flashing star in 2D games and Super Mario Galaxy, introduced in Super Mario Bros. When the player touches it, it grants the player invincibility from enemies for a short amount of time.

Coins first premiered in Mario Bros. as flashing coins that rolled across platforms. Super Mario Bros. added the effect that when Mario collects 100 coins he is awarded an extra life. This feature returned in many other games.

Mushroom Kingdom

Games

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bar:Games anchor:till color:red width:15 textcolor:blue align:left fontsize:S mark:(line,white) shift:($dx,-4)

from:1980 till:2008

at:1981 text:"Donkey Kong"

at:1983 text:"Mario Bros."

at:1985 text:"Super Mario Bros."

at:1986 text:"The Lost Levels"

at:1988 text:"Super Mario Bros. 2"

at:1990 text:"Super Mario Bros. 3"

at:1989 text:"Super Mario Land"

at:1991 text:"Super Mario World"

at:1992 text:"Super Mario Land 2"

at:1994 text:"Super Mario Land 3"

at:1995 text:"Super Mario World 2"

at:1996 text:"Super Mario 64"

at:2002 text:"Super Mario Sunshine"

at:2006 text:"New Super Mario Bros."

at:2007 text:"Super Mario Galaxy"

After the commercial failure of Radar Scope, Nintendo's company president referred to Shigeru Miyamoto to create an arcade game to save the company. Miyamoto came up with the idea of a game in which the playable character has to make his way through an obstacle course consisting of sloped platforms, ladders and rolling barrels. Miyamoto named the game Donkey Kong, and its main hero "Jumpman". The game was surprisingly successful. "Jumpman" was called "Mario" in certain promotional materials for the game's release overseas; his namesake was Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America's office/warehouse, who barged in on a meeting to demand an overdue rent payment. Eventually Jumpman's name was internationally and permanently changed to Mario. The later arcade game called Mario Bros. also introduced Mario's brother, Luigi.

Super Mario Bros., for the NES, is the first traditional Mario linear 2D platform game, where gameplay consists of a sidescrolling level. In this game, it is established that Mario and Luigi live in the Mushroom Kingdom, where they must rescue Princess Peach (then called Princess Toadstool) from Bowser. The game was immensely successful, and is the best-selling video game to date.

The brothers returned in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 where Mario and Luigi had to rescue Princess Toadstool as they had done before. However, Nintendo of America deemed it too much like the original and too hard for American players, so they initially never released it outside Japan.

In the non-Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario and his companions are out to stop the evil frog Wart in the dream land of SubCon. In Japan, Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally made as Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, and later converted into a Mario game for the rest of the world but it was later made into a Mario game under the name Super Mario USA. For this reason, the game is significantly different that other games in the series, such as including a life meter over power-ups, using vegetables as weapons instead of fireballs of other games.

In Super Mario Bros. 3, Mario and Luigi track down Bowser and the Koopalings to save the magic wands for each of the seven lands of the Mushroom World and Princess Toadstool once again. Like Super Mario Bros., these games follow traditional linear 2D platform games, however this game introduced several new elements including several new power-ups, an overworld screen as well as the first appearance of the Koopalings.

In Super Mario Land on the Game Boy, Mario has to rescue a different princess named Daisy in Sarasaland from Tatanga the Alien. The sequel, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, introduced Mario's rival Wario, who takes over Mario's castle during the events of Super Mario Land and forces Mario to collect the six golden coins to reclaim his castle. These are also traditional linear 2D platform games.

In Super Mario World on the SNES, Mario and Luigi must save the princess from Bowser once again. They receive the help of Yoshi, who serves as a dinosaur for Mario and Luigi to ride on and who needs his own unborn children to be rescued from Bowser's children. This was the first game in the series to have levels with multiple exits, an element that is later important in 3D Mario games.

A Mario game also accompanied the publication of Nintendo's next home console, the Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 advanced the plumber into the third dimension and defined the term "3D platform game". The game was not as linear as the previous installments, and the new analog stick made an extensive repertoire of precise movements in all directions possible. Mario could now not only run, jump, swim, and carry certain objects, but he could also punch, perform a triple jump, use a Wing Cap, and more. It is also the first game in the main Mario series to feature the voice acting of Charles Martinet for Mario. Mario must once again save Princess Peach from Bowser, and collect up to 120 Power Stars from the paintings and return them to her castle. Each level has several different stars that can be obtained.

In Super Mario Sunshine on the Nintendo GameCube, Mario and Peach travel to Isle Delfino for a vacation. However, a Mario doppelgänger appears and vandalizes the entire island. It is up to Mario to clean up the island. From Delfino Plaza, Mario enters different worlds, in which he must master different tasks in order to receive a Shine Sprite. In this game is the FLUDD; by using different nozzles, Mario can not only spray water forward, but can also spray downward, rocket up into the air, and receive a boost of speed. Its gamplay is similar to Super Mario 64, with several levels and multiple Shines to be obtained in each.

In New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS, Mario and Luigi have to save Peach from Bowser's youngest child, Bowser Jr. This reuses elements and power-ups from almost all other platformers in the series, such as the Super Mushroom, while adding new ones like the Mega Mushroom. This is the latest 2D Mario game, like Super Mario World, where some levels have multiple exits.

