March 10th is Mario Day (Mar. 10. Mario. Get it?). Although the concept of Mario Day has existed for quite a while, in more recent years Nintendo has embraced it as a day to celebrate their flagship series, Super Mario!
Mario has been around for over forty years from his humble beginnings as “Jumpman” from the original Donkey Kong arcade game. He became “Super Mario” in 1985 with the release of Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System and changed the world of video games forever.
In that time, Super Mario has become the best-selling video game franchise of all time, and has produced more “best games ever” than any one series has any right to. It’s titular character has also become one of the most recognizable fictional characters in all the world. Mario has also appeared in other media such as movies, television, and comic books. Not bad for a character whose design came about due to graphical limitations.
The Super Mario series has come a long way the four-plus decades since the days of Jumpman, and with a hotly-anticipated animated film just around the corner and rumors of what Mario’s next big game might be, the famed plumber shows no signs of slowing down. Here’s to countless more Mario Days to come!
Fifteen years ago today, on November 12th 2007, Super Mario Galaxy was released on the Nintendo Wii in North America!
Of course, Super Mario Galaxy was first released in Japan, and in that case, its fifteenth anniversary was on November 1st. But since I only kind of mentioned that on a post the day after the fact, and because I’m American so the US release is more personal to me, let’s celebrate Super Mario Galaxy now!
Goodness gracious, where does the time go? I remember the buildup to Super Mario Galaxy more than most games: that 2006 demo that looked pretty different from the final game, checking the Japanese website for updates, hearing the Gusty Garden Galaxy theme for the first time from a making of video showing an orchestral recording session… I even remember when the game was at Wii kiosks at GameStop, I’d actually take a few minutes to nab a star or two (though the same star or two every time. Didn’t want to spoil too much of the game ahead of time).
Super Mario Galaxy was the third 3D Mario game, but it felt more like the proper successor to Super Mario 64 than Sunshine ever did. Like 64, Galaxy felt like the next evolution of the Mario series, combining elements of its 3D predecessors as well as elements from the 2D Super Mario titles, and using the idea of outer space to add its own bag of tricks into the proceedings, like spherical planetoids and gravity (it seems odd in retrospect that it took Nintendo that long to combine a series that so heavily features jumping with gravity).
Galaxy even expanded on Mario norms in fun and meaningful ways. After being toned down in 64 and entirely absent in Sunshine, Galaxy marked the proper return for power-ups in the Mario series. Not only did the Fire Flower make a long-overdue comeback (and for the first time in 3D!), but new power-ups such as the Bee Suit, Boo Suit and comical Spring Suit left an impression (I’m still wondering why the original version of Ice Mario seen in Galaxy hasn’t returned, being replaced by the less creative New Super Mario Bros. version thereafter). Super Mario Galaxy even brought back Luigi, after years of being sidelined from the main Mario series post-SNES. We even got a new addition to the Mario canon in the form of Rosalina, who has become a Mario mainstay ever since.
“Super Mario Galaxy even had a (relatively) stronger emphasis on story than other Mario games, including a genuinely touching sub-plot about the character Rosalina’s backstory.”
Combine all of these elements together with some absolutely stellar level design, pitch perfect gameplay, and one of gaming’s greatest soundtracks, and Galaxy proved to be one hell of a Mario game.
And what a game it was! Super Mario Galaxy not only succeeded where Sunshine fell short, it set the bar for the Wii, and was something of a new benchmark for not only the Mario series, but for Nintendo itself. It was one of the most fun and imaginative games of its day, and fifteen years later, age hasn’t effected it at all.
I also feel like Galaxy started something of a renaissance for the Mario series. Although the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games were great, for the most part, the Mario series hadn’t really seen the same critical heights as it once did after Super Mario 64 (though again, the Mario RPGs really deserved a bigger spotlight). Sure, the Mario Karts, sports games and Mario Parties were fun, but not exactly the defining gaming experiences Mario was once synonymous with. Super Mario Galaxy brought back the pedigree of the Mario series. Galaxy earned a critical reputation that very few games could hope to claim, and rightfully so! And since then, the Super Mario series has seldom looked back, being on perhaps a longer winning streak now than it ever had before. Games like Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Odyssey have continued Mario’s winning ways, and titles such as Super Mario Maker and Mario Kart 8 raised the bar for the spinoffs (it’s just a shame the RPGs seem to be the only aspect of the series that haven’t shared in this renaissance). Even the music of the series remains elevated post-Galaxy (Mario games always had great music, but I feel like now it has the most consistently great soundtracks in gaming).
