It was only a matter of putting King Koopa/Bowser into a 2D Mario game as a playable character, but I did initially struggle to come up with a proper treatment for it here. And it also gave me the perfect oppoturnity to introduce Magifico.
Re-Shuffling the Stars: Super Mario Shuffle-Stars REDUX
- Thread starter MrCarioca
- Start date
My guesses
1991a: Super Mario Sunshine
1991b: Mario's Picross
1991c: Mario Pinball Land
1991b: Mario's Picross
1991c: Mario Pinball Land
Super Mario Odyssey (1991)
Super Mario Odyssey (1991)
The 1990s were a decade defined by peace and prosperity (at least in America), the Cold War had ended and Americans were entering an era of fun and development. The 1990s were also a decade in which the video game industry thrived. 1991 would see the release of SEGA's "Sonic the Hedgehog", Capcom released "Street Fighter II" which quickly became one of the most successful "Street Fighter" titles, but most notably 1991 would see the release of Nintendo's 16-bit console: The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, launching alongside two games: "F-Zero" and "Super Mario Odyssey".
The development of "Super Mario Odyssey" traces back to the production of the first "Super Mario Bros", when Miyamoto wanted to include a rideable dinosaur companion for Mario. Hardware limitations of the NES prevented such an idea to come to reality, but developing a Mario game for a 16-bit console was an entirely different story and allowed Miyamoto to implement the idea. As for the setting itself, Miyamoto and Tezuka didn't want to limit themselves to only the Mushroom Kingdom. This time, Mario would be travelling across the globe with his dinosaur pal, now named Yoshi, hence the title "Super Mario Odyssey". Koji Kondo was brought in the compose the game's score, Kondo was overjoyed to finally be able to work with more powerful soundfonts and samples, the game's score (1) would re-use the same motif albeit differenciated enough to sound unique. By the timne production wrapped up in 1990, the console wars between Nintendo and SEGA had begun, and "Super Mario Odyssey" was competing directly against SEGA's new mascot: Sonic the Hedgehog.
Mario, Luigi and Princess Toadstool have decided to take a relaxing vacation far away from the Mushroom Kingdom, they settled down in the far-off Dinosaur Land only for Toadstool to get kidnapped by Poppycock, a large chicken-like monster who had also taken over Dinosaur Land and trapped the dino-spieces Yoshis into eggs. Mario and Luigi set off and rescue a Yoshi, who allies itself with the bros to restore peace to Dinosaur Land. After driving Poppycock away from Dinosaur Land, Mario deduces that Poppycock and Toadstool are headed towards other kingdoms across the globe. Mario, Luigi and Yoshi must travel through 7 kingdoms and restore peace before Poppycock can get anymore powerful. After defeating Poppycock, both Yoshi and Toadstool become playable characters and a secret Golden Starway is unlocked, where Mario and Luigi battle the joke boss and self-proclaimed rival to Mario: Wario.
"Super Mario Odyssey" released on November 21st 1990 in Japan, August 23rd 1991 in the US, and April 11th in Europe and Australia. The game and the SNES were both smash hits, it sold 20 million copies worldwide to this day, making it the best selling SNES game worldwide. The game's replayability and collectibles was praised compared to the three previous mainline Mario titles, the game's score was also a highlight, becoming as iconic as the Mario franchise itself. However, there was one thing everybody liked about "Mario Odyssey": Yoshi and Wario.
Worlds:
Dinosaur Land (Boss; Poppycock)
Cascade Cape (Boss: Great Dino) (2)
Mechanical Factory (Boss: Mecha-Poppycock)
New Donk City (Boss: Donkey Kong)
Shiveria (Boss: Poppycock)
Sparkle Water Paradise (Boss: Queen Bertha) (3)
Ancient Kingdom (Boss: King Koopa)
Poppycock's Domain (Boss: Poppycock)
Golden Starway (Boss: Wario)
(1) The score is mostly the same as OTL's Mario World but with some changes
(2) Think of the Great Dino as a 16-bit version of the Dinosaur from OTL's Cascade Kingdom
(3) Essentially just a more powerful and aggressive Big Bertha from OTL's SMB3
Mario's Picross (1991)
Mario's Picross (1991)
"Mario's Picross" was a small spin-off title for the NES, made to satisfy Mario fans during the long wait for the SNES and "Mario Odyssey". There were multiple candidiates for a NES Mario spin-off, one included a Tetris style game starring either Mario or Yoshi. Because Yoshi wouldn't be introduced until "Mario Odyssey" and the proposed Tetris game being too similar to well, Tetris, that idea was scrapped. Instead Miyamoto got to work for a Picross game starring Mario characters that was initially coined for a Game Boy release. Production was relatively short, only taking around 1 year to make.
