MARIO COULD HAVE ALL THE APPEAL AS A CHARACTER, BUT WITHOUT ENGAGING WORLDS TO EXPLORE HE WOULDN’T BE MUCH OF A VIDEOGAME STAR. THANKFULLY, NINTENDO HAS ENSURED THAT IMAGINATIVE LEVEL DESIGN IS SOMETHING THAT THE PLUMBER HAS NEVER HAD TO DO WITHOUT
Above all else, the driving force behind Mario’s success is exquisite game design – something that is acknowledged by players and game designers alike. “Mario games have a timeless charm and wide appeal whether it’s 2D or 3D,” says Philip Oliver, who along with his twin brother Andrew is a veteran developer with over 40 years in the business. “Objectives are obvious, rewarded en route and praised when completed. Enemies are interesting, individually not too tough, but get progressively more challenging based on abundance and locations. Even when you ‘die’, it feels fair.
Not something that can be said of all games, especially back then!
“I first saw Super Mario Bros on the NES at CES Jan 1990 in Las Vegas, by which time it was already a monster hit,” Philip remembers. “It was such a beautifully elegant design. The objective was clear: get to the end on the right, but enemies and obstacles, of increasing difficulty, will make that a challenge! With a simple console control pad and its limited buttons, there was no learning time involved and there was nothing intimidating about it at all.” Inspired by this, Philip and Andrew began to write NES games, citing Dreamworld Pogie as one that is a particular homage to Super Mario Bros. The lack of learning time Philip mentioned is one of the most famous aspects of Super Mario Bros, in fact. On the very first screen, the game introduces you to all of the fundamentals – enemies, regular blocks, Question Blocks and mushrooms.
Even in the original Super Mario Bros, that left plenty to discover. There are varied environments with their own unique challenges, confrontations with Bowser and so many secrets to find – underground areas in pipes, beanstalks leading to the sky, Warp Zones beyond the usual end of the stage and more. Ingenious little touches like platforms connected by pulleys were the start of fantastic gimmicks employed by later games, including floating rafts and platforms that moved along rails. Likewise, enemy behaviours became more interesting, most notably with the Booswhich wouldn’t move if Mario looked at them.
Moving to 3D posed twin challenges for platform game designers. “Keep the controls simple and the objectiv
