Tag Archives: Mario in March 2023

Digital Playground

Mario and My Family: Mario in March

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Introduction

I think I said in the previous article that, similar to comics, the Super Mario games grew up with me. The two-dimensional side scrollers of my teenage years became three dimensional exploration games during my 20s when I had more time to devote to them. Then, as I got married, had kids, and worked more as a result, the games went back to simpler times. So, Mario and my family, as I’m sure many others can say, have a history.

That history includes the main series games. It also involves stories from the auxiliary games, mostly Kart and Party. We played Brawl (the boys more than Christine or me), but I stink on ice at that game. And, if I’m being perfectly honest, one of my (not so secret) nerd shames is that I have absolutely no idea how to even play the game. It resembles none of the other fighting games I’ve ever played and I don’t have the patience to learn any strategies. Plus, button mashing rewards you less than those other games.

Super Smash Bros

I remember thinking when I heard about the game, “A fighting game with Nintendo characters? What an amazing idea.” I also thought at the time, for some reason, that the game would be another Street Fighter clone. Playing the game quickly disabused me of that notion. No amount of half circle or F-D-F gave me the desired results. And, so, faced with that failure, I completely gave up on the hopes of ever being a Smash Bro.

I mean, seriously, what’s with the percentages?!

Mario Party

I first tried Mario Party with Christine on the Nintendo 64. We quickly discovered that, while a multiplayer game, it lends itself to more than two players. And, so the game went unplayed for another two decades or so until we had kids. Even so, we only recently started playing it as a whole family. Liam bought the game and we loaded it a couple of weeks ago on a family gaming night. We actually played through a few games and it looked like it might take a place in the rotation. So far, it hasn’t. But, April vacation is coming and we are going away with friends. So, There is the chance for another round or two coming up.

Super Mario Kart

The undisputed champion in the house when it comes to the Mario adjacent game is the Mario Kart series. I think I promised a story in the previous article about Mario Kart, so here goes. Me, Liam, and Aiden were playing Mario Kart. I went into the kitchen to put oil on the stove for home fries for breakfast. I, then, went into the living room to continue our Mario Kart series. The oil reached flash temperature and went up in flames. The fire alarms went off. I saw a 3 foot high flame licking at the bottom of our above range microwave. We left the house, called the fire department, and lived with her parents for 2 weeks as they cleaned the ash, soot, and extinguisher foam from the house and our belongings. How many of you can say you almost burned down your house playing Mario Kart?

More recently, we played Mario Kart 3 or 4 nights during one of our recent December breaks. We enjoyed the sessions so much that we promised to play at least once a month. As happens, that became once every other month. But, we still enjoy the times we get to play. Maybe I just need to try to force the issue more because Mario and my family miss each other.

The Verdict

Mario and my family have been a part of each other’s lives for the entirety of Mario’s existence and, therefore, my family’s. However, as I’m sure is true of other families, it wasn’t until the multiplayer party type games that it took hold of the entire family. Before that, I played Mario and Liam picked up on it. Quinn enjoyed Super Mario Maker. But, everyone plays Mario Kart and even Party on the rare occasions we load that one.

Digital Playground

Losing My Dimension: Mario in March

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Introduction

Chris responded to my previous article (written a week or so ago, more on that in the next paragraph) with something along the lines of “Eff 3D Mario”. While I respect him and his opinions, I obviously respectfully disagree with that one. I think that the three dimension games have a place in Mario’s history. I explained why in that article. But, I assured him that we returned to Mario’s roots at 2D sidescroller in this article, “Losing my Dimension”.

Yes, that’s meant to invoke the REM song.

I looked up the date stamp on that article and I wrote it on the 16th, so over a week ago. I ignored our YouTube and my podcast “Noob’s Book Club” for just as long, if not longer. Those of you who follow the page might recognize that as a common theme in the past. I update regularly and furiously for a few months at a time and then life gets in the way and I fall off for just as long, if not longer. I promise to start working this weekend to get back on track and stay there. I’m committed to this page this time, no matter what.

