A lifelong fan's game-by-game retrospective on the Super Mario series!
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| A game with truly universal appeal |
“Do you hear the baby stars? These newborns will grow up to become galaxies someday. When stars die, they turn to stardust and scatter across the cosmos. Eventually, that stardust reforms to create a new star ... and so the cycle of life continues. But the cycle never repeats itself in quite the same way ... so ... you'll see.”
-Rosalina
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| What's New, pussycat? Woah, woah-woah... |
“Welcome to the New Mushroom Kingdom!”
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| ...and don't it feel good? |
“This appears to be quite a predicament, Mario. Data analysis verifies that the island's inhabitants are indeed troubled by pollution, but the pollution itself is not the main problem.
Mario, you witnessed this object at the Airstrip, correct? It is a Shine Sprite. Shine Sprites are the source of power on Isle Delfino. They used to gather in great numbers at the Shine Gate, but the graffiti incident has polluted the island and most of the Shine Sprites have fled. There is no longer any power to support the peaceful lifestyle of the islanders. It is most pitiable. The only way to ensure the return of the Shine Sprites is to keep the island from becoming any dirtier.
The perpetrator is likely at work even as we speak. And you, Mario, are being treated as a criminal. Tomorrow we must do our best to resolve this situation.”
- F.L.U.D.D
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| On a wing and a plumber... |
“It's-a me, Mario! Hello!”
- take a wild guess
“This paradise is Yoshi's Island, where all the Yoshies live. They are all in an uproar over the baby that fell from the sky. Wait! The baby seems to know where he wants to go... The bond between the twins informs each of them where the other one is. The Yoshies decide to carry the baby to his destination via a relay system. Now begins a new adventure for the Yoshies and baby Mario.”
- Opening cutscene
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| Gonna be completely honest here: for actual decades, I always saw Wario as being in mid-air and closer to the camera in this image. It wasn't until recently that I realized that he's on the ground and everything else is simply larger than I assumed. |
“Repeat after me: I'm the bad guy in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, where being bad is good, and greed is good!”
- Wario, TV commercial
"A long long time ago, the Earth was ruled by dinosaurs. They were big, so not a lot of people went around hassling 'em.
Actually, no people went around hassling 'em cuz there weren't any people yet. Just the first tiny mammals. Basically, life was good.
Then something happened: a giant meteorite struck the Earth. Goodbye dinosaurs!
But what if the dinosaurs weren't all destroyed? What if the impact of that meteor created a parallel dimension where the dinosaurs continued to thrive and evolve into intelligent, vicious, and aggressive beings... just like us?
And hey, what if they found a way back?”
- Opening Narration
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| Trust the fungus. |
Don’t let Mario get the 6 Golden Coins...don’t let Mario reach the palace…
Obey Wario...DESTROY MARIO!”
- Wario, hypnotizing the viewer in theTV commercial
“We are the Mushroom Kingdom’s plumbers extraordinaire!
The Super Mario Brothers, what a pair!
Do you have problems with your pipes?
Is your water running right?
Are all the fittings screwed down tight?
If they aren’t, don’t despair!
The super plumbers will be there!
And there’s no pipe we can’t repair!”
- Mario and Luigi, singing
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| The cover of the 1993 trade paperback (TPB) collection |
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| It's Super Mario's World, we just live in it |
“It's a bit more exciting! A bit more challenging! A bit more perfect! A bit more colorful! A bit more realistic! A bit more levels! A bit more secrets! A bit more enemies! A bit more friends! A bit more sound! A bit hotter! A bit cooler! A bit weirder! A bit more revolutionary! A bit more Mario! A bit more of what you want! It's 16-Bit, and it's yours only if you get Super Nintendo!”
- Super Mario World TV commercial
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| I always found Bowser's cape here to be really cool, and was a little disappointed he never wore it in the games. |
“Oh, it's terrible!
The king has been transformed!
Please find the Magic Wand so we can change him back.”
- Toad
"So, I give you... SUPER! MARIO BROTHERS! THREE!!"
