The Evolution of Mario

The

Evolution of Mario

$2.99

June ’17

Contents Designed/Edited by: Kyle Alessio, P.J. Walker, Kunal Bhatia

Page 2...........Mario’s Evolution

Page 7..Supporting Characters

Page 11...................Branching off

Page 13.............................Creation

Page 15.......................Teaming Up

Page 18...........................Interview

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Mario’s Evolution By: Kyle Alessio

Everyone’s favorite plumber had a very different beginning than most people know today. In Nintendo’s first major arcade game, Donkey Kong released in 1981, “Jumper Man” is challenged to save his girlfriend from his pet gorilla, Donkey Kong.

He was able to move left, right, and climb ladders to avoid the rolling barrels Donkey Kong uses to smash him. At Nintendo’s American distribution center the landlord was demanding the late rent, and his name was Mario. The workers jokingly called “Jumper Man” Mario and the name stuck.

Credit: MakeUseOf

After Donkey Kong became such a huge success and Mario was well loved, Miyamoto, the designer, decided to create a two-player arcade game that features Mario and Luigi. In 1983 the arcade game was released under the name Mario Bros. The game took place in the sewers of New York city where Mario and his brother Luigi had to fight off monsters pouring out from the sewer pipes. In 1985 was a major launching point for the Mario games we know and love today.

Credit: MakeUseOf

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Nintendo came out with Super Mario Brothers. The game was a huge success, and it couldn’t even compare to any other game on the market. It was designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the NES. The game itself featured twenty-four large open levels that were far larger than the space of Donkey Kong or Mario Bros.

Mario could evolve with powerups and not take damage from falling. It set the guide for tons of left-to-right scrolling games on the console.

Credit: MakeUseOf

Super Mario Brothers was awarded with two sequels. The first one was released in Japan under the name of Super Mario Brothers 2 in 1986. The game was extremely challenging and was not released in America (until it became part of the Super Mario All Stars in 1993). The game that was released in America in 1988 was quite a let down because it was based off of the game Doku Doku Panic. Nintendo realized their mistake and released Super Mario Brothers 3 in 1988 also. Many claim it was one of the greatest games of all time. It was based Credit: MakeUseOf upon the genuine Mario story, featured an inventory, new power-ups, and a relatively nonlinear storyline.

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Credit: GiantBomb

Next came Nintendo’s new console the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 along with Super Mario World. It again expanded the Mario universe and introduced Yoshi, Mario’s dinosaur friend. The game offered larger worlds and levels that could be completed in multiple ways. It would be one of Nintendo’s last side scrolling Mario games until Super Mario Bros. Wii almost twenty years later in 2009.

Credit: Wikipedia

In 1996 Nintendo dropped Super Mario 64 which was revolutionary for the Mario franchise. It was the first 3D Mario game. Each area could be explored to the player’s content, and each offered many different activities for the player to complete. Each level has around three to six different challenges that must be completed for the entire level to be considered complete.

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In 2002 Super Mario Sunshine was released.

It was heavily based on Super Mario 64 as it featured the same multiple challenge per level design system. The game was essentially Super Mario 64 but with almost modern day graphics. The game was well loved by many and helped pave the way for Super Mario Galaxy, also created with the same level system. It was available for the Gamecube, Nintendo's very popular cube shaped console.

Credit: MarioWiki

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After this point Nintendo created many other Mario games that would split off from the original game. Some examples would be Mario Kart, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Party, and many more. The next Super Mario Bros. title, as stated before, came in 2009 with Mario in full modern day graphics along with all of the well loved characters from the previous games. The newer generations would be able to experience their own Mario. Although it looked nothing like the original Nintendo did a great job of basing their games off of the ones that were the most popular.

Mario has come a long way from when he was first developed. He began as a “Jumper Man� in a game about a gorilla capturing his girlfriend, and his barrel jumping adventure to get her back. The franchise had a few bumps, as every company does, but where Mario is today is nothing where Nintendo originally envisioned for everyone’s favorite plumber.

Credit: sonicpacker

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Supporting Characters by pj walker

Many characters have been introduced throughout the mario franchise, all having different positions and roles in the games. The first outside character introduced in the 1983 arcade game, Mario Bros., was Luigi, Mario’s younger brother and sidekick. Luigi retained his sidekick role in the game until he was an option as a primary character in Super Mario Bros. 2. As the franchise expanded so did Luigi’s position in the games, he even starred in his own game, Luigi’s Mansion, in 2001.

Overall, Luigi still plays the classic role as Mario’s helping hand.

Princess Peach was first introduced in Super Mario Bros. in 1985 where she is under capture from Bowser, the antagonist, and needs to be saved by Mario and Luigi.

She plays this similar role throughout most of the Mario games while also having a love interest with Mario. Peach is a sweet, well-mannered Princess who appears in almost every Mario game sometimes even being the primary character.

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Along when Princess Peach was introduced so was “King Koopa” or better known as Bowser.

Bowser is the leader of the turtle-like Koopa race and is the archenemy of Mario. He started his career in the Mario franchise kidnapping Princess Peach this making Mario and his friends come to his kingdom and rescue her.

Bowser has many powerful tools including breathing fire, but lacks the speed and agility ability because of his large size. He has played the villain role in almost every Mario game, only sometimes teaming up with Mario and his friends.

