It is my contention that video games do not take place on game consoles. They take place in the Human mind. The graphics, the music, the gameplay, all are not what the consumer really enjoys. What is going on in the consumer’s mind is what the consumer enjoys. So a video game does not act alone, it requires a customer to create its final form that takes place in the mind.

This is what the customer ‘felt’ in the mind about the earlier Mario games.

The cover art of the Donkey Kong games is interesting. In the consumer’s mind, they are playing a cartoon version of this:

Everyone recognized ‘King Kong’ within Donkey Kong. It felt like you were in some version of the King Kong story. Donkey Kong Junior, interestingly, flipped the protagonist and antagonist around.

It was the influx of ‘King Kong’ that really set ‘Donkey Kong’ apart from every other game at the time and made it an interesting experience. Donkey Kong Junior, while also high quality, didn’t evoke the same sensation due to no mental imagery of ‘evil Human’ where a young gorilla has to stop him.

I’m not going to bother looking at Donkey Kong 3.

Let’s look at Mario Brothers released in 1983. This is how the game was presented:

This game is quite a masterpiece. So why didn’t it take off?

In the players’ mind, I believe they saw the game this way:

The game takes place in a sewer, and the sewer isn’t the most interesting place to be. Who is going to get excited about a sewer? Mario Brothers, despite its genius and charms, felt very dark and caged in. Miyamoto instinctively understood this by wanting the next game to take place under a bright blue sky. This is why the title screen of Super Mario Brothers is nothing but a bright blue sky.

A bright blue sky.

Super Mario Brothers was a phenomenon. Unlike Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers takes place exploring a strange new world called the ‘Mushroom Kingdom’ filled with interesting and colorful villains. Mario could grow or shrink by magical mushrooms. Stars would make him invincible for a little while. The game had many logical puzzles like the various paths in the castle stages. There was the giant beanstalk that led to the heavens where Mario could hop on giant mushrooms poking above clouds. Most incredibly, Mario could run on the ceiling, while underground, which is realistically impossible. But it is possible in the video game. And it led to the Warp Zone. This twisting and bending of reality, which so made up the charm of Super Mario Brothers, of regular plumber Mario exploring the Mushroom Kingdom with its wonders, was very similar to Alice in Wonderland. Miyamoto has said Alice was an inspiration for Super Mario Brothers.

So the customers likely experienced this:

Or this:

Super Mario Brothers 2 in Japan, which was basically the first game but much harder and complicated, never caught on as the original. It wasn’t sent to America. The reason why it never caught on is said to be that the game is more frustrating in its difficulty. And it is true that it is more difficult. But the game never put out any new content.

Super Mario Brothers 2 was more akin to a ‘rom hack’ since there was very little new content. New levels, some new power-ups (if you consider the Poison Mushroom to be a power-up), and Warp Zones that went backwards are not ‘new content’. It felt like it was the same game but on super hard mode.

I believe the problem with Super Mario Brothers 2 was not in its differences to the original Super Mario Brothers (i.e. the difficulty) but in its similarities (using the same exact content and ideas). There was nothing truly ‘new’ in the game.

Doki Doki Panic, which became Super Mario USA in Japan, is an entirely different story. In America, Super Mario Brothers 2 was an instant hit. Everyone loved the game.

Sprite swap? Regardless, this Super Mario Brothers 2 was far superior to the Japanese version and added much to player’s imagination.

The player’s experience of Super Mario Brothers 2, of ‘Dreamworld’, was like falling down the rabbit hole again. However, this time it was a heavy Arabian influence of flying carpets, of mask wearing enemies, of bottles, of magical doors, and of gigantic turnips.

Super Mario Brothers 2 had the ‘magic’ of Arabian Nights in it in a way. The game was a great wonder and sparked the imagination. No one desires to buy the Japanese version of Super Mario Brothers 2, but the Japanese still seem to be enjoying Super Mario Brothers USA. It is clear who got the superior game.

Super Mario Brothers 3 focused on the exploration of the Mushroom Kingdom. This brought out much new content. No one can forget the Tanooki Suit, airships, the Koopa Kids, and incredible new lands like Giant Land.

Folks, you are staring at awesome here. Gaming, even then, was being stuck with generic worlds like ‘ice world’, ‘fire world’, ‘earth world’, and so on. While Super Mario Brothers 3 did have some of those worlds, they were not only fleshed out incredibly well, the new worlds were unforgettable. No one has forgotton about Giant Land or Pipe Plaza or the airships.

Look at this:

Mario is in a Tanooki Suit in the clouds! The ‘land’ part of the map can still be seen in the corner. Each world in SMB 3 surprised and was unique in themselves. The only disapointing world, I believe, was World 6 with the generic ice stages.

The zenith of Mario content. It wasn’t one magical world. It was EIGHT of them.

The customer experienced the game as eight different worlds in the Mario context. Note the similarity:

Circle of worlds.

Circle of worlds.

Super Mario World was very interesting mostly due to how it took place outside the Mushroom Kingdom. Because of that, it missed the magic of the Mushroom Kingdom. But Dinosaur Land had some nice surprises.

