You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know the name of Nintendo’s flagship mascot, Mario. Whether they play video games or not, Mario has become enough of an icon to be recognizable by anyone, and his name has become synonymous with the gaming industry. Even though he made his debut in 1981 in Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, it wasn’t until the release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985 that it was clear that Mario wasn’t going to just be the mascot of Nintendo, but for video games as a whole.
Mario’s success lead to a number of sequels and spinoffs over the years, and the famous plumber has appeared in well over a hundred games, surpassing any other known video game character… though that may not be much of a surprise when you consider his 40th(!) birthday is approaching in the coming years. Whether he’s stomping on goombas or playing golf with his friends (and foes), it’d be hard to find a Mario game that you didn’t enjoy.
Even though Nintendo has kept Mario a family friendly character over the years, it doesn’t mean the titular plumber is safe from the internet. With the growing popularity of internet memes over the years, Mario has naturally become a victim of the internet and has had multiple jokes made at his expense. While our nostalgia for Mario games of the past is completely warranted, the internet has had no problem attacking Nintendo’s mascot through internet memes, and while most of them will likely make you laugh, they still just might be enough to ruin your childhood memories of Mario.
20 Everyone Was A Benedict Arnold
Yoshi made his debut on the Super Nintendo in one of Mario’s greatest adventures, Super Mario World. From a gameplay standpoint, Yoshi didn’t offer too much in terms of actually being beneficial to Mario other than adding an extra hit point or being able to gobble up enemies that could just as easily be stomped. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the novelty of getting to ride on a little green dinosaur. While Yoshi may not be the best powerup for Mario, he certainly was… useful.
Admit it. You did it, I did it. Everyone has done it. You’re riding Yoshi, but you fall down a ledge and need to jump to safety or you need to make a jump that you know you can’t quite reach without a little bit more of a boost. Most gamers learned this trick, despite essentially killing off a helpless Yoshi. Mario could jump off of Yoshi’s back allowing him to get a higher jump, but in most cases, this would leave Yoshi plummeting to his death. Sure, it makes us all awful people, but I guess it’s okay if it’s for the greater good, right?
19 Eat Your Heart Out, Resident Evil
Mario games are not really scary in the traditional sense. Yet as a kid, there were a strange number of levels that would cause a certain amount of anxiety or fear in me. Super Mario Bros. 3 in world 2 with the chasing sun? Check. The haunted houses in Super Mario World? Check. But one enemy in particular rings a bell in Super Mario 64. That huge eel from the level Jolly Roger Bay.
Also known as Unagi, the giant eel from Super Mario 64 fame was actually quite terrifying. Maybe it was because of its huge stature or maybe it was because its easy to feel helpless swimming in the depths of a dark sea, but Unagi was definitely capable of raising our anxiety levels in this stage. If you got near its vicinity, it would come out and chomp at you. While it may seem obvious to just avoid it, you still had to lure the big beast out as it had a star attached to the end of its tail. At least he’s not quite as terrifying in Mario Kart 8.
18 How Does This Make Sense?
It’s probably no surprise that games from the eighties didn’t exactly require that much storage. Unlike games today that require up to fifty gigabytes of storage space and consoles that come with terabyte sized hard drives, gaming back in the day was far simpler and only required the console and a cartridge that held kilobytes of data.
Naturally, the original Super Mario Bros. had a relatively small file size, weighing in at a measly 31 kilobytes. It’s hard to believe that the game that pretty much pioneered some of the greats could come in such a small package. That’s why it’s surprising that when you find screenshots of the game online, most of those pictures are actually way bigger in file size than the original game. Sure, a lot of it has to do with format and overall quality of the picture, but it is still baffling in a sense how a game that has eight worlds could be smaller than a simple image from the game.
17 They Weren’t All Good Memories…
The original Mario Party made its debut back in 1998 and has had numerous sequels over its twenty year lifespan. Mario Party was one of the most innovative games for its time, popularizing the idea of party games on what seemed like the perfect console with its four separate controller ports actually allowing a group of people to play together.
It wasn’t all fun and games, though. Unlike games like Mario Kart which pitted you against everyone, there was a certain level of strategy in Mario Party, oftentimes forcing players to get involved in Mario Party politics. Alliances were formed, players were backstabbed, and people would gang up on particular players for the benefit of everyone else. Mario Party may not have always played fair, but neither did its players. If one thing was for certain, this game could easily turn friends against one another.
