The Mario Retrospective · 7:55pm Mar 22nd, 2019
Ah yes. Super Mario. A titan in the videogame world. There is not a single person who doesn't know who Mario is, considering how gargantuan and all-consuming his popularity is. Ever since his debut as Jump Man in 1981's Donkey Kong, he's been climbing up the ranks and now sits on Nintendo's planet-sized throne of original properties. And come the launch of his own official game, Super Mario Bros in 1985, he has since created an empire for himself that is so huge that it's almost as if he might as well be alive and living in our real world along with other human beings. Even today, Mario is still sitting proudly on that throne Nintendo made for him and doesn't want to step down from it any time soon. Even in this new, modern day and age, Mario games are still coming out in droves and making millions upon millions of revenue for Nintendo, purely because it's Mario.
It's Mario.
IT'SA ME!
But where did all of this come from, and where did it take us? And what does the future hold in store for the world's most famous Italian plumber stomping on turtle shells to fight a giant reptile monster wanting to marry a human lady? Well, let'sa go, and find out, everyone...
The year was 1985 and Nintendo had already made a name for themselves with the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System, one of the earliest home console games out there and one that practically pioneered the idea of home gaming, with a multitude of original and movie/tv show tie-in games that followed on from it. Some legendary, some garbage. You decide which is which. With this brave new venture, Nintendo started bringing in some of their big names into the world of video gaming. Mario, Pit, Link, Kirby, Samus, Simon Belmont, and many more along the way. At the time, most of these were just passed off because of how long it took to create a game and how pixelated it all was back in the day. That, and they had to give the competition some ground to stand on in the ever-competitive tide of video gaming. It was not an easy market to make money off of, especially in a time where people voted with their wallets. If you were garbage, that was it. You were finished, not like today's world where there's always some worth to be found in stuff, no matter how bad or obscure they are.
I mean, you're literally reading the blog post of a guy who is unapologetically a fan of Super Monsters and could be the only person in the world (as far as you know) who has any interest in the show as a whole.
Once Nintendo established that their characters were successful, they made more and more games. Sequels, original titles, even a few spin-offs here and there. And there was no better character to capitalize off of this from Mario. Even now, Mario Party, Mario Kart, even Puzzle and Dragons Mario are a thing because of how much of a success the plumber was in everyone's eyes. And wouldn't you know, those sequels were so much of a blast and so much of a treasure to the world that they ended up getting sequels and spin-offs as well? It was almost terrifying with how much success Mario was making for himself in those days.
Then, the fateful day came when Mario would jump from the NES and SNES onto Nintendo's newest gem of a forgotten age, the Nintendo 64. This was his defining moment, as a plethora of phenomenal games came out for Mario on this system. Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Mario Party 1 to 3, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, even Paper Mario was birthed on this system, proving that he could handle and adapt to any new situation. This, in turn, lead him to become a juggernaut and one of the forerunners for the video game market. Everyone would flock to Mario because they liked his games and wanted to see how much more could be done with him. This was also the time where Mario would star in another one of Nintendo's biggest game series ever, Super Smash Bros. Which if Ultimate is any suggestion was a game series that was one of the greatest ever conceived by man. The day came where Mario started to use his fists and feet to beat the crap out of Donkey Kong, Starfox, Yoshi, Pikachu even and the world just ate that up like me whenever I see a steak platter like at this party I went to when I was a child.
But... Mario didn't always have the best run. And when I say this, I mean that there were quite a few times where Mario did stumble around in the video gaming industry, leaving some games that would rather be forgotten than replayed. Such titles included Mario Teaches Typing, Mario is Missing, the Mario Preschool games, even Mario Game Gallery for some are examples that even titans can be felled. These games did technically have things to do but were stripped down, overly repetitive, or just boring as heck for what they did have going for them. There are some worth to be found in them for sure, heck, Charles Martinet, the current voice of Mario himself had his debut in Mario Game Gallery, not stopping for any retirement or breaks since.
