I’m just imaging going back in time and explaining to a younger me that this thing would be a multi-generational cultural icon and a billion dollar industry. It’s a masterpiece of a game, buy the way, do yourself a favor a play a ROM of it. It’s super cool that the kids have a deep vein Mario lore that I don’t get, that’s what fanservice is all about.
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I’ve gotten deep into different Mario but never with consistency.
I played the hell out of Mario 2, 3, and Super Mario World for SNES, then didn’t play again until it was on the Wii. Those were incredible and I enjoyed some of the spin offs like Mario Kart.
But there’s long stretches, especially the earliest era like what you are referencing, where I would be clueless if not for this gem of a book.
The definitive story of the rise of Nintendo.
In 1981, Nintendo of America was a one-year-old business already on the brink of failure. Its president, Mino Arakawa, was stuck with two thousand unsold arcade cabinets for a dud of a game (Radar Scope). So he hatched a plan.Back in Japan, a boyish, shaggy-haired staff artist named Shigeru Miyamoto designed a new game for the unsold cabinets featuring an angry gorilla and a small jumping man. Donkey Kong brought in $180 million in its first year alone and launched the career of a short, chubby plumber named Mario.
Since then, Mario has starred in over two hundred games, generating profits in the billions. He is more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, yet he’s little more than a mustache in bib overalls. How did a mere smear of pixels gain such huge popularity?
Super Mario tells the story behind the Nintendo games millions of us grew up with, explaining how a Japanese trading card company rose to dominate the fiercely competitive video-game industry.
Released in 2012 so it’s not exactly current but close enough to feel like history informing the present. There’s a cool part at the end where he’s talking about all of the stuff Nintendo struggled to crack but is now releasing, eg. new movie and a Nintendo/Mario theme park.
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How did you guys play tons of Mario but not Mario Kart? I guess the blue shell was introduced in the N64 game so maybe you were done by then, but Mario Kart was great.
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I heard somewhere that The hero of Donkey Kong was supposed to be Popeye, but the licensing deal fell through at the last minute. Makes me very sad for the world we could have had.
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This. I had a SNES that i gridned till my hands fall off. Never got N64.
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My experiences with Mario Kart usually involved weed so my memory of that isn’t too clear. I thought the red shell was the homing shell?
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I always loved this fake trailer for a Punch Out movie:
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Red shell: Homing shell that attacks the player in the position in front of you.
Blue shell: Homing shell that attacks the player in 1st place.
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Yeah Mario Kart was elite multi-player gaming back in the day, same with the N64 and GameCube Smash Bros.
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Yup. And Donkey Kong originally started as a Popeye’s nemesis Bluto. The Princess was originally Olive Oil.
Except they couldn’t get the licensing. No worries, how about King Kong? Mario would rescue a vague damsel in distress not as Mario but as Jump Man.
Except they couldn’t get the rights to King Kong either. Fuck. So they named him Donkey Kong for reasons that are debated.
Except Universal Studios owned the rights to King Kong and said LMAO this is a clear rip off. Desist and pay up. It was a money making move that had bullied lots of other folks who blatantly ripped off King Kong into paying Universal out of court settlements rather than face a decision for who knew how much money.
Except Nintendo said suck my plunger and went to trial.
Except the trial revealed that Universal Studios didn’t own the rights to King Kong either! The character was public domain. And even if it had owned the rights, Donkey Kong clearly fell under parody and was thus fair use.
Universal not only lost but suddenly had to foot the bill.
Decades later, they tried to salvage the damage by starring Tom Cruise in an instantly reviled Mummy reboot, yet another character to which they do not actually own the rights.
When that didn’t work, they invested in original IP as Illumination Studios. Despicable Me and others proved extremely profitable, but it’s the studio’s latest release that will put it in the history books for a world record as the highest grossing video game adaptation of all time.
They teamed up with Nintendo to produce the latest Super Mario Bros movie.
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Ha, that was awesome. Also a reminder of how great the music and sound effects were in that game.
So when do we get a Mari Kart movie?
Holy crap, a Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! movie would be the most problematic thing ever.
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I played a Popeye game on Atari that was pretty shitty
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Was that before or after ET
The Popeye arcade game is elite. I assume it was just a bad port because it was, after all, Atari.
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Before I think. Here’s what it looked like
After playing a bunch of shit like that, my mind was really blown when I saw my cousin play Pitfall for the first time. The Raiders of the Lost Ark Game was also pretty dope.
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RELEASE THE SOPRANO CUT 
I powered up the response over some coffee
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SNES MK was great too though, young Yuv missed out.
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