History of Super Mario (1985 - 2020)

it's time to celebrate with all stars 3d all-stars as super mario brothers is turned 35 years old as of this upload date so be sure to celebrate by liking as we are going for at least 3 500 likes and please enjoy this complete history of the super mario franchise [Applause] [Music] so [Music] after the launch of donkey kong in 1981 where shigeru miyamoto replaced popeye pluto and olive oil with mario dk and pauline universal in 1982 brought nintendo to court the japanese newcomer had all to lose but their counsel john kirby pulled a miracle in the courtroom proving not only the disparities between donkey kong and king kong but also that the latter had been part of the public domain ever since universal themselves had filed and won against rko pictures the producers of the original 1933 king kong nintendo of america prevailed in the u.s justice system and with the nintendo family computer or famicom out in japan it was time to bring their first proper gaming console over to american shores nintendo means leave luck to the heavens in japanese and the successful launch in japan of the famicom and shigeru miyamoto's and gunpei yokoi's next big arcade hit mario brothers coincided with the great american video game console crash of 1983. this collapse which is a whole different story for another day was the result of dwindling consumer trust in the industry following a long line of shovelware releases which was topped by none other than atari's own mega disaster e.t faced by this meltdown other foreign companies would have thrown in the towel and given up on the american market but not nintendo and president hiroshi yamauchi he saw the downfall of atari and television and other american gaming giants as an opportunity to clean out competitors and make room for nintendo at the same time as nintendo was working hard on the launch of the nes in the u.s the once again promoted shigeru miyamoto designer takashi tazuka and composer koji kondo were busy putting their finishing touches on the code courses and soundtrack for what would become the famicom or ness's first big system seller super mario brothers did not only offer revolutionary graphics for the time but also brought players to an imaginary kingdom similar to those found in disney's worlds filled with power-up mushrooms enemies that could be stomped upon and even ways to skip levels since there was sadly no way to save your game and your quest to rescue princess toadstool all of this was accompanied by an 11-track soundtrack and a theme that would conquer the ears and hearts of gamers all around the world most of all it had a genius concept the run and jump within side scrolling levels originally launched in japan on september 13th 1985 as a swan song to the first famicom cartridge system super mario brothers became an instant hit and by the end of 1986 when super mario brothers was bundled with the nintendo entertainment system in america it became clear that the game was way more than just a brilliant side-scroller platformer but rather a worldwide phenomenon that would conclusively end the video game crash in america skyrocket nintendo to new levels and would begin to resemble a monopoly it is estimated that super mario brothers for the nes and famicom the date sold more than 40 million copies in japan america australia and europe making it the best-selling video game of all time and a record that would hold for nearly two decades as we will get back to miyamoto and tuzuka did not rest on their laurels and while also putting the finishing touches on the legend of zelda they were already busy with reusing the assets of super mario brothers to develop a more challenging sequel the result was super mario bros 2 which launched in 1986 in japan and quickly grew to notoriety due to its difficulty super mario brothers 2 was in fact so unforgiving that nintendo of america declined to sell it instead the western markets received a revamped version of another nintendo developed game yume kojo doki doki panic with playable mario princess toadstool and toads the game was definitely different but players in the west accepted it as a sequel thanks in part to zelda 2 the adventure of link which came out in the u.s around the same time in 1988 and played way differently than the original zelda super mario and the legend of zelda were the only nintendo developed franchises to receive proper sequels on the famicom disc and nes but mario was alone to receive a trilogy with quality games it took nintendo less than eight years to completely conquer much of the gaming world this dominance allowed nintendo to focus on the development of its own games instead of fighting competitors and this created space for a proper sequel to super mario brothers around the world for the third entry in the series miyamoto and tazooka made sure that this mario game stayed true to the original when it came to its approachability and fun factor but at the same time brought everything else to a new level the mario team didn't hold back and provided a new colorful visual style more stages bosses and power-ups than in any of the prior titles and even a world map for the different areas and levels within these work was intensive but successful and super mario bros 3 launched in japan as planned in october 1988. the game was immediately received with universal acclaim from critics and consumers unanimously agree that this sequel outmatched the original two mario games in every way there was only one problem for western players super mario brothers 3 came out in japan around the same time as they finally received their version of super mario brothers 2. in the u.s the wait was over on february 9 1990 following the reveal of the game in universal's feature 1989 holiday movie the wizard this however was peanuts compared to europe and australia where gamers had to wait until the summer of 1991 for the game this gradual launch window would hurt nintendo as by the time super mario bros 3 was released in europe and australia the 16-bit turbo graphics pc engine and sega mega drive were already on store shelves around the world the former wasn't too big a threat but the latter would soon challenge nintendo still super mario brothers 3 sold close to 18 million copies worldwide which was an insane number for a game not bundled with the famicom or ness itself though nintendo's next move for mario surprised as he went black and white handheld and to a different kingdom to save princess daisy even so the super mario land handheld series was not developed by miyamoto's r d2 recently renamed entertainment analysis development ead but nintendo's oldest research and development department number one and directed by the creator of the game and watch gunpei yokoi from the beginning super mario land was planned as the launch title for nintendo's first cartridge-based handheld system the game boy and reached japanese stores on april 21st 1989 the game was received with less critical acclaim than super mario bros 3 but still outsold it with over 18 million copies sold around the world these numbers paved the way for the more graphically impressive sequels super mario land 2 which introduced mario's nemesis wario in 1992 who then became the star of wario land super mario land 3 in 1994 meanwhile miyamoto and ead were busy working on their next magnum opus super mario