As for when Mario did decide to go out into the world of animation, he wound up starring in three different Cartoon series; The Super Mario Brothers Super Show, Super Mario Bros 3 the Cartoon, and Super Mario World the Cartoon. These shows technically weren't bad, but they did serve to make Bowser and the Seven Koopalings probably the dopiest things ever imagined. Seriously, there's a reason why we don't use their names from the cartoons and instead call them Iggy, Lemmy, Roy, Morton, Wendy, Larry, and Ludwig as they should be. Plus, when does Bowser ever call himself King Koopa and ONLY King Koopa?
Also, it makes them all redundant now that we technically have Bowser Jr as well, so yeah. Bowser clearly has some child support that he needs to pay off in spades.
As for Movies, Mario's had a bit of a... horrific run with movies, pretty much the same as everyone else has in this modern day and age. I'd show you it, but even that would get me into trouble with the Mario community, considering how much of a Mario Movie taboo there is...
But no matter what Mario wound up in, he always stood proudly as Nintendo's king, their champion as it were, even from the early ages of the NES, SNES, and Super Nintendo. It was actually somewhat of a challenge trying to meet his level of popularity. And where that would lead him took him to greater and greater heights. The Gamecube came out, prompting the release of Mario Sunshine, Mario Power Tennis, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario Kart Double Dash, Mario Party 4 to 7. All memorable, all fun, all worthy to be remembered and played for generations to come. And yes, I will admit that, while I've never played Thousand Year Door, I definitely see how much of an appeal that it and its' next installment would have on the Marioverse, but I'll get to that in a bit.
At long last, after the Nintendo DS happened and Mario made his mark on that, the Nintendo Wii came out and Mario once more being the Mario that he is decided to take a gander into it, causing many more games to spring to life. The usual fare by this point, but in the mainline Mario games, the whole Mario vs Bowser shtick was finally beginning to get old. Every single Main Mario was starting to pretty much become Mario vs Bowser just with a different coat of paint, a different set of rules, a different set of everything, really. And while these worked as best as they could, it also kinda started to eat away at the Mario series' creative side a fair amount, especially after the launch and critical acclaim of Mario's best game to date, Super Paper Mario.
Super Paper Mario truly brought the serious and gritty side of Mario to life, most noticeably in the game's new villain, Count Bleck.
From the very start, this guy gatecrashes Bowser's latest Princess-napping scheme and has his own scheme to destroy every world in a vicious and horrific way using the power of the Void, fed off of the Chaos Heart as written by the Dark Prognosticus. To further prove his villainy, he KOs Mario in the spot in front of Peach and Bowser, then proceeds to throw each and every one of the survivors into totally different dimensions, with them actually physically (if in text boxes) cry out in pain and horror because of this.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
From there, the game became a side-scrolling RPG, which still kept the traditional rules of Mario. Make it to the end of each stage and you progress the story. At the same time, though, they incorporated all of the RPG elements that they could, such as towns, witty and clever dialogue, unique and varied enemies with different methods of being defeated, even creating a string of original characters that are memorable as you would like them to be. Not to mention, Count Bleck's not alone in his little endeavor, as you'll also be seen fighting/meeting his various associates,
O' Chunks:
Mimi:
Nastasia:
And let's not forget the name everyone remembers, Dimentio:
Seriously, if you've never heard of Super Paper Mario, consider this an education in the game.
Outside of RPG elements, the game is still very much Mario at its' core. But that doesn't mean that it was entirely Mario. Along the way, you could also flip from a 2D world to a 3D world using the A button with Mario as your character. This doesn't last forever, but the depth was utterly amazing, coupled especially with the visuals of the game as well. You could also play as Princess Peach and Bowser in this side-scrolling RPG, which utterly proves that Bowser will not be the final boss because of the reasons being that the WORLDS ARE ENDING IF YOU DO NOT GET THE PURE HEARTS AND STOP THE VOID.
In the end, the game is one of Mario's biggest titles and one that I personally find elevated its' status beyond that of a simple plumber fighting Bowser and saving Peach. But at the same time, while that did do him wonders, I also found that it weakened his games beyond that.
Again, no problems with the tired old formula, it is what it is, but at the same time, considering that there have been no new or interesting villain-like characters—And, even if there are new ones, they're either overshadowed by Bowser or are being used by Bowser, being thrown away when he feels they're no longer useful to him—it means that it can get pretty repetitive and tiresome having to play a new Mario game. You already know the beginning and end to every Mario game with that fact creeping in your mind, so what is the point of thinking that things will be different when they're really not going to be?
