The Wonder of Super Mario
For this family, it's always Mario time
While 2013 was dubbed by Nintendo as the "Year of Luigi," who can deny that 2023 has unequivocally been the Year of Super Mario. With a record breaking feature film (the record I reference being the number of consecutive days my son has asked to watch this film) in the early Spring to the announcement and imminent release of Super Mario Bros. Wonder set for October 20, the Year of Mario has generated untold excitement, name-recognition, and tons of money spent on merchandise and toys - and I'm still talking about within the four walls of my house. The Year of Mario, as I've called it three times in this first paragraph and will endeavor to avoid hereafter, has culminated in rediscovering my love of the tiny plumber while also helping me introduce one of my favorite hobbies to my children.
A quick primer: Mario's first appearance is technically in the early 1980s, with appearances in the Game & Watch series as well as the Donkey Kong arcade game. Super Mario Bros. would launch with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. The platform game all but helped put video games back on the map after the video game crash occurring primarily in the United States between 1983 and 1985. Glad the industry decided to recover just in time for my birth.
Since then, the series and franchise has exploded - whilst remaining primarily a video game series, Mario has dipped his toes all over the place. You can find Mario in practically every genre: sports, fighting, RPG, action/adventure, puzzle, rhythm and even a Mavis Beacon-esque typing game, 'Mario Teaches Typing." It is oddly one of the games my kids keep asking me to find for them. The most recent "mainline" releases for Mario include Super Mario Odyssey from 2017, as well as some excellent Switch ports, like Super Mario 3D World. For me, Mario was everywhere, but nothing to get excited about - especially given the steady stream of ports from the Wii U to the Switch. I think I've purchased four or five different versions of "New Super Mario Bros.” Where New Super Mario Bros. was so exciting in 2006, the 2D platforming games had fallen into the familiar.
That feeling started to shift with the film. Before the movie came out, my kids didn't really play video games, instead opting to spend their limited screen time on tablets or Gabby’s Dollhouse. They knew of Mario but had no particular affinity for him. I had Super Mario Run on my iPhone and made the mistake of allowing him to play it while waiting at an airport. The one-handed gameplay was perfect for a younger player, and Mario's constant movement and tap-to-jump mechanic was perfect for onboarding. You've heard the jazz bop that plays during the remix missions, right? Still, my son was more of a Toy Story kid, at least until the movie came out.
I was excited to see the Mario film and bandied about taking my son to his first movie. For his birthday we had a small screening of the film at our local theatre. While he was previously into Spider-Man and Sonic, those guys have largely fallen by the wayside in favor of Mario and his cohort. Suddenly we were collecting toys, sticker books, pajamas, even bomber jackets of Bowser. With the announcement of Wonder, I figured this would be the perfect time to revisit the series. Mario had already introduced so much joy to my family at large, and I was eager to show them some of the memories I had from my own childhood - and not just the happy meal toys I was saving for them since before they were born.
One of the best parts of the Switch Online is the collection of vintage classics to play, making for a quick way to get a nostalgia fix without dusting off an old cartridge. We started our journey with Super Mario All-Stars, the Super Nintendo re-issue of the NES Mario games - Mario 1-3, as well as the western premiere of "Super Mario the Lost Levels," which in Japan was known as "Super Mario Bros. 2." Experiencing the 8- and 16-bit graphics for the first time, my children charmingly referred to this first set of games as "Lego Mario." Can't say they're wrong.
I was delighted in showing them the warp zone pipes in Super Mario Bros. They were - possibly still are - confused as to the entirety of Super Mario Bros. 2, despite recognizing its holy contribution to the series canon with the introduction of Birdo. Super Mario Bros. 3 is a clear favorite in the family especially when it comes to the "Lego Mario" games. Many fixtures in the series debut in this game, coupled with a range of inventive and useful power-ups. The music of SMB3 still features some of the sharpest work in the series, with loving nods to the same in more recent fare.
They were introduced to the action-adventure games through Super Mario 3D All-Stars, the Switch re-issue of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. These influential games represent Nintendo and Mario at their best. There are few gaming experiences that I remember as vividly than turning on SM64 for the very first time, watching in awe as Nintendo completely subverted expectations as to what Mario - and games in general - could achieve. The closest comparison I can think of is going from SNES Final Fantasy titles to playing the opening hours of Final Fantasy VII for the first time.
This led to the Mario 3D Land/World games, Super Paper Mario, Mario Maker, and more. If there was a Mario game, my kids wanted to play it. As long as they still had some screen time left in the day, I was almost certainly happy to oblige. Even non-mainline games found our attention, including Mario Party. It was only when they would ask to play Mario is Missing that I would protest. Thankfully they haven’t found out about Mario Paint.
I've been a Nintendo fan for most of my life, even if I have doubted my faith at various times, and for various reasons. Yet replaying through a smattering of the series with my kids has helped me rediscover the joy of gaming as they discover it in the first instance. I struggled endlessly with a level in Super Mario 3D World, "Grumblump Inferno." In this level, Mario must navigate across a sea of lava being carried across by Grumblumps, rectangle shaped blocks with faces on them. I was ready to all but throw my controller when my daughter took over, telling me of her strategy to run up the block as it rotated rather than attempting to jump, flutter, and land on the block before it flipped again. I was watching hand-eye coordination and strategic thinking develop in real-time as she negotiated this space.
Our gaming sessions are filled with these moments. Fleeting as they may be, it is these individual moments that will stick with me: watching my son's eyes widen and a squeal escape as he discovers a brand-new power-up or even my oldest reading the Mario movie’s storybook to her sister. We've got early reader books, a Mario Encyclopedia, and even DVDs of the terrible late 1980s Super Mario Bros. Super Show live-action/cartoon hybrid. The show and its subsequent iterations are a hard sell: the animation and voice acting are ugly, with faintly heard music cues from their respective games being a huge selling point. The first batch of episodes are almost as old as I am, and there are plenty of instances of problematic language or plotlines that are easy to skip. We are lightyears away from watching the live action film from 1993, though.
Mario mania is not confined to screens at our house, with plenty of shirts, shoes, and more scattered about the floor of my house at any given time. Best of all - certainly to my son - are the toys. We've got good guys, bad guys, everyone but the Koopalings. Don’t worry, they are on his Christmas list. We are even planning family Halloween costumes.
All roads lead to October 20, where my kids and I are going to celebrate another milestone with the arrival of the first game they have been anticipating: baby's first release date. My kids are very excited to play as Elephant Mario. Me? I'm excited for that and Bubble Mario, sure. But I’m looking forward to seeing the look on their faces when we play the game for the first time. It is the shared joy and memories we will make which will keep me smiling for the years - and games - to come.