-Video Armageddon announcer, The Wizard
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| An adventure so epic Mario has to duplicate himself twice on the box! |
“Welcome, and enter the center
Of my Super Mario adventure
A girl is trapped on the other side of town
So I'm moving in leaps and bounds
Folks around my way think I'm strange
But there's a villain to blame
Even my ma, she thinks I'm crazy
But I've got to rescue Daisy”
- Ambassadors of Funk, “Supermarioland”
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| Pretend there's a green filter over every screenshot for the full Game Boy effect (source for all images is mariowiki.com, as usual) |
The Facts
Release Date: April 21, 1989 (Japan), July 31, 1989 (USA)
Original Platform: Game Boy
Director: Satoru Okada
Producer: Gunpei Yokoi
Also Playable On: Virtual Console (3DS)
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| Nothing like the voice of the greatest tag-team manager of all time coming from your favorite video game character to clue you in to the fact you're in for something special |
“Hey, paisanos! It's The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!”
- Mario
This is a section of the blog titled "Super Mario Beyond", where we'll cover parts of this franchise that don't belong to the main series of platformer video games!
And this first entry in "Super Mario Beyond" is the 1989 animated/live-action TV series: The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
The Facts
Air Date: September 4-December 1, 1989
Channel: First-run syndication
Executive Producer: Steve Binder, Andy Heyward
Episodes: 65 (130 total segments)
Currently Available On: WildBrain's Cartoon Super Heroes YouTube Channel
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| To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub! That makes calamity of so long life. Than fly to others that we know not of? |
“When Mario opened a door after climbing a long stair in his dream, another world spread before him and he heard a voice call for help to be freed from a spell. After awakening, Mario went to a cave nearby and to his surprise he saw exactly what he saw in his dream....”
- Intro Screen
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| Unless otherwise indicated, mariowiki.com is still the source of most images |
The Facts
Release Date: October 9, 1988 (USA), September 14, 1992 (Japan)
Original Platform: NES
Director: Kensuke Tanabe
Producer: Shigeru Miyamoto, Hiroshi Yamauchi
Also Playable On: Famicom, Nintendo PlayChoice-10, SNES (remake), Satellaview, GBA (remake), Virtual Console (Wii, 3DS, Wii U), NES Classic Edition, Nintendo Switch Online
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| Are you ready for this? You're not. You think you're ready for this, but you're not. |
“We present Fantasy World. Let's try "9 World" with one game.”
- World 9 Intro Screen
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| Unless otherwise indicated, mariowiki.com is still the source of most images |
The Facts
Release Date: June 3, 1986 (Japan)
Original Platform: Famicom Disk System
Director: Takashi Tezuka
Producer: Unknown
Also Playable On: SNES (remake), Game Boy Color (quasi-remake), Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console (Wii, 3DS, Wii U), Nintendo Switch Online, 35th Anniversary Game & Watch
“THANK YOU MARIO!
BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE!”
- Mushroom Retainer
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| Warning: this article is gonna be a LONG one |
The Facts
Release Date: September 13, 1985 (Japan), Unknown for certain but possibly October 18, 1985 (North America)
Original Platform: Famicon (Japan), Nintendo Entertainment System (North America)
Director: Shigeru Miyamoto
Producer: Shigeru Miyamoto
Buongiorno, and welcome to a little project I call "Super Mario Forever!"
My goal is to play through and blog about every single entry in the Super Mario series over the next few months, hopefully finishing in time for the April 2023 release of Illumination's Super Mario Bros. movie.
I hope to provide lots of nerdy background information on each game, as well as providing context for not only the games themselves, but my relationship and experiences with each one.
I'm gonna start this with 1985's Super Mario Bros. on October 13, because I wanted to begin on the 37th anniversary of the franchise...unfortunately, I'd forgotten that the game was released on SEPTEMBER 13, 1985. My bad.
A game with truly universal appeal “ Do you hear the baby stars? These newborns will grow up to become galaxies someday. When stars die, t...
