[Professor Elvin Gadd talking] Mario Kart Tour just dropped not too long
ago paving the way as the next installment in the Mario Kart series. And I gotta say… It’s weird. Now, I’ve been playing Mario Kart for quite
a while now. From the SNES days, to the motion control
generation… to even Mario Kart VR not too long ago. A few of us from Minus World actually drove
out to Washington DC to give it a whirl last year and it was an absolute blast. There’s just something about taking aim
with a green shell in hand and letting it fly into the competition. Although I have to say, given how complex
the VR setup was, I did get a bit of height-triggered vertigo when I’d fly off the edges. But that entire journey takes us to where
we are today. Playing Mario Kart vertically on a mobile
phone. Exciting. I kid of course - it's actually a pretty neat
concept. The idea of Mario Kart being accessible to
anyone for free with a phone is pretty cool. Of course, stuff like characters and tracks
are locked behind paywalls, but it’s still something that anyone can pick up and play. And while cycling through the different courses
and potential characters, my mind started to think of the characters from the past that
we’re currently missing. Like the truly unique Pink Gold Peach. How could she NOT be available? But in all seriousness, there is one character
that I would absolutely love to see return. And there’s a really neat story behind why
this character should return in Mario Kart Tour. Because although this character was just someone
you faced off against rarely in the entire Mario Kart timeline, their role is actually
quite monumental. Because in reality, they hold the truth to
what really happened in the past. The story of what took place after a certain
Mario game came to a close… And how there was a bigger plot at play than
what we were lead to believe. So sit back, buckle up, and get ready to do
a deep dive into some Mario lore. Just as a quick announcement before diving
deep into all of this - I now have merch! I have some pretty comfy t shirts... I have a nifty snapback hat. If you love my content and want to support
me further as a creator, you can find those in the description below - and there will
me more info at the end of the video. Often times the Mario Kart games in general
don’t really offer a whole lot in terms of defining key moments in Mario lore. Trying to piece together a Mario timeline
out of Nintendo’s disconnected entities is a laborious task alone. But that doesn’t mean we can’t utilize
aspects of these games to help us understand a greater picture. As newer games are released, sometimes new
characters and areas are reworked into the game as sort of a throwback to the previous
adventure. And in 2005, we actually had something take
place that immediately provided us with a resolution to a game that only came out a
few years earlier. Super Mario Sunshine. Now those of you who have been here since
the beginning, and I mean like way back when my channel first started beginning, you’ll
know I created essentially an entire set of documentaries around Luigi’s Mansion and
E. Gadd. This ended up spanning the entire timeline
all the way up until Odyssey. We talked about the Portrait Ghosts being
real humans or actual ghosts. We talked about E. Gadd being a toss up between
being good and evil. We talked about the magic paint from Super
Mario Sunshine, and how it actually comes from an entirely different world. And last, we talked about the warp paintings
in the world of Mario, and how it ties into the magic paint from Super Mario Sunshine. Four videos spanning the entire range of E.
Gadd’s mischief essentially. But we’re going to dial things back and
take a trip to that second video for a moment. A video called “Is E. Gadd Evil?” from
the summer of 2016. In this video I talk a lot about the morales
of E. Gadd as a person, and what his true intentions are overall. He’s always painted as someone who is on
our side, but in reality, he’s not. To quickly recap, he straight up gave Bowser
Jr. a super dangerous paintbrush that threw the entire island into chaos. Bowser Jr tells us “a strange old man in
a white coat gave it to me” - in which FLUDD then responds, confirming it was E. Gadd - the
same person who made FLUDD. So someone who provides our hero with the
tools they need to save the day, is also providing the opposite team with the tools they need
to destroy. Luigi’s Mansion already left a bad taste
in my mouth with how E. Gadd basically hordes human spirits, and E. Gadd’s carelessness
certainly hasn’t improved since then at all. Seeing how he sold the Portrait Ghosts in
Dark Moon is kind of grim too, and generally uncaring. All of this is why the events of Super Mario
Sunshine were such a disaster. E. Gadd knew Mario would be stopping on this
small landing strip out in the sea and had FLUDD waiting for him. It was planted there on purpose… as was
the paintbrush in the hands of our foe. One might label E. Gadd as someone who only
cares about his own experiments, or someone who deals products to both sides by creating
problems and offering the solution. Now before you say “But Swanky, Game Theory
