User:Nintendo101

Casual Nintendo historian. Otherwise an artist and a field ecologist. Bio degree. I've had an account here since 2012.

I wrote the character sections for Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and Super Mario Odyssey. I contributed much of the article for Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Sunshine.

I have been a fan of Nintendo since a very young age. My first Mario games (and three of the first video games I ever owned) were Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, Super Mario 64 DS, and Mario Kart DS. These games were good company for a young kid who moved around a lot and had difficulty keeping long-lasting friends.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I sequentially played some of my favorite games in the Super Mario series to 100% completion. This includes, in order, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, and Super Mario Odyssey. It's been really fun! These are great games, and I always wanted to marathon a series like this before but never had the time. It has been interesting to see where the series began and where it has ended up. The design philosophies, the characters, the art directions, world building, level design, narrative, etc. All good stuff. It might be fun to write something about it some day.

My favorite video game character is Yoshi.

For assets I have uploaded to the wiki, I suggest viewing them here.

Sandbox for current project

Questions to answer

1. When did Nintendo first announced they were working on a 3D Mario for the GCN's successor? Was this information credibly leaked or rumored beforehand? Did they frame it as an original game or as Mario 128?
2. When did they formally announce the game? What was the media response?
3. When did the first _show_ the game? Response?
4. Demos?
5. SMG was released during a time when Japanese studios were having difficulties they had not experienced during the prior century, particularly in Western markets. Sega was outcompeted and exited the console industry. Xbox had been introduced. Nintendo had seen diminishing returns with their consoles as their monopoly on home video game marketing was narrowing, with the N64 selling less than SNES, and the GCN selling even worse. Western marketing strategies heavily became focused on preteen, teen, and YA males, less on children of all genders. Call of Duty and Halo entered the market and dominated the industry and media discourse. What else happened during this time? Did any economic pressures exist in Japan that weakened their home industry, or was it just more competition in home and international markets?
   1. What led to the Blue Ocean initiative? How did this impact legacy franchises being developed for the Wii?
   2. Many Japanese studios revised their legacy series to be more "western friendly". Capcom westernized Devil May Cry, Dino Crisis, and Resident Evil. Hudson westernized Bomberman. Sega westernized Sonic. Nintendo westernized Zelda (compare TWW to TP). SMG seemed to have been viewed as a "return to form" to many. Is it one of the games that convinced other studios that Japanese franchises still have a place in the international markets? Is this a red herring? SMG both internally and amongst media outlets seems to be viewed as a "true sequel" to SM64 and SMS is the black sheep, but SMG is truly quite different from both titles and is more mechanically approachable to non-gamers so it may not be accurate to think of it as a true return to form for Japanese games.

Things to read

• 15 Years Ago, Super Mario Galaxy Made It Cool to Be a Gamer
• Super Mario Galaxy: In Space No-One Can Hear You Mamma Mia
• Super Mario Galaxy Showed Us Something The Series Hadn't Before, And Hasn't Since
• 15 years later, Super Mario Galaxy is still the series' most stellar entry
• Super Mario Galaxy Coming To Nintendo DS Thanks To Fan Project
• In Battle of Consoles, Nintendo Gains Allies
• Miyamoto opens up on Super Mario Galaxy design, WiiWare possibilities
• E3 – 2006 : LIVE :: Massive Wii games ‘hands on’
• Halo 3 Arrives, Rewarding Gamers, and Microsoft
• Nintendo: Wii play now, but Wii ship later
• One on one with Nintendo at E3
• E3 2005: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview
• TGS 2005: Hands-on the Revolution Controller
• Super Mario Galaxy and the Videogame Aesthetic
• Super Mario Seriality: Nintendo’s Narratives and Audience Targeting within the Video Game Console Industry
• Redesigning Super Mario : Creating realistic versions of some characters and animations featured in Super Mario franchise
• The Fine Line Between Rehash and Sequel: Design Patterns of the Super Mario Series
• The evolution of the introductory section
• Molecular Mario: The Becoming-Animal of Video Game Compositions
• Impact of an Active Video Game on Healthy Children’s Physical Activity
• It's a-me Density!
• Super Mario 64: an exercise on freedom and style
• AusGamer Review