Even in the newer Paper Mario games, it goes back to being Bowser being the main threat, instead of having anyone new like the Shadow Queen or Count Bleck posing the constant threat for Mario and co. Even in Super Mario Odyssey, everyone was so blindsided with the fun ideas of playing with the world like one giant sandbox that they forgot that it was another Mario and Bowser affair. Even the Broodals, who were introduced in said game have little to no lore behind them and just serve as replacement Koopalings, further proving the fact that Bowser is a horrible father and shouldn't have had kids in the first place if this is how he treats them. I'm fully aware that Mario Odyssey was fun, heck, I enjoyed playing with it for what it did do, but it's just another bog-standard Mario and Bowser affair.
And here's where I find that Mario does begin to dip in quality in this modern day and age. He's playing it far too safe in my opinion. He just puts out another battle with Bowser, everyone loves it because it's Mario and Bowser, and no matter what new gimmicks or changes are made, it's still the same beginning, the same ending, the only difference being what he sees on the adventure. And because of this, I fear that we may never get another game like Thousand-Year-Door or Super Paper Mario, purely because fans wouldn't want that. They want Mario as he is. As Mario. That sadly spells a bleak and dark future ahead. Not in the sense that all of Mario's games are going to be absolutely terrible, mind you, but all just the same. If every future Mario game has Bowser as the main plot and with it constantly about him trying to marry Peach or do other Bowser related, then it really will kill the creativity of Mario for me.
Now, before everyone says that I am a Mario hater, I am absolutely not a hater, not in any sense of the word. If I were, then this blog would have been full of bias. I adore Mario and all of the stuff that he has been doing as of late. His last few outings have been very successful, but that success has been built on a tired and repetitive old plot about a dinosaur man stealing a princess so that he can keep her for his own, prompting Mario to fight back against him and his army of turtles, walking head-creatures, living bullets and venus fly traps and everything else within Bowser's army. And the times when Mario tried something else, like the original Mario and Luigi trilogy, all of which featured different villains for each, it was such a big success that Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story got rebooted and remastered, complete with more grandiose versions of the soundtrack, environments, and everything else around it. That and the two Paper Mario Games I mentioned, namely Thousand-Year and Super were much better purely for how much of the mold they broke while retaining Mario's true essence. So Nintendo can do Mario games differently and to a level of degree that garners success, so why now have they limited themselves to just making classic Mario and Bowser affairs?
Is it all just some part of a Saturday Morning Cartoon series made into a video game series that I'm not seeing?
But think about all of Mario's other villains that haven't been Bowser-related. Cackletta, Princess Shroob, Fawful, The Shadow Queen, Count Bleck and his Court, proof that Mario can fight an array of other villains that aren't just the classic Bowser affair. So why does Nintendo choose to retract and thin their horizons? They can do it. They have done it, and they have proven to us that Mario can do things that aren't normal for him and be an actual success with them.
What's even more so is that because of how overdone the plots are, it also means that the only ones with any sense of character development in the main series are Mario, Bowser, and Peach, not counting Yoshi and Luigi because they actually had their own games that did pretty well as far as I'm concerned. And even then, all their character traits are is that Mario has to be the hero, Peach is the damsel in distress, and Bowser is a rough-and-tumble dinosaur king. That's it. They never change in the main series, meaning that the only time that their characters are complex and interesting is outside of the series, namely with the Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi series where they all have their own roles to play in the grander scheme of things. What about Luigi? Daisy? Wario? Even Waluigi? What purpose does Waluigi serve? In fact, why even add in the other Mario characters if they do nothing, add nothing, and are just there for the sake of existing? It makes them all seem shallow, forgettable, expendable in the long run. You could kill any of them off and no-one would remember them for how little they contribute and how little they do. Seriously, what has Daisy ever done in the main series? What has Wario or Waluigi ever done in the main series?
If anything, Mario can survive with future games, be they more and more repeats of the same old story, or even branching out to tackle more serious and unique plots as they did before. The sad truth is that, regardless, Mario will always be a success because of how much money it makes and how synonymous with video gaming it is for people of all ages, not just kids and nostalgic adults. But if they sacrifice the story elements for gameplay, are the games really good, or is it all just a way of Nintendo saying that they want us to play with Mario just because he's Mario, forgetting about the story or any other context than fighting Bowser and saving Peach?
