The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

I just got back from seeing The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and just like the first movie, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

While the movie takes inspiration from Super Mario Galaxy, it pulls from all over the Mario series. There are even appearances from other Nintendo properties, which makes it feel like a full-on celebration. Like the previous movie, it’s a fun love letter to Nintendo fans while still being an enjoyable ride for all ages.

Like I usually do with movie posts, I’ll avoid spoilers. But since he’s been all over the marketing, I think it’s safe to mention Fox McCloud showing up. Seeing Fox and his Arwing from Star Fox in the movie was really fun, and I’m hoping it leads to more Star Fox in general—games, a movie… or, as the Mrs pointed out, toys. I’d absolutely lose my mind if Fox showed up in those little Mario figure displays at the Walmart check out. I check those things every time I’m there.

The movie isn’t a direct adaptation of Super Mario Galaxy, but it's used more of a framing device, similar to how the first movie worked. It’s probably too early for me to decide which one I like more, but right now it feels like a natural continuation. It blends really well with the first movie, and I like that a lot.

Honestly, I’m still riding a high from watching it. As a big Mario fan, this thing is packed with so many Easter eggs and references it’s kind of mind-blowing. I’m still thinking about the Pro Wrestling poster hanging on Mario’s bedroom wall.

I’ve seen some people online already trashing it, but they feel like the same type who went after the first movie—people who just hate popular things to try and seem interesting instead of developing an actual personality.

Me? I loved it.

I made a complete dork of myself. I brought a small Mario figure with me and wore a Mario Kart shirt. The theater had Super Mario candy and themed ICEEs, plus Yoshi popcorn buckets that were already sold out. I grabbed a pack of Feastables Yoshi Eggs—white chocolate with peanut butter—which felt very appropriate with it being Easter. They were actually pretty good.

I don’t really know who MrBeast is, but I like a lot of his products. It honestly feels like he just appeared one day out of nowhere. Who the hell even is he?

The Mrs grabbed one of the ICEEs—Mario Cherry and Princess Peach (peach flavor... wouldn't it be great if it was mango or something?). She went with Mario. I tried a few sips and yeah… it’s just cherry. Still fun, though. I had a Pepsi Zero Sugar... I might be addicted.

On the way out, we noticed the theater had a custom Mario balloon sculpture in the lobby. No idea how we missed it on the way in, but it was a nice extra touch.

Overall, it was just a really fun experience on top of a great movie, all centered around something I’ve loved forever. Pretty awesome.

Koopa's got kids

I've always loved the Nintendo cartoons produced by DiC in the late 80's and early 90's. To be fair, I've always been a fan of cartoons made by DiC. They really made great shows that I still watch regularly to this day. Their Super Mario Bros cartoons have always been a bright spot for me as... I freaking love Super Mario. Some of my favorite games of all time and I still have yet to get tired of playing any of them. At the time, media about video games was hit or miss. There was gaming magazines, but I wanted fiction. Prior, there was the Saturday Supercade and Pac-Man cartoons  that gave some extra life to those characters I liked on my Atari. That was much needed as in those days the plot was mostly a basic scenario. I was fully in love with the richer gaming worlds my NES gave me and just gobbled up the characters however I could.

Needles to say, thanks to the time they were made, the shows weren't very true to the source material. Like Saturday Supercade and others before it, some additional world building was needed to make a show out of the games. A boss in a game's personality back then was often a few sentences in a game manual. Not to mention, animation companies like DiC was provided material by the companies localizing the game from Japan. So whatever material they had to give them was likely pretty limited at the time as the game was probably being localized at the same time. We know him as Bowser here in the western world, but in Japan his name is Koopa. So he's King Koopa in those old cartoons. After hearing a Milli Vanilli song on the radio recently, I was reminded of that episode of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 featuring them. Somehow that thought resulted in me wanting to write about the Koopa Kids from said cartoon and their name differences from game to cartoon. You can blame this post on the rain

Game/Cartoon
Larry Koopa/Cheatsy, he tends to be a cheater.
Morton Koopa Jr/Big Mouth, talks a lot.
Wendy O. Koopa/Kootie Pie, spoiled brat.
Lemmy Koopa-/Hip (twin of Hop), not very smart, but also genuinely innocent.
Iggy Koopa/Hop (twin of Hip), immature and childish, but a brilliant inventor.
Roy Koopa/Bully, calm and collective.
Ludwig Von Koopa/Kooky, mad scientist and elder Koopa kid.