16 Please Don’t Apply This To Real Life Injuries
It’s really hard to find logic in a game that is essentially about a plumber who tries to save a princess from a dinosaur so it is usually better to not think about the game’s logistics too much. Despite that, there are some things in Mario’s games that make absolutely no sense at all. While a life bar might make more sense than a mushroom that gives you health and makes you bigger, Super Mario 64’s life bar made little sense.
Whether it was intentional or caused by the developer’s laziness is questionable, but Mario’s life bar is the same as his oxygen bar in the game. When under water, his life bar will turn blue and slowly deplete… but if Mario resurfaces, he’ll breathe in some oxygen thus restoring his oxygen bar back to full, and by default, his life bar as well. This was typically taken advantage of as when Mario was low on health, players could just dive underwater and then resurface, thus completely regaining full health.
15 Better Wait And See
This is a problem that most players have faced throughout a majority of the Super Mario Bros. titles, specifically the side scrolling titles. Green pipes are usually used for two purposes in Mario games: either to serve as a warp pipe that Mario could go through taking him to a new area or to house one of the longest running enemies in the franchise, the Piranha Plant.
Piranha Plants usually stuck their heads out at regular intervals and wouldn’t come out when actually standing on top of the pipe, but that didn’t stop us from being cautious when around a particular pipe. All too often, it would feel like we would wait to make sure a Piranha Plant wouldn’t pop out only to eventually try to pass it and have one of those jerks come out and kill us. While this enemy is typically easy to avoid, when approaching a pipe that appears to be empty, it is usually better to be safe than sorry.
14 Those Jumps Are Still Savage
Maybe this is a matter of opinion, but I’ve always found the side scrolling Mario games to typically be more difficult than its 3D counterparts. There’s something just more difficult about making certain jumps than there is in later titles in the series, and that couldn’t be more true than in the original Super Mario Bros.
Even though the original game in the franchise had physics that were a little bit more difficult to handle than in later installments (Mario took longer to gain or lose momentum), those jumps would still be difficult for any iteration of Mario to handle. Certain gaps were just plain brutal to cross, and would force us to land on a particularly small ledge. Even after years of practice, it is still challenging to cross over these pits. It’s no wonder that Mario’s first outing still remains one of his most difficult adventures.
13 Eighth Time Is A Charm
It’s weird looking back at the original Super Mario Bros. game and realizing that we initially played it without actually knowing how long the game was. With that said, it was easy to think that we were actually entering a castle and that we were going to save a captured Princess Toadstool at the end only to realize our princess was in another castle this whole time.
Even though the original Super Mario Bros. lacked in plot, we couldn’t help but wonder why Princess Toadstool was always in a different castle. Were King Koopa’s minions dragging her from castle to castle? Did Mario simply check in the wrong castle to begin with? Why does King Koopa have so many castles to begin with? Whatever the reason, one thing was for certain: we’re glad we don’t have to go through this level of disappointment every time we finish up a world in newer Mario games.
12 You’re Never Safe In First
Mario Kart games have evolved drastically over the years, introducing a new number of items and mechanics that we didn’t see in earlier titles. While the original Super Mario Kart offered a more balanced playing field, later installments incorporated a sort of rubber-banding method, allowing players in lower ranks the ability to get better items, thus allowing them to bounce back from last place… thus making whoever is in first always in harm’s way.
The blue shell debuted in Mario Kart 64 with the ability to track down the player in first and hit it with an almost guaranteed percentage rate, which could completely ruin that player’s chance of coming in at first. This meme takes from a popular scene from the movie Taken where Liam Neeson threatens the captors of his daughter over the phone. If the blue shell from Mario Kart had a quote to go with it, there’s no doubt that this would be the one for it.
11 This Really Didn’t Work Too Well In The Game
Taking the leap from 2D to 3D doesn’t always go as smoothly as planned, but for a game that was experimenting with the third dimension for the first time, Super Mario 64 does a hell of a job making that transition. Systems like the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation ushered in a whole new era and style of games that we hadn’t seen on systems like the SNES, yet 3D games were still new and not every title was able to amount to what Super Mario 64 did (I’m looking at you, Bubsy 3D).