already covered that topic!”, that’s completely true. Actually, we both have. My part 1 and part 2 videos are basically
the same theory, reaching the same conclusions with most of the same data points. But when making my videos back in the day,
and technically even after watching The Game Theorist rendition of the same concept a year
or so later, there was one detail that was left out. I touched on it briefly as a passing comment,
but honestly I should have explored it a lot more… Because it completely explains what Super
Mario Sunshine was REALLY about. Providing two tools to wage war against each
other was really only the beginning… Because there’s something we weren’t told
about FLUDD… Something that in the modern age, we’re
a lot more aware of. And in order to understand what happened,
we’re heading back to the world of Mario Kart. In 2005, a few years after the release of
Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart Arcade GP was released. This was a Mario Kart game largely produced
by Namco that appeared in many arcades around the world. It was the first time crossover characters
were introduced to the series as well - initially in the form of Pacman characters. The game had a multitude of tracks and characters,
and also had a neat series of challenges that the player could tackle. And those challenge races are important because
the final challenge in the game was a bit different than the rest. If the player completed all the five previous
cups in the game, the rainbow cup would become unlocked. Mind you, you had to pay to play each race… So it was definitely behind a hefty paywall. But the challenge for the rainbow cup was
to race off against Mario… Except, not exactly the same Mario we know
and love. It’s a mechanized form of Mario. And of course, smack dab on this foe’s head
is the iconic E. Gadd logo. E. Gadd’s latest invention happened to be
a robotic clone of Mario who you would race one on one for ultimate glory. But this whole ordeal is strange, no? Robo Mario drives and behaves just like the
real Mario. Why would E. Gadd build him just to challenge
our plumber? And that’s where things get interesting. So let’s head back to Super Mario Sunshine
now. E. Gadd has produced all sorts of whacky inventions
in the past, but a robotic clone of someone is a first. Building a robot that looks like someone is
one thing, but building a robot that mimics the behavior of someone is an entirely different
situation. No matter how good of a programmer E. Gadd
is, there’s no way to replicate Mario’s infinitely complex mind from scratch. How Mario moves, jumps, reacts, etc. All of that would be extremely hard to mimic
unless you could tap into Mario’s mind… Or, in the very least, record everything about
him. And that’s exactly what happened. Super Mario Sunshine was never really about
the surface level problem it appeared to have. Having FLUDD and the paintbrush wage war on
an island was really only the catalyst for a deeper set of research. In order for Mario to clear his name and not
go to prison, he had to use FLUDD. There was no other option for him. If he didn’t have FLUDD, he wouldn’t have
been able to clean up the mess. But he’s also basically opting in to wear
an intelligent AI strapped to his body. Something that could constantly study his
movement patterns, jumping height, positioning, how he responds in certain situations, etc. Every single moment during the game could
have just been E. Gadd using FLUDD to basically datamine Mario as a whole and use it to create
an AI that was a complete copy of Mario. Not something created from scratch to be like
Mario, but using Mario himself to build a complete, intelligent copy. It’s no different than modern smart phones
collecting data about us. From what we say, to what we search for, to
where we go. I’m surprised Mario wasn’t hit with a
privacy policy upon picking up FLUDD. Super Mario Sunshine was never about cleaning
up an island… It was about cloning Mario’s mind. But all of this gets even deeper, so stick
around. Back in Mario Kart Arcade GP, we encounter
this Robo Mario as a foe that we race against. This in itself is the ultimate test. If Robo Mario is capable of matching Mario’s
driving abilities and responding in real time, that would technically let E. Gadd know just
how successful his experiment was. It’s the ultimate test, really. Driving at insanely high speeds as Robo Mario
wails on us with tons of projectiles and items is like the perfect test for putting Mario’s
reaction data to use. Nothing requires quicker reaction times than
racing at insanely high speeds. And what were the results? E. Gadd’s experiment was beaten… The mechanical body of Robo Mario couldn’t
beat the real deal. This experiment had reached its threshold
in performance… But E. Gadd certainly wasn’t done yet. Enter Luigi for the second time. Knowing that the Mario cloning process was
a colossal failure, E. Gadd turned to a different approach. Utilizing a device attached to a character
would only at best provide a limited data set. In order to create the ultimate clone, E.