Super Mario Bros (2023)

I finally got a chance to see Super Mario Bros after a busy few weeks. Thankfully the Mrs suprised me with tickets. As a big fan of Super Mario games, this was an absolute love letter. While some folks complained about the voice actor choices, I didn't mind the acting whatsoever. It was a joy to see the world from the games come alive on the big screen. There was plenty of easter eggs placed among the non-stop moving world filled with Nintendo. I frankly was disappointed when it ended, fortunately the end credits were full of additional fun. I'm not giving away any spoilers and have nothing but love for what I just watched. I can only wish other adaptations of beloved properties would be this good.

Weekly Walpurgis~ Wario in 3D

Walpurgis Night is a wonderful time for all things spooky, and seeing how Mario is on everybody's mind lately... Hey, know what rhymes with Mario? WARIO! Back before he was all burps and farts, Nintendo liked to sell Wario as something sinister as this commercial shows. The Virtual Boy had it's faults as YouTubers who never played one will tell you, but it had some good games and this was definitely one of them.

Super Mini World

One cool thing about big movies is all the cool media mix that comes with it. Well, for me anyway. The new animated Super Mario Bros. movie is a pretty cool example of this. There's all sorts of fun goodies and toys available, but so far my favorite is the Mini World toys that I'll be talking about today. I've been buying the Super Mario Micro World and PVC toys by Jakks Pacific for years now. They make a solid product that really brings the characters to life in a fun way. Micro World was a great keshi style mini figure line with great play sets that didn't take up a lot of room. Mini World is close to that same idea, but with articulated figures and cool transformable play sets. It's a small difference, but a fun one. I haven't tried it yet, but I do think they're cross compatible as well. Just maybe a hair off in scale. So if you've got some Micro World stuff, you could probably incorporate it.

On the subject of Mini World, like I said the figures are articulated. Not as much as the larger figures from the movie by any stretch, just a little bit. Arms move at the shoulders, it's basic, Usually this style of toy is very basic... if it's your thing... you're digging it. These are new sculpts to match the characters as they appear in the movie, but still 100% faithful to the characters as you know them. Realistically, I can see these appearing in newer packaging in years to come. They're just right for a blind bag at Five Below or in a gashapon capsule. Seeing as I've been buying Micro World figures via blind bag at Five Below for the past few years... it'd be something I'd be all for. 

The transformable play sets are pretty neat as well. Individual figures come of cards with a basic play set. This play set comes as the blocks you're used to seeing in Super Mario Bros. video games and open up to reveal a simple little place for your figure to have an adventure in. So far there is two larger play sets available. The Mario Bros. van (they're plumbers after all) unfolds into multiple areas based on settings from the games and movie. Personally I'm all about this van thanks to the cool teaser set as a commercial for the Bros plumbing service. You'll notice a familiar tune and the original voice of Princess Toadstool (before we started calling her Peach here in the states) voice from the classic cartoon.

The other play set is a larger one of Princess Peach's castle. Even if you take issue with the new movie for one reason or another... it's still a pretty faithful representation of her castle from the games. All I see when I look at it is Super Mario 64. It's a pretty large unfolding play set as well. I really hope more figures come along, because you'd need more than whats out currently to fill that thing with. I guess those Micro World toys would work. I'm pretty positive about these cool toys... as you can see. I'd hope for more games to get realized in this format (I could see Ghouls N' Ghosts easily working).