Okay, so things may have looked like they peaked with Galaxy 2 there for a minute, seeing as 2011 and 2012 were extra safe years for the series, but then Super Mario 3D World was released in 2013 and the world was happy again. So those two off years were just little blips.
In short, Super Mario Galaxy was a special game that took the Mario series to new heights (literally! He was in space!). And even now, fifteen years later, this Wii classic is still one of Mario’s finest hours!
Happy Fifteenth (US) Anniversary, Super Mario Galaxy!
Yeah, it’s another anniversary celebration blog at the Dojo! And it’s another one involving Mario. It seems the Super Mario series has had a lot of milestone anniversaries this year. Today, we’re celebrating Super Mario Odyssey, which was released five years ago, on October 27th 2017!
That’s right, somehow it’s been half a decade since Super Mario Odyssey was released on the Nintendo Switch. On one hand, that makes me feel old. But on the other hand, Super Mario Odyssey is amazing, so let’s celebrate!
The Nintendo Switch really did have an unprecedented first year (the best of any console in history, if I say so myself). Not only did the system launch with the long-anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but within months you also had games like Splatoon 2, ARMS and Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (a crossover that shouldn’t have worked but somehow did), to name just a few. But the Switch capped off its first calendar year with the newest release of gaming’s most venerable series, Super Mario Odyssey.
And damn, what a game it was! Super Mario Odyssey is a game of constant invention, bountiful imagination, and non-stop fun!
What set Odyssey apart from other Mario games is that it abandoned Mario’s usual power-ups in favor of focusing on a singular, ever-changing ability: Cappy!
Cappy is a sentient hat who’s also a ghost (it’s Mario, don’t worry about it), with which Mario can “capture” enemies, objects and friendly NPCs, taking control of them and the abilities that come with them. This leads to so many creative ideas, with most of them being enough to carry most other games in their entirety.
Super Mario Odyssey also brought back the more open-level game design of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, after the series had taken an extended hiatus from the format. Though you could also claim that Odyssey’s structure was even closer to Banjo-Kazooie than its own predecessors (making it the closest thing we’ve got to an actual Banjo-Kazooie 3. Sorry Yooka-Laylee. Not so sorry, Nuts & Bolts). Odyssey features some of the best open 3D stages in gaming, while also housing many classic 3D platforming gauntlets in the vein of Super Mario Galaxy and 3D World. Odyssey is a master of all trades.
Interestingly, Odyssey is still the most recent “mainline” Mario game five years on (unless you count Bowser’s Fury. Though seeing as that was a bonus game released alongside a re-release of 3D World, and re-uses 3D World’s assets, I don’t think it does count as a mainline Mario game, even if it was a new game). So unless you do count Bowser’s Fury, this is the longest drought between mainline 3D Mario games since the gap between Sunshine and Galaxy!
Granted, Odyssey was always going to be a tough act to follow, and maybe Nintendo knows that, and is taking their time to figure out where the series goes next. Suffice to say, the hype is real!
It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since Super Mario Odyssey was released. In that time it’s proven itself to be one of gaming’s all-time greats. It’s still the best game on Switch (Sorry, Breath of the Wild). And as much as I absolutely love Elden Ring, it can only claim to be my second favorite game of the past number of years, because Super Mario Odyssey exists.
Super Mario Odyssey has built up quite the reputation in these past five years. It’s one of Mario’s finest adventures, one of Nintendo’s greatest triumphs, and one of the best video games ever made. A modern classic!
These days, we kind of take for granted the Mario games that don’t fit into the “main” Super Mario series. Unless it’s the next big 3D Mario adventure, we tend to refer to the games as “spin-offs” and don’t hold them in the same light as the “proper” Mario games.
The thing is, Mario was always Nintendo’s renaissance man. Shigeru Miyamoto designed the character with the intent that he could be thrown into any type of game, in a similar vein to classic cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and (most specifically) Popeye the Sailor Man. It’s not as though Mario was created with a definitive story and some big universe of characters already planned out ahead of time. Mario appeared in a number of games before Princess Peach, Bowser and the entire Mushroom Kingdom came into existence in Super Mario Bros. That was Mario’s breakout role, sure, but it wasn’t exactly where he got his start. Although it makes sense that Super Mario Bros. would become the basis of what we all consider to be “main” Mario games, as time has gone on it seems people have diminished the allure of the “other” Mario games as an unfortunate side effect of this.
That wasn’t the case back in 1990, when Mario could suddenly don a lab coat and head mirror, call himself a doctor, and star in a falling block puzzle game, and it would still create an iconic game in its own right.