Mario is an archeologist tasked to uncover ancient treasures, to do so the player must help Mario by playing picross. The game features a total of 256 puzzles and 4 modes: "Easy Picross", "Advanced Picross", "Star" and "Time Trial". The player is given thirty minutes to complete each puzzle, time is deducted when a space is incorrectly chiseled. The game is over when the player either runs out of time or has incorrectly chiseled too many spaces, otherwise the player wins and Mario will give a thumbs-up notion.
"Mario's Picross" released on July 27th 1990 in Japan, January 27th 1991 in the US and March 28th 1991 in Europe and Australia. The game was successful enough to earn itself a SNES and Game Boy sequel in 1995 and 1996 respectively thanks to its overall simplicity, it was simply a nice and easy game to playthrough. "Mario's Picross", despite being a mere spin-off, ended up being an iconic and popular game, which cannot be said for the next game.
Yoshi's Pinball Land (1991)
Yoshi's Pinball Land (1991)
The success of "Super Mario Odyssey" guaranteed more appearances of it's most popular character: Yoshi. A side game produced con-currently with "Super Mario Odyssey" was a pinball title featuring Mario characters, like "Mario's Picross" it was made as a side project to keep Mario fans engaged with the series during the production of "Super Mario Odyssey". Game Freak collaborated with Nintendo to produce the game, and it was Game Freak who first suggested to change the narrative to Yoshi when "Super Mario Odyssey" became a smash hit. Production had to re-start from the ground up in January 1991 and took 9 months to re-develop, ending development in October and two months before its December 1991 release window.
The game was your standard pinball game but with Yoshi serving the narrative. The story was as follows: Yoshi needs to collect fruits to decorate his house and eat, employing the help of Mario, Yoshi must play pinball to collect fruits with the fruit serving as the pinball itself. The game had a total of 10 levels, each consisting of different themes and obstacles. Enemies from both SMB3 and Odyssey showed up including Poppycock who served as the final boss of Level 10. The game was relatively short to complete, the average playthrough takes 30-ish minutes. Once the game ends, Yoshi will have built his house and is shown eating fruit with Mario.
"Yoshi's Pinball Land" released on December 14th 1991 in Japan, June 1st 1992 in the US and December 30th 1992 everywhere else. Due to its late relese in the NES's lifetime, not many people knew this game existed thanks to its lack of marketing. Still it managed to top the NES game charts of 1992, yet it received negative reviews thanks to its repetitive gameplay and lack of post-game content. Today, it's nobody's favourite Yoshi or Mario spin-off game despite its reception having improved over the decades.
In that case, here are my guesses:
1992a: Mario’s Time Machine
1992b: Dr. Mario
1992c: Wario: Master of Disguise
1992d: Super Mario Bros. 2
1992b: Dr. Mario
1992c: Wario: Master of Disguise
1992d: Super Mario Bros. 2
Mario's Game Gallery (1992)
Mario's Game Gallery (1992)
1992 would mark the beginning of the end for the NES, the last few first-party titles for said system were mostly released within the next few years before being discontinued entirely. One of these games was 1992's "Mario's Game Gallery". Unlike previous spin-off titles however, "Mario's Game Gallery" actually started as an arcade game unrelated to Mario. Developed by Home Data, the game was centered around various minigames played consecutively. However the initial reception by testers was so horrible that Home Data ended up selling rights to Buller-Proof Software. The game was soon re-worked into both a NES and a SNES title when Nintendo obtained the licenses. To boost the game's popularity, Mario was added as a host. For SNES voice clips, soon to be longtme voice actor Charles Martinet was brought in to voice Mario. Martinet had previously provided voice clips for a Gottlieb Mario pinball machine, naturally he was the perfect fit.
