Lost in Super Mario: how children’s games destroyed my pride
1/9/2022
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
I (w, 40, casual gamer) bought a Nintendo Switch. A history of failure.
Die-hard Nintendo fans know them: The Lost Levels. The gaming company released the eponymous expansion in June 1986 as a successor to Super Mario Bros. However, it initially only launched for the Japanese market, as Jump ’n’ Runs were considered too difficult for the USA and Europe. But why? Well, I may be closer to the answer than I’d like after buying a Switch at the tender age of 40.
But let’s start from the top. Like almost every child of the early ’80s, I was socialised with Nintendo. The Gameboy was quickly followed by the NES, and a little later the Super Nintendo (SNES) moved into my parents’ living room. As an elementary school student, I smashed Tetris blocks, fought my way through Bowser’s castles in Super Mario World, and fired red shells at anything in front of my virtual bumper in Mario Kart. I even made it through the infamous Rainbow Road in record time without flying out of the turn and off the track. Super Nintendo games were my forte, and I was proud of it. Then came puberty, and I became (more) interested in… other things.
Without realising it at the time, I wasn’t only doing something good for my young pride by gaming, but also for my brain as a whole. Neuroscientists at Spain’s Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Barcelona have found that video games train your cognitive skills. You’ll still benefit from it years later, even if you’ve long since thrown away the controller.
Almost 30 years later, it’s a lazy Saturday, I want to reactivate those skills. I wistfully remembered the sense of achievement that Nintendo gave me back then. My Switch came with reissues of my favourite childhood games: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
And so the drama takes its course.
I got as far as connecting the Switch to my TV and was already confused: where are the instructions? True, both games come in what looks like a DVD box, but they only contain the actual SD card. Otherwise, nothing. Zip. Nada. In New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, there’s only a decorative world map on the back of the cover, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at least features a rudimentary operating aid for driving and shooting. Did I accidentally throw away the instructions? Is there a QR code for online help anywhere? Nope. «Okay, I guess not. I know the games anyway,» I think to myself and decide on Mario Kart.
Ready your (virtual) engines: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
I started the game, confidently chose the second-highest difficulty level 150 cc (come on, I’m a pro!) and was again immediately overwhelmed. I’m supposed to choose my driver out 42 different characters. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi in nine different colours, Donkey Kong and various other characters offer themselves up. Now, the question at hand: is this just a matter of looks or does each character have its own handling characteristics such as weight, acceleration or cornering? That was the case on the SNES – and here? I don’t know, as I don’t have a manual and don’t want to delay playing even more by having to google it. So I chose a green Yoshi and pressed OK.
After that, I get to choose my ride, including wheels and a paraglider. This is easy, as I can see from a bar display which composition gives me which technical advantages.
After that, you quickly select one of the twelve Grand Prix series and off you go. Lakitu waves the starting flag, as he did on the SNES, and… I don’t know where to go. Oh yeah, forward. Somehow. But where is forward? Unlike the Super Nintendo’s gloriously simple roads, as if drawn with a protractor, most of Mario Kart Deluxe 8’s tracks feel like pure chaos. I drive up the winding trails of the saccharine Sweet Sweet Canyon when suddenly the floor and ceiling switch places. The graphics are so detailed, including the backgrounds, that I can hardly tell if I’m still on the track or already speeding into the barrier equivalent given my rapid pace. I rush to the finish, nearly in last place. Yoshi looks just as sad as I do. I feel you, little Dino.
Sledding: Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
Slightly frustrated, I change games. But thankfully, in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, it’s as I remember. I run through a smooth 2D level as Mario, casually kick a few enemies out of the way, and hop on top the end flags with gusto across the first few levels. This time I was smarter and had informed myself, aka actually used the Internet. I had come across several videos that assured me that the first world, Acorn Plains, was easy. This healed my 40-year-old pride, and I was filled with renewed courage. The game reminds me a lot of its predecessor on the SNES with its bobbing mushroom landscapes, rolling hills, and green tubes.
But unfortunately, the developers slowed me down here as well. World 3 at the latest was when things changed: The Frosted Glacier had me sliding into the abyss more often than Mario’s green 1up mushrooms could handle. Also, there are supposedly secret exits here that shorten your path to Princess Peach, but those remained hidden from me. I had to admit: I was lost – completely. Were games this difficult in the past? My troubled thoughts made me think of The Lost Levels… Hadn’t neuroscientists found out that childhood gaming trains the brain in the long term?
Nintendo’s medley is a good example of my problems with increasing difficulty over time:
Expert help
I resorted to what I used to do when I was at a gaming impasse. I called my (now 37-year-old) cousin. She was as crazy about Nintendo as I was as a kid and always had some advice even then. She moved in, we got pizza, and we holed up in my living room for an entire weekend. Admittedly, even as a twosome we had to try some levels and race tracks multiple times. Especially when it came to the secret passages in New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, YouTube proved to be a real Gamechanger (pun completely intended). We discovered never suspected shortcuts in haunted houses as well as fake walls and freed Mario’s beloved princess.
Verdict: now that I’ve had some time, I love Mario titles on the Switch and have even purchased a third game in the series, Yoshi’s Crafted World. Another classic jump ’n’ run, in which Yoshi himself is the protagonist. The great thing about this game: there’s an easier mode in which Yoshi can fly, making him almost immortal. My pride can therefore rest easy.
Anika Schulz
Teamleader Editorial
Anika.Schulz@galaxus.deAs a child, I was socialised with Mario Kart on the SNES before I ended up in journalism after graduating from high school. As a team leader at Galaxus, I'm responsible for news. Trekkie and engineer.