Retro|Spective 075R: Super Mario

[wakka]

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?

This game looks so fuppin boring.

You just know every kid that ever fired this up thought it was going to be like Super Mario World and was sorely disappointed almost immediately. I can't imagine any kid ever receiving a CDi and Hotel Mario and being satisfied with the experience.

[Asura]

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).

Did you read the wikipedia page today?

->Open Spoiler<-

Because I confess that I did.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Did you read the wikipedia page today?

->Open Spoiler<-

Because I confess that I did.

Guilty as charged!

I knew about the 32-bit tech - I'd read about that before. But the Mega-CD outselling was new to me.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 23 - Donkey Kong 94
Based on the arcade original, players controlled Mario through the original four levels before discovering a wealth of new levels to work through that explored new ideas and made the game more of a puzzle platformer title. It was also the first game with specific support for the Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES. Highly thought of and successful it was a hit for the handheld.







A great call back?

[Nu-Eclipse]

DK '94 is a GB must-have as far as I'm concerned.

An excellent modernization (for its time) of a gaming classic, and it paved the way for (the also quality) Mario vs. Donkey Kong on GBA.

DK '94 is a bit of a slog though - 101 levels! I'm overdue a replay of it!

[QualityChimp]

Wow, that looks really cool!
Might try and play that!

[Neon Ignition]

It was a game where pre-release I felt mixed on it, mostly because I wanted a Mario platformer. But very quickly on playing it, it might be my favourite of the Mario games on Game Boy

[Neon Ignition]

Game 24 - Mario's Picross
Educational titles and compilations followed until we reach the next new game, Picross. The game see's players work through logic puzzles in a title that reviewed well and performed well in Japan but the game makes minimal use of the plumber and failed in western markets.








Worth Pic'in up?

[Nu-Eclipse]

Another GB essential IMO.

Mario's Picross isn't as good a puzzler as Tetris (obviously) but it still manages to be a lot of fun in its own right once you understand how it works. Also, I've always enjoyed the music.

The lack of success for Mario's Picross in the West likely explains why Mario's Picross 2 and Mario's Super no Picross were Japan-only.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 25 - Mario's Tennis
Shortly after an episodic speed rerelease of SMB2 on Satellaview, the next new Mario led game was this Tennis title for Virtual Boy. The game operated much as you would expect but with eye searing red 3D effects and a choice of seven playable characters. The game was to feature a two player vs mode but due to the system failing at retail the link cable was never released to enable it.







Love?

[Asura]

This was good. Honestly, most of the small Virtual Boy catalogue was good...

... however, I should follow that with the info that I played all of it via an emulator for the Oculus Quest; I've never actually used the original hardware.

[wakka]

I didn't realise there was a VB emulator for the Quest. I'd love to try that, it sounds like an ideal way to explore the library.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 26 - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
With a new art style and switch of focus to controlling Yoshi instead, the sequel to Mario World wasn't the game players expected but never the less was acclaimed on release. Using the Super FX2 chip to scale objects, the game found itself arriving after DKC and its visual style didn't land as strongly as they'd hoped though the game sold well regardless and set a benchmark that Yoshi games have been chasing ever since.




The right kind of sequel?

[Asura]

I've always wanted to love this, but never have. I think it looks gorgeous, but there's something about it which just never grabbed me.

[Nu-Eclipse]

A SNES platforming classic but it always feels like Yoshi's Island arrived late on in the system's lifespan (even though the SNES was only discontinued in Europe and the US at the turn of the millennium and the SFC wasn't discontinued until 2003!), hence why I never played it much back in the day and probably why I don't got back to it as much as I do Super Mario World.