Dr. Mario was the first such puzzle game in the Mario franchise, which would slowly become its own series, and open the door for puzzle games starring other Mario franchise characters like Yoshi’s Cookie and Wario’s Woods. While some of these later puzzle games were improvements, and subsequent Dr. Mario sequels (such as the underrated Nintendo 64 entry) built on the formula, the original NES release is still a charming and addictive puzzle game.
The goal of Dr. Mario is to eliminate a screen of all of its viruses. These viruses come in three colors: red, blue and yellow. You eliminate these viruses by matching them up with vitamins of corresponding colors. But there are a few twists to keep things interesting.
The first thing to note is that the vitamins have two halves, which can be different colors, so you’ll want to pay extra attention when the viruses are close together. You have to match four objects of the same color in order to eliminate a virus. Each half of a vitamin counts as one object, and a virus counts as another. So you could potentially have three viruses of the same color stacked on top of each other, meaning you’d only have to put one similarly colored half of a vitamin on top of them to eliminate them. You can even eliminate the viruses by placing the vitamins against them horizontally, but it’s much less common.
Additionally, if the vitamins involved in an elimination feature halves of different colors, those halves will remain and fall straight down until they either land on a virus or the bottom of the screen. This gives you an added level of strategy for any nearby viruses, but it also risks filling up the screen with piles of vitamins. If the vitamins stack up to the top of the screen and Mario can’t throw any more, you lose the round.
It’s a nice twist on the Tetris formula, one that remains fun even today. Better still, the game features a two-player competitive mode, where each player aims to eliminate their screen of viruses before the other. And despite the technical limitations of the game (even by NES standards) it makes the best with what it has. The graphics are cute and fun (I especially like how part of the screen is a microscope held up to the viruses, just so you can see them dancing around in all their glory), and the game’s two selectable music tracks, Chill and Fever, are infectiously catchy, and are all too easy to listen to on repeat as you play round after round.
Unfortunately, if you don’t have a second player at the ready to tackle the aforementioned two-player mode, Dr. Mario’s gameplay can only go so far. The lack of any additional modes really stands out in retrospect, and the fact that – unlike Tetris – each round has a set goal to reach means beating your own high score is kind of an afterthought.
Dr. Mario is still fun, no doubt. But it isn’t particularly deep. It’s at its best when two players are onboard, and even in that area it’s been bettered (Dr. Mario 64 turned the formula into a four-player party game. And now I really wish Nintendo would re-release that game or make a proper sequel to further add to the proceedings).
Its limitations are certainly more apparent today, but Dr. Mario is still worth playing. Perhaps more importantly, it represents a time when gamers were a bit wiser, and could accept Mario in any role and not question the merit in its potential.
Forty years ago today, the original Donkey Kong game made its way into arcades! That’s a big milestone for the game itself, but even more important is that it marked the debut of both its titular ape Donkey Kong and the character who would become known as Super Mario!
Why Nintendo isn’t celebrating this themselves, I’ll never know. It’s only their two oldest and iconic characters celebrating their 40th anniversary! And no, Mr. Game & Watch isn’t older because he wasn’t an actual character, just a placeholder graphic given the limitations of the Game & Watch handhelds (the name “Mr. Game & Watch” only dates back to 2001 with Super Smash Bros. Melee). So Mario and DK are the oldest.
Donkey Kong and Mario would eventually branch out on their own, and star in a number of their own series. They still meet up in some of Mario’s spinoff games, but I don’t think DK should simply be classified as a “Mario character.” I think of it like when Iron Man and Thor meet up in the Avengers films. You wouldn’t call Thor an “Iron Man character” would you?
Mario would go on to have a stronger resume than any other character in gaming, and DK isn’t too far behind. And they both got their start in a little arcade game that – had licensing not fallen through – would have starred Popeye and Bluto! Hard to imagine what video games would look like if Shigeru Miyamoto’s original classic didn’t have its own original characters. I shudder to think.
Nintendo may be mysteriously silent on the occasion, but don’t worry Mario and Donkey Kong, we remember!
Happy anniversary to an arcade great! And happy 40th birthday to Mario and Donkey Kong! Video games wouldn’t be the same without them!
I was originally just going to write one of my “Replaying” articles in relation to Super Mario Sunshine, which I am currently replaying via Super Mario 3D All-Stars (which came out on my birthday, something I may have mentioned once or twice). But as I’ve been playing it, I feel I have more to say about Sunshine than what my “Replaying” features usually entail. The more I thought about it, the more I think something closer to my recent write-up on Howl’s Moving Castle is more apropos. So here we are.
