History Of Mario: 1988-89

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Last time we discussed the awesome Super Mario Bros. How would Nintendo follow up such a groundbreaking game. Read on...

1988
The release of Super Mario Bros. 2. Yes, that one
In the late '80s, the delay between a game being released in Japan and its eventual release in the UK was much larger than it is today. For example, Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in Japan in 1988 but America didn't see it until 1990, and it didn't reach British shores until 1991, three years after its Japanese release! So although Super Mario Bros. 3 may have reached Japanese shores in 1988, we'll come to that later, because let's not forget that by 1988 western gamers had still to receive a second Mario game due to Nintendo's refusal to release the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 in the US or Europe. So another, completely different sequel was created based on Shigeru Miyamoto's Famicom Disk System project, a game called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic.

Doki Doki Panic had an Arabian Nights setting and four playable characters, so Nintendo decided to say the game was set in a dream world called Subcon instead of the Mushroom Kingdom and replaced the playable characters with Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Toadstool. The modified game was then released in the US and Europe as Super Mario Bros. 2. Although looking back, it's pretty clear that Super Mario Bros. 2 plays and looks nothing like the original game, it's still a fun title (no doubt due to Miyamoto's input) and as a result, the fact that Mario 2 was a huge success is no real surprise.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Mario Bros. 2
Year: 1988 (US), 1989 (UK), 1992 (Japan. Format: NES
Although it was based on an entirely different game altogether, the fact that Doki Doki Panic was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto means that the western version of Super Mario Bros. 2 actually has more of his influence than the Japanese one. The Arabian setting was explained with a story suggesting Mario and his friends had entered the dream world Subcon. This also helped Nintendo explain why none of the game's enemies had featured in the first game. Some (such as Birdo and Shy Guy) have since appeared in other Mario games, however.

Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels

Everyone's Happy
It may have seemed a bit unfair that we got a completely different version of Super Mario Bros. 2, but it all eventually worked itself out as both regions eventually received the other's game. Our Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan as Super Mario USA, and we finally got the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (renamed The Lost Levels) as part of the Super Mario All-Stars collection on the SNES. So it's all good.

1989
As well as its huge success with the NES, Nintendo was also known for its handheld expertise, with its Game & Watch titles shifting by the bucketload. Gunpei Yokoi, the man responsible for the Game & Watch, decided to create a successor - a handheld console with a black and white LCD screen like a Game & Watch, but with interchangeable cartridges like a NES. The Game Boy was born.

Although it was due to launch bundled with the popular puzzle game Tetris, Yokoi wanted a Mario game for it as well to help boost sales, so he designed Super Mario Land, which was released on 21 April 1989 (the same day as the Game Boy). The game would go on to sell 18 million copies worldwide (making it the third-highest selling Mario game of all time), and Nintendo ended up selling 69.42 million Game Boys.

Super Mario Land was set outside the Mushroom Kingdom, in Sarasaland. This shift in setting allowed Yokoi to give the game a different feel. The various backgrounds, music and enemies had more of a distinctly Oriental feel to them, with many other cultures appearing too. For example, one enemy is an Egyptian sphinx while another is a running Easter Island head, while later levels feature traditional Japanese vampires who hop forward and get up after being stomped.

Despite being a short game and one that had a different feel to the console Mario titles, Super Mario Land was still a huge success, partly due to the success of the Game Boy handheld itself.

Super Mario Land

Super Mario Land
Year: 1989 (US, Japan), 1990 (UK). Format: Game Boy
Mario's first handheld adventure. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi instead of Shigeru Miyamoto, the game was set in the mystical world of Sarasaland, instead of the Mushroom Kingdom, and saw Mario rescuing Princess Daisy instead of Peach. Super Mario Land also featured some side-scrolling shoot 'em up stages for the first time, in which Mario would take out enemies in either the Marine Pop (a mini-submarine) or the Sky Pop (a biplane). It sold by the truckload, helping Nintendo's handheld become one of the company's biggest success stories

The Wizard

The Wizard
Year 1989. Movie
In an attempt to promote itself, Nintendo co-produced The Wizard, a movie about a disturbed boy who develops a talent for being great at video games. He runs away to California to take part in a Video Game Championship, encountering loads of NES games and peripherals along the way (including the now-legendary Power Glove), and eventually wins the contest by beating his opponents at a 'secret new game' at the grand final. As the film was a big 90-minute Nintendo advert, it was no shock that this secret game was the long-awaited Super Mario Bros. 3.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show
Year: 1989. Cartoon series.
Back in the day, you couldn't realistically call something a 'craze' in America unless it spawned a Saturday morning cartoon series. So joining the likes of the Transformers, My Little Pony and Care Bears cartoons was The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, a half-hour show consisting of live-action segments (where Mario was played by ex-WWF wrestler Captain Lou Albano) and a cartoon story too. It was this cartoon that came up with Mario's backstory - that he was a plumber from Brooklyn who, along with his brother Luigi, was sucked down a drainpipe and ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom. Let's hope they're not charging by the hour.

• History Of Mario: The Early Years


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