New Super Mario Bros

Like comics, the Super Mario games grew up with me. They went from simple side scrollers to more complex 3D exploration games. Then, when I started to have kids, they became simpler again so that I could enjoy them with my kids. Looking it up now, though (thanks Google machine!), I see that the New Super Mario Bros series actually released before Galaxy. So, in the chronology of the actual games, this article makes no sense. Ha! You must be new here. We strive to make no sense at 2 Generations Gaming.

But, in the chronology of my life, I started playing the New Super Mario Bros series with my kids, so it came after my experiences in the third dimension. These games (along with the Mario Kart games, more on that in the next article) gave me a chance to game with my kids and doom them to the same nerdy lifestyle as me. It worked on two out of the three of them. Aiden inherited some dormant athlete gene that manifests in his passion for soccer. But, he still nerds out in his own way.

I don’t know if he actually watches soccer anime, but I know he watched a volleyball one.

Nevertheless, he still partakes in family Mario Kart nights and plays Minecraft with me during school vacations. So, like I say, I know the nerd is buried in there. Hey, kids these days. They’re like onions. They have layers.

Super Mario Maker

I played this one very little. I remember being impressed by the idea and possibilities. We might have even featured it on the web page at some point. Hey, it’s been almost 10 years and almost 500 articles. I’m bound to forget things. (Editor’s Note: We looked it up. There’s at least 2 other articles that mention the game.)

Independent of that, Liam and Quinn enjoyed the heck out of the game. Like they watched me play Portal 2 the second (or third) time around and enjoyed themselves, I watched them play this more than once with the end result always being smiles and eventually laughter.

The Verdict

Mario’s “return” to the second dimension and his cover of the REM song in the form of “Losing my Dimension” came at the perfect time in my life. Sometimes, confidentially, I think I died about 10 years ago and I now live in hell. Conversely, again confidentially, I often think that this might be purgatory and my second chance at redemption. What can I say? I watched a lot of science fiction and movies like The Matrix have a lasting effect on me. Whatever this is, things just seem to work out the way they’re supposed to when they’re supposed to and I wouldn’t choose any other life for myself.

Digital Playground

Into the 3rd Dimension: Mario in March

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Introduction

So far, I admit Mario in March has been a bit of a bust this year. The snow stopped just in time to interrupt my carefully laid plans. Admittedly, I still take pride in the fact that I updated the YouTube page regularly until last week and even uploaded a video with some game play that got almost 70 views. Even though the page is almost 10 years old, this is the first time that I focused this much on putting time into making it work as more than just a family page. And, so, we come to “Into the 3rd dimension.”

Uh hoi!

Every time I write that, I think of The Simpsons episode. We watched it last year as a family to celebrate Halloween and I must say, “It holds up.” I’m about to sound like a grumpy old man, but you write what you know. Those early seasons of The Simpsons are just pure magic and will never be surpassed. But, as I often do, I digress.

Super Mario 64

By the time we reach this generation of video games, I grew up. I worked at Yankee Candle (the local warehouse earlier mentioned in the introduction to this page before changed) and lived with my then girlfriend (and eventual wife and mother of my children). If you asked me now how I ended up purchasing a Nintendo 64, I’m sure that I would retcon (but it might be the truth) and give the ages old excuse of all Nintendo has to do is release a Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game and I’ll buy the console.

It’s-a-me!

Truth be told, I think the only one of those three franchises even rumored to be released for the system at the time was Mario. And, more truth be told, I never became a fan of Metroid until Metroid Prime and then Metroid Zero on the Game Boy Advance. Two truths and a lie? No, three embarrassing truths. You know this by now. We revel in our nerd shame around here. Final truth. I forgot all about Zelda and similarly rediscovered the games with Ocarina of Time and later A Link to the Past on the Game Boy Advance.

Not Mario. I played every Mario game available. Especially this one. I loved this game so much and it came at just the right time in my life. Old enough to afford it, but young enough to still have enough time to play until I beat it 100%. I even found Yoshi on the roof.

Super Mario Sunshine

I know that some consider the Nintendo Gamecube to be the weird red headed cousin in between the much more popular Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Wii. However, I have a soft spot for the weird purple cube that played the weird little discs.

Not a bad game. Just…not what I wanted.