One of the things with videogame series that makes them unique is how they make their bosses or villains entirely different. Kingdom Hearts is one of the best examples being for this. The villains are prevalent throughout the series and, despite them all belonging to the same archetype or organization at the end, no two Kingdom Hearts games have the same final boss. This alone makes every single endgame stand out in more ways than one, and even when the villains all came together at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 for one final battle, it was the first ever time we got to fight Old Xehanort as the actual final boss, with Ansem, Xemnas, Vanitas, all the others being final bosses or big-name bosses from previous games prior to it. This alone made everything interesting as you had no idea what moves and patterns each character would use, how they would interact with the battle and the world, or even the amount of satisfaction you could feel when beating them.
And yes, I'm aware that Old Xehanort can be battled at the end of Terra's story, but Terranort is the actual final boss of Terra's story so shush.
But then where does Mario stand on final boss creativity if it's nothing but Bowser all the time, with nothing else changed other than the battle and the battle only? There's a reason why Cackletta Soul, Elder Princess Shroob, Dark Fawful, Shadow Queen, and Super Paper Mario's final boss are unique because of what they are, how the game has been building up to them and how it finally proves that Mario can end his games without a big ol' fight with the dinosaur king of the Mushroomverse. I suppose that it is argued that the fights with Bowser are always different from each other, but that's the least you could ask for with games like this. It's very similar to how whenever Samus fights Ridley, it's always the same outcome every time, just with a different arena and different move-sets for both Samus and Ridley. Honestly, I would love to see another game where Bowser isn't the final boss and instead, someone new takes up the mantle, but sadly, Nintendo sees that by playing it safe for lack-of-story, they can make legendary games, which is a real shame in my opinion.
Even with the Luigi's Mansion series, yes, it's King Boo as the main villain for both of the two games out now and may or may not be the villain of the upcoming Luigi's Mansion 3, but at the same time, King Boo isn't Bowser. He's cunning, manipulative, and very, very deceptive and unnerving at times. Seriously, we need to see more of King Boo as a villain.
In the end, though, Mario is still a titanic character and one not to be taken lightly in terms of his success. I am excited about whatever new steps they decide to take with him in the future, but I won't be holding my breath for a truly perfect Mario game anytime soon. Be it from gameplay issues or a defining lack of innovative and intricate stories, Mario will always have a weakness. One that makes him just as memorable and grandiose as a character. Even when Mario is on the highest podium, there's still a way to shake him down, still something to compare him to. Seriously, there's a reason why the whole Sonic vs Mario debate is still going on because Sonic isn't perfect either, but he still has his shining moments in the video game world, making him just as much of a strong mascot as Mario.
So. Here's to you, Mario. You red-capped legend of a plumber:
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the Mario Retrospective. Be sure to let me know what you thought of it in the comments section down below. I'm always grateful for feedback, regardless of what it is. And if you want me to do another retrospective on a game, tv or movie character, then feel free to leave some suggestions as well.
Until next time, ta-ta, all.
His weakness is that he gets hurt by just one touch.
Well, Waluigi, unfortunately, has done nothing, but regarding Wario, you forgot the Super Mario Land games for the Game Boy.
Anyways, I'll still root for this series as long as the games are fun. I do agree that games like The Thounsand Year Door, Super Paper Mario, Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser's Inside Story are worthy games, but still, it doesn't hurt going into another adventure where Mario trades blows again with Bowser. Actually, the idea that Mario would face another villain that is not Bowser in the platform games is interesting.
That actually happened with the Mario Land games, at least the first two games, since the third has Wario as playable. The first one had an alien named Tatanga as the final boss, and the second had Wario as the final boss. Going back the RPG games, you forgot about Super Mario RPG for the SNES, first off, and I would like to see Nintendo head back to the direction of the past RPG games where Bowser is not the villain.
I think the idea of the Broodals were that they were wedding planners hired by Bowser. Not like replacement children or anything.
I've never heard of this taboo.
Dude I thought we weren't talking about the Mario Bros Movie.