MarioWiki:Chronology

MarioWiki: Chronology is a guideline to help contributors organize the information surrounding the events of the video games, cartoons, comics, etc. should be placed in articles, specifically in "History" and "Biography" sections. This is not a strict guideline, but a general set of rules that may be followed if so desired.

At the very least, articles must list information about a subject according to the international release date of sources. Although information from one source may be listed after another source, that does not mean the events depicted literally occured after, and writers should not state such an assertion (unless Nintendo has established a connection between the two sources - see the list of chronological references). The standard article may also be divided into into several sections: the main section about video game appearances (possibly sub-divided between the main series and sub-series), while following sections would provide information from other media, such as cartoons, comics, etc. In each section, appearances should be listed in the order of the source's international release. While information may be divided into different sections, this does not reflect that certain media products are more or less canonical than any other source.

However, articles are often written from an "in-universe" perspective and ordered in terms of the franchise's fictional chronology. As such, the standard need not be followed to accomodate the fictional chronology of the Mario series. For example, information from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is often placed before information from all other appearances, as that game depicts the first events to take place in the "in-universe" chronology (the birth and delivery of the series' heroes Mario and Luigi). Additionally, information from cartoons and comics can be inserted into sections primarily focusing on video games in order to provide additional commentary about a particular event. For example, Mario may comment on his childhood in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, so that information may be inserted between sections about the video games Super Mario World 2 (when Mario was a baby) and Super Mario Bros. (Mario as an adult). Ultimately articles should be organized based on what the community decides makes the most sense for the article, which will often be a combination of the "standard" style and "chronological" style.

Guidelines
Here are the specific guidelines to be followed when organizing historical or biographical information in an article.

Release Dates
At the very minimum, information in articles should ordered according to international release date of the video game, cartoon, comic, etc. If the article is divided into various sub-sections, such as "Mario Kart" series or "Appearances in Other Media," all information from sources that falls under that sub-section should be organized according to the release date. This type of organization does not mean that events listed earlier necessarily occured earlier in the Mario series timeline; only if a source specifically establishes a chronological relationship with other titles should writers indicate as such. If no official material indicates when a title occurs in relation to other sources, then the information is simply placed in order of release date and no speculative comments should be added.

However, video games released later very often indicate they occur chronologicaly some time after a previously released game. For example, the manual for Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (released January 21, 1994) states that the events of the game take place some unknown amount of time after Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (released November 1992). Another example: in Super Mario Sunshine (released July 19, 2002) a Pianta janitor makes a reference to the events of Luigi's Mansion (September 14, 2001). Video games released later typically make references to previously released games, establishing that the events depicted in newer games occur later in the fictional timeline. However, this is not always the case. For example, there is no specific indication that New Super Mario Bros. (released May 15, 2006) occurred after Super Princess Peach (released October 5, 2005), although New Super Mario Bros. was released after Super Princess Peach. Thus writers should place information about New Super Mario Bros. after information about Super Princess Peach for organizational purposes, but should not state New Super Mario Bros. occurs after Super Princess Peach. For all we know, the events of the game could occur before Super Princess Peach. Unless evidence suggests otherwise, we cannot establish a chronological link between the two games. However, we can state in the New Super Mario Bros. section that the game does take place after Super Mario Sunshine, as the manual establishes a chronological link between those two specific games.

Age of Characters
The relative age of characters can also be used to place events within a timeline. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island established itself as the first chronological game in the Mario series, as it depicts the morning of the Mario Bros.' birth. A few games, such as Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Yoshi's Island DS feature characters traveling back in time and meeting their younger selves. As such, sources can be placed in the chronology based on obvious stages of aging (from baby to child to adult). However, past the adult stage this guideline no longer applies, as no definitive signs of aging between titles is apparent (Mario doesn't look older since assuming an adult form in Donkey Kong to Super Mario Galaxy). An example: we place Family Album "The Early Years", a Nintendo Comics System comic featuring Baby Mario and Baby Luigi, earlier in the chronology than the previous comic in the Nintendo Comic System because they featured the adult Mario and Luigi. Besides the exception of the baby forms of central Super Mario characters, this concept usually goes hand-in-hand with the release date concept. For example, Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color released on September 10, 1999, features Kid as a boy. Mario Golf: Advance Tour released on the later date of April 22, 2004, features Kid as a young man. The same character has aged from an earlier title to a newer title, establishing that the newer game occurs after the older game. In games featuring time travel, events depicted in the past occur earlier in the greater chronology (close to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island) while events depicted in the "present" are organized in articles according to the game's release date (or other rules if they apply). However, the relative timeline for individual characters is more complicated, as the the same "event" happens twice in a sense, once when the character was a child and a second time when the adult character traveled back in time. For example, this would be a short version of Mario's biography:

When Mario was a baby he lived in the Mushroom Kingdom. During the events of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, the Mushroom Kingdom was attacked by the Shroobs. In this game, Baby Mario fought off the Shroobs with help from his adult self from the future, who had traveled from his present to the past. Eventually peace was restored...and many years later Mario grew up. During the events of Super Mario Bros., the Mushroom Kingdom was attacked by Bowser. Mario eventually defeated Bowser and saved the kingdom. During the events of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Mario traveled back in time and met his baby self, and together they stopped the Shroob invasion of the past Mushroom Kingdom.