world which was to be bundled with nintendo's upcoming 16-bit system the super nintendo the next-gen system and mario game couldn't come soon enough as sega had challenged nintendo's console dominance with their 16-bit genesis system and their new mascot sonic the hedgehog super mario world was ready to take up the competition with sonic the hedgehog through a brand new location dinosaur land brand new companion yoshi and a long list of new and returning power ups levels enemies and the introduction of ghost houses on top of that a number of hidden maps and challenging levels were included in the form of the star roads with the traditional run and jump all these new mechanics and scenarios brought players around the world a 2d mario experience like no other naturally as a bundled title with the super nintendo from 1990 and onwards super mario world was received with universal acclaim sold accordingly and on top of being much more colorful and vibrant than sonic greatly benefited from sony sound chip in the snes the transition from 8 to 16 bit was major so nintendo decided upon the release to capitalize on this opportunity by releasing a collection of their nes mario classics super mario brothers super mario bros 2 japan super mario bros 2 usa and super mario bros 3 were all added a fresh coat of paint and updated to 16 bit a workload from nintendo which paid off as the game went on to sell more than 10.5 million copies after its initial release in 1993 with the success of both super mario world and super mario all-stars the decision was made to create a super mario world 2 but as development went on and ended up as a completely different game super mario world 2 yoshi's island which due to its brilliance became its own franchise yoshi's island while this was happening there were different priorities for super mario and home consoles the first attempts to bring super mario into the third dimension can be traced back to the early 1990s shortly after the launch of super mario world for the super nintendo back then series creator and producer shigeru miyamoto who had recently began work on star fox with the london-based developer argonaut envisioned to utilize the powerful super fx chip to develop a 3d based super mario title for the super nintendo entertainment system in an exclusive interview with nintendo power one year prior to the launch miyamoto stated that quote i first had the idea to do a 3d mario game when i was working on star fox that was five years ago i'd always wanted to do a game that recreated an entire world and miniature like miniature trains when i saw what could be done with 3d modeling on the star fox game i knew we could do much more nintendo and miyamoto knew that the transition to 3d which they themselves had initiated for consoles with star fox was imminent and as miyamoto stated during sho shinkai in 1995 the work with concepts for this revolutionary 3d mario game began already in late 1992 even so it didn't take long until the entire project was moved to nintendo's next system the silicon graphics powered ultra 64. surprisingly miyamoto's decision to transfer the game from the snes to the ultra 64 was not fully influenced by the superior power of the upcoming system but due to the fact that the system's controller had more buttons and more importantly after a personal demand from miyamoto c-stick with it the premise for what would become super mario 64 was set and after months of playing around with different camera positions and movement animations the team could abandon the original plan for a fixed isometric game sixteen people at nintendo ead including yoshiaki koizumi and takashi tezuka-san worked relentlessly for two years to simply make things work as nothing like this had ever been done before one of the greatest challenges in the transition from the second to the third dimension was to accurately program jumping distance miyamoto stated in a later interview that quote in earlier mario games we were able to measure the number of pixels mario could jump and know exactly what was possible but this time we had to design the level so that as long as your jump was close enough you'd make it it was too hard for the player to judge this was a design change we made in the middle of development when the game was far already very complete everything was open from a movement perspective and the only linear levels in the game with the fixed part would be the bowser levels due to the need of having a direct path to the boss no longer would the plumber's health be determined by power-ups such as mushrooms instead a health wheel which could be replenished by collecting coins was implemented outside of the painting-based levels the introduction of a hub world allowed for a setting where the player could return and progress deeper into peach's castle the openness of both the castle and levels resulted that the need for a traditional endpoint flagpole was obsolete and finally scratched in favor of multiple stars hidden in each level this system allowed for unseen to this point exploration in a 3d environment the game with music from legendary composer koji kondo was nearly ready to be shown to the world but not before charles martinet who had been the official voice of mario since 1990 was included in a real and proper mainline mario game it's me mario and not mario teaching typing or mario's fundamentals i'm going to fly for you [Music] even though that 3d head from that game most likely inspired the title screen for super mario 64. after years of planning experimentation and development on november 24th 1995 nintendo changed the video game world with a playable demo of super mario 64 a title which at that point was planned to feature 32 courses there is no doubt that shigeru miyamoto was incredibly ambitious with mario 64 as he aimed for as many as 40 courses even so in the end the pressured mario team at ead was forced to settle for 15 courses with a number of stars in each of them to fit the game on an n64 cartridge and meet the extended delay accepted by nintendo's president hiroshi yamauchi since the launch of super mario 64 was tied to the launch of the nintendo 64. it was thus gradual with june 23 1996 as the release date of the system and game in japan september 29th for north america and march 1st 1997 in europe the game was praised for its innovative and daring 3d gameplay and credited as the first game franchise to make a successful transition from the second to third dimension needless to say the game was keyed in nintendo 64 solid launch and hunt after the sony playstation which unfortunately was a train that would never be caught mostly due to the third party exodus following nintendo's decision to stick with cartridges this decision turned super mario 64's load times dramatically down but in return cost a ton of future titles and partnerships for nintendo even though the game at first wasn't sold bundled with the system super mario 64 went on to sell near 12 million copies across the n64's life cycle with these numbers it was obvious that a sequel with some of the previously teased courses and unused ideas was next for miyamoto and his team a few months after the launch in january 1997 shigeru miyamoto spoke openly to nintendo power about super mario 128 being the title for the sequel and referenced in an interview later that year with 64 dream that quote