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15 Things That Have Happened Since Mario’s Last 2D Console Game

Written by 2.o | November 17, 2009

Super Mario World

No matter how you slice it, Mario is best remembered for his 2D adventures that he first appeared in so long ago. However, for some reason, up until this week’s release of “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” he had not seen a 2D console release since 1990’s “Super Mario World.” Sure, Nintendo’s handhelds have gotten a ton of 2D love from Mario, but the consoles had been left in the dust. It’s been almost twenty years since our red plumber friend has run back and forth on a TV screen, and a lot can happen in that span of time. For example:

1. Nintendo has released three consoles and eight handhelds, and the virtual boy which doesn’t really fit into either of those categories
2. Nintendo, and the industry as a whole, have switched to a disc (or download) based media.
3. Shigeru Miyamoto has released 86 games
4. Nintendo of America has had three presidents
5. Mario has appeared in 149 games, 117 of which had his name in the title.
6. Mega Man has released at least 68 games.
7. Princess Peach, Luigi, and Bowser (to a lesser extent) have both starred in their own games.
8. Mario got a voice, and the ability to kill things with his rear-end.
9. The number of buttons on the controller used to control Mario has stayed exactly the same – nine.
10. The real-life Mario, Captain Lou Albano passed away.
11. Mario no longer requires a cape, or a raccoon tail to fly.
12. The Fire Flower, Mushroom, and Star are the only power-ups that are still present. Many others have come and gone.
13. Mario has traveled through time (”Mario’s Time Machine”) and space (”Super Mario Galaxy”), as well as owned a hotel (”Hotel Mario”), played just about every sport from Baseball to Olympic Curling, and raced his Kart in 8 different games.
14. The video game industry revenue has increased from $4.7 Billion in 1990 to $21.3 Billion in 2008
15. Mario has yet to devise a foolproof way for Princess Peach to not get kidnapped.


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Comments

14 Responses to “15 Things That Have Happened Since Mario’s Last 2D Console Game”

  1. EarthBounding on November 17th, 2009 7:22 pm

    Haha, great article!

    Reply

  2. Eppa on November 18th, 2009 7:34 am

    What about Super Mario World 2???

    Reply

    2.o Reply:
    November 20th, 2009 at 2:09 am

    @Eppa,
    Ok… so SMW2 is the tricky part of this. Since you don’t play as Mario, but as Baby Mario, I don’t really consider it part of the Mario Canon – my main reason being that Baby Mario has since been treated as his own character, in a variety of different games, and by using the argument that Mario can’t play against himself, in say Mario Kart, then they are two different characters, only related by name, and the fact that one is just a younger version of the other.

    Hope that makes some kind of sense

    Reply

    DrZaius Reply:
    November 23rd, 2009 at 12:44 am

    @2.o, How is Mario Kart canon but not Yoshi’s Island?

    Reply

    2.o Reply:
    November 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 am

    @DrZaius,
    I wasn’t saying that Mario Kart was canon – just that Nintendo has treated the characters as two separate entities, using Mario Kart as an example of that.

    Reply

  3. Jimbo III on November 18th, 2009 9:43 pm

    Nice article! Here are 2 more notable facts: Mario has appeared in 2 T-rated games and appeared in 3 games with Sonic. I guarantee no one saw those two things coming back in the 90’s.

    Reply

  4. Maxemillian on November 22nd, 2009 7:32 pm

    Nine buttons? If you count the individual directions of a d-pad you get:
    1) Up
    2) Down
    3) Left
    4) Right
    5) Start
    6) Select
    7) A (or 2 for Wii)
    8) B (or 1 for Wii)

    A total of eight buttons. What would the ninth button be?

    Reply

    Father Time Reply:
    November 22nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm

    @Maxemillian,
    Z

    Reply

    WickedCobra03 Reply:
    November 22nd, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    @Maxemillian,

    1. Up
    2. Down
    3. Left
    4. Right
    5. Start
    6. Select
    7. A- spin jump
    8. B- regular jump
    9. Y-run

    I got nine on my end…

    Reply

    2.o Reply:
    November 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm

    @Maxemillian,
    OK, I may have not been clear enough – so here’s the breakdown
    SNES controller:
    A,B,X,Y, Start, Select, D-pad, L, R

    Wii controller:
    1,2,A,B, Plus, Minus, Home, D-Pad, Power

    That’s 9 and 9 in my book. Right?

    Reply

  5. Phillip Stucker on November 23rd, 2009 1:21 am

    He’s also stared in a game with Sonic O.o

    Reply

  6. Dave on November 23rd, 2009 1:25 am

    There is no such thing as ‘full proof’. It’s foolproof. Usage: “Spell check is not foolproof.”

    Reply

    2.o Reply:
    November 23rd, 2009 at 1:31 am

    @Dave,
    Ok… you’re right – and I’ve fixed it … but the other one is a thing, just not the right thing

    http://www.english-for-students.com/Full-Proof.html

    Reply

  7. Tsu on November 25th, 2009 5:21 am

    Mario already went to space in Super Mario Land 2.

    Reply

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