Look, first thing’s first, Super Mario Sunshine is not a bad game. In fact, if this is the weakest 3D Mario offering, then Mario has done well for himself, because Sunshine is still a very fun game in a lot of ways. But with the possible exception of Super Mario 3D Land on the Nintendo 3DS, Sunshine is undoubtedly the weakest 3D Mario game by a mile, and possibly the weakest “main entry” in the whole series (unless we’re counting the Super Mario Land and New Super Mario Bros. titles as part of the main series of Mario games). And that’s a shame because it could have, and should have, been so much more.
In more recent years, Super Mario Sunshine is talked about in a more positive light than in years past. Though it’s surely no coincidence that Sunshine’s newfound reverence should occur around the same time those who were young tykes during the game’s 2002 release are now old enough to reflect on Sunshine with rose-tinted nostalgia goggles.
I have seen a number of YouTubers and people on social media try to defend Sunshine to the death, but again, it’s probably no coincidence that all of its defenders are of a certain age. Yes, I myself have nostalgia for Super Mario Sunshine, and I repeat that it isn’t a bad game. But playing Sunshine today, it would be incredibly difficult to put forth a credible argument that it’s one of the better Mario games once the nostalgia glasses come off.
Travel back to the early 2000s, and some of the backlash against Sunshine may have been excessive (the gaming community has a bad habit of only working in absolutes), but it wasn’t entirely unfounded. Super Mario Sunshine is a good game, but not good enough for a series that’s usually associated with greatness.
Think about it this way: Up until Sunshine’s release in 2002, every “proper” entry in the Mario series was considered an all-time great in the medium (unless, again, you counted the Super Mario Land titles. Though Nintendo themselves only seemed to retroactively include those games in the canon in more recent years). Super Mario Bros. was the biggest game of all time when it was released in 1985. Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World were released in the early 90s and are still considered some of the best games ever made even today. The same goes for Yoshi’s Island, albeit to a humbler degree. And of course, Super Mario 64 revolutionized gaming from that point onward. Even Super Mario Bros. 2, which is now often labeled the “black sheep” of the series, only really earned the moniker in hindsight, after its status as a reworked Doki Doki Panic became more common knowledge. But Super Mario Bros. 2 was still better than most other NES games, and it’s still fun today. Not a whole lot of NES titles can boast that.
Point being, the Super Mario series had (rightfully) earned a reputation unlike any other in video games (Zelda comes the closest, but back then Zelda games were much less common, though I still think Mario would ultimately win out when taking things into consideration in modern times). Yes, Mario still has a peerless pedigree in video games, but at that point, the series was undefeated. Its record unblemished.
Super Mario Sunshine became the series’ blemish.
Sure, Super Mario Sunshine received some strong review scores upon release, but that may have been a case of the hype getting to the reviewers (this was the successor to the legendary Super Mario 64, after all). It didn’t take too long for fans and critics alike to realize Sunshine didn’t quite have the same magic as its predecessors (something similar would happen with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword over nine years later, and lord knows it’s happened with most western AAA releases over the years).
At the time, most of Sunshine’s detractors pointed at the F.L.U.D.D., Mario’s new water pack, as the gimmicky reason why the game wasn’t up to the series’ standards. I think that’s unfair, as F.L.U.D.D. was actually a fun idea, one that still feels unique not just for the series, but platformers in general. It even added to some of the acrobatic moves carried over from Super Mario 64. Seriously, a platformer centered around water is still a pretty great idea. So maybe F.L.U.D.D. stood out like a sore thumb, but I don’t think it was the reason for Sunshine’s shortcomings.
Others lamented the lack of variety in the environments, with the entire game being centered around a single tropical island theme. Sunshine’s contemporary defenders argue that this gives the game’s setting, Isle Delfino, a stronger sense of place than the environments of other Mario games, often pointing out how you can see one level in the distance while playing in another. I find myself somewhere in the middle of this. I like the little details such as how Isle Delfino is presented as one connected world, but considering the variety of different places Mario visited even back on the NES, it does make things feel pretty stagnant in Super Mario Sunshine by comparison.
What really brings Sunshine a peg below other Mario entries is simply that it lacks the polish the series is known for. Mario games tend to be timeless, with the forward thinking creativity in their design making them outlive the hardware generations they’re released in. It really should be no surprise why Mario was such a big hit in the 1980s. Compare the series’ 8-bit outings with virtually any other NES title. The Mario games are still fun. The others…kind of show their age. Some may wish the Mario series had more focus on stories and stronger world-building, and while such additions certainly would be admirable, if we’re looking at things from a pure video game standpoint, the Mario series is practically untouchable.
At least, it usually is. Sunshine does admittedly try its hand (relatively) harder in regards to story than the other non-RPG Mario games – something its modern defenders love about it – but such elements really can’t make up for Sunshine’s shortcomings as a video game.
