So Mario is 35 years old… crikey, that combined with that kid from Home Alone turning 40 has really hit home.
Anyway, since the days of an 8 bit sprite jumping across the screen, Mario has gone from strength to strength. Harking back to the original NES, (and for those that are older we could include Game and Watch or even the original Mario / DK classic arcade platform) we can see what a huge benefit the Mario brand has brought.
Going back 35 years ago consoles are pretty inaccessible, expensive and not really for the masses. Although the NES wasn’t the first console on the seen, it was very simple to pick up, quick to load games (carts instead of tape!) and allowed families to play together for the first time on their tele.
The simple to pick up but hard to master approach to pretty much all Mario games has held strong throughout, and like one of the other reviewers recently wrote, each generation and iteration of games has allowed it to feel fresh.
One small additional note is just how accessible the Mario games are. And a tip of my cap to Nintendo for making them easier to use whom normally have difficulties… credit where credit is due.
I have spent more hours than I care to count playing the first Mario game, Mario 3 (didn’t got much on Mario 2), Mario Kart (all versions) and more recently the extended character set in Super Smash and Luigis Mansion.
I will be really interested to see where this goes, and with a younger generation now also fans (my kids are now avid Mario Kart players) I think there is still some time a till to go… he maybe heading for mid life crisis, but there is no sense if any crisis happening anytime soon.