With that said, not everything was perfect with the move to 3D. Mario got a whole new arsenal of attacks and moves that we hadn’t seen in previous Mario games like a punch attack or ground stop. One move in particular that didn’t work as well as planned was the wall kick, thankfully only needed to get a limited number of stars in the game. The move would return in other 2D titles, but it was simply horrendous in Super Mario 64. Even though it was innovative at the time, the 3D camera was less than stellar, despite being fairly good for its time, making those wall kick segments extremely difficult to pull off.
10 Keep Your Friends Close And Your Enemies Closer
It seems like Mario is always butting heads with Bowser for better or worse. When Bowser isn’t busy trying to kidnap Princess Peach, he’s still managing to take part in other dastardly schemes to the grief of Mario and the rest of the Mushroom Kingdom. You’d think that Mario would be mad at him for this, but I guess Mario isn’t really one to hold a grudge.
Sure, Bowser kidnaps Mario’s love interest over and over, but that doesn’t stop Mario from calling up his lifelong rival and ask him to go go karting with him and his friends every now and then. Heck, Mario doesn’t even stop there. Mario pretty much insists he brings the whole family including the Koopalings, Bowser Jr., and the rest of Bowser’s minions. Maybe this is just Mario’s way of trying to make amends, but apparently losing at go karting has only made Bowser more bitter in the grand scheme of things.
9 Mario Logic At Its Finest
Mario certainly packs a punch for an overweight plumber. Unlike more traditional heroes or extremely strong comic book superheroes, Mario is your less traditional take on what a hero should be. He’s got a regular job, he enjoys a plate of pasta now and then, and he doesn’t mind being a fashion don’t. But for someone who seems so average, he actually has quite a bit of strength able to completely destroy brick blocks by punching them (this meme states he does it with his head, but true Mario fans know that he is punching the blocks when he jumps up).
With that said, how can someone who is so ridiculously strong be so incredibly weak at the same time? Mario simply gets touched by an enemy and he either shrinks in size or dies. While this makes sense when it comes to the likes of fireballs or Piranha Plants, a passive turtle walking into Mario’s path really shouldn’t be able to do much harm. Then again, logic is pretty much thrown out the window in this series.
8 Not Even Worth The Risk
1-up mushrooms have changed radically over the years in the Mario franchise. What was once seen as a much needed item are now pretty much shoved down our throats in recent Mario games that feature save game files and have us beating a game with an extra stock of fifty extra lives.
The original Super Mario Bros. was kind of an exception though, along with its other NES sequels. Extra lives were actually quite rare and a “Game Over” screen was far more common as players would die more frequently, thus forcing them to start the game all the way over. This made us a little more tempted to chase down a 1-up mushroom if one appeared from a box we hit, yet it seemed like in earlier Mario titles, 1-ups were more prone to get away. We’d oftentimes chase down 1-up mushrooms putting ourselves in harm’s way only to have the mushroom fall off a ledge before we were able to grab it. Easy come, easy go I suppose.
7 Who Needs Companionship Anyway?
It’s no surprise that Yoshi became a fan favorite after his debut in Super Mario World. Besides, who wouldn’t want to ride a totally adorable green dinosaur? We likely grew up thinking that Yoshi was man’s best friend, but more times than not, Mario was actually kind of an abusive jerk to the popular dino.
The popular saying goes “If you love something, set it free” and in regards to Mario’s relationship with Yoshi, we accidentally set Yoshi free a little too often. It’s typically assumed if the love is mutual, the thing you set free will come back. That isn’t so much the case with Yoshi, however, as every time Mario gets knocked off his back, Yoshi scrambles away toward freedom away from his abusive captor often times having him fall off of a cliff instead. That’s okay. Mario doesn’t need your love anymore, anyway.
6 Super Mario Doesn’t Like Babies
Super Mario World may have been Yoshi’s debut for the Mario franchise, but if Yoshi wasn’t enough super cute overload for you in the earlier stages of the game, Nintendo also introduced baby Yoshis as well. Yoshis came in a variety of colors and each color had its own unique ability. You could get Yoshis with these abilities by finding baby Yoshis with the specific color, feeding them to make it grow into a full grown Yoshi.