On a related note, information that is indicated to occur long before the events of the game can be placed earlier in an article. For example, the Shadow Queen attempted to take over the world a thousand years before the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, so information surrounding those events a millennium in the past can likewise be placed earlier in the article. Another example: according to the Star Spirits, they have watched over the Star Rod since the "beginning of time." As this is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) event in the Mario chronology, this information can be placed at the beginning of articles related to the event.

Direct Sequels
The Super Mario Wiki chronology guideline also accounts for direct sequels. Titles such as Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins may be released years apart, but the storyline of the second title makes it clear that Super Mario Land 2 happened soon or immediately after Super Mario Land. In this example, Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins revealed that when Mario came home from saving Sarasaland, which he accomplished in Super Mario Land, he found that Wario had taken over his castle. Therefore content regarding Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins can be placed immediately after Super Mario Land. Similarly, content regarding Super Mario World can be placed directly after information about Super Mario Bros. 3, as Mario and Luigi's vacation in Super Mario World takes place soon after they saved the Mushroom World in Super Mario Bros. 3. However, not all sequels are actually direct sequels. Although called Super Mario World 2, this game actually takes place long before the events of Super Mario World. Additionally, while Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is explicitly a chronological sequel to Super Mario Land 2, the events of Wario Land take place some indeterminate amount of time after Super Mario Land 2. As such, content about Wario Land is not placed directly after Super Mario Land 2, as the events of the game did not take place immediately after the Super Mario Land. On the other hand, unlike the New Super Mario Bros./Super Princess Peach example stated above, we can write that Wario Land does indeed occur after Super Mario Land 2, just not directly after.

Remakes
Information regarding remakes of original games can be organized a variety of ways. Unless a remake is explicitly established as a re-telling of the events of the original game, content from remakes can either be placed after sections about the originals or can be placed in its own section according to when the remake was released (this depends on user preference and what makes the most sense for the article). This indicates that remakes could either be a re-telling of past events or represent completely new events, and it is not up to the wiki to speculate on what "actually" happened. Just as we cannot speculate whether New Super Mario Bros. came before or after Super Princess Peach, we likewise cannot speculate when a remake occurs, unless Nintendo has explicitly established that the remake is a re-telling of past events. In this case, both the original and remake are true and happen at the same time; they are simply alternative versions of the same occurence.

Examples of notable remakes include Super Mario 64 DS and Diddy Kong Racing DS. Straight ports or re-releases, such as the Classic NES Series or Virtual Console games, need not be mentioned.

Discontinuities
As there is no central canon organizing the Mario series, there are bound to be inconsistencies between sources. While many sources work well together and establish a (mostly) coherent narrative, other sources appear to take greater liberties with the content established by previous sources, including completely re-working character biographies and changing other pre-established conventions. Sources that greatly diverge from their predecessors include the Super Mario Bros. film, the Super Mario Amada series, and the Super Smash Bros. series, among others (to various degrees). However, despite their differences, they are as official as any other source and should be treated as such.

Again, returning to the New Super Mario Bros./Super Princess Peach example. There is no explicit connection between the two games, so we cannot speculate when each event occurs. Similarly, there is no explicit explaination for how the Mario series is connected to the Super Smash Bros. series, so we cannot speculate on their relationship. Like remakes, diverging sources may simply represent different versions of the same events, or represent completely different events in the same timeline (or even something else entirely). We simply don't have any official evidence to establish the relationship between many sources.

As such, information surrounding the same basic event can either be separated into sections based on different media, etc., or interwoven throughout an article. For example, Super Mario World 2 depicts the morning of Mario's birth, and in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode "Plumbers Academy" Mario claimed he was born with a plunger in his hand, so this information can be included in the same section of the article if so desired. Additionally, according to Super Mario Amada Momotaro, Mario was actually born from a giant peach that fell from the sky. Although this source contradicts information from Super Mario World 2, it can still be included in the section about Mario's birth and early life. However, this does not mean one should include speculation in an attempt to rectify the discontinuity between two sources. Editors should explain any discontinuity or plot hole, then simply continue with the article. In this example, editors can either place all three references to Mario's birth in separate sections divided by media, include them all in one section at the beginning of the article, or do a combination of both, whatever works "best" for the article. Again, this does not mean any source separated from the main body of the article is false or in an "alternate timeline," it is simply done for the purpose of organization in order to assist readers in understanding the subject.