New York City

New York City
First appearance	Mario Bros. (1983)
Latest appearance	Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Booster Course Pass) (2022)
Greater location	United States of America
Ruler	Mayor of New York City
Inhabitants	Humans, Mario (former), Luigi (former)

Not to be confused with New Donk City or New Pork City.

New York City (or just New York) is the largest city in the United States of America, and is one of the largest cities on Earth.

New York City consists of five boroughs; Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. However, Brooklyn is the most notable borough to the Mario television series for it is where Mario and Luigi grew up, and also where Mario Brothers Plumbing is located.

History[edit]

Mario Bros.[edit]

According to Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario Bros. takes place in the sewers of New York,^[1]^[2] although Atari manuals state it takes place in the water pipes of Mario and Luigi's house.^[3]

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show![edit]

New York City is mentioned several times on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, mostly in some of the live-action segments. In "Flatbush Koopa", King Koopa announces that he will take over all of New York City and dub it "New Koopa" once he finishes taking over Brooklyn.

The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3[edit]

Excluding references to Brooklyn, New York City as a whole is also seen a few times in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. In "Kootie Pie Rocks", Princess Toadstool takes her friends to see a Milli Vanilli concert somewhere in New York City.

In "Recycled Koopa", the Koopalings end up dumping their garbage down a Warp Pipe leading to Brooklyn. When their contaminated garbage winds up turning the citizens of Brooklyn into Koopa Zombies, Bowser takes advantage of the situation by using the garbage to turn everyone in New York into his zombie minions, as well as other creatures into his minions (e.g. seagulls into Para-Goombas and fish into Spiny Cheep-Cheeps), thanks to his Crud Cannon. Bowser's plans were foiled by Mario and Luigi, who build a Trash Smasher that recycles the garbage, turning everyone back to normal. The Statue of Liberty makes an appearance in the episode, first mutated by the garbage into a Koopa Statue, then after being transformed back to normal, the statue comments on the Mario Brothers' success at stopping Koopa's dumping spree.

Mario is Missing![edit]

The city map of New York City as it appears in Mario is Missing!.

In its first formal video game appearance, New York is one of the cities – besides Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Cairo, and London – Luigi has to visit in Mario is Missing! His task is to return artifacts to some of the city's landmarks that were invaded by Koopas. The Koopas stole "King Kong" from the Empire State Building, the torch from the Statue of Liberty, and the Statue of Prometheus from the Rockefeller Center. It is primarily based on the borough of Manhattan.

Club Nintendo[edit]

"Super Mario: Verloren in der Zeit"[edit]

New York City also makes several appearances in the Club Nintendo comic series. In "Super Mario: Verloren in der Zeit", Mario is teleported into the Viking Age and, at the same moment, the Vikings Erik, Baleog and Olaf are teleported into New York. Their simple presence in the city causes an enormous chaos there, resulting in car crashes, for example. Finally, some New York policemen arrest them.

"Mario in Mariozilla"[edit]

The city is razed to the ground once more in "Mario in Mariozilla", this time by Mario who, due to a bad spell of Kamek, has grown to a huge size. Searching for advice from Dr. Light, who lives in the Empire State Building, the huge Mario cannot avoid crashing some buildings and even skyscrapers in New York City. When he finally reaches Light's home, he climbs up the Empire State Building in order to talk to the doctor.

"Sag niemals Holerö!"[edit]

New York is also mentioned in the story "Sag niemals Holerö!", in which Mario vacations in Switzerland. At some point, due to the word "Holerö" being pronounced by evil alien Heini, all humans in Switzerland turn into cheese. Mario decides to leave the country, but notices that the crew of the airline that were supposed to bring him back to New York have turned into hot dogs. Doubting their aeronautical competence, the plumber decides to go to Germany instead.

Super Mario Bros. film[edit]

In the Super Mario Bros. movie, Mario Mario and Luigi Mario live in Brooklyn, where they run the Mario Bros. Plumbing Service. The bulk of the film takes place in Dinohattan (named after Manhattan), an alternate-universe version of New York City in a world where humans evolved from dinosaurs.

Super Mario Odyssey[edit]

Main article: Metro Kingdom

In Super Mario Odyssey, the location of New Donk City is inspired by New York City. Its skyline backdrop also resembles Manhattan.

Mario Kart series[edit]

Mario Kart Tour[edit]

Times Square (left) and the Statue of Liberty (right) in Mario Kart Tour

Mario Kart Tour features four original courses based on New York City. New York Minute was the first original course featured in the game as well as the only one at launch. It served as the signature course of the New York Tour. New York Minute 2 served as the signature course in its debut tour, the 2019 Holiday Tour. This likely is meant to reflect how large New Year's celebrations are held in New York City. During the 1st Anniversary Tour, while Tokyo Blur, Paris Promenade, London Loop, and Vancouver Velocity all made a return, New York Minute 3 was introduced, which served as the tour's signature course. Only in this course, during the tunnel section near the end, the Statue of Liberty can be spotted in the background. In the 2nd Anniversary Tour, New York Minute 4 is introduced, which serves as the tour's signature course. Like Tokyo Blur 4, it is a compilation of all of the previous New York Minute courses. None of the four New York Minute courses have reappeared thus far.