“The bonus stages have more traditional Mario platforming. It’s no surprise these sections are often considered the game’s highlight.”
The GameCube was the first time a Nintendo console would be released without a Mario game beside it. Luigi’s Mansion made it to the GameCube’s launch, and may feature Mario characters, but calling it a “Mario game” wouldn’t feel accurate (and not just because the lesser Mario brother had the starring role). It may be because of this that Sunshine can feel like it was rushed out of the gate, with Nintendo hoping to release it as soon as possible to help lift up the GameCube. But more development time would have done Super Mario Sunshine a lot of good.
I already mentioned the game’s lack of variety in setting, but the real bummer is how these limitations are seen in the game’s ideas. Once again, one of the things about Mario games that gets the most praise is their willingness to introduce new ideas at every turn, and retiring these ideas before any of them can overstay their welcome. These ideas may not always be winners (even Super Mario 64 stumbled in some areas). But the effort that goes into these ideas to tinker and toy with the gameplay of Mario’s world are always appreciated.
“This section in the game’s fourth stage combines Super Mario World’s cage-climbing with the F.L.U.D.D. mechanics. It’s actually really fun and creative. The game could have used more of this.”
That’s why it’s so disappointing when Super Mario Sunshine can’t seem to stop throwing Red Coin missions at the player. Yes, Super Mario 64 featured fetch quests for eight red coins as well, but these missions were limited to one per level, and a few bonus stages. But Sunshine revels in them. Each level in Super Mario Sunshine claims to have about two red coin missions, but actually feature more than advertised, considering many of the game’s ‘secret Shine Sprites’ are earned by re-entering bonus areas within the stages, and collecting the red coins that are found within them upon a second visit.
You might think “that isn’t that bad.” And perhaps on its own it wouldn’t be. But when you consider every stage also houses an obligatory “chase Shadow Mario” mission in order to progress the story, things start to feel repetitious really fast. Super Mario 64 may have had one red coin mission per level, but Sunshine’s stages feel like they’re comprised of a series of the same missions with little exception (it wouldn’t be until Galaxy that the series reclaimed the bombastic imagination of its 2D heyday).
The best moments of the game are the Shine Sprites that are built around obstacles within the level, such as the aforementioned bonus areas (where Mario is temporarily robbed of F.L.U.D.D.) and some fun obstacle courses in the main stages themselves. But they’re in the minority, with Sunshine all too often falling back on the same few tricks.
This is all the more glaring by the fact that Sunshine features considerably less levels than Super Mario 64. 64 had fifteen proper stages (plus bonus levels and three Bowser stages), while Sunshine only boasts seven proper levels. Some might bring up the “quality over quantity” argument, but that’s just the thing. 64 filled its larger library of levels with more ideas, while Sunshine has fewer stages that repeat a small handful of ideas over and over. So 64 has Sunshine beat in both quality and quantity, and it was released six years prior…on weaker hardware… during the pioneering days of 3D gaming!
Sadly, this feels like a side effect of Nintendo trying to get Sunshine on the market as soon as possible. Who knows how many more levels could have been added, and what could have been added to the existing levels, had Sunshine been given more time in development.
Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it. Sunshine, clearly hoping to replicate Super Mario 64, features one-hundred and twenty Shine Sprites to collect, just as Super Mario 64 housed one-hundred and twenty Power Stars. If the red coins and Shadow Mario missions weren’t padding enough, than the blue coins really feel like they’re just filling out a quota.
Super Mario Sunshine has two-hundred and forty blue coins to find across the game. Unlike Super Mario 64, where blue coins were simply worth five regular coins (an easier means to claim a level’s “100 coins” star), the blue coins of Sunshine are their own separate collectible. Now, this could have made for a great side quest, with players unlocking new features and secrets whenever they reach a certain milestone of collected blue coins. Instead, the blue coins are simply traded to acquire… more Shine Sprites.
It’s ten blue coins for one Shine Sprite which, if you do the math, means a good chunk of twenty-four of the game’s one-hundred and twenty Shine Sprites are simply acquired by trading in blue coins in the game’s hub world. This is where it really feels like the development team had to cut corners. The search for the blue coins could have made for an intriguing side quest, if it provided some unique rewards (say, for example, if the rewards included things like F.L.U.D.D. being able to store more water, Mario getting extra health, unlocking new colors of Yoshis, things like that). But by making the blue coins simply a means to collect all the Shine Sprites, it all just comes across as padding. Both the main quest for Shine Sprites, and what could have been a promising secondary endeavor with the blue coins, feel unfulfilled by smooshing them together.
