Good evening everyone.
Today we are talking Nintendo and its most iconic guy.
Before that I extend sincere thanks to those of you reading these blogs, this is my tenth piece, the page has already had over 2500 views and our last piece on PS2 games had been read over 130 times, I have no idea if that's good or not but the fact even one person has taken the time from their day to read my thoughts on retro gaming really makes it worth while, so thank you kindly.
This week I have dusted of my laptop, I hardly ever use it now unless I'm booting up WinUAE the Amiga emultor. I am currently trawling ebay for retro consoles to boost my collection, among them a master system and a Saturn. The titles I have been playing this week, stunt car racer, world boxing manager and a Rockstar are my hamster.
I could get lost in this emulator for hours, so many amiga roms to choose rom not enough hours in the day. Enough with my current gaming and onto today's piece.
An absolute lynchpin in the gaming industry, this game and now franchise is one of the most iconic and memorable around, everyone's vertically challenged Italian plumber come rescuer of royalty Mario.
Our guy got his lucky break after a cameo in 1981 in Donkey Kong following this appearance he was given his own game and he never looked back and neither did we - well unless we were chasing one of them damn one up mushrooms. The game is a synonymous with Nintendo, when we think of the company we immediately think Mario (I know I certainly do), this small guy and his band of mates have given me some great memories throughout my life as a child to teenager to adult, so much so I have recently introduced him to the next generation of the family with my 6 year old daughter, who seems at this early stage to share my passion for gaming and I find that very fulfilling. As a mature gamer and family man its a balancing act I want my kids to enjoy gaming and I look forward to making sure they get a gaming education in the sense they get to experience what I did growing up so that they can appreciate the evolution that the industry has went through, I also want them to lead a healthy and active life so balance is key, but one things for sure there are certain games and characters that I deem necessary to be a part of that gaming education and Super Mario Brothers is certainly near if not at the top of that syllabus.
The Mario franchise has had more games that I have fingers and toes and has had extensions of titles from the original (kart, golf, tennis, Olympics, smash) etc so you wont find absolutely every game being looked over here today, just the ones I felt worthy of a spot, again its all subjective. I will also not be including the current gen titles as I do not deem that retro.
Once a console has been retired and a new one is released the games are retired along with and make that passage into that retro status, in this day and age of updates and dlc's for many games there is still time for developers to make a good game but ultimately screw the whole thing up with bad dlc.
Super Mario Brothers NES 1983/85
It goes without saying that we firstly look at the original Mario, his first standalone. Released on the 8bit bad boy Nintendo In 85 following a stint in the arcades.
8 worlds and 4 stages per world packed with pipes, mushrooms, goombas and koopas, with a few hammer throwers thrown in for good measure, and our task all along, to rescue the princess.
Actually can we just take a step back for a minute to highlight how lousy princess peaches royal guards and security is and how lousy Bowser is at keeping her captive!
For its time an absolute standout, the mixture of the gameplay and its increasing levels of difficulty and the music gave us something that we had not seen before and was the pioneer for future titles, and lets be honest it felt quite mischievous to skip levels and fast tracking to level 8, back in the day it made you feel like some sort of bad ass hacker, despite the fact that when you grew up you knew it was deliberate by Nintendo.
Super Mario Bros 3 SNES 1991
For me this was when the series came of age, noticeable that Mario 2 does not feature, I was never a fan of the game, to this day I am unsure as to why, its not bad, not great, I came to the conclusion that it didn't compare to the first as it was too different and once Mario 3 was released it just well got lost in time. Mario 3, a statement by Nintendo of massive proportions, they gave us such a deep game, deep in the sense that it felt big, not only did we get levels we got a variety of different themed worlds, but this time we were treated to different themed Mario, suits and hats that gave us different abilities, we were treated to the OG mushroom and fireplant, but a leaf that could make you fly!! writers and developers at Nintendo parties must have been eating some funky mushrooms (pun completely intended) a frog suit which lets be fair apart from the water themed levels was useless.
We had multiple levels within each theme world to navigate, resulting with a airship level followed by a boss (Koopalings) Bowser has so many kids he should be on Jerry Springer, Desert themed, ice themed, small themed, and giant themed worlds to name a few, the game felt like it had everything, to this day its still spoken about in high regard.
Also worth pointing out we had the option to pull the cheat of the magic whistles, now I believe there were 2 possibly 3 whistles which swept you away to a level select option which to be frank was great to begin with but we soon realise doing this from the start did not give you enough gameplay to save up some lives and visit the many mushroom stores for hats and suits to aid in the later worlds.