we're in the middle of preparing mario 64 2 for release on the 64 dd i'd like to take advantage of the 64 dd's ability to store information as of now luigi's also a full part of the game but we haven't started thinking about two-player gameplay with mario and luigi yet needless to say despite numerous references and teases over the next few years super mario 128 never materialized beyond demos due to the 64 dd's massive failure in japan it also didn't help that miyamoto had his hands full on other projects such as the legend of zelda ocarina of time and then afterwards the new ip pikmin finally in late 2000 the mario team at nintendo ead moved on from the cartridge-based n64 to the mini dvd-driven codename dolphin the later gamecube the work on a proper successor to super mario 64 had begun as a premise for the new game yoshiaki koizumi played around the idea giving mario a water pump and moved the game's setting from peach's castle to a much larger tropical setting isle delfino the experimentation with this water pump would eventually result in super mario sunshine flood apart from communicating with mario represented a radical break as mario could now jetpack his way high up to buildings and even thin rope lines the verticality was expanded heavily as the search for the shine sprites required mario to perform complicated acrobatic moves and clean up a giant mess of colorful graffiti all features that were impossible to pull off in super mario 64. it was here that the gamecube's power and controller shine words cannot describe how crucial the c-stick was to implement the first and only until super mario odyssey fully controlled dual analog camera controls in a mainline mario game but the radical improvement of the camera controls and inclusion of a water pump was just the beginning as for super mario sunshine nintendo ead implemented for the first time over world bosses and mini bosses and a high number of npcs within the hub world town delfino plaza in fact in a nintendo hosted developer interview conducted by then company president satoru iwatasan with shigeru miyamoto-san takashi tezuka-san and yoshiaki koizumi-san it was revealed that it was first laid in development that the team made a greater effort to make the gameplay more similar to super mario 64 and what miyamoto called a conservative move takashi tezuka supported this notion by stating quote the basic game is similar to the n64 version super mario 64. we have intentionally made it seem familiar and simple to play despite only being less than a year in development the first teaser of super mario sunshine was presented at the last nintendo space world in august 2001 this one presented a much more ambitious game with a release date for the next summer 2002 this was possible thanks to a new engine system implemented at nintendo which was detailed by shigeru miyamoto to tell you the truth super mario sunshine was developed on nintendo's new r d system which integrates a 3d engine with other engines this is a new system when you use it the time required for game projects is significantly reduced so super mario sunshine was the very first game to be developed on this basic system still the one and a half year long development cycle quickly turned into a hassle for the development team the constant time constraints and immense pressure led to unavoidable cutting of planned in-game content this included a connecting train system and five worlds that didn't make it into the final game one of these was corona mountain which lacked the multiple shine sprites episodes found in the other worlds in the game even so this doesn't mean that sunshine was thin in content far from it as it brought back writable yoshis included a much more concentrated plot with cinematic cutscenes and actual twists compared to the previous games within the game there were three types of levels large open areas with flood smaller secret platforming challenges and the floodless mario action stages the last two would turn out to be far more influential in mario's later wii adventures sunshine unlike super mario 64 would include more substantial voice acting for a number of characters within cutscenes these included papa toad bowser jr notoriously bowser how dare you disturb my family vacation and most importantly mario's new water pump gun companion flood another detail that is often overlooked with sunshine is that the final e3 2002 demo still played at 60 frames per second but by the japanese release one month later the game was locked at 30 frames per second to this allegation shigeru miyamoto-san replied that some people may realize that super mario sunshine does not work on 60 frames per second which you are seeing on screen is 30 frames however the game is made so that you will feel it is more than a 30 frame game everything was set for the major release of nintendo's greatest system seller super mario sunshine across the summer and fall of 2002 summer 2002 stood in the sign of change at nintendo's headquarters in kyoto japan first on may 31st president hiroshi yamauchi stepped down after running nintendo for 53 years his appointed successor satoru iwata from hal laboratory would heavily change the philosophy of the company from hardcore to casual in an unmatched stride to appeal to all age groups ironically the first title launch under the new president was one of the toughest mario titles since the japan exclusive super mario bros 2. super mario sunshine was a much harder game than super mario 64 but received critical acclaim for the wide variety of moves improved gameplay the creative implementation of flood far better camera controls and the fresh setting of isle delfino still sunshine wasn't flawless as the opinions surrounding the inclusion of flood and even writable yoshis were strongly divisive among gamers and critics such as jeff gerstmann who described the two as mere gimmicks in his gamespot review super mario sunshine would never reach the craze of super mario 64 with 6.3 million copies sold to date but still scored 92 on both metacritic and game rankings in part because of the new mario action stages these combined with the spherical nature of the super mario 128 demo and the stars and hub world found in super mario 64 would be instrumental in the development of the next 3d title surprisingly shortly after the completion of super mario sunshine in 2003 nintendo ead expanded their operations with an office in tokyo there mario director yoshiaki koizumi was transferred from kyoto to work on donkey kong jungle beat with producer takayo shimizu this corporate move would in effect result in a two-year hiatus from 3d mario development and led series creator and producer shigeru miyamoto to remake super mario 64 for the launch of nintendo's new handheld the ds in 2004 [Music] after super mario 64 ds nintendo also made the decision to revive 2d mario which had not seen a new installment since 1992 by providing a fresh twist on the classic side-scroller formula the result of which was director shige yuki asukes and hiroyuki kimura's 2.5 d new super mario brothers despite being originally planned as a simpler mario experience without the involvement of shigeru miyamoto and takashi tezuka and quick reveal to release cycle new super mario brothers with its simplicity surpassed all expectations since after its launch in mid 2006 nsmb went on to become the