Retro|Spective 075R: Super Mario

[Neon Ignition]

The giant amongst gaming icons, now doing his thing in a multitude of titles across over forty years of game releases...


Super Mario
"Thank you so much for-a playing my game"



Game 01 - Donkey Kong
Despite the name, players took on the role of Mario as he worked through staged levels to overcome obstacles, topple Donkey Kong and rescue Pauline from her ape captor. As one of the first platformer major titles, the game was a hit in arcades and has been ported and reinterpreted in numerous ways over the decades ensuring a lasting legacy even aside from its lead characters success.







Does it live up to its legacy?

[Asura]

Come to think of it, I've never actually played the original arcade game. Only ports.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Come to think of it, I've never actually played the original arcade game. Only ports.

First off, the original coin-op version has been available on Switch as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives collection (along with other classic/forgotten Nintendo coin-ops) for a few years now.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Arcade-Archives-DONKEY-KONG-1389973.html

Secondly, what a lot of people don't actually know is that Nintendo for a long time didn't actually own the original source code for the DK coin-op. The engineering company Ikegami Tsushinki helped Nintendo repurpose the coding of failed Radarscope cabinets into DK and they were the ones who owned it. It took until the 1990s before NIntendo were legally able to get the ownership of the original DK coin-op source code back. That might partly explain why Nintendo's own ports were lacking for so long.

This 2011 article from the old Gamasutra website explains the story in fascinating detail (had to use Wayback Machine to revive it).

Part 1: https://web.archive.org/web/20201130...onkey_kong.php

Part 2: https://web.archive.org/web/20210117...ong.php?page=2

Part 3: https://web.archive.org/web/20210117...ong.php?page=3

[Nu-Eclipse]

Game 01 - Donkey Kong
Despite the name, players took on the role of Mario

Yes, I'm going to be that guy.

Jumpman wasn't Mario in 1981. He didn't become Mario until 1983.

F A I L

[wakka]

The peak of the series. It was all downhill from here.

->Open Spoiler<-

Nah, I've played this here and there over the years in ports and stuff and it's a fun game. Small fry compared to what would come for the character though. That Gamasutra article looks interesting.

[Neon Ignition]

I played this in various states from ports over the years but only in drabs. I've played the arcade machine once, tucked into a corner in the theme dome at Circus Circus in Vegas. It's impressive for the era it was made, limited by these days standards but the foundations are very clear

[Neon Ignition]

Game 02 - Mario Bros.
The following year Donkey Kong Jr released and was followed by several Game and Watch titles that continued to make use of the character but the next full videogame with him in the lead controlled role was the self-titled Mario Bros. With players able to control both Mario and Luigi, the brothers used their platforming skills to battle enemies that emerged from pipes at the sides of the screen. Though a simple game, much of its concepts would become staples of the franchise moving forward.







Did the first named Mario game lay some good pipe for the franchise?

[wakka]

My main experience of this game is a DOS version which I assume was an unlicensed recreation of the arcade game. Which is not the best yardstick for judging it but it's all l've got.

To be honest, it's not a game I ever got particularly excited about. It's OK. I think the problem for me with these early 80s titles is that I actually don't have the correct historical perspective for judging them. I'm not very good at envisioning what these games must have been like for people playing them for the first time in 81 or 83, which is my failing!

[Asura]

If I'm right - I might have gotten this mixed up with something else - but Mario Bros is incredibly significant as it created the physics-based platformer.

Mario can slide slightly; he can also change direction mid-jump and influence his falling direction. In Donkey Kong (and earlier platformer style games) jumping worked like in Ghosts n Ghosts where once you press the jump button, you're committed to an arc and you can't do anything until you either land or hit something and die.

Really important as this underpins absolutely tons of future games, and pretty sure that no game prior did this.

Again, though... I'm not sure if I've ever played the arcade original, and it's possible that home versions had this and the original didn't.

[wakka]

Yeah I feel like this is exactly the kind of context that I'm missing. Interesting.

[Nu-Eclipse]

If I'm right - I might have gotten this mixed up with something else - but Mario Bros is incredibly significant as it created the physics-based platformer.

Mario can slide slightly; he can also change direction mid-jump and influence his falling direction. In Donkey Kong (and earlier platformer style games) jumping worked like in Ghosts n Ghosts where once you press the jump button, you're committed to an arc and you can't do anything until you either land or hit something and die.

Really important as this underpins absolutely tons of future games, and pretty sure that no game prior did this.

You might well be right.

Although for further context, Maikaimura came two years after Mario Bros., in 1985 (the same year that Super Mario Bros. came out).

[Nu-Eclipse]

As for my thoughts on the OG Mario Bros.?

It's a weird one. I have more fond memories of the Multi Screen G&W (which could operate as a makeshift 2P co-op game!) as I played that way before the original coin-op.

That said, "Mario Bros. Classic" (as it has been called in more modern times) has been suprisingly more prominent and easier to find recently. Again, it's a Nintendo Switch-exclusive on Hamster Arcade Archives. Also, it has appeared as an bonus 2P versus extra in recent classic Mario game ports (think SMB3 in Super Mario All-Stars and all of the GBA Super Mario Advance games).
.
Pretty much a product of its time and a small sign of what was to come on the Famicom two years later.

[QualityChimp]

Love the artwork on Donkey Kong. Anyone know the artist? Was it Miyamoto?

I played Mario Bros. after Super Mario Bros. and was confused why it wasn't scrolling.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Love the artwork on Donkey Kong. Anyone know the artist? Was it Miyamoto?

Not sure but it might well have been Miyamoto-san. He was the lead artist for SMB until Yoichi Kotabe came on board for SMB2/USA onwards.

EDIT: Tell a lie. IIRC, Kotabe-san came on-board the Super Mario franchise around the time of SMB when Miyamoto-san realised that he hadn't actually ever drawn Bowser!

[Neon Ignition]

Game 03 - Wrecking Crew
Cameoing in Tennis, Golf and Pinball as well as another wave of Game and Watch games, Mario kept busy helping to increase the awareness of otherwise generically presented titles for the NES. Additionally a Special edition of Mario Bros. was made for the famicom disk system. The next full fledged game with Mario in the lead (and Luigi) was Wrecking Crew that saw the plumber using his hammer to destroy objects across a hundred stages.







Wrecking Mario's name?