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Swing your arms from side-to-side, come on it's time to go do the Mario games!
[music playing]
Some of the great things in our culture are born from the ashes of failure; one of these
things is an Italian-American plumber who jumped through the pipes of destiny at the
start of the 1980's. When Nintendo of America unsuccessfully released
an arcade game known as 'Radar Scope'; the then President and CEO of the father company,
Hiroshi Yamauchi asked one of his staff artists Shigeru Miyamoto to provide some fresh ideas
for a title that would make up for lost profits. The game Miyamoto presented was 'Donkey Kong';
a platformer where a stout fellow named "Jumpman" avoids obstacles while climbing to the top
of the level where he could attempt to save damsel in distress "Pauline from a wily 800-pound
gorilla, the namesake of the game. "Jumpman's" name was changed to Mario during the transition
to Nintendo's North American branch. The game was successful enough to have a sequel
produced and distributed the very next year, 'Donkey Kong Jr.'; which in-turn was successful
enough to warrant our hero and his brother a break away game, 'Mario Bros'. one year
hence. When Nintendo decided to combat the success
of the home console Atari 2600, they released what would eventually come to be known as
the Nintendo Entertainment System. Among the 18 launch titles, including a port of 'Donkey
Kong Jr.', was a brand new game for the Marios; 'Super Mario Bros.'; note the 'super'. Before
the end of the NES age, this game sold an incredible 40 million copies; proving the
pipe-peregrinating plumbers a permanent placement as platforming prospects! ...oh boy!
"Now...here's where it gets tricky for me. I wanted to start this series off with the
character that started my own personal collection of games. But the problem is, this is probably
one of the hardest series to cover since it includes sooooo many games and sooo many -types-
of games. To wit, there are fewer Mario platformers than Mario non-platformers. Counting Mario
Kart, around 20 Mario games are sports-related. OY! What I'm going to do is restrict the titles
for now and cover other kinds of Mario games later. This particular list is going to include
only platform games for console systems where Mario is the main character. It will also
include disclude titles that were not released in the US. And here they are:"
Of those, the only ones I currently own are: Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars,
Donkey Kong Jr. (on the e-Reader), and Super Mario Galaxy. I've played New Super Mario
Bros. Wii well enough. So those are the only games I'll cover for now.
Click the annotation here or the link below for my first critical review. Super Mario
World!