second best-selling super mario game of all time a new 2d mario franchise was born and successful sequels followed on nintendo's next three systems but back to 3d mario when work on the next 3d mario finally started in early 2005 the development of the game was entrusted to ead tokyo which led to a number of changes on the mario team first and foremost takashi tezuka was replaced by takayo shimizu as co-producer and shigeru miyamoto would work an input from kyoto with occasional visits to tokyo this quickly led shimizu to take greater responsibility with securing the flow and work environment of the project which started as an expanded idea of producer miyamoto's and director koizumi's obsession with the spherical platform from the super mario 128 gamecube demo truly to life the stream would turn much harder to realize as the project was obviously destined for a brand new piece of hardware the code name revolution later named we if that wasn't enough following the challenging nature of sunshine president iwata asked for a 3d mario game approachable for the general public yes casual gamers from 5 to 95 years old in the iwata ask session prior to the release of super mario galaxy director koizumi reiterated some of the stress faced how he struggled to visualize the finished spherical platform concept technically to the tokyo team in fact he often saw himself in this situation as quote the cook first i showed the recipe to everyone saying i want to make a kind of dish like this on we but nobody in the staff was able to imagine the finished plate luckily for koizumi there was one person back in 2005 who understood his concept that was none other than mario creator and series producer shigeru miyamoto who gave feedback from his office in kyoto even so the staff in tokyo still struggled to comprehend this dish so koizumi-san decided to make a prototype to illustrate quote miyamoto-san did tell me though that this looks good however almost everyone on the staff told me how they couldn't make a dish of this grandeur hearing that i felt the need to make a sample plate gathering several staff members we created a prototype that took about three months to make a spherical shape would be best understood as a planet so we put that in outer space and added gravity it looked just like a bare minimum version of the current super mario galaxy that's where the development really took off still the development of super mario galaxy was filled with differences in opinion between koizumi and miyamoto as to game design decisions with this exchange of arguments and explanation of ideas turn super mario galaxy into the masterpiece we know and love today in this new external producer role miyamoto became the chief tester i will say he received new bits of the game from tokyo to his office and home in kyoto and instructed the team on what alterations or upended tea tables had to be applied quote shimizu-san so even on days off i received emails from him asking let's change this to that at very early in the morning though we were working at distant locations i really didn't feel like we were working so far away from each other we even had a setup where the game that was being worked on in tokyo would be accessible in kyoto at the same time also i was really grateful that towards the end of the development cycle miyamoto-san often came to the tokyo office since the game was to be easily approachable for all future wii gamers the utilization of the wii remote and nunchuck was crucial this simplified thought process would cause the mario to the implementation of mario's spin attack and the reduced emphasis on the jump button kuizumi this more thoroughly in the official iwata asks interview quote i wanted to limit the number of buttons you used in this game to two typically mario's basic action is the a button jump however on a spherical map it's pretty difficult to try to and jump and stomp on an enemy so we made a new move for mario the spin with this move you're able to tell the distance from the target even when the camera is looking straight down from above making it easy to defeat enemies this way the gameplay has become more intuitive even for those people who usually don't play video games the approachability was key for the development team and this went deep into the design of the different galaxies where some of them would even take emphasis of the built-in motion controls in the wiimote by doing this for these special stages ead tokyo could set up a less gimmicky control scheme for the large majority of the galaxies even so they didn't forget about their goal to create a game for everyone even those who might be unfamiliar or not skilled enough to play first fiddle this resulted in the implementation of the simple but still unique co-star two-player mode further more save slots were added and finally an orchestrated masterpiece by koji kondo and majito yokota super mario galaxy's soundtrack was the first orchestral arrangement composed for a mario game and it definitely made an impact even the sound effects would sync with the music and offer a whole new level of immersion when masafumi kawamura took advantage of the wii remote's built-in speaker the orchestral piece was handcrafted to a much more linear story-driven deeper and lore-filled 3d mario galactic adventure starting in the mushroom kingdom the player would quickly after peach's kidnapping be introduced to the lumas stars and power stars the planet observatory hub world the galaxies and finally a new star in the mario universe rosalina rosalina was a different character than the stereotypical princesses or damsels found in traditional mario games as she with her reflected complex character and optional personal story offered a much deeper and tragic backstory than anything seen in prior titles if the inclusion of rosalina wasn't enough for super mario galaxy they would bring back a playable luigi upon collecting all stars in the game despite teams working relentlessly in both kyoto and tokyo to finish the game the sheer size of the project and debugging involved resulted that the game couldn't be ready for the wii's launch in the fall of 2006 still nintendo president satoru iwata and nintendo of america president reggie fisa may needed super mario galaxy at their upcoming e3 2006 presentation after one and a half years in development the long-awaited reveal was finally a fact with the teaser and demo out of this world without any doubt super mario galaxy along with twilight princess and wii sports stole the show that year the tokyo team could return back to work with confidence and as it soon turned out that even a spring launch despite a mass hiring of game testers was too soon to solve all remaining technical hiccups as such super mario galaxy became the main showcase at nintendo's e3 2007 presentation two years after the first prototype with the spheric platforms super mario galaxy was complete and ready to take the world and nintendo wii by storm the game appealed to both young and old experienced and inexperienced as the game had been perfectly designed to be easy for beginners but challenging for experts when they reached the purple coin missions with an aggregated score of 98 on game rankings 97 based on 73 reviews on metacritic and numerous game of the year awards super mario galaxy was quickly considered as one of the best games ever made