Mario's Game Gallery consisted of five games: Checkers, Go Fish, Dominoes, Card Gamblers (1) and Yahtzee. Mario himself hosts the minigames and players compete against Mario. There is some resemblance of a story here, that being King Koopa crashing the party occasionally. At best, King Koopa is a harder version of Mario. After beating King Koopa in one specific game, players can choose to compete against either him or Mario. (2)
"Mario's Game Gallery" released on the NES first on July 14th 1992 in JP, then the SNES release followed on November 2nd. The game received mixed receptions and reviews. Many praised its family friendliness and simplistic gameplay, yet its lack of real post-game content meant that the game had little to offer, there were only so many times you can play the same 5 game over and over. However there was one thing notable enough about this game that solidified its place in the Mario franchise: This was the game that kickstarted Charles Martinet's career.
(1) Card Gamblers plays the same as Luigi's minigame from OTL's SM64DS
(2) King Koopa doesn't appear in the NES version, neither does Charles Martinet
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1992)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1992)
For Mario's first major outing on spin-offs, Miyamoto considered these potential suitors: A Mario racing game similar to F-Zero, a Wario focused title and a proper Yoshi platformer. While Wario and Yoshi both eventually spun-off into their own platforming series, the idea of a Mario racing game was deemed to complicated for a SNES title. Plus, the popularity of F-Zero proved that there wasn't a need for more racing games. The Mario racing idea wouldn't come to fruition until the technology was avaliable. In the meantime, Miyamoto considered putting Mario in a potential RPG game. JRPGs wer becoming more and more popular, the Japan exclusive series Fire Emblem was already a smash hit, so naturally Nintendo's biggest IP Mario had to get on the action.
Developing a proper story for a "Mario RPG" was pain inducing. While the mainline Mario platformers could get away with minimizing the story, a good story could greatly affect the success and quality of a RPG. Ultimately the developers settled on a storyline where Mario and Co had to collect the Seven Star Shard to reform the Star Road and save the Mushroom Kingdom, hence the sub-title "Legend of the Seven Stars". Intially considering hiring Capcom composer Yoko Shimomura, Soyo Oka composed the score for "Super Mario RPG". (Yoko Simomura would eventually work with Nintendo by 1996 however) There were talks to include 3d-esque graphics to make the game stand out, however the technology at the time wasn't well developed and the developers switched back to the bird's eye view initially suggested for SMB2. There was a lot that had to be worked out before the final release of the game.
King Koopa kidnaps Princess Toadstool again, Mario goes to save Toadstool and defeats King Koopa as usual. However the castle begins to shake and Mario, Toadstool and King Koopa are all sent flying before Mario could process what had happened. Upon returning to Koopa's Castle, Mario discovers that an evil sword gang led by Smithy had destroyed Koopa's Castle, the bridge to the castle, and most importantly Star Road which grants wishes. Mario agrees to go on a quest to save Toadstool, which Luigi tags along. They meet the cloud prince Mallow along their way in the Mushroom Kingdom and even reunite with Toadstool and King Koopa throughout their journey. However none of them fully understands the gravity of the situation until they encounter the star spirit Geno in the forest maze who tells them about the shattered Star Road. Could the gang stop Smithy and his gang before it's too late?
"Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" released on August 27th 1992 in Japan, September 1st in the US and January 21st 1993 everywhere else. The game received mass praise and had a generally positive reception, especially in Japan. The game's quick witted humour mixed in with the perfectly executed plot was already enough for the game to earn its praise, and yet Soyo Oka's score would become as iconic as the game itself. Two of Oka's most remembered tracks in the game were "Let's Go Down the Wine River" (1) and "The Star Road (2) (3). Today, "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars" is seen as a gem among RPGs.
(1) OTL's SNES Mario Circuit
(2) OTL's SNES Rainbow Road
(3) The iconic Forest Maze song from OTL will be used in another game, I can't just butterfly that away