I wish I could say that’s the end of it. Sadly, Sunshine has some more cut corners in the gameplay itself. As I said, Mario games usually hold up really well because they’re much more polished than their contemporaries, but that simply isn’t true of Sunshine. Some fans like to claim that Super Mario Sunshine is the hardest 3D Mario game. It’s not. But if it were, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Case in point, there’s a Shine Sprite in the game’s second stage, Rico Harbor, that sees Mario surfing on a Blooper to collect eight red coins (of course). Once you’re on the Blooper, you can’t get off the Blooper. Once you collect the eight red coins, you freeze while you watch the Shine Sprite animation, only to revert back to full speed in a split second, which really throws you off. And to collect the Shine Sprite, you have to land on it dead center while riding the Blooper, but if you bump into any walls on the Blooper, you die!
Here’s a montage of videos I took on my Switch to show you why, when you put these things together, it makes for an aggravating time.
To this I have to say… did no one at Nintendo think this one through? Or test it? This is the kind of sloppy design you would find in poorly-aged NES games. To think that a Mario title would be guilty of something so clunky seems unheard of. But here we are.
It’s not an isolated incident, either. Yet another mission in Rico Harbor (which is at least an aesthetically pleasing level), “Yoshi’s Fruit Adventure” is a chore. In Sunshine, Yoshis will hatch from their eggs by bringing them their desired fruit. In the Yoshi’s Fruit Adventure mission, the Yoshi egg in question will always want a durian. In order to get a durian, you have to get on some rooftops to reach the switches on top of two giant fruit dispensers. Pound on the switches and a fruit comes out. But it’s a random fruit, with the durian only showing up some of the time. So you have to jump between the fruit dispensers pounding the upright switch over and over, just hoping that a durian shows up. If one does show up, there’s a good chance it will fall down the nearby ledge. And of course the durian is the one fruit Mario can’t simply pick up (he probably doesn’t want his gloves to smell of durian stank), so if it falls it’s almost impossible to get it back where it needs to be to get it to Yoshi, meaning you have to get back on top of the fruit dispensers and start over.
Once you manage to kick/squirt the durian over to Yoshi, you have to ride the dinosaur through something of an obstacle course. Sounds promising, but again, it feels untested. Yoshi has to spit juice at jumping fish to create platforms (as one does), then ride said platforms to more stagnant ones that are part of the level. But if you shoot the fish at the wrong time, the platform won’t be in the right spot. You either can’t reach that platform or won’t be able to reach the place it carries you to, and the fish don’t respawn until the platform moves its full distance. Not to mention Yoshi only lasts for a limited time in this game. And if you fall off the platforms, you’ll land in water which dissolves Yoshi meaning you have to start the entire process over again!
Suffice to say, Sunshine feels like its difficulty can stem from all the wrong places.
That’s before we even get into the game’s inconsistent animations (notice how Shadow Mario makes a flipping sound even when he doesn’t perform his flipping animation), or the arduous task of keeping track of your blue coins (you can go to a screen that tells you how many you’ve collected in a level, but it doesn’t tell you how many are in a level or which ones you’ve already claimed).
“On the other hand, Sunshine is the only Mario game that has a boss that’s a Stephen King reference. That’s pretty cool.”
Again, I have to stress that Super Mario Sunshine is a good game. But it’s a good game in a series of great ones. It provides fun gameplay and some memorable moments, but whether because of a rushed schedule or lack of creative passion, Sunshine just doesn’t have the Mario magic.
Imagine what could have been, had Sunshine been given more time to be polished. Perhaps it would be talked about in the same regard as 64 and Galaxy are today, instead of being “that one Mario game” that only fans of the right age conveniently seem to herald.
Super Mario Sunshine would be the first time a “proper” Mario game would fail to deliver a defining title in its era. A fun and enjoyable experience, to be sure. But to all those revisionists who insist Super Mario Sunshine is one of Mario’s greatest adventures… No. It really isn’t.
Super Mario 3D All-Stars is great (it was released on my birthday, ya know). I mean, it has it’s problems (a series of this caliber deserves grander presentation than a simple startup screen and brief descriptions of the games included), and the absence of Galaxy 2 really is inexcusable (had it been included, this would be the best video game compilation ever). But it’s still a compilation of two amazing classics and also Super Mario Sunshine, so I’m not about to complain too much.