The 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Broadway, Central Park, Empire State Building, Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Statue of Liberty, and Rockefeller Center appear as landmarks in these courses.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe[edit]

Tour New York Minute returns in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as a course in the Booster Course Pass' Turnip Cup.

Official profiles[edit]

Information from Mario is Missing![edit]

Boy:
- "You're in the home where the buffalo roam, and the skies are not cloudy all day."
- "Being an early bird in the Big Apple really helps."
Tourist:
- "The country is divided into 50 states. But the nation's capital isn't in any of them!"
- "Baseball is the national sport, and apple pie is the dessert of choice."
Business Woman:
- "So nice they named it twice, NY, NY."
- "Catch a cab, or take the subway, not many private cars in this island city."
Scientist:
- "Legend has it the colonists bought Manhattan for $24 from the Indians."
Police Officer:
- "Thanks for asking one of New York's Finest, you're in New York City."
- "It's made up of five boroughs, this borough is Manhattan."

Names in other languages[edit]

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	ニューヨーク市 Nyū Yōku-shi ニューヨーク Nyū Yōku	New York City (「市」 shi meaning "city", "town", etc.) New York
Chinese	紐約市 (Traditional) 纽约市 (Simplified) Niǔ Yuē-shì	New York
Korean	뉴욕 시 Nyu Yog-si	New York
Portuguese	Cidade de Nova York Nova York Nova Iorque	City of New York New York New York
Russian	Нью-Йорк Nyu-York	New York
Spanish	Ciudad de Nueva York Nueva York	New York City New York

Trivia[edit]

New York City's "The Big Apple" nickname was referenced in Donkey Kong Land, which features a world known as Big Ape City.
Several aspects of the Mario Party 7 gameboard Neon Heights are influenced by New York City.

References[edit]

^ Porges, Seth (October 19, 2009). Exclusive Interview With Nintendo Gaming Mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 25, 2009. "When we first created Donkey Kong, I kind of looked at him as your average, everyday foolish guy. The setting of that game was a construction site, so I kind of matched him with the setting of the game, and decided in that game that he was a carpenter. And then when we made the original Mario Bros. game, that was the first game that had pipes in it, and the enemies would come out of the pipes into this dark area and Mario would try to hit them and knock them out. Looking at the setting of that game, it had the feeling of an underground New York sewer system. And so with the pipes and the idea of it being an underground New York sewer system, I thought what kind of guy would be there working on the pipes? A plumber! So rather than saying Mario was a plumber, really it was a matter of what's his role in the game and what's the setting of the game and kind of occupation would put him in the setting to be doing what he's doing."
^ Snider, Mike (November 08, 2010). Q&A: 'Mario' creator Shigeru Miyamoto. USA Today. Retrieved March 25, 2016. "As a kid, I was a big comic fan and I liked foreign comics as well. So I drew some characters that had more western type features with a little bigger noses and what not. Now with Mario, I think with Mario Bros. we had a setting of course that was underground, so I just decided Mario is a plumber. Let's put him in New York and he can be Italian. There was really no other deep thought other than that."
^ "Mario the carpenter and his brother Luigi are hopping mad! The water pipes in their house are blocked with crawling creatures. If the two brothers can’t get rid of them they’ll never take a bath again!" - Mario Bros. Atari game manual, first page.

[1] Porges, Seth (October 19, 2009). Exclusive Interview With Nintendo Gaming Mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto. Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 25, 2009. "When we first created Donkey Kong, I kind of looked at him as your average, everyday foolish guy. The setting of that game was a construction site, so I kind of matched him with the setting of the game, and decided in that game that he was a carpenter. And then when we made the original Mario Bros. game, that was the first game that had pipes in it, and the enemies would come out of the pipes into this dark area and Mario would try to hit them and knock them out. Looking at the setting of that game, it had the feeling of an underground New York sewer system. And so with the pipes and the idea of it being an underground New York sewer system, I thought what kind of guy would be there working on the pipes? A plumber! So rather than saying Mario was a plumber, really it was a matter of what's his role in the game and what's the setting of the game and kind of occupation would put him in the setting to be doing what he's doing."

[2] Snider, Mike (November 08, 2010). Q&A: 'Mario' creator Shigeru Miyamoto. USA Today. Retrieved March 25, 2016. "As a kid, I was a big comic fan and I liked foreign comics as well. So I drew some characters that had more western type features with a little bigger noses and what not. Now with Mario, I think with Mario Bros. we had a setting of course that was underground, so I just decided Mario is a plumber. Let's put him in New York and he can be Italian. There was really no other deep thought other than that."

[3] "Mario the carpenter and his brother Luigi are hopping mad! The water pipes in their house are blocked with crawling creatures. If the two brothers can’t get rid of them they’ll never take a bath again!" - Mario Bros. Atari game manual, first page.

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