vaio on 26 August 2008
Why Mario should retire
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If you’ve read the headline and are already flexing your fingers ready to write an outraged response on the T&G message boards telling me that I'm more evil than Wario and Bowser's demonic offspring, let me explain why I think it's about time that Nintendo's most famous character is put out to pasture.
The stuff of gaming legend
The thing is, Mario is a true icon of gaming. He's forever going to be associated with all that's good about our favourite consoles of yesteryear. His Jumpman beginnings in Donkey Kong and the arrival of Luigi for Mario Bros make him more old-school than the Tucker years on Grange Hill.
And then there was his foray into sideways scrolling action and the genuinely world-class Super Mario Bros, the only game whose first level music can be hummed by 99% of gamers – who could also put in the jump and power up sound effects at the most appropriate places.
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I've written before how much this game impacted on my own consciousness. Super Mario Bros was a game so powerfully brilliant that it left you wondering at the time if any game in the entire future of gaming could be as impressive.
In fact, Mario even survived the move from silent to talkies (take note, Buster Keaton) and gained a few fairly enormous catch phrases on the way.
I've interviewed a lot of very different people over the years, from world-renowned footballers to game industry giants but a chat with Charles Martinet – the actor that voices Mario - remains one of the most unique and enjoyable I’ve ever had.
Time to move on
But despite all of this, and despite the brilliant Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart on the Wii and Super Paper Mario on the DS, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that Nintendo should start thinking it would be better off looking to the next big thing.
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I realise that's controversial. For a start, computer games characters are only bound by the technology of the time, so there's no need for Mario to step down before his aching joints can't quite carry him to the next platform.
Not for Mario the embarrassment of being outraced, outjumped and outplumbed by a younger man. He is as spritely (ahem) now as he was when he first started hurdling barrels and climbing ladders.
Nor is Mario in any danger of needing a new challenge. He's not going to do a Michael Jordan and try his hand at professional baseball or follow Vinnie Jones into acting, for instance.
Indeed, even when the rest of us would have given up on the Princess and told her to get some better bleedin’ locks on her palace, he still appears to be more than game to jet off on his next adventure.
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So, I hear you cry – why on earth am I suggesting that Nintendo hang up Mario's plumber workboots and retire his number from the team roster?
Too much of a good thing?
In short: because he's in danger of becoming so ubiquitous that he'll become taken for granted - or worse, considered passé. Mario is linked so heavily with some of the most powerfully iconic games of all time that he is already rightly regarded as the face of gaming, but wouldn't it be terrible if his almost uncountable cameos in Nintendo games started to eat away at that impact?
I for one would be disgusted if the next generation of gamers didn't remember Mario for his pioneering turn in Mario 64, for instance, or as the hero of Donkey Kong but merely thought of him as one of the funny cartoon men on Super Smash Bros part 18 or one of the unlockable characters on the latest Nintendo driving game.
And the time is ripe. The Wii was the first console that didn't have a Mario game as the headline act. Galaxy was a wonderful game and deserving of praise but if you had to pick out the title that made the Wii such a roaring success it would almost certainly be Wii Sports.
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In fact you might well suggest that Wii Play and even Wii Fit are more immediately identifiable as the games that define the Wii which, whisper it, perhaps says a lot about Nintendo's move into more of a family (and peripheral-happy) audience.
Bowing out with dignity
I think the greatest icons of all time have often managed to bow out when they are still in touching distance of the top of their game. OK, sometimes that’s been because of death - but I do think that Mario’s massive reputation means that even if Nintendo never used his name again he will still be an-all time great.
Take a company like Disney. Even though Mickey Mouse is still the company’s mascot and a worldwide megabrand, he no longer stars in their headline films.
And perhaps without Mario to fall back on Nintendo will continue on their brilliant track of creativity and innovation - and not resort to forcing the old workhorse into cameos in games not worthy of his presence.
So, for me, Mario should be allowed to bow out on a high, leaving a legacy that I don’t think any gaming character will ever follow.
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Patrick Goss is employed on a freelance basis by Microsoft. The views in this column are those of the author and not of MSN or Microsoft.
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