The Super Mario Franchise on the NES
—Chrissie
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Just a few weeks ago (at the time of this writing), the twenty-second game in the Super Mario Bros. series was released, Super Mario Wonder. Mario may be one of the best-known video game characters of all time. Even people who don’t play video games know Mario. And while there have been only twenty-two games in the main-line Mario series, the character has appeared in over two hundred other titles, everything from racing games (Mario Kart) to puzzles (Dr. Mario), to sports (Mario Golf, Super Smash Bros), and even a typing tutorial on PC.
The character’s first appearance was in Donkey Kong, released for arcades in 1981. He was the player character, unnamed in the Japanese version and called “Jumpman” in the American release. The developer, Shigeru Miyamoto, created the character, who he called Mr. Video, as one he could place in any game in a cameo role. He never expected the character to become central to any game, much less as popular as he has become. The name Mario is said to be a nod to Mario Segale, who was the landlord for Nintendo of America’s offices in Seattle, and the character naming may (or may not) have been part of negotiations accounting for unpaid rent.
In 1983, Mario Bros. was released for arcades. This game featured Mario and his brother, Luigi, on a single screen, fighting baddies while jumping onto different levels made up of pipes, reflecting their plumbing profession. Based on the popularity of this game, Miyamoto was tapped to create a new game featuring Mario, one that was more colorful and more action-oriented with a scrolling screen. But, there was a time crunch, Nintendo wanted the new game to be ready to be sold with the new Famicom system, which was set to be released in late 1985, just in time for Christmas. The time constraint required a simpler design than Miyamoto would have otherwise done, but this turned out to be one of the best aspects of Super Mario Bros. and its successor games. The basics are quick to learn and can be combined in many different ways to keep gameplay interesting. Super Mario Bros was met with general acclaim at the time and has maintained that since. Despite its age, it is still held up as exemplary of the slide-scrolling platform design. Super Mario Bros became a reason to buy an NES, and to have an NES without a copy of Super Mario Bros. was unheard-of, in part because it was included in a bundle with the system. Given this, a sequel was soon expected.
Unusually, there are two sequels to Super Mario Bros., one for Japanese release and one for North America. In Japan, Mario fans got eight more worlds with the same basic design as the first game, but more difficult. Nintendo of America was concerned that the game was too difficult and would put players off future games, so Americans got a very different version of Super Mario Bros. 2. It was not a Mario game at all, but a reskin of another game, Doki Doki Panic. Doki was also the work of Miyamoto, and so had a few Mario elements already in the game, like invincibility stars and warp zones. The original game had four player characters, which were translated into Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Luigi had been playable in the previous game, but there was no difference in how the character moved or reacted, he was essentially Mario in green overalls. Super Mario Bros 2 made him taller and gave him a little higher of a jump, but one that was less controlled. This game also brought in new characters who have returned across Mario games since, such Bob-ombs and Shy Guys. This game also introduced the ability to pick up and throw things, which became an important mechanic in subsequent Mario games. The American version of Super Mario Bros 2 was widely acclaimed, though perhaps not as much as the first. Eventually, this version of the game was released in Japan as Super Mario USA and the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in North America as Super Mario Lost Levels.
The final main-line Mario game for the NES was Super Mario Bros 3. This is widely rated as one of the best video games of all time. Just like its predecessors, it is a 2-D scrolling platformer and keeps many of the original elements while adding others that became classics and were used in future games. Development began right as Super Mario Bros 2 was released on the Japanese Famicom system in 1986, with a $1.3 million budget and Miyamoto as project director. He encouraged his team to create new forms of gameplay while keeping the well-loved Mario elements already established. So, we got Mario becoming Super with a Mushroom, but he could also grab a leaf to become a flying raccoon, or hop in a shoe to painless walk over enemies, or put on a Tanooki suit and turn into an invisible statue. Many of the things we tend to think of has having always been part of the Mario universe were introduced in Mario 3, most notably the Koopalings, Bowser’s brood of seven children all named after composers and musicians and (supposedly) with the personalities of people on the development team.
A delay in production meant there was a wide gap between the Japanese release (in October 1988) and the American release (February 1990). This delay allowed for unique marketing: a movie centered around the game. It wasn’t a movie of the game (the live-action Super Mario Bros. was already being discussed and a Saturday morning cartoon show was being produced), but a movie about playing Nintendo games that featured a sneak peak of Super Mario Bros 3 at its end. The Wizard was released in December 1989 to lackluster reviews and was seen by many as nothing more than a ninety-minute commercial for the game. If that was the intent, it worked: Super Mario Bros 3 sold 250,000 copies in the first two days of its availability and stayed at or near the top of video game sales for the next six months. It eventually sold a little over 17 million copies for the NES.
These three games have remained popular since their release, despite their graphics and gameplay being far outdated. They have been available on almost every subsequent Nintendo system, beginning with Super Mario All Stars on the SNES.