Mario's Special Adventure

 

I quite like Mario, always have. Even with a lifetime of him in video games, cartoons, and everywhere else: there's always something else. It's pretty cool that such a long running and well established character can manage to be obscure sometimes. With as many times that the original Super Mario Bros. has been reissued, you'd think you've seen it all. That's not exactly true as when they reissue the game, it's the orignal game. There's actually a few special editions. Then there's a version that's outright just named Super Mario Bros. Special. 

Super Mario Bros. Special is a version of the classic Super Mario Bros. developed (officially) by Hudson Soft for some NEC, Sharp, and Samsung home computers for the Japanese and South Korean markets. It's weird to imagine a time when Nintendo would allow something like this to happen, but many folks in my age range likely remember Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. on Atari and Coleco Systems. Not to mention random titles by licensed developers in the 90's or the recent mobile games. Sometimes they're willing to make a deal I suppose. 

Basically, the game is a port of the classic Super Mario Bros. that was released for certain home computers. The idea of it sounds pretty great, there's even a few new items and villains from other Mario games that make an appearance. However due to the limitations of those older computers as compared to the Famicom, things were a little toned down. The graphics were not as colorful and a little lessened. There was some audio differences too. It sounds like it should, but a little off. 

Luigi was absent, but most noticeably the screen didn't scroll for the most part. When Mario would get to the edge of the screen, instead of that smooth scrolling you're used to, the screen goes black and the updated screen is presented. Not exactly ideal for some of those big leaps of faith. The controls were also a little wonky as Mario just doesn't move normally. I hear the Sharp X1 version handles it a little better though. It's weird to say a PC version of a console game was inferior (I can hear PC gamers scream out in disbelief), but it really was. Regardless of it's faults, Super Mario Bros. Special is a pretty unique side note in Mario's long history. I'm pretty sure it was cool at the time to have the availability of such a popular game for those who may not have had access to it normally.

Super Bowser Bros.

 

Video games are a weird thing sometimes. What may look like a throw away character might be a complete rabbit hole of it's own. Case in point: Bowser's Brother. Whats that? You didn't know Bowser has a brother? He does depending on the source. Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan is a different game. It's essentially a harder version of the original game for 'advanced players'. Released here as 'The Lost Levels', Super Mario Bros. 2 is a VERY HARD GAME. One such challenge is 'fake' Bowsers popping up in locations for a quick boss fight. However hitting these 'fake' Bowsers results in minor villain appearing as he dies. That's because it's a fake, get it? 

However in worlds 8-4 and 9-3 you'll meet a blue Bowser who doesn't revert into a minor Koopa minion. Why is this one different? According to some manuals and guides, that was Bowser's Brother. Does he have a name? So far no, Bowser's Brother is all we have to go by. Maybe he's Kerog. He does have a fake version of himself in level D-4 like his brother. Bowser's Brother also appears in All Night Nippon Super Mario Bro's (a special limited release) and in the upgraded Super Mario Bros. game in Super Mario Bros. All-Stars. Though he's green instead of blue there and depending on the source either a fake Bowser or Bowser's Brother. The blue coloration is often used in various Mario games as an alternative color set for Bowser, and it looks great. It's just not as interesting as a character who only exists depending on who you ask.

We're The Mario Brothers, And Pepsi's Our Game

An evening in front of my Nintendo with a ice cold Pepsi sounds ideal any time. However you mix that up with winning an Action Set, a Gameboy, games, AND Pepsi? Dang son, a winner is you indeed.

Seeing that early animated Mario run about as Santa really steps this commercial up a notch. We're so used to seeing the slick and polished Mario of today that the unrefined looks of early Mario is refreshing. Almost as much as an ice cold Pepsi.

It's Takes Seasoning To Defeat Bowser

I guess they left out the scene where Mario takes a nap before rescuing Princess Peach.