Another character introduced in Super Mario Bros. in 1985 was Toad, a small mushroom person. He was first seen as one of Princess Peach’s loyal assistants and a assistance provider for Mario. He usually is viewed as a non-playable character, but is still playable in minimal games such as Super Mario Bros. 2.

Yoshi, a green dinosaur-like character, first debuted in Super Mario World in 1990 as Mario and Luigi’s sidekick. Characters such as Mario and Luigi could ride on Yoshi’s back and the player would control Yoshi.

Throughout the franchise, many games were created that starred Yoshi as the main playable character which turned him into the green, lovable dinosaur he is today.

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’85

’88

’91

’92

’96

’09

By: Kyle Alessio

branching off

By PJ Walker

An abundance of games have branched off of the classic Mario video games. One of the most popular games from the franchise is Mario Kart, starting with Super Mario Kart in 1992. In the Mario Kart series, players can choose between different playable characters and different types of go-karts all having certain weights, speeds, and other abilities. With these go-karts, players race each other through different tracks and collect items to help them win. Super Mario Kart’s popularity led to the making of Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: From Wikipedia Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 7, and the most latest installment Mario Kart 8.

From Wikipedia

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Super Mario Galaxy, first made for the Wii, is an action-adventure game that was released in 2007. The bases of the game is for Mario to travel across the galaxy to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser while struggling with difficult tasks and collecting special items. The game was a follow-up to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. The only sequel released after Super Mario Galaxy, was Super Mario Galaxy 2 which now includes Yoshi.

Mario Party was also a popular game that expanded and evolved.

The first Mario Party was introduced in 1998 and involves different Mario characters using their specialties to compete against each other in a wide range of mini-games. After Mario Party’s success, the franchise set to create Mario Party 2, Mario Party 3, Mario Party 4, Mario Party 5, Mario Party 6, Mario Party 7, Mario Party 8, Mario Party 9, Mario Party: Island Tour, Mario Party 10, and the most recent Mario Party: Star Rush. Throughout the series new characters, abilities, mini-games, and boards were created.

From the Mario Wiki

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CREation

by Kunal bhatia

Yoshi

Shigeru Miyamoto decided that Mario should have a dinosaur friend ever since the beginning of Mario himself. His inspiration for “Yoshi” can be traced back to the green dragon Tamagon from the game Devil World in 1984.

Yoshi looks and acts similar to Tamagon, even making some of the same noises. One of the early images of Miyamoto’s ideas was Mario riding a dinosaur, a sketch from Miyamoto’s desk. One of Miyamoto’s friends speculated that Yoshi was a creation because of Miyamoto’s love of horse riding.

During the time Miyamoto was creating Donkey Kong, Mario and Luigi were both developed in hopes of using the characters again in upcoming games. Miyamoto’s inspiration came from the game Joust. Miyamoto wanted to create a simultaneous two-player game mode, which is how he eventually developed Mario Bros. Luigi’s name is supposedly inspired by a nearby pizza parlor near Nintendo’s headquarters. Originally, Luigi looked exactly like Mario aside from their different colors because of software restrictions.

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Luigi

When Bowser was first envisioned, Miyamoto expected him to be an ox, basing him on the Ox King from Alakazam the Great. However, the designer at nintendo described Bowser as more of a turtle than an ox, which changed Miyamoto’s mind. Now, with Bowser being a turtle instead of an ox, turtle-like Koopa Troopas were created, and Bowser was the leader of them. Miyamoto commented that he could make Bowser “look cool now.”

BOwser

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TEAMING UP by kunal bhatia

Mario and sonic at the olympics

After Sega transitioned to third party development in 2001, Nintendo and Sega developed a good relationship on F-Zero GX. That was the first significant video game collaboration between them. Ideas for a crossover between Mario and Sonic were continuously discussed in the 2000s by Yuji Naka and Shigeru Miyamoto. In 2008, Sega was awarded the Beijing 2008 Olympic license, which originated the idea for an Olympic setting for the collaboration. Sega requested nintendo’s permission to include Mario in their game, which set up the first matchup between Mario and Sonic. Nintendo not only approved, but partnered with Sega to help with quality and development.

Mario and Sonic was officially announced on March 28, 2007 and premiered at E3.

Picture from VGN247.com

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SUPER SMASH BROS

Super Smash Bros began as a prototype called “Dragon King: The Fighting Game�, and developed

by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata. Sakurai wanted to include fighters from different Nintendo franchises to provide an atmosphere for a home console fighting game which he felt was necessary. With Sakurai as the head of production, HAL Laboratory developed Super Smash Bros.

Melee. This was one of the first games released for the GameCube, and displayed the massive improvements in graphics from the Nintendo 64.

HAL worked with 3 different graphics houses in Tokyo just to make the opening sequence.

Picture from SmashBros.com

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INTERVIEW wITH Quentin LAm

By Kunal Bhatia

Kunal Bhatia: What was your favorite Mario game?

Quentin Lam: Mario Kart 8 KB: When did you first get into Mario?

QL: I was playin’ it on the DS, had a whole bunch of fun KB: Who was your favorite Mario character?

QL: Dry Bones, he’s always been my favorite. He’s sweet!

KB: How long have you played Mario?

QL: Started back in ‘08. Been playing for a while now. Its been a fun ride.

KB: What character do you use most on Mario Kart?

QL: I use dry bones. He’s my favorite character. One day I hope to unlock Dry Bowser KB: Thanks for sitting down with me, and have fun with your Mario Adventure QL: Thanks, see you later

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