where the incredible creativeness and introduction of low gravity gameplay was highly acclaimed more so the game was a great commercial success with 11.4 million copies sold worldwide and with review scores and reception like this it was just a matter of time before a sequel would be under development this would be an unprecedented move as no 3d mario game had been followed by a direct sequel reusing the same game engine and physics this changed when shigeru miyamoto right after the completion of super mario galaxy in late 2007 approached director koizumi during this exchange miyamoto-san suggested that ead tokyo reused the costly galaxy engine as foundation for the next 3d mario title though koizumi was a supporter of this thought he knew that in order to convince an exhausted mario team he had to approach them from the right angle so he did this quote when we got together to evaluate the experience of developing super mario galaxy i put in a request i said i wanted to look back and talk over what went well rather than what went wrong everyone had lots of positive stuff to say like we did this all right but it could have been better if we'd done it a little more like so and it's too bad we couldn't use that one idea but it would have been a great if we could have i was like good good so i took those responses and consulted miyamoto-san about this project and he said why not just make super mario galaxy 1.5 upon hearing this the team at ead tokyo had a better idea to create a brand new game premise and galaxies from the ground up and only reuse character models the physics and the game engine of the spherical platforms and so started the development of the successor to galaxy with former director yoshiaki koizumi as the new series producer he in a stroke of genius brought back takashi tezuka into the producer chair and finally koichi hayashida as the new director for the game with the restocked deck in early 2008 nintendo ead tokyo set out to do the impossible create a sequel that was better than the original the first step in this process would be to battle negative thoughts but all the great ideas had been already used in super mario galaxy and rather look at things bigger better and brighter this way of thinking got producer koizumi to lift up the greatest scrapped idea from galaxy one rideable yoshis though the return of a fast agile and powerful yoshi with transformations was just the beginning as reusing the game engine the spheric platforms and most of the assets from super mario galaxy meant that the team at ead tokyo could put their effort into implementing new ideas this thought of thinking derived from the experience miyamoto had with developing the legend of zelda majora's mask shortly after the ocarina of time for the n64 quote shigeru miyamoto just as the legend of zelda majora's mask built upon the foundation laid by the legend of zelda ocarina of time and making super mario galaxy 2 we reevaluated the spherical environments of the first super mario galaxy and noticed some things that could be done better with lack of any pressure to deliver a new mainline 3d mario for several years the restock team at ead tokyo could take their time from 2007 to 2010 to perfect the galaxy recipe being a sequel to one of the most acclaimed games of all time super mario galaxy 2 naturally needed to distinguish itself from the original as a result brand new enemies game-changing power-ups such as cloud and rock mario and items such as the drill were included and the tutorial was made optional instead of mandatory on the other hand koizumi aimed to heavily improve the pacing in galaxy 2. as a result early on in the development the decision was made to include a world map similar to 2d mario games and the immensely successful new super mario brothers series along the way the team realized that mario needed a craft to travel between the different galaxies which resulted that koizumi's proposition from 2005 starship mario was finally included the second great gameplay change apart from handcrafting levels for yoshi gameplay was the emphasis on switching circumstances which would radically change the nature of some galaxies in the game one of these the drill required more than one month of initial testing to find a suitable way of using this new item to quickly get from one side of a sphere to the other furthermore in order to not stick too heavily to one or two ideas the team hosted regular brainstorming sessions for collecting new ideas to the game still this clearly wasn't enough as producer kroy zumi eventually gave the green light to prepare a tool for designers and even the sound team to make prototype stages where many of these surprisingly after some alterations made it into the final game this process of brainstorming and the two and a half years spent on creating new prototypes stages and improving the camera was possible as the team had not to worry about crafting a brand new engine the galaxy engine was one of a kind and didn't need greater alteration due to lack of any competition as nintendo president satoru iwata highlighted in his hiwata asks for the game i think a big factor is that the sphere and gravity system is only used in super mario galaxy games i mean no one is trying to come up with ideas revolving around spherical landforms and gravity shifts development on the game continued with emphasis on resonance which eventually resulted in the story and lore being much more downplayed compared to the first galaxy game instead the team included throwbacks to previous games such as super mario 64 and super mario sunshine and more importantly 120 additional challenging green power star challenges upon collecting all 120 yellow stars in the main game despite leaving the steers on a composition of the zelda series to new talents like in super mario galaxy koji kondo along with majito yokota returned put together another orchestral masterpiece though this time they were joined by a fellow composer ryo nagamatsu and a greater big band style orchestra which included trumpets trombones saxophones and drums by june 2009 the game was very far in development and ready to be revealed at e3 there miyamoto confirmed that the game was held back to a mid-2010 release due to the release of new super mario bros wii 2009 a decision which could have had an impact on the sales of galaxy 2. even so since the game was to be launched prior to e3 2010 nintendo made super mario galaxy 2 playable in february 2010 during the nintendo media summit in san francisco california with later events in europe and japan in europe the demo included this rather embarrassing how to play dvd super mario galaxy 2 was met with universal critical acclaim at launch scoring the same rating on metacritic as galaxy one though both games share the same metacritic score of 97. super mario galaxy 2 is widely considered by fans to be better than the first with a more realized version of the concepts presented in galaxy one fortunately after the sequel's release in 2010 fans would not have to wait long for ead tokyo's next 3d venture only this time it would be on nintendo's next handheld the 3ds normally on a handheld device one would expect a mario game to be 2d like the new super mario brothers games and the 3ds managed to get one of those as well but that was not enough koichi hayashida the director of super mario 3d land was