In Super Mario Galaxy on Wii, Mario must once again rescue the kidnapped princess, this time in the reaches of space. He helps a woman named Rosalina, "The Watcher of the Stars", to stop Bowser from creating his own galaxy founded on stolen "grand stars". Because of the low gravity in space, it is now possible for Mario to jump higher than before, experiment with physics and explore new locations. Stars return from Super Mario 64, with each level again having multiple stars.

Other genres and spin-offs

Apart from the platform games, the series has launched other games. After the relatively unknown Game & Watch title Mario Bombs Away, the first Mario non-platformer game was released in 1990. Dr. Mario's gameplay was similar to Tetris, which was later ported to nearly all of Nintendo's consoles. Later, Mario games of other genres were released. Two examples include the educational game Mario Paint, which appeared in 1992 for the SNES, and Mario Pinball Land for the Game Boy Advance. 1996's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the SNES marked the first Mario role-playing game. Since then, five role-playing games have followed: Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo GameCube, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for the Nintendo DS, and Super Paper Mario for the Wii.

The Mario Kart franchise began with 1992's Super Mario Kart for the SNES, and still continues to be the most successful and longest-running kart-racing franchise today, having sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Also notable are sports games such as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. In 1999, the Hudson game Mario Party was released for the Nintendo 64, a set of minigames for up to four players, with the most recent incarnation being Mario Party DS, which was released in November 2007 in the US for the Nintendo DS. 2005 saw the release of Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix by Konami, the soccer game Super Mario Strikers by Next Level Games, and the baseball game Mario Superstar Baseball by Namco. The basketball game Mario Hoops 3-on-3, published by Square-Enix, was released in 2006. Mario and Luigi appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 as playable characters, as well as in its sequels. Additional Mario characters also appeared in later games of the series.

Remakes and re-releases

Games released by other parties

Hudson

Hudson Soft released two games based on Mario Bros. and another similar to Super Mario Bros.. How or why Hudson was granted the rights to develop the game is unknown.

Mario Bros. Special is a video game released in 1984. It is a re-imagining of the original Mario Bros. with new stages, mechanics, and gameplay. Mario Bros. Special ran on the Japanese computers NEC PC-6001mkII, NEC PC-6601, NEC PC-8801, FM-7, and Sharp X1. It was created in 1984 by developers Hudson Soft.

Punch Ball Mario Bros. is a video game released in 1984. It is very similar to the original Mario Bros., but it featured the new gameplay mechanic of "punch balls," small balls that Mario and Luigi can kick into enemies to stun them instead of hitting them from below as in the original. Punch Ball Mario Bros. ran on the Japanese computers NEC PC-6001mkII, NEC PC-6601, NEC PC-8801, FM-7, and Sharp X1.

Super Mario Bros. Special is a video game released by Hudson Soft in spring 1986. It is the first official sequel to Super Mario Bros.. Nintendo had no part in its actual game development. Super Mario Bros. Special ran on the Japanese NEC PC-8801.

Philips

Super Mario's Wacky Worlds is a cancelled video game planned for the Philips CD-i, and was in development by NovaLogic. The game attempted to duplicate the gameplay of Super Mario World for the SNES. Though the game sprites are based on those in Super Mario World, the level design is based on Earth locations rather than the Mushroom Kingdom. Due to the limitations of the CD-i, several features could not be included in the game, such as large numbers of sprites on the screen, Mode 7, and many visual effects. The nature of the pointing device controller also provides difficult controls for Mario, as the game has the default controls of running and jumping.

Hotel Mario is a puzzle game developed by Fantasy Factory and published by Philips Interactive Media for the CD-i in 1994. The primary character of the game is Mario, who must find Princess Peach by going through seven Koopa Hotels in the Mushroom Kingdom. Every hotel is divided into multiple stages, and the objective is to close all doors on each stage. The game has been derided as one the worst Mario-centered games, mainly because of its simple style of gameplay and cutscenes.

Reception

Super Mario Bros. 3 is often regarded as one of the Nintendo Entertainment System's greatest games, Nintendo Power rated the game #6 on their 200 Greatest Nintendo Games list and was #14 on Electronic Gaming Monthly. Super Mario World also received very positive scores, with a 97% average from GameRankings and rated the 8th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.

Super Mario 64, as the first 3D platform game in the Mario series, established a new archetype for the genre, much as Super Mario Bros. did for 2D sidescrolling platformers. It is acclaimed by many critics and fans as one of the greatest and most revolutionary video games of all time. Guinness World Records reported sales of 11.8 million copies for Super Mario 64 at the end of 2007. As of September 25, 2007, it is the seventh best-selling video game in the United States with six million copies sold.

Super Mario Sunshine also received critical acclaim by game reviewers. IGN praised the addition of the water backpack for improving the gameplay, and GameSpy commented on the "wide variety of moves and the beautifully constructed environments". Also Super Mario Galaxy gained wide commercial and critical success. As of March 31, 2008, Galaxy has sold 6.1 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling non-bundled Wii game. GamePro stated that the title "raises the bar in terms of what can be achieved on the Wii."

Mario in other media

Television

Anime

Film

The film is widely considered to be a flop; it lost a large amount of money at the box office. Although it boasted several big stars, the film was denounced by critics as "cheesy" and lacking any sort of coherent plot.

References