Super Mario It is one of the most beloved sagas by fans of Nintendo. Without a doubt, the mustachioed plumber is one of the most outstanding characters of the Japanese company, if not the most.
However, it is possible that, today, you do not know some previous games from Mario to Super Mario Bros. Here are the 10 that have stood out from ScreenRant:
- Donkey Kong 3 (1983): The third Donkey Kong game stars Stanley the Bugman, a greenhouse owner. Unlike the previous games in the series, this one is a shooter. Kong ends up bothering the bugs in the greenhouse, so Stanley must shoot bug spray at the bugs and at Donkey Kong to contain them.
- Wrecking Crew (1985): Mario has had many occupations over the years and here he is a construction worker. Upper floors collapse onto lower floors when the player destroys the support beams, which can be used to trap and defeat enemies.
- Mario Bros. Special (1984): It is a half port/half arcade sequel to Mario Bros. for Japanese PCs and was developed by Hudson-Soft, which would later work on Mario Party. The game features completely new graphics, sound, items (the money symbol) and goal (levels were completed by reaching a goal at the top of the stage).
- Pinball (1984): It was a pretty standard single board pinball game. Players can see a familiar face on the cover art. It’s Mario, who only appears during the bonus mode of the game. That mode is less pinball and more Breakout. Players had to move Mario left and right to deflect a pinball ball as he bounced off objects and score points.
- Golf (1984): This game was one of the early projects of the late Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata. As a tribute, he was inserted into the Nintendo Switch firmware for a while. It has two modes: stroke play and match play. But the most interesting thing is the participation of Mario. A 1991 guidebook and the Game Boy port say that the golfer is Mario, but the Wii title Captain Rainbow states that the character is named Ossan (which was one of Mario’s names in development).
- Donkey Kong Hockey (1984): The game was part of the Micro Vs. series, meaning it was one of the few multiplayer games in the line. Each player had a paddle connected to a main board. On the board, they controlled Mario and Donkey Kong competing in ice hockey. This could be the first antecedent of the Mario Sports titles.
- Game And Watch Mario Bros. (1983): Despite sharing a name, it has nothing in common with the arcade game. In this one, Mario and Luigi work together at a bottling plant. The game has two screens to represent shipping and receiving on an assembly line and continues until the player causes an accident and the boss scolds the brothers. Interestingly, this game was released before the arcade version, meaning this is Luigi’s first appearance in a game.
- Crazy Kong (1981): This game is official and basically follows the same format as the original with a few differences. The game runs on different hardware, so the mechanics are not the same. The graphics are rendered slightly differently and look somewhat washed out. The game is also considered to be more difficult than the original due to differences in hit boxes. The sound is something else entirely, taken from one of the early games from developer Falcon.
- Donkey Kong Circus (1984): Mario forces DK to act for his amusement. Some fans believe that this is the incident that led to DK capturing Pauline. The game is similar to Mickey Mouse in Game and Watch. Donkey Kong, perched on a barrel, must juggle objects from one side of the screen to the other. At the same time, he must avoid the fire thrown by Mario.
- Mario’s Bombs Away (1983): In it, a Mario dressed as a soldier moves through a jungle to plant bombs in strategic positions. The tone of the game is quite dark. In it, Mario avoids shooting from enemy soldiers and performs underhanded tactics. Even enemy soldiers have been known to smoke cigarettes. It’s an example of the weirdness of early installments in one of Mario’s darker lead roles.
What do you think? Did you know these games?
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