the one who came up with the idea of putting a new 3d mario on a handheld system this already happened once before with the super mario 64 remake on the nintendo ds but the key word for this project was reset rather than making another game like galaxy the team decided it would be best to rethink the rules of 3d mario and how best it could complement a handheld such as making the levels smaller as stated by mr hayashida quote hayashida some people can play on the train when you commute i live a few stations away from the station nearest from my home to the companies so at first i thought i should aim for light courses that you could clear in about that time and stop playing whenever you got off the train there was also the issue of making a 3d mario game that was accessible to the casual audience the galaxy games began such a trend but some less experienced players felt alienated and overwhelmed by the grand design of those games so in order to resolve this issue they thought about bridging the gap between 2d games and 3d games by making the goal for each level to reach the flagpole at the end this caused the levels to be linear and bound completely unlike 3d mario planning leader for the game daisuki tsujimura said quote what we were careful about this time was making courses that would clearly guide the player we basically designed the courses this time so you head to the right or advance deeper in to definitely reach a goal we also put in arrows to guide you handmade fences on the course we devised various ways for you to reach the goal super mario 3d land saw the return of tanooki mario from super mario brothers and there were even enemies with tanooki tales who could glide as well luigi also made another appearance as a playable character in the end super mario 3d land was met with critical praise standing at a metacritic score of 90. the formula for 3d mario established by this game proved to be a welcome addition to the handheld games however little did fans know that this would serve as a basis for the next game on nintendo's home console the wii u since shortly after the beginning of the development of 3d land super mario 3d world was already being planned as a continuation of said game with the launch of 3d land in 2011 the team turned their attention to 3d world though there was one big change underway since kenta motokura who had since super mario sunshine been a designer at ead kyoto and tokyo was finally promoted to the position of co-director with koichi hayashida for the development of super mario 3d world surprisingly for one series creator shigeru miyamoto would not upend any testibles this time as super mario 3d world was a natural evolution of the established formula found in super mario 3d land in an attempt to culminate linear 3d mario this situation was similar to the one seen during the development of super mario galaxy 2 where the team at ead tokyo had ideas that they simply couldn't implement in the previous game one of the most substantial of these was a highly competitive 4 player multiplayer with unique traits for playable mario luigi and toad this wasn't enough for producer yoshiaki koizumi who decided that for the first time in a mainline mario game since super mario brothers 2 usa there would be a playable princess peach it would soon turn out that this was merely the beginning of packing the game chock full of content as with kenta motokura behind the wheel it soon became a policy to put everything in as a result the new co-director would make the team throw out ideas multiple times to reach the rather ambitious goal this approach required soon a doubling of the staff from 50 to 100 by the late stages of development and with this hiring spree as highlighted by co-director hayashida came three times as many ideas for the game one of these ideas was the proposal to have the playable characters crawl and run on all four but after koizumi and miyamoto saw what this meant for princess peach the team settled on a cat mario power-up this one to nintendo president iwata's great surprise made it possible to not only climb walls but even the iconic gold flagpole the feeling of fun level creativity and the key element in every mario game the run and jump were essential to super mario 3d world's development and programming of cat mario quote director motokura this time we prioritized on that great feeling you get when you run and jump in that process we came up with two separate ideas running on all fours and climbing up a wall both were actions that mario usually doesn't have and those ideas triggered our decision still cat mario was only the beginning as with super mario 3d world ead tokyo packed the game full with power-ups such as fire mario boomerang mario tanooki mario manicki nico lucky cat mario statue mario and finally double mario double mario and cat mario in particular offered brand new gameplay opportunities while the story of how double mario came to be is quote motokura well actually we discovered that when a staff member made a mistake with the placement tool and put in two-player marios when we saw that we thought it was great so we went ahead and put that in the game joking aside both double mario and cat mario led the team to create spots or play stars and locations which would require said power-up to be reached for double mario these would be specific panels and for cat mario climbing obstacles to reach additional star challenges this design fit the frantic and deep layered stages incredibly well especially since the team decided like in 3d land not to experiment and stick to a parallel camera this naturally marked for a more linear level design but in super mario 3d world reaching a number of the green stars required to progress deeper into the games was deliberately placed in locations that required extensive player exploration according to motokura on the service the game was to appear as kawaii or cute but at the same time offer unique themes such as historical japan and mario kart and challenging level design later on for the experienced player however the traditional multi-layered linear 3d stages maps toad houses and special challenges resembling the structure from super mario bros 3 wasn't enough for the team who in the middle of development decided to include a brand new mode captain's toad adventure these bonus stages let the player fully control a 3d camera to navigate captain toad who was unable to jump and had to solve puzzles and speak his way around to reach these additional green stars some emphasis during development was also put on integrating the wii u gamepad's touchscreen microphone and miiverse functionality into the gameplay and some of the level design for certain stages outside of a very streamlined main campaign for super mario 3d world nintendo ead tokyo decided to extend the game with a substantial and really challenging post game section with new stages and a playable rosalina thus confirming that her appearance wasn't solely tied to the galaxy series to fit this radically diverse 3d mario experience koji kondo majito yokota toru minegishi and yasuaki iwata went for a more jazzy approach to their orchestrated soundtrack recorded by the mario 3d world big band the easily approachable but hard to complete super mario 3d world remained a well-guarded secret of ead tokyo and since it was only on a year in development