I could compare every Mario Bros title released from the original to galaxy 2 but the blog would end up with more chapters that Harry Potter so I decided to whittle it down to 3, this ultimately means some hard decisions have to be made and some don't make that illustrious list, BUT what that also brings is debate and I do enjoy chewing the fat when it comes to gaming, with that's said it's time to give the roll call to those who unfortunately didn't get an invite to the party.
Super Mario sunshine - gamecube 2002
Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo Wii 2007
Almost a travesty to leave them from the list and they would make a top 5 but the purpose of a top 3 means difficult decisions. If you didn't guess by now the Mario title that made my list is..........
Mario 64 - Nintendo 64 1996
Right off the bat is Mario 64 as visually pleasing as the 2 that failed to make my top 3, absolutely not but neither are the other two, if it were a competition of graphics then quite possibly none of them would make the top 3, but my list is about what the games gave us at that time, what did I have going on in my life at the time I played these games, subjective. Youngergenerations may place newer titles at the front of the queue because they resonate with them more. When it comes to iconic games like Mario everyone of all ages should play the earlier stuff for appreciation.
I was 16 when Mario 64 was released, the Nintendo 64 was the first console I bought with my own money, maybe this will always make me a little bias towards it but at 16 I think it was such a good age in a gaming sense, really starting to fully understand and appreciate what goes in to making a good game.
At long last we had our favourite Italian in 3d and boy was it special. The fundamentals stay the same, rescue Princess peach from King Bowser, luring Mario to the castle with promises of cake, (cake!!) No longer a savory guy then.
We get to navigate worlds via paintings in the various rooms in the castle, collecting stars to unlock more rooms and levels, we meet Bowser 3 times throughout the final battle being the 70 stars mark but we do have the opportunity to go on after to collect the full 120 stars where we can meet Yoshi atop the castle where we are given 100 life's which to me is pretty pointless seeing as we have finished the game.
Mario 64 was special, I felt at that time gaming had just evolved massively, my connection to Nintendo is strong as its been there my whole life, I love Sony, the console's they put out and the ongoing evolution of gaming but never the deep tie that I have with Nintendo.
A toss up between Mario 3 and Mario 64 but I think for me pound for pound Mario 64 wins the day.
Agree or disagree comment and tell us why, debate welcome.
I'm off to finish up my one man mission as Lincoln Clay in Mafia 3.
Adios.
Today we are talking Nintendo and its most iconic guy.
Before that I extend sincere thanks to those of you reading these blogs, this is my tenth piece, the page has already had over 2500 views and our last piece on PS2 games had been read over 130 times, I have no idea if that's good or not but the fact even one person has taken the time from their day to read my thoughts on retro gaming really makes it worth while, so thank you kindly.
This week I have dusted of my laptop, I hardly ever use it now unless I'm booting up WinUAE the Amiga emultor. I am currently trawling ebay for retro consoles to boost my collection, among them a master system and a Saturn. The titles I have been playing this week, stunt car racer, world boxing manager and a Rockstar are my hamster.
 |
| Clive and cecil building a music empire |
 |
| excellently put together boxing sim |
 |
| Stunt car Racer |
I could get lost in this emulator for hours, so many amiga roms to choose rom not enough hours in the day. Enough with my current gaming and onto today's piece.
An absolute lynchpin in the gaming industry, this game and now franchise is one of the most iconic and memorable around, everyone's vertically challenged Italian plumber come rescuer of royalty Mario.
Our guy got his lucky break after a cameo in 1981 in Donkey Kong following this appearance he was given his own game and he never looked back and neither did we - well unless we were chasing one of them damn one up mushrooms. The game is a synonymous with Nintendo, when we think of the company we immediately think Mario (I know I certainly do), this small guy and his band of mates have given me some great memories throughout my life as a child to teenager to adult, so much so I have recently introduced him to the next generation of the family with my 6 year old daughter, who seems at this early stage to share my passion for gaming and I find that very fulfilling. As a mature gamer and family man its a balancing act I want my kids to enjoy gaming and I look forward to making sure they get a gaming education in the sense they get to experience what I did growing up so that they can appreciate the evolution that the industry has went through, I also want them to lead a healthy and active life so balance is key, but one things for sure there are certain games and characters that I deem necessary to be a part of that gaming education and Super Mario Brothers is certainly near if not at the top of that syllabus.
The Mario franchise has had more games that I have fingers and toes and has had extensions of titles from the original (kart, golf, tennis, Olympics, smash) etc so you wont find absolutely every game being looked over here today, just the ones I felt worthy of a spot, again its all subjective. I will also not be including the current gen titles as I do not deem that retro.
Once a console has been retired and a new one is released the games are retired along with and make that passage into that retro status, in this day and age of updates and dlc's for many games there is still time for developers to make a good game but ultimately screw the whole thing up with bad dlc.