That weird cousin gave birth to an equally weird child in Super Mario Sunshine. While much of the traditional Mario game play, and even the three dimensional elements introduced in Super Mario 64, persisted in this game, they also threw quite the wrinkle at us. Mario wore a water spray jet pack on his back that allowed for all kinds of new and cool stuff for him to do. If you watched my video, you know all about how I reacted to this development. While I found it intriguing, I treated it very much the same way I treated Super Mario Bros. 2. I ignored it for other games at the time. To this day, even though Liam picked up a Gamecube, I never went back to play it again. Perhaps this article will inspire me.

Super Mario Galaxy

Okay, this is more like it. The game plays almost exactly like Super Mario 64. But, it adds some new mechanics, as well. Unlike Sunshine, though, those mechanics aren’t too weird. They take some getting used to, but they are more of an extension of the game instead of introducing all new and weird stuff like jet packs.

You fly, bro!

This game truly took Mario into the 3rd dimension. While Super Mario 64 emulated three dimensional game play very well, it wasn’t until Galaxy that you felt like you had full range of motion. I think I went back to finishing Mario games again with this one. As an added bonus, this is the first Mario game that I got to play with the boys.

The Verdict

Like many at the time, I wondered how three dimensional gaming might work with our favorite plumber. Yes, it’s true. Some will try to deny it now, but many people predicted Super Mario 64 as a flop among flops and that side scrolling is the only way to experience these games. As I always do, I will admit that I’m wrong and bringing Mario into the 3rd dimension was a wonderful choice and I’m glad to have seen what they were able to do with the games.

Digital Playground

Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion

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Introduction

I wrote about my humble beginnings with Super Mario. As I planned to write this article, I realized that I forgot two formative games in that article. So, keep reading to the end to get that addendum. For this article, I want to write about the second phase of my Super Mario experience, which I called Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion.

Honestly, this part cemented my enjoyment of the series and sent me on the journey that currently finds me on a mission to purchase every Nintendo console that features a Mario, Zelda, and Metroid game. The first such console that I purchased was the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Anyone who lived through that time knew the blood feud between Nintendo and Sega. Like most of you, though, I straddled the fence and played the hell out of both.

Super Nintendo Entertainment System

The first Mario game I played on the Super Nintendo was Super Mario All-Stars, the remake of Super Mario 1, “2”, and 3 along with The Lost Levels. Even though I played all the games on the NES, along with so many others, I still bought the new version. I also beat Super Mario 1 and 3 for the first time with this version of the game. And, I still refused to admit that Super Mario “2” existed outside of a loose commitment to also beat that game that remains unfinished to this day.

Nintendo started to branch out and try new things with the Super Nintendo. The additional memory allowed for different styles of games. One of those experiments was Super Mario RPG. What could go wrong? Super Mario? RPG? Two great tastes that taste great together? Honestly, for me, it was an okay game. But, not until Paper Mario (coming up next week) did I truly enjoy any sort of turn based Mario RPG experience.

No, all I wanted was Mario and more of it. Nintendo gave me that with Super Mario World. So, instead of branching out and expanding my horizons, I simply played more Mario. The game took what I liked about Super Mario Bros. 3 and made it more. More ways to travel through the world. More secret exits and areas. Different power ups and suits. I saw it as the epitome of Super Mario games.

An Addendum and a bit of Nerd Shame

First the bit of nerd shame. Not much because I think the good dad vibes will counteract the shame some. I never played the Mario Kart series until I had kids. We played the game together on the Wii and a couple of years ago we started a tradition of playing as a family once or twice a month. Then again, I almost burned down our house playing on the Wii all those years ago. Not sure how that all washes out.

I forgot two games in the 8-bit article. My friend and I played Dr. Mario every single day during lunch at school after one of us purchased a link cable for our Game Boys. And, even though Super Mario Land more resembled the graphics of the Atari 2600 because of the Game Boy’s limitations, I still played that game until I beat it. Maybe after I do the 16 bit video, I can have an addendum video where I play these two games and the SNES version of Mario Kart.

The Verdict

The series started to come into its own during the transition to 16-bit. Many of the game play styles and mechanics persist in the games to this day. Whenever I feel the need to play an older game, the first emulator that I load is Game Boy Advance and the first game that I load is Super Mario World. Super Mario’s Teenage Rebellion truly gives me the best of all things Mario.