The Life of Mario

[Mike]

I originally posted this thread long ago when the old skool games sub forum was created. Alas, it is gone now ad I wanted to revive it. So here it is a complete history on the legend that made gaming what it is.

The History of Mario:

Mario's first appearance was in the 1981 arcade game, Donkey Kong. He was originally named "Jumpman" and was a carpenter not a plumber. The goal of this game was to save his girlfriend, Pauline, from the big ape, Donkey Kong. The reason Mario looks the way he does today is because the 8-bit graphics back then were hard to work with. To avoid the difficulty of having Mario's hair move realistically, he was designed with a hat. He was also given a mustache and an oversized nose to make his nose more noticeable and actually make it look like he had a face. To make his arms and arm movements more visible he was given overalls. As jumpman, he originally wore a blue shirt with red overalls and a red hat. He also wore the same color scheme for DK Jr(1982, Arcade).

During the design of Mario bros. (1983, arcade) they changed his colors to red shirt and blue overalls. His name comes from the landlord of the Nintendo offices in NYC at the time. Apparently the landlord was an Italian with a brown mustache. In Mario Bros a new character, Luigi, was created to make the game 2 player. The two were also made plumbers instead of carpenters. Mario Bros can be found as an extra game on Mario 3 and other titles. It is the game where you kill endless amounts of enemies, and can jump out one side of the screen and appear on the other.

Now we come to his first console appearance, Super Mario Bros (1985, NES) This was his side scrolling adventure through The Mushroom Kingdom, where the object was to save Princess Toadstool from the evil Bowser. His Clothing is changed again to a brownish shirt and red overalls.

In 1986, the NES versions of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros were released.

1988, Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros 2 for the NES. Although it isn't really SMB2 it is a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic, where they replaced the 4 main characters with Mario characters. This game is thought of as the most unique game in the whole Mario series. For one you don't even fight Bowser or any of his minions. Also, you get to play as Princess and Toad. This is the only game other than Mario Kart where this is possible.

The original SMB2 was released in Japan but was considered to be too difficult for American players, hence we get Doki. However you can play SMB2 on Mario All-Stars(1993, SNES). It is renamed, Lost Levels for that edition.

1989, Mario makes his first appearance on Game Boy, in Super Mario Land. This adventure takes place in Sarasaland and Princess Daisy has been kidnapped by the evil spaceman Tatanga. This game is also very different than al the others. This is attributed to the fact that the original creator of Mario was not on the design team for this game.

1989, Super Mario 3 is released for the NES. This game is the best-selling Mario game of all time! Once again, Mario is in the Mushroom kingdom trying to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser. (This guy is starting to seem like a stalker)

1991, Super Mario World is released for SNES. That damn Bowser has captured Princess Toadstool *sigh* again. Only this time he had taken her to Dinosaur Land. (I guess he ran out of castles in the Mushroom Kingdom.) Upon arriving in Dinosaur Land, Mario makes a new friend/Ally, Yoshi. And from this dozens of other Yoshi games are spawned. Some are good and some are bad.

1993, SMB 1, 2, and 3 get a 16-bit upgrade on Super Mario All-stars on the SNES. Bundled on this compilation cartridge is SMB: The Lost Levels (aka SMB2 Japanese version) which also gets the 16-bit upgrade.

1995, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is released for SNES. This game takes place in Mario's past. Baby Mario and Bay Luigi are separated when Baby Bowsers henchmen kidnap Baby Luigi. It is up to a gang of multicolored Yoshi's to carry Baby Mario to Baby Bowsers Castle and Save Baby Luigi.

1996, Mario makes his debut on N64 with *surprise* Super Mario 64! This is arguably the best Mario game ever made. Mario is finally 3d and can do so much more than ever before, including interacting with certain characters in the game.

2002, Mario gets put on the Game Cube in Super Mario Sunshine. This game is 3D like SM64 but Mario now has a strange water/jet pack and gets to team up with Yoshi!

There are more games that I left out, like all the other GB and GBA Mario games and Mario Kart. I just feel like I have Carpal Tunnel's and need to give my hand a rest. I will post more later.

[Leviathan]

Do that for the entire history of Final Fantasy and i shall be impressed.

That is quite interesting to read though, i have never been a massive fan of mario i grew up with the master system and megadrive not the NES and SNES, sonic owns mario.

[Mike]

I did a sonic one for the old skool forum too but I would have to find my sources for it again.

;please i would be interestred n a sonic one....and a FF one

[Bunny]

The majority of all that information could be found rather easily with a quick Wikipedia search. And a Google Search for the information that isn't included in the Wikipedia one.

It isn't that hard to find the histories of video games anymore. This thread isn't that impressive. But nice job, Mike. I didn't read it, because there probably isn't anything there I already didn't know about Mario.

[Mike]

Yes the information came form other sites, But most were incomplete. I had to compile it all from several different sites.