it was nowhere to be seen in wii u's lineup during nintendo's last to this date e3 press conference in 2012. instead the game was first teased during the january 2013 nintendo direct and finally revealed in nintendo's special e3 2013 direct to mixed reception nintendo would eventually turn around the initial skepticism for 3d world with a competent gameplay trailer in the beginning of october 2013 demonstrating in detail how packed the game was with content the launch of the acclaimed super mario 3d world in november 2013 represented an end to the linear and bound approach seen in late 3d mario games a path that the mario franchise had been getting deeper and deeper stuck in since the launch of the immensely successful and influential new super mario brothers series in 2006 so when nintendo was closing on super mario brothers 30th anniversary in 2015 they decided to deliver something special nintendo had celebrated super mario's anniversary in the past with special re-releases but for 2015 they created a brand new franchise the concept was simple create a game with 8 and 16-bit stages where only a few of these were created by the experts at nintendo and where the rest was left to be made by players and then shared online to others around the world through super mario maker miyamoto and tazooka handed over the tools necessary to create new classic 2d mario experiences to gamers around the world while the mario team at epd could focus on breaking the ever increasing linearity present in the mario games of the early 2010s as a result when producer yoshiaki koizumi and director kenta motokura shortly after the launch of wii u's 3d world set off to begin development on the first mainline super mario title for nintendo's first hybrid console they saw a need for a shake-up quote director motokura first when we were developing the game we had a lot of experiments and tests and so when we wanted to focus on making a fun game that naturally became the sandbox walled garden kind of game kind of related almost to the super mario 64 or mario sunshine so we definitely very much focused centrally on creating a fun game in many ways the overall concept of fun and freedom in the new game would be decided in the early brainstorming sessions in 2014 based on these exchanges of opinions the core idea of bringing mario back to its 3d roots found in super mario 64 and super mario sunshine was highlighted and explored further a good example of this work in progress was the early decision of how travel would function in the game instead of only jumping through paintings or splatters of ink to reach from the hub world to different destinations mario's path through lands and kingdoms would this time be depicted as a worldwide odyssey in a recent interview with the verge producer koizumi explained how it all came to be quote the overall concept of the game of traveling between kingdoms and collecting power moves and the basic setting that was something that was decided at a very early stage of the process in terms of deciding to make a mario game and deciding to make it that kind of game those are things that were both decided at the same time with this in mind the development team at ead tokyo approached series creator shigeru miyamoto with the concept got it approved and for the most part were left to their own devices for the rest of the development surprisingly this also meant miyamoto's approval of the removal of the obsolete hub world which the series had been attached to since the first 3d mario game the motivating factor behind the development was always what director motokura considered as fun to play according to a telephone interview conducted with geek dad this was the driving force behind the development and the creation of mario's companion in odyssey the inclusion of cappy was the final result of an extensive brainstorming and prototype process deriving from the team's experimentation with the idea of taking over or capturing enemies in the game this idea fit well with koizumi's motokura's and the rest of the team's vision of taking advantage of nintendo switch's hardware but how to take advantage of this new capture mechanic and combine it with the joy-cons planned hd rumble functionality the answer for the development team lay in wearing it at any time you play this way the sentient being cappy was added to mario's timeless cap with cappy in place hats shortly after became a recurring theme in a wacky world that would heavily take inspiration from our own world and previous titles where mario played a leading role this radical move would turn one convention break tied to mario's character and gameplay into many needless to say the development team went wild with this premise and were soon adding cap wearing humans creatures and enemies expanding mario's wardrobe with both brand new caps and outfits from previous titles in a series of crazy cap shops nevertheless these inclusions were nothing compared to what was in store for the next three years of development where gameplay mechanics such as nes 2d mario sections to break up the 3d gameplay or even a modern recreation of donkey kong gameplay were added donkey kong in particular would inspire an entire city or kingdom dedicated to mario's arcade adventure and his first love interest pauline as its mayor in short terms the team spent countless hours carefully crafting a number of sandbox or miniature garden-like kingdoms with incredible depth and countless hidden secrets challenges and many stages since this was to be a new type of 3d mario for a new type of console the team continued to play with and include ideas such as capturable yellow taxis in new donk city giant pieces of vegetables and meat yummy and bizarre food kingdoms ice-covered deserts and even t-rexes and pre-historic kingdoms and much more on a scale never seen before in a 3d mario game that being said the team was careful to not make the game alienating to casual players as such the game was designed in a way so certain important tasks could be accomplished in a matter of minutes this aim to make the game enjoyable in brief gaming sessions resulted in the greater number of the main collectible power moons in each kingdom to justify this change the power moons were turned into fuel for mario's hat airship the odyssey which would serve as replacement for the absent hub world overall with all this in place and much more to come over the three-year-long development cycle super mario odyssey on nintendo switch fit the three considerations that the team had aimed for quote producer koizumi one of the big considerations when creating super mario odyssey was that idea of being able to make a home console 3d mario that could also be taken and played on the go another big feature of the switch is that it comes with two controllers attached and so creating a mario game that could be played using one of those controllers in each hand and incorporating motion control functionality was another key consideration and the third consideration was making a game that makes use of the hd rumble feature in other words much like super mario 64 in the past super mario odyssey was since the beginning of development meant to be a showcase for an upcoming nintendo system a title that would fully take advantage of nintendo's switch's many features such as portability multiple control options motion controls