The secret Star World area in Super Mario World hosted a few levels where you could find these baby Yoshi’s in either red, blue, or yellow. After feeding it a certain amount of enemies, it would become a grown Yoshi you could utilize, but most of the time, it wasn’t worth the effort. Running around these levels with a baby Yoshi made the levels far more difficult and it was usually easier to just make your way to the goal without a baby Yoshi altogether. That didn’t stop us from having Mario kick a baby Yoshi off the ledge, though. See, I told you Mario was an abusive jerk.
5 Yoshi Can Be Such A Burden
Yoshi was kind of a security blanket in Super Mario World, despite not being totally useful in the grand scheme of things. He serves as an extra hit point for Mario and could sometimes get us to hard to reach places… even if it was at Yoshi’s expense. Yoshi wasn’t the only cool addition in Super Mario World, however, as the game also introduced gamers to Mario’s popular cape power up.
While we sadly never really got to see Mario’s cape in another traditional Mario game, we still remember it fondly as one of the better Mario flying power ups as it allowed us to fly up into the sky and glide across an entire stage… even though it did feel a little cheap. Unfortunately, that ability wasn’t available if you were riding Yoshi in a stage. Sure, you could get a pretty powerful boost in the air, but the gliding technique was pretty much moot while on Yoshi. This usually forced us to make the important decision as to what was more important to us: Yoshi or flying. (Hint: Flying was more important.)
4 This Little Guy Deserves A Name
Most of us have been playing video games for years, and if you started playing video games back in the days of the original Super Mario Bros. those years are more like decades. With that said, it’s hard to believe after amassing all sorts of gaming skills over the years that there was a point when the first Goomba you see in Super Mario Bros. in World 1-1 actually gave us a little bit of trouble to get past.
Sure, Goombas are typically a breeze to get past or kill today, but at one point or another, everyone has probably gotten killed by the Goomba that started it all. Whether it was because Super Mario Bros. was your introduction to gaming and you had no idea what you were doing or because at some point you tried to jump on his head and accidentally scraped this Goomba’s side instead, this Goomba has had a fair number of kills over the years. There actually is quite a good chance he’s taken more lives than any other enemy in any other video game ever.
3 This Is One Crazy Ride
There is no denying that the Super Mario Bros. series takes place in a sort of fantastical world , which completely warped our minds as kids. Yet certain comparisons could easily be made to a type of substance that is used in the real world in order to give people a hallucinogenic effect, making the possibility that the Mushroom Kingdom is simply the effect of a really bad trip by Nintendo’s mascot.
While I’m sure Nintendo never intended to incorporate this into their video games, it’s hard not to make the comparisons when Mario’s main power-up is a mushroom. They went as far as to make Mario Italian, so it could have just as easily been a spicy meatball, yet for whatever reason Nintendo opted for the usage of mushrooms, making Mario’s adventure make way more sense in the long run.
2 Who Needs A Weapon?
Most fans of the Super Mario Bros. franchise know that Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn’t initially meant to be the original game’s sequel in North America, but that it was a reskinned Doki Doki Panic from Japan because Nintendo thought what would later become to be known as The Lost Levels would be too difficult for American audiences. What became an entirely different game than intended gave Mario a whole to arsenal of abilities rather than defeating enemies by simply jumping on them.
Because jumping on enemies no longer had the same effect in Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario needed another method of defeating his foes. His method? He would jump on his enemy’s back and pick them up, either throwing them to their death, or bashing them on the head of another enemy. This level of savagery hasn’t really been used by the plumber since, but with attacks like that, who needs an actual weapon?
1 What Is Luigi Dreaming About, Exactly?
Mario and his brother Luigi have gone on many adventures throughout the years, but one of the more memorable ones was in the recent title Mario and Luigi: Dream Team. In what was proclaimed by Nintendo as the year of Luigi, Nintendo wanted to focus more on Mario’s less noticed brother who rarely got a chance to be in the spotlight. In Dream Team, Luigi was made more of the focus of the game as Mario had to actually enter Luigi’s mind while he was asleep, making his way through his brother’s dreams.
Most people probably couldn’t begin to imagine what Luigi’s dreams would be about, but Dream Team usually just depicted them as ethereal landscapes with an abundance of Luigi doppelgangers. However, Luigi is only human and at one point or another has probably had an interesting dream in the past. Dream or not, it makes us thankful that Nintendo will most likely not release this dream in the form of downloadable content.
