It's been 25 years since Super Mario Bros. hit the world of gaming, and its influence is still felt widely around the world. Konami legend and Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is just one individual whose life was altered by the plumbing adventure.
Kojima has said:
With the creation of Super Mario Bros., Shigeru Miyamoto not only altered the future of gaming, but actually changed the concept of "value" for all forms of entertainment. And, in the process, changed my future - leading me to become the game designer I am today. Super Mario Bros. is equivalent to the Big Bang of our gaming universe. If it were not for this blindingly spectacular creation, digital entertainment as we know it today wouldn't exist.
High praise indeed, considering Kojima is a highly respected and influential designer in his own right. It seems Mario's influence runs right through the gaming industry, from creators to players.
[source officialnintendomagazine.co.uk]
Comments 26
High praise indeed
Eh, I agree. Easily one of my fave games of all time.
Gaming would be dead without Mario
Yep, without Mario, there is no Snake.
Besides the fact that Snake kills Mario in every way.
we're talking about SSBB here, right?
Hey, it's my 25th birthday on Sunday!! Wow, that totally makes me feel special now... considering the only celebrity I thought I shared a birth month/year with was Baby Shamu the whale.
I totally agree after the Great Video Game Crash of 1983 video games were pretty much done for. Than along came a plumber and little did he know he was saving more than Princess Toadstool.
I agree, without super mario bros. there wouldn't be anymore gaming.
Mario? Never heard of him.
Mario is the God of Video Games
woah
MIND = BLOWN!
In the beginning, there was Miyamoto. He created Mario and Peach. He also created Bowser, who tempted Mario and Peach with the sacred Mushroom...
This is really cool, but I'm not at all surprised. After all, Kojima-san did put a health-replenishing Mario bobblehead in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.
Great Kudos, Kojima, good on ya.
And then those of us that were actually there during the "Big Bang" of the 2600, Pong, et al must have imagined the entire thing...
Either Kojima has no idea what "Big Bang" cosmology is or he's decided to write off the precursors that actually allowed Miyamoto to create SMB.
@ECM: The 2600 and every system before it and after it before the Great Crash did just that, they crashed. It's because of a plumber and a certain Miyamoto that acted as the Big Bang of all we know today that is gaming.
@SilverBlacktail Great Video Game Crash? What are you talking about? Mr. Kojima is just doing a bit of hero worship for Nintendo's Birthday. Mario isn't responsible for inventing video games, or saving video games, it didn't even make video games what they are today. If it wasn't for steady competition forcing Nintendo to evolve they would still be making 8-bit adventures right now. The Virtual Console is their dream come true.
Here's the wiki for the video game crash of 1983:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
After the crash, Japan took over the home console market, as the American entities were financially debunked.
@lockelocke Thanks for the link. I'm not surprised I've never heard of the "video game crash" they should instead call it the "death of Atari". Doesn't every system usually tank at the 5 year mark? Nowadays isn't that what makes a company market a new system like 8 bit to 16 bit, 16 bit to 32 bit, and so on?
Natural selection. They so awesome! In the future, if it all crashed again, I see only one company who could save us all and evolve the industry again with something new.
Wasn't just Atari, also the Colecovision and Intellivision, along with any stand alone game systems like pong.
When the crash happened retailers didn't want to stock video games, and consumers thought the fad was over. When Nintendo brought the NES to America, they added in the ROB and light gun and called it an "entertainment system". They even marketed it as a kind of toy because video games had left such a bad taste in retailers mouths.
Once people played SMB and Duck Hunt they were hooked! The NES took off in a surge of popularity and video games were back!
Ah shucks, you making Miyamoto blush!
"If it wasn't for steady competition forcing Nintendo to evolve they would still be making 8-bit adventures right now. The Virtual Console is their dream come true."
I wouldn't complain one bit if Nintendo kept making 8-bit adventures. The Virtual Console is my dream come true as well.
Yeah dings has got it.
Of course Mario didn't invent games, but he pretty much started the modern age of video games. Moving away from score based arcade gaming towards progressivive adventure games.
This is why I am embarrassed to admit I have never played an original Super Mario Bros. game.
@NintyFan: What exacly did Donkey Kong start?
@JimLad: I hope your aware that Super Mario bros. really only popularized that style of game design. There were plenty of "progressive adventure" type games that existed long before Super Mario Bros. It wasn't all just about scores, even back then.
Now I'm not trying to bash SMB. I'm just saying that its alittle ignorant to say that SMB "created" modern gaming.
I think that mostly the "crash" is over-done, & even more so, Mario/Nintendo being the "savior" of videogames.
So I take it Pong was just a fizzle?
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