Though Galaxy is easily the best game of the bunch, I decided to do things chronologically and started with Super Mario 64 first. Super Mario 64 is, from a historical and influential standpoint, one of the greatest videogames of all time (with Tetris and the original Super Mario Bros. perhaps being the only games to top it in those categories). Super Mario 64 is also one of the defining games of my life. Though I think there were better games before and better games since (Super Mario World is a far better game, for example), there are few games that are as ingrained in my mind as Super Mario 64. I played and replayed it so often as a kid, that even when it’s been years in between playthroughs, I can still recall where, when and how to collect (almost) every star and red coin. I know the stages inside and out, and can track down most everything in the game without giving it a second thought. Super Mario 64 is burned into my psyche.
Playing this classic again on the Switch reminds me what an integral part of gaming Super Mario 64 was (and still is). Yes, it’s definitely rough around the edges – with its camera being cumbersome and Mario sometimes feeling a little slippery to control – but creatively, it was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing, it still amazes.
I’m not sure if it’s ironic or poetic that gaming’s biggest icon of the 2D era was also the one that, in its first go around, got 3D gaming so right (okay, it’s poetic). Yes, some of its technical aspects have aged, and Super Mario 64 isn’t pretty to look at (though the HD sheen of the Switch version makes it look better than ever), but when you consider how 3D video games at the time were so unwieldy and broken that the concept was considered a fad doomed to die a sudden death, Mario’s transition into 3D was as flawless as anyone could have hoped for, perhaps more so.
Playing Super Mario 64 again today, it’s still a lot of fun, which is more than you can say for…pretty much every other early 3D game. Yes, its blemishes are more apparent to modern eyes (that damn camera), but it still feels like a delightful virtual playground whereas its contemporaries feel like taxing eyesores.
I do have to admit, it is a bit of a bummer that Nintendo opted to only optimize the game’s presentation and give it an HD makeover, as opposed to remaking it entirely. I mean, I get that new games are the priority, but surely Super Mario 64 is one of the games in Nintendo’s history that warrants a from the ground-up remake. I mean, Crash Bandicoot had it done, and as much as I love Crash Bandicoot, he’s certainly no Mario.
Whatever. As always, it’s the game that ultimately counts, not the look. And as stated, Super Mario 64 is still a great game, and its inventiveness for the medium as a whole can’t be understated. Super Mario 64 wasn’t simply “Super Mario World but in 3D” (an unpopular complaint I have against Ocarina of Time is that, structurally, it’s essentially A Link to the Past with a 3D makeover, with all the added hiccups that come with the N64). It reworked how platformers are structured. Sure, you still had linear goals, but you could go about them in different ways, and sometimes achieve a goal other than the intended one. And one thing Super Mario 64 did that I still don’t think many 3D games have done (even the 3D Mario titles, until Odyssey came around) is how it gave Mario moves and abilities that were made solely for the sake of taking advantage of 3D space, and how the game incorporates certain goals (stars) simply by utilizing these moves.
There are stars that simply require the player to master Mario’s wall jump in order to reach them, areas that can only be reached with Mario’s trickier to perform movements, and hell, Mario’s little breakdancing move seems to only exist because it could now that Mario was in a 3D environment. The player can almost sense that Miyamoto and company must have had an absolute blast making the game, and just had fun discovering what they could make Mario do with his added dimension.
“It’s strangely seldom mentioned how, in Super Mario 64, you’re actually controlling two characters. Mario himself, and the Lakitu holding the camera.”
This infectious sense of joy doesn’t just apply to the technical aspects of the game, however, but the creative ones as well. As much flak as I’ve been giving the game’s camera, how fun of an idea was it to make the in-universe reason for the camera being that Mario’s adventure is being recorded by a local news station (which, naturally, uses a Lakitu flying on a cloud as the cameraman, explaining away the controls for the camerawork)? Or what about the clock-themed world behaving differently based on where the clock hands are when you enter the stage? And to this day, a gaming moment from my early years that I can still recall clear as day was chasing after a rabbit in the lower levels of Peach’s Castle, and running into a wall that began rippling upon Mario’s contact with it, revealing yet another of the game’s levels just waiting to be explored. Up until that point in the game, the stages were all accessed via jumping into painting. So for just a basic wall to deceptively be the portal to one of the stages might still be the most beautifully mischievous detail in video games.
Suffice to say, I’m having a lot of fun revisiting Super Mario 64. Of course, there’s a lot of frustration as well, trying to wrangle around the camera, controlling the flying power-up, and Mario’s sometimes sporadic actions. Frustrations I don’t get when playing either of the Galaxy games or Odyssey (which, with all due respect to Super Mario 64, are all superior games), or even 3D World for that matter (which might also be a better game from a technical standpoint). But hey, Super Mario 64 was the first of its kind, for it to still be as fun and creative as it is today is probably more than anyone could have asked for.
