I was digging through some of my old stuff and I happened to come across the original manual for my Super Mario Bros/Duckhunt which I thought had been lost through the passage of time. Surprisingly it's still in very good shape for it's age.
I started reading through it and it's actually a pretty good guide to how to play the game. I really wished I had given it a read back then. But I was only like 4 years old at the time and it was it the first game I ever got(had played some before that)
Then something caught my eyes, the storyline to Super Mario Bros.
Let me just type it up so you can see what the original story for the game actually is.
One day the kingdom of the peaceful mushroom people was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles famous for their black magic. The quiet, peace-loving Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks and even field horse-hair plants, and the Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin.
The only one who can undo the magic spell on the Mushroom People and return them to their normal selves is the Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King. Unfortunately, she is presently in the hands of the great Koopa turtle king.
Mario, the hero of the story (maybe) hears about the Mushroom People's plight and sets out on a quest to free the Mushroom Princess from the evil Koopa and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People.
You are Mario! It's up to you to save the Mushroom People from the black magic of the Koopa!
There we are.
Now okay, so the Koopa are apparently a tribe of turtles with black magic?
When and where in the game do we ever see any black magic? I sure can't recall any such instance.
Well I guess the black magic could apply to them turning the Mushroom People into stone and bricks, but WAIT since they have been turned into bricks would that mean that while you are playing through the game and breaking those bricks scattered all over you actually murdering the good people of Mushroom kingdom?
What about the fireflower, could that be a Horsehair plant, as in he is eating the Mushroom people to get special powers?
It's also mentioned that only Princess Toadstool can reverse this, with what? The triforce? Does she just say hocus pocus and *poof* the Mushroom people are turned back into themselves and then they mourn the onces Mario butchered.
I love how they put Mario, the hero of the story "(maybe)"
I guess they expect people read the manual before they try the game but they honestly think that people don't know that Mario IS the hero of the game, I mean..it says so right in the title of the game. It's Super Mario Bros, so it's save to assume that Mario is the hero.
Oh, and why is there no mention of Luigi in the story? I know he's not a important character and never has been for the Mario series, but shouldn't he be at least acknowledged.
I never even bothered to find out what exactly the game was about back in the day and I doubt anyone really did. You just played the levels without putting real thought into why you were running into castle after castle and who or what all these things you were killing were and why other then to just beat the game and get a high score.
In conclusion, Super Mario Bros may have been written by a guy on a bad acid trip. But if it hadn't been for this guys love for Mushrooms Videogames might have died after the crash in 1983, so kudos to Shigeru Miyamoto,Hiroshi Yamauchi and Takashi Tezuka.
- X
LOL Major props!
This is one of the best blogs I've read in a long time. I had no idea Super Mario Bros. was this deep. I ROFL'd about the possibility of Mario killing the people of the Mushroom Kingdom by busting bricks with is head. I guess there's more to Mario than we all thought... and everyone thought Mario's quest was just him trying to get some from Princess Toadstool.
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The Retro Game Zone
For a moment...
For a moment, I was going to say how some of the plants and hills and clouds in the background have eyes. Then I read over the part of the story where the people were turned into bricks and horse hair plants... and realized Mario is a cannibalistic, serial killer.
Thinking deeper, can you imagine the mess around those areas Mario bashed tons of bricks? Now, think about what it would look like once the Mushroom Kingdom is restored.
Oh, shit! That would be a
Oh, shit! That would be a gory mess! LMAO
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The Retro Game Zone
Possibly
Possibly the best blog ive read... mario the killer... his head was even bloodier than his feet
I think it would look
I think it would look something like this.
damn do I suck at making sprite comics or what. ;)
I love it!
That's great.
LOL That's awesome! I
LOL That's awesome! I actually pictured it like that:D
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The Retro Game Zone
Oh wow....
Oh wow....
Cannibalistic?
Mario isn't cannibalistic, last time I check Mario was human and he isn't eating humans. Unless you count Peach.
BOW-CHICKA-WOW-WOW!
BOW-CHICKA-WOW-WOW!
No, I'm not 8 years old. Why do you ask?
I actually heard about this
I actually heard about this before from someone I was chatting with like a few months ago.. I was kinda shocked myself to hear that.
http://www.youtube.com/Master0fHyrule
"It's Super Mario Bros, so
"It's Super Mario Bros, so it's save to assume that Mario is the hero" ...yeah, that's just like with the legend of Zelda... oh wait...
hehe, that did cross my mind
hehe, that did cross my mind while writing this.
when i was small like 8
when i was small like 8 years old i always tought that the guy with the green clothes, the one i am, was zelda.
I realised it was the other way when i super smash every time i choose the guy with the green clothes was link not zelda
Actually
I think these manuals mean nothing to Nintendo now a days. If you read the manual for SMB2, you would find out that Birdo is a gender confused man. But, Birdo is now actually a female (ever since the SNES remake). Nintendo probably just wrote that crap in the style of the 1980's and then realized years later that they were idiotic. Nice blog though, it's always great to look back on vintage Nintendo manuals and laugh.
Man that is some messed up
Man that is some messed up stuff...
Well, I guess it introduces us to the characters, so whatever, still a messed up storyline and yeah, that whole Luigi thing annoys me, like wheres the acknowledgment of Luigi? Great Blog man.
-- God Bless.
What about the magic mushrooms?
What about the magic mushrooms? I know Shigeru Miyamoto is really fucked up. He is a great designer but i bet like going on adventures he used to smash brick walls, eat his neighbors sunflowers and eat magic mushrooms.
About the mushrooms...
Considering the fact that they run away from you in the game, and looking at the manual's story... Now we know why those mushrooms moved.
Super Mushroom is people!
Why is everyone getting a
Why is everyone getting a boner over this post? Seriously, anyone could've written a blog like that!
Agreed. Maybe I'm just a
Agreed.
Maybe I'm just a huge nerd, but I thought most people knew that whole story anyways. The top posts on here lately seem to be just whatever the hell one admin thinks is somewhat amusing. Very often I see zero comments or ratings or diggs. That's lame!
I really couldn't agree more
I really couldn't agree more with what you're saying.
I wonder if there's a
I wonder if there's a diffrence between the japaneese and english version of the story
Yeah umm Birdo and stuff..
With that Birdo comment, it's not that they looked back on it and thought they were idiots, it's just America's paranoid way of thinking that a pink dinosaur, definitely should be a female, little boys and girls will be scared and confused and all the boys will want to wear pink and be gay and traumatized by this fact lol.
Not joking there by the way. I think that the language barrier added into the mix with the "maybe" part and maybe the whole thing, because as everyone knows all your base are belong to us, is a perfect translation in the early days of Japanese-to-lazy-translators.
Mario Brothers is referring to their last name Mario, Mario Mario and Luigi Mario, that's why it's not very clear, and as someone else posted here, they thought that Zelda was the guy you were playing as, to save the princes .. Who apparently has your name as well, not like they don't mention her name and don't give you the option of being called 'Link' by default :p.
I do like the part about the "Princess Toadstool can reverse this, with what? The triforce?". Was an awesome call :p.
I'm not sure if what the turning them into bricks and such is, but i'm assuming that it's about them being turned into statues, i'm sure if we all could speak Japanese, we would be able to find out what was really said and it would make more sense, but yes i'm sure we're all correct about the mushroom references and Shiggy eating his neighbours flowers in the early hours of the morning lol.