Super Mario Brothers NES 1983/85
It goes without saying that we firstly look at the original Mario, his first standalone. Released on the 8bit bad boy Nintendo In 85 following a stint in the arcades.
8 worlds and 4 stages per world packed with pipes, mushrooms, goombas and koopas, with a few hammer throwers thrown in for good measure, and our task all along, to rescue the princess.
Actually can we just take a step back for a minute to highlight how lousy princess peaches royal guards and security is and how lousy Bowser is at keeping her captive!
For its time an absolute standout, the mixture of the gameplay and its increasing levels of difficulty and the music gave us something that we had not seen before and was the pioneer for future titles, and lets be honest it felt quite mischievous to skip levels and fast tracking to level 8, back in the day it made you feel like some sort of bad ass hacker, despite the fact that when you grew up you knew it was deliberate by Nintendo.
Super Mario Bros 3 SNES 1991
For me this was when the series came of age, noticeable that Mario 2 does not feature, I was never a fan of the game, to this day I am unsure as to why, its not bad, not great, I came to the conclusion that it didn't compare to the first as it was too different and once Mario 3 was released it just well got lost in time. Mario 3, a statement by Nintendo of massive proportions, they gave us such a deep game, deep in the sense that it felt big, not only did we get levels we got a variety of different themed worlds, but this time we were treated to different themed Mario, suits and hats that gave us different abilities, we were treated to the OG mushroom and fireplant, but a leaf that could make you fly!! writers and developers at Nintendo parties must have been eating some funky mushrooms (pun completely intended) a frog suit which lets be fair apart from the water themed levels was useless.
We had multiple levels within each theme world to navigate, resulting with a airship level followed by a boss (Koopalings) Bowser has so many kids he should be on Jerry Springer, Desert themed, ice themed, small themed, and giant themed worlds to name a few, the game felt like it had everything, to this day its still spoken about in high regard.
Also worth pointing out we had the option to pull the cheat of the magic whistles, now I believe there were 2 possibly 3 whistles which swept you away to a level select option which to be frank was great to begin with but we soon realise doing this from the start did not give you enough gameplay to save up some lives and visit the many mushroom stores for hats and suits to aid in the later worlds.
I could compare every Mario Bros title released from the original to galaxy 2 but the blog would end up with more chapters that Harry Potter so I decided to whittle it down to 3, this ultimately means some hard decisions have to be made and some don't make that illustrious list, BUT what that also brings is debate and I do enjoy chewing the fat when it comes to gaming, with that's said it's time to give the roll call to those who unfortunately didn't get an invite to the party.
Super Mario sunshine - gamecube 2002
Super Mario Galaxy - Nintendo Wii 2007
Almost a travesty to leave them from the list and they would make a top 5 but the purpose of a top 3 means difficult decisions. If you didn't guess by now the Mario title that made my list is..........
Mario 64 - Nintendo 64 1996
Right off the bat is Mario 64 as visually pleasing as the 2 that failed to make my top 3, absolutely not but neither are the other two, if it were a competition of graphics then quite possibly none of them would make the top 3, but my list is about what the games gave us at that time, what did I have going on in my life at the time I played these games, subjective. Youngergenerations may place newer titles at the front of the queue because they resonate with them more. When it comes to iconic games like Mario everyone of all ages should play the earlier stuff for appreciation.
I was 16 when Mario 64 was released, the Nintendo 64 was the first console I bought with my own money, maybe this will always make me a little bias towards it but at 16 I think it was such a good age in a gaming sense, really starting to fully understand and appreciate what goes in to making a good game.
At long last we had our favourite Italian in 3d and boy was it special. The fundamentals stay the same, rescue Princess peach from King Bowser, luring Mario to the castle with promises of cake, (cake!!) No longer a savory guy then.
We get to navigate worlds via paintings in the various rooms in the castle, collecting stars to unlock more rooms and levels, we meet Bowser 3 times throughout the final battle being the 70 stars mark but we do have the opportunity to go on after to collect the full 120 stars where we can meet Yoshi atop the castle where we are given 100 life's which to me is pretty pointless seeing as we have finished the game.
Mario 64 was special, I felt at that time gaming had just evolved massively, my connection to Nintendo is strong as its been there my whole life, I love Sony, the console's they put out and the ongoing evolution of gaming but never the deep tie that I have with Nintendo.
A toss up between Mario 3 and Mario 64 but I think for me pound for pound Mario 64 wins the day.
I'm off to finish up my one man mission as Lincoln Clay in Mafia 3.
Adios.
SPWritingTeam.com
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