The Mario series has had more “perfect games” under its belt than any one series (I might even argue it’s had more than most other prominent series put together). Super Mario 64 is not one of the perfect Mario games. But it still, to this day, is a one of a kind gaming experience. A video game wonderland that, while it may feel aged in a number of respects, still comes across as a timeless classic.
Today, September 13 2020, marks the 35th anniversary of the release of the original Super Mario Bros. in Japan.
Nintendo certainly hasn’t been shy in regards to the occasion, as they recently had an entire Nintendo Direct making announcements to celebrate Mario’s big 35th anniversary. Among these announcements was the reveal of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a compilation of Mario’s first three 3D platformers: Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy (why Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn’t included in the compilation is a baffling decision on Nintendo’s part. Unless it gets its own Switch release down the road).
“Nintendo right now be like…”
And wouldn’t you know it, 3D All-Stars releases in just five days (which also happens to be my birthday… yes, I will keep bringing that up).
It’s nice to see Nintendo show such respect to their premier series’ anniversary. But I wonder if they’ll also acknowledge that Mario, the character, as well as Donkey Kong, will be celebrating their 40th anniversary next year. I mean, I get that Super Mario Bros. was the game that started the Super Mario series, which is what we all think of when we think of Mario, and also lead to the creation of Nintendo’s other franchises. But 40 still seems like a noteworthy anniversary to celebrate, so hopefully Nintendo will remember that come 2021 and won’t be too “anniversary’d out” by that time.
Anyway, I tip my cap (which is adorned by my first initial) to you, Mario. Happy 35th anniversary to the most influential video game of all time.
Nintendo had a brand-spankin’ new Direct today, focused on the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. There were so many announcements, that I can’t even remember them all. So I’ll just leave said Nintendo Direct here.
The big news here is the confirmation of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, and a battle royal version of the original Super Mario Bros. There’s also that augmented reality Mario Kart thing. That looks interesting.
I think it’s safe to say this Mario-focused Direct left me feeling like this…
Anyway, I am beyond excited for Super Mario 3D All-Stars! I mean, two of the greatest video games of all time – and also Super Mario Sunshine – all in HD and whatnot? Sounds great! Though I am greatly saddened (and baffled) by the omission of Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is arguably the best video game ever made. They didn’t even show Galaxy 2 in the Mario retrospective video at the end of the Direct! What’s up with that, Nintendo?!
Oh, and perhaps best of all (for me, anyway), Super Mario 3D All-Stars releases on my birthday, September 18th! Oh, Nintendo, you do care!
Super Mario 3D World being re-released on Switch was also expected, but nice to have confirmed. What wasn’t expected is it comes included with some kind of new game called “Bowser’s Fury” (getting the Mario & Luigi 3DS remake treatment with that “+” in the title). Unfortunately, from what very little they showed, it looks like you still play as Mario and friends in Bowser’s Fury, which is fine, and only unfortunate for me personally who is baffled that Bowser has yet to get his own game after 35 years. Notably, the Switch version of 3D World will have online multiplayer, and Nintendo promises to reveal additional new elements between now and its February 2021 release (I’m guessing some kind of new stages).
Also, I like the idea of that battle royal-ed version of Super Mario Bros. Reminds me of Tetris 99, but with Super Mario Bros. So that’s both of the two most influential video games in history getting the battle royal treatment. Nice.
Suffice to say, I’m really excited for all this Mario news. Now hopefully we’ll get a re-release of the first two Paper Marios (AKA the good ones) and some kind of Super Mario RPG remake and/or sequel. And Geno in Super Smash Bros. Let me dream.
But c’mon, where is Galaxy 2? #JusticeForSuperMarioGalaxy2
“Behold, my (new) Super Mario Galaxy 2 poster! I’m building up quite the video game poster wall.”
May 23rd of 2020 marks the ten year anniversary of the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii in the US (which is where it was released first, so I guess I could have just said Galaxy 2 is ten years old, without having to specify which region it was released…).
That’s right, Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a decade old now.
Wow, the anniversaries of both Super Mario RPG and Galaxy 2 are separated by a mere ten days? May is a hell of a month for our man Mario. We should rename the month “May-rio” in honor of this. We should totally do that.
Anyway, this is a big anniversary in gaming, as Super Mario Galaxy 2 puts up a major case to being the best video game of all time! Yes, it’s that good. The first Super Mario Galaxy already felt like a perfect game, but Galaxy 2 was somehow even better than perfect. It’s advanced perfect!
How good is Super Mario Galaxy 2? Well, back in 2015, on the game’s fifth anniversary, I gave it a 10/10 review! The first 10/10 I ever dished out to anything on this site! You can read my review of Super Mario Galaxy 2 here (and boy, do I feel old now).
Wizard Dojo 