Super Mario Bros.
| “ | I mean, the... I like the Super Mario Galaxy 1. So, Suboio Galaxy 2 sounds like something I might, uh, go- I would consider buying. Yeah. | ” |
| Chris in 2009[1] | ||
Super Mario Bros. (Often referred to as the Super Mario series, or more simply the Mario series) is a Japanese video game franchise owned by Nintendo and created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Most of the games in the series feature the adventures of Mario, an Italian plumber, on his quest to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from a villain named Bowser. Acting as the company's mascot, as well as being the eponymous protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation.
Chris's relationship with Mario
Despite his obsessive brand loyalty, the fact that his former icon, Sonic the Hedgehog, was made to rival Mario, that he hated the Harry Potter franchise precisely for this reason (seeing it as a competitor to Pokémon), and how he reacted when he felt that said icon was being defaced, he oddly never showed any grudge towards the plumber. In fact, Chris actually owns a good chunk of his games. It's entirely possible that Chris, owning multiple Nintendo and Sega consoles, was somehow blissfully unaware of Sega's aggressive marketing campaign positioning themselves as serious rivals to Nintendo (and later, Sony), or perhaps he simply did not care about it.
Chris's email address for much of the 2000s was ItsameCWC@aol.com, a nod to Mario's catchphrase "It's-a me, Mario!"
Chris purchased an Amiibo for "Mario/Peach/Bowser (Wedding 3-Pack)" on 6 December 2018.[2]
Notable Mario games
In chronological order of release, Mario games notable to Christory include:
Dr. Mario (1990)
Dr. Mario is a 1990 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Famicom, and Game Boy. It is a falling block puzzle game, in which the player's objective is to destroy the viruses populating the on-screen playing field by using colored vitamin capsules that are automatically tossed into the field by Dr. Mario. The player manipulates the falling capsules, to align the same colors, which destroys viruses. The player progresses through the game by eliminating all the viruses on the screen in each level.
A great commercial success, Dr. Mario sold more 10 million copies sold worldwide across all platforms, with Chris being among the many gamers to get their hands on it. However, Chris' NES copy of this game became damaged at some point, and he printed out a copy of the label to sloppily replace it. In the Clyde and Tito PS3 E-mails, Chris mentioned that he had sold some of his games at a pawn shop to his enemies. A few weeks later, Clyde Cash obtained three of Chris's old games and his Super Game Boy from the pawn shop and uploaded pictures of the loot here on the CWCki. Clyde Cash described Chris' copy as "the most gross copy of Dr. Mario I've ever seen".
Besides the aforementioned NES copy, Chris also purchased Dr. Mario on the Game Boy and rebought it twice as a digital download for the Nintendo 3DS.
The gameplay of Dr. Mario is similar to Tetris.
Mario Kart 64 (1996)
Mario Kart 64 Lego Raceway is a video series featured on Chris's "Yep, I'm on TV" DVD. It was filmed using a Game Boy Camera in 1998 when Chris was still in Manchester High School. The Game Boy Camera is a bulky Game Boy accessory cartridge with a camera built into it, which can be placed into a Game Boy and be used to take grainy black-and-white pictures. Afterward, these pictures can be edited in various ways; they can be drawn on, turned into sprites for a handful of minigames, be printed out with another expensive accessory called the "Game Boy Printer", or strung together to make an animation as Chris did. Using the camera and his Lego collection, Chris made a stop-motion animation of the cars racing around his Lego city and firing shells (or in this case, Star and Circle shapes) at each other, then added some appropriate music.
The Game Boy Camera can only hold thirty pictures at a time; that isn't nearly enough for even half a lap. What Chris did was take the thirty pictures, edit them appropriately, string them together into an animation, record the animation, and then repeat the process over and over. To make the sudden starting and stopping seem more "natural", Chris put a second of static at the end of each set of pictures. This didn't do anything to change how the twenty-second music clip Chris used for his animation gets more grating every time it is used.
It is impressive that Chris expended so much time and effort at such a complex and frustrating task, especially considering that years later, he would draw Sonichu comics without any planning or practice and upload YouTube videos without bothering to check them over first. Despite this, the actual animation is jerky and erratic, presumably due to the extremely low frame-per-second count (the average stop-motion production has 12 frames per second).
In the actual race videos, it's near impossible to tell what's going on, since most of the racers look exactly the same in poor quality black-and-white pictures. It doesn't help that the racing is regularly interrupted by confusing sequences where outsiders attack the racers.
The sequences also appear to have been transferred onto VHS tape at some point, as evidenced by the vertical stabilization problems, the noise at the bottom of the picture at the beginning of the first video, and the general picture quality of the video. Chris got the video on VHS by putting the Game Boy Camera into a Super Game Boy and hooking up his SNES to a VCR to record it from there.
Mario Kart 8 (2014)
In May 2014, Mario Kart 8 was released worldwide on the Wii U and later ported onto the Nintendo Switch in 2018 with additional content. Although Chris has a Switch, it’s currently unknown if he owns Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Chris bought MK8 the same year of it’s release, despite the fact that he and his mom were suffering through financial hardship. Chris started uploading some videos of his gameplay. It is worth noting Chris has at least the second DLC pack for the game, so it can be assumed he has the first as well. On 17 July 2014, Chris created a video by using the MKTV editor and uploader. He posted it onto Miiverse and Youtube, officially confirming that the Miiverse account was owned by the TRUE and HONEST creator of Sonichu. Chris must have enjoyed making them because he made five more.
Super Mario Maker (2015)
Super Mario Maker is a 2015 side-scrolling platform game and game creation system developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U, released worldwide in September 2015. Players can create, play, and share courses online, free of charge, based on the styles of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros. U.
Chris has made several levels in Super Mario Maker. A video showcase of these levels can be seen here.
Other games
Chris' Club Nintendo registry confirms that he has bought:
- Mario Party 5
- Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
- Classic NES Series: Super Mario Bros.
- Mario Party 7
- Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
- Super Princess Peach
- New Super Mario Bros.
- Paper Mario
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Mario Super Sluggers.
Furthermore, a Nintendo employee allegedly confirmed that he had bought:
- Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
In the comics
There have been Mario inspired things within the Sonichu comics, such as SUPER Chris-chan Sonichu's weeb wings, this takes inspiration from Chris's Anime Mid-Atlantic wings given to attenders (Note that this was primarily meant for women) and most likely the Wing Cap from Mario 64, This was used once or twice and then never again.
See also
References
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