and hd rumble quote producer koizumi because of the nature of the nintendo switch as a home console that you can also take with you from the very outset we were very carefully considering making a game that would work in both of those ways although it is sort of different to a 3d land or a 3d world super mario odyssey really does contain a lot of elements which can be enjoyed in very short gameplay sessions which is more of a handheld oriented feature it's clear that producer koizumi who was working alongside the game with shinya takahashi on molding the nintendo switch used super mario odyssey as a testing ground a good example of this is the inclusion of dual analog camera controls the photo mode which was an idea brought up first during the galaxy era and finally the inclusion of co-op involving two joy-cons development continued but in the middle of the second year of development in an unfortunate turn of events nintendo's president satoru iwata passed away in july 2015. after a period of mourning tatsumi kimisima was appointed as temporary president and soon after in september 2015 it was decided that the company's console divisions ead kyoto and tokyo and the handheld division spd would merge into one division nintendo epd this move to collect all game development under one division fit with the vision of their upcoming hybrid system with the development divisions under one name in 2015 there was still a long way to go until the release of super mario odyssey and the team spent the next year crafting programming and polishing this incredibly ambitious title as a title bound from the beginning for nintendo's next system super mario odyssey continued to be a well-guarded company secret this stood in stark contrast to the next legend of zelda game for wii u which was revealed back in 2014 but now struggled with a series of delays which would eventually result that zelda and not mario would become the launch title for the system the legend of zelda franchise was in a much similar predicament as 3d mario with the games becoming more and more linear and bound by each passing title series producer aig aonuma grew aware of this and set out to make breath of the wild a game that redefined zelda this included a gigantic open world non-linear progression and an impressive physics engine both epd's breath of the wild and odyssey teams and their directors hidemaru fujibayashi and kento motokura saw to outdo their previous productions even though the two teams shared some of the similar ideas to break conventions for their respective franchises there were still some key differences quote producer koizumi in breath of the wild there's a very wide open space there's a lot of emphasis on seeing a far away location and thinking about how you might get there but in super mario odyssey the space is more compact the goals and the kinds of actions you use are more about the things that are right in front of you and how they will interact even so it was first during breath of the wild's e3 2016 showcase that mario's series creator shigeru miyamoto briefly hinted to ign that they were planning something in the same spirit as breath of the wild for 3d mario miyamoto we're always challenging ourselves to create something new so hopefully you'll see a new kind of mario in about a year or two maybe next e3 will be able to share something it's kind of difficult with mario because some of the more important conventions of mario are based on the approachability and accessibility of those games sure enough super mario odyssey was closely tied to the switch and as such was first teased alongside the nintendo switch in october 2016 but it wasn't until the nintendo switch presentation in january that the first proper reveal trailer was shown along with the title super mario odyssey the presentation also had koizumi play a key role as a host demonstrating the features of the new hardware in a way the late and great satoru iwata would have as previously stated the main focus of this new installment was to return to the sandbox style gameplay established by super mario 64 and sunshine nintendo themselves even mentioned those games as examples for what the development team was aiming for having been 15 long years since the last sandbox game super mario sunshine it was time for mario to return back to its roots even though the game was nearly complete by this time no playable demo was featured following the nintendo switch presentation and one key mechanic was hidden away from the reveal trailer specifically what mario's companion cappy would do in the game that was saved for the e3 2017 trailer and demo which by no doubt stole the show in los angeles super mario odyssey launched a glowing reviews receiving a meta score of 97 on metacritic despite losing most game of the year awards in 2017 to the legend of zelda breath of the wild super mario odyssey went on to sell like no 3d super mario title prior and had by mid-2020 surpassed 18 million sold copies worldwide 3d mario had after being forced to linearity due to the immense success of the new super mario brothers series on the ds wii wii u and 3ds finally managed to break the boundaries of linearity on the nintendo switch not only that it also had managed to break sales records with one of the most open mario games to date through its many kingdoms even so 2d mario still lives on thanks to 2019 super mario maker 2 which took the concept of the first super mario maker added super mario 3d world template in 2d and then multiplied the possibilities with more tools items enemies bosses slopes and through later updates added world maker allows players to create complete games using 2d mario and the story of super mario's 35th anniversary would have ended here but wasn't for a massive super mario direct on september 3rd 2020. ten days prior to the 35th anniversary itself which delivered the long anticipated super mario 3d all-stars with remasters of super mario 64 super mario sunshine and super mario galaxy multiple new ways to play 8-bit and 16-bit classics and even an expanded version of super mario 3d world which will hit in 2021 no matter if you play on your switch traditionally online nes and snes mini traditional on your retro console or even on your phone the love for the mustache master of the run and jump is as strong today as it was back in 1985 and it is all thanks to his great charisma art style personality charles martinez sublime voice acting and technical brilliance thanks to shigeru miyamoto takashi tazuka gunpei yokoi yoshiaki koizumi and recently kenta motokura has managed to truly make super mario timeless and the mascot of nintendo and video games in general happy birthday super mario and here is to another 35.

Channel: Commonwealth Realm

Views: 148,056

Keywords: Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario History, Super Mario 35th Anniversary, Super Mario 3D World Switch, History of Super Mario, Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo Switch, Super Mario Timeline, Super Mario Galaxy Switch, Super Mario 64 Switch, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Nintendo Switch News, Super Mario Documentary, Super Mario All Stars, Super Mario Odyssey 2, Super Mario Direct, Nintendo Direct, Super Mario 3D All-Stars Release

Id: JO86YAiYFjc

Length: 66min 30sec (3990 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2020