Retro|Spective 075R: Super Mario

[Neon Ignition]

Game 17 - Mario is Missing!
With Luigi taking the lead as he hunts for his missing brother, this edutainment game released for SNES, PC and NES and varied depending on platform. The PC version worked as a point and click title whilst the console version included some platforming. Though a seemingly random release, the genre was popular at the time and Mario was seen as a good way to bring young players in. The game wasn't well reviewed due to its nature however it was a financial hit for its developer.







Did this entry leave you feeling edutained?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 18 - Mario's Time Machine
Another edutainment title, this game saw players take on the role of Mario as he travelled through time to put back items that Bowser had stolen. The game was less well received than Missing with reviews questioning how much education went into the edutainment of the game.







Should it be lost in time?

[Asura]

All of these should be cast into the pit.

90's edu-tainment. <shudder>

[Neon Ignition]

Game 19 - Yoshi's Safari
Yoshi takes the lead again in another spin-off, this time in a shooter using the Super Scope peripheral. The game scored solid reviews but failed to sell well and so cemented that the gun peripheral would be pushed aside by Nintendo.







Hard to hunt the fun or a walk in the park?

[Asura]

Just realised, I've never actually used a Super Scope, or at least, I don't think I have. Pretty sure I've held one in a charity shop after seeing it on a shelf, but I've never actually played this. Were there many other games? I know it came with a 6-in-1 cart.

[Neon Ignition]

Not too much that I can recall, it seemed to get dropped pretty quick by Nintendo

[wakka]

I played this on an emulator with a mouse once. It wasn't much fun.

Regarding Super Mario Land 1 and 2, I played these an awful lot when I was a kid, but haven't been back since. My first Gameboy was a Pocket which came packaged with both carts (I remember being secretly a bit disappointed they came in the cart cases inside but not fully boxed with manuals - what a little dork).

It was probably something like this, although I don't remember mine including a case:



Anyway, I played a lot of both games. I never beat SML, although I remember beating SML2 multiple times since it was a lot easier.

They were great. I really enjoyed them. They were my first ever Marios and I had a lot of fun playing them. The graphics in 2 were shockingly awesome at the time, and I honestly still wake up with some of the tunes from SML playing in my head, they were that catchy.

That's it, that's the impressions. I really don't have much critical distance on these two. This thread has prompted me that I need to replay both.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 20 - Mario & Wario
Released in full English and yet only available in Japan, this puzzle game made use of the mouse peripheral as players steered Mario through levels as Wario piled objects on top of him. Three playable characters were in the game along with 100 levels.







Was the West denied a gem?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 21 - Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land
Shifting player control to Wario this time instead, the anti-hero treasure hunter character can use helmets to give himself different abilities against enemies with Wario using coins as currency this time instead of a measure of health.







A good mix up from making a standard Mario based third entry?

[Neon Ignition]

Nobody gives a damn about Wario unless he's in 20 second long minigames

[Neon Ignition]

Game 22 - Hotel Mario
Made by Fantasy Factory for the CD-I, players travelled through seven hotels within the Mushroom Kingdom battling Bowsers children before facing off with the villain himself to save Peach. A single screen puzzle game, it was born from Nintendo licensing the character out having pulled out of the plan to make the SNES Playstation CD add-on.







A Hotel worth a stay in?

[Asura]

god the CDi was trash

EDIT: Worst console ever? It's got to be in the running. I think the general consensus is the CD32 which might pip it.

[Nu-Eclipse]

god the CDi was trash

EDIT: Worst console ever? It's got to be in the running. I think the general consensus is the CD32 which might pip it.

Atari Jaguar and Amstrad GX4000 say hello! They could definitely give the CDi a run for its money.

Obviously the CD32 bombed badly for Commodore and helped to kill the Amiga brand, but in the context of what it was trying to do (consolize Amiga home computer games), I'm not sure it was as out-and-out bad as those mentioned above.

[Asura]

Atari Jaguar and Amstrad GX4000 say hello! They could definitely give the CDi a run for its money.

Obviously the CD32 bombed badly for Commodore and helped to kill the Amiga brand, but in the context of what it was trying to do (consolize Amiga home computer games), I'm not sure it was as out-and-out bad as those mentioned above.

I give the Jaguar a slight pass in these topics because yes, it was a short-lived console with some terrible games.

But it at least had two games - Tempest 2000, which was fantastic, and Aliens Vs Predator, which retrospectively wasn't-all-that but reviewed fantastically well at the time.

Of course, that's just two games. But I'd venture that puts it light years ahead of the CD32, which I don't believe even has one notable game. And the CDi has plenty of notable games but I don't think it actually has any good ones?

[Nu-Eclipse]

I give the Jaguar a slight pass in these topics because yes, it was a short-lived console with some terrible games.

But it at least had two games - Tempest 2000, which was fantastic, and Aliens Vs Predator, which retrospectively wasn't-all-that but reviewed fantastically well at the time.

Of course, that's just two games. But I'd venture that puts it light years ahead of the CD32, which I don't believe even has one notable game. And the CDi has plenty of notable games but I don't think it actually has any good ones?

I'd argue that both of those games were massively overrated. The definitive version of Tempest 2000 definitely isn't on the Jaguar.

Again, I'm not saying that the CD32 was a must have, but the hardware had more credibility to it than people realise. It was the first proper 32-bit CD console to be launched - the FM Towns Marty might've been released in Japan several months earlier but it utilized 16-bit architecture whereas the CD32 was 32-bit tech from the ground-up despite a chronic lack of games to properly take advantage of this.

Also, at one point it accounted for nearly 40% of all CD-ROM drive sales in the UK, outselling the Mega-CD at one point (albeit briefly).

Basically, I'd have the CD32 over the Jaguar on technical achievement, though I accept that this is a contextually low bar.