Super Mario World brought us Yoshi and many new critters. However, Super Mario World lacked the ‘through the rabbit hole’ glory that the NES games had. Shortly after Super Mario World, the ‘Mario Madness’ was over.

Dinosaur Land was seen as an exotic place. Something like this was how the consumer experienced it:

Dinosaur Land! Except the dinosaurs are all too-friendly Yoshis. “Yoshi!“

Yoshi’s Island effectivelly killed off any ‘Mario Madness’.

Yoshi’s Island was a fantastic game. However, there were many things working against it. The graphic scheme was seen as very controversial back then (it had the reaction that Wind Waker did). Mario was retconned to have been born in Mushroom Land which makes no sense whatsoever.

But Yoshi’s Island never presented any new content. The game was a mess of content from previous Mario games. First of all, the game takes place in Dinosaur Land which wasn’t that magical as Mushroom Kingdom was. Somehow, Super Mario Brothers 2 enemeis like the Shy Guys were appearing all over the place in Dinosaur Land. It got so absurd as Yoshi was turning into a helicopter or submarine and all.

The game, while very well made gameplay wise, offered little new content to fire up the imagination. If you had played previous Mario games, there was nothing here to put you in awe and wonder.

The Gameboy Mario games are an interesting anomaly. Mario was clearly on a different kingdom to save a different princess. The Super Mario Land games were not different levels of the old Mario content. They offered some new things which were interesting but nothing too extraordinary from other games of that age. The pyramids of Super Mario Land were explored in World 2 of Super Mario Brothers 3.  They were interesting games whose content should probably be re-examined more closely.

Super Mario 64 is very interesting.

While Mario didn’t explore new realms like Dinosaur Land or explore the Msuhroom Kingdom further, the game took place in the main castle with Mario jumping into many magical paintings.

Jumping through the paintings is important. The sequel to Alice in Wonderland is ‘Through the Looking Glass’. And that, including the new feel of 3d, is exactly what players experienced.

Note the little white rabbit.

Since then, there have been many Mario games and spin-offs such as Mario Kart. The key thread behind all these Mario games is that they are taking Mario content and putting it in a different context. For example, the airship course in Mario Kart DS comes from Super Mario Brothers 3. If Super Mario Brothers 3 did not have the content of airships, this race course could not have been made.  Much of the Mario spin-offs are getting stale mostly because there has been no fresh content infused into Mario.

Super Mario Sunshine was such a flop among fans because the new area that Mario adventured to was not fantastical or interesting in the slightest.

This is not how people want their Mario games!

Then there was Super Mario Galaxy. I suspect some people thought Super Mario Galaxy was the next 2d Mario due to how Super Mario Galaxy sounds like an evolution of Super Mario World. 2d Mario fans bought the game, I suspect, because of no alternative.

The game was like being in Star Land. Mushroom Kingdom was far gone. There was some new content such as Rosalina. But there were things people didn’t like such as Petey the Piranha and Bowser Jr making their annoying appearances.

Galaxy never feels like a place. The oldschool 2d Mario games all had maps. Super Mario N64 obviously took place in the castle. Super Mario Sunshine clearly took place somewhere else. But Galaxy feels like a mess. The game has no frame. Even Star Land has a frame. This is why I suspect that the ‘lands of Galaxy’ never caught on. Nothing in the game makes any sense.

New Super Mario Brothers, released to much fan anticipation, has sold around 20 million copies. Many fans found New Super Mario Brothers disapointing. Their disapointment comes chiefly from the lack of new content. All the levels feel generic. The power-ups are not interesting. There doesn’t appear to be any difference among the worlds in the game (very much unlike Super Mario Brothers 3). Instead of the Koopa Kids, we got stuck with Bowser Jr. again.

So why did the game sell 20 million copies if it didn’t present anything new? It is because many people have never played Super Mario Brothers before, and, to them, it was like falling through the rabbit hole the first time.

The game didn’t present any new content. This makes the game unmemorable and no parts of it will be fashioned for future Mario Kart races or RPG games.

With New Super Mario Brothers Wii,the big question is what type of new content will appear. Many people are excited but cautious. The game’s levels so far seem very solid so perhaps the subpar gameplay of NSMB DS won’t be there. The Koopa kids being back is extremely heart-warming. The new power-ups are more interesting. I prefer animal suites to the ‘propeller’ suit, but I do like how Mario is back to using suits. The Penguin Suit seems like the ice beam ripped from Metroid. Hopefully Mario won’t have a grappling beam or turn into a rolling ball.

The real question about NSMB Wii, and something Nintendo could do to increase hype, is whether it shows any new imaginary lands that we haven’t seen before. Will it have just the generic underground, sky, and ice type levels? Will we see anything as crazy and fun like Giant Land or Pipe Plaza?

NSMB Wii is said to have a map. Hopefully it is more like SMB 3 and SMW than NMSB DS. The success of NSMB Wii highly depends on what new content is presented. Will we be seeing Mario Kart races based on content from NSMB Wii? I hope so. Mario could use an infusion of fresh content.