Gadd actually needed a mind… And that’s where Luigi’s Mansion: Dark
Moon takes a corrupt turn. There is one invention that does exactly what
E. Gadd needs, and that’s the Pixelator. Normally this device is utilized to convert
Luigi into pixels and send him from one location to another through a screen. But that exact concept is terrifying. Luigi as a whole is converted into data, passes
through E. Gadd’s computer system, and then is expelled elsewhere in the world where he
is reassembled. But… who’s to say he wasn’t copied during
that process? He’s literally data within E. Gadd’s computer. How hard would it be to save a copy at that
point? Mind you, the size of someone’s mind would
be incredibly large storage-wise, but with this technology it might not be that far off
from what is capable. And all of this leads to the next step in
the cycle. A mechanical body didn’t suffice as it could
never match the subtleties of a living being… But if something was more organic and fluid,
that would be a completely different story. Something like Gooigi. Surprisingly, everything I just said about
Dark Moon was confirmed by Nintendo. It’s funny because I wrote all of that out
without realizing that this very concept was explained within the Luigi Mansion 3DS promotional
materials. This video was all linked together by individual
occurrences without the knowledge that Nintendo threw their hat into the ring too. So for those who haven’t read these archives,
Nintendo basically put out a series of journal entries from E. Gadd leading up to the release
of the game. There are six chapters in total covering the
research and creation of Gooigi from ghostly goo. It all started out with E. Gadd spilling some
Evershade coffee onto his vials of ghostly energy, and from that point forward, his research
took off. Of course, what started off as basic experimentation
then turned into the concept of utilizing this Goo to mold into something more life-like. But it turns out this Goo wasn’t able to
hold onto a human-like shape without something else… And that’s when E. Gadd turned to his Pixelator
data from before. He basically took Luigi’s biological data
and infused it into the goo creating Gooigi. He began showing this Gooigi all the research
tapes of Luigi capturing ghosts, further educating this slime-like copy of our favorite green
plumber. And just like with Mario Kart Arcade GP, the
best test environment for this copy to further develop its potential is to be thrown right
alongside Luigi in his first ghostly adventure. E. Gadd sends Gooigi back in time to the first
mansion on the 3DS version of the game to learn and match Luigi’s behavior in real
time. During this process Gooigi captured tons of
ghosts that were then brought back to the future and used to enhance Gooigi’s abilities. The results of this research is what granted
Gooigi the ability to pass through objects and still retain his form. The neat thing about this is that back in
2005, we could have already pieced together this future timeline just based around the
idea that E. Gadd was already trying to clone one of the Mario brothers. That was 14 years ago. The fact that history is repeating itself
is no surprise. Mario’s mechanized clone wasn’t capable
of mimicking Mario’s abilities due to being built around stats and figures instead of
his actual mentality. Gooigi is the advanced form of Robo Mario. It’s honestly just like the Terminator. The first threat was robotic and physical,
while the second threat was technically the more advanced form, where it was malleable
and fluid. But given that, it makes you wonder… Will the goo turn on us at some point? In the final journal entry of E. Gadd, Gooigi’s
weaknesses are explained. At this stage in development Gooigi is now
a combination of the Evershade Valley Ghosts from Dark Moon, and the ghosts from the first
Mansion in Boo Woods. But during these events, E. Gadd accidentally
gets goo all over his face and it causes him to pass out as he can’t breathe. He then blacks out and says he doesn’t remember
what happened. He awoke on the floor of the shower so he
assumed he made it there and washed off the goo. This is what they use to segway into talking
about the Goo’s weaknesses. But hold on just a second. This part bothers me because at the end of
the article, this close death encounter is brought up again in the final sentences. Obviously it could simply be just the writers
way of closing out the journal, but there’s this strange feeling that I can’t shake
that whatever was on E. Gadd’s face - the substance that vanished or washed away - isn’t
gone forever. Part of me wonders if this is truly how E.
Gadd as a villain is born. It’d really be neat to see all this research
blow up in his face as the goo becomes completely sentient and makes its own decisions… Or worse… E. Gadd’s close encounter leads to a goo
version of himself that must be dealt with. This is all speculation of course, but it
is fun to wonder about. So yeah. That’s how one Robotic Mario explains the
sub plot to Super Mario Sunshine, but also how it foreshadowed the series of events that
would take place over a decade later. So, let me know what you think about all of
this in the comments below! For those who have watched the channel for
quite a while now and want to support me as a creator - I finally have merch! Over the years people have asked me if I would
ever make t shirts and the like, so I finally got around to doing so. You can pick up two variants of an extremely
comfy SwankyBox t shirt, or you can check out my snap back hat. All of the products are made from high quality
materials, and I personally love the embroidery quality on the hat. For the longest time the only kind of merchandise
I had was my book, but if you weren’t interested in becoming a YouTuber yourself, you didn’t
have another option. If you want to pick up a SwankyBox shirt or
perhaps one of my hats, you can find a link in the description below or you can check
out the merch shelf that will pop up below certain videos. I want to thank all of you for obviously supporting
me over the years and it's really exciting to be diving into the whole merch area - it's
definitely new territory for me outside of the book like I had said. But thank you all so much for your support
and I'll see you all soon! And with that… Thanks for watching guys and gals… And until my next video, cheers!
