Mario's FUNdamentals
| Mario's Game Gallery Mario's FUNdamentals | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Mario's Game Gallery box  Mario's FUNdamentals box | |||
| Developer | Presage Software, Inc. | ||
| Publisher | Interplay Entertainment Corp. Mindscape (PC version of Mario's FUNdamentals) | ||
| Platform(s) | MS-DOS (Mario's Game Gallery); Windows (Mario's Fundamentals) | ||
| Release date | Mario's Game Gallery: February 23, 1995Mario's FUNdamentals: March 3, 1998 | ||
| Genre | Educational | ||
| Rating(s) |
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| Mode(s) | Single-player, Two-Players | ||
| Media | Home computer system:
 Optical disc | ||
| Input | Home computer system:
| ||
- Kids to AdultsMario's FUNdamentals, originally released as Mario's Game Gallery, is a compilation game in the Mario franchise, published by Interplay Entertainment and developed by Presage Software Inc. for PCs running Microsoft Windows. Exclusive to the United States, it was originally released in 1995, and later reissued and retitled in 1998, with Mindscape publishing this re-release; a version for Macintosh computers was published by Stepping Stone.
Five traditional games are included: checkers, backgammon, Go Fish, dominoes, and "yacht", a version of Yahtzee. Players play against Mario in these games, though at times they can also play against Bowser. Gameplay for all the games is similar to their real-world counterparts, though pieces are altered to be themed after the Mario universe.
Both versions of the game have received mixed reception. Upon its initial release, various publications found it to be a good educational game: The State and The Miami Herald praised it for "providing fun for the whole family"; and the Los Angeles Times said that it would appeal to younger gamers. Much later, the game was negatively received by authors David Wesley and Gloria Barczak, who labeled it and the other Mario games manufactured by third-party publishers in the 1990s, which were made without the supervision of Nintendo, as "a flood of ill-conceived Mario spin-offs" that almost destroyed the Mario brand.[1]
Gameplay
Checkers
Checkers is played on a 8 by 8 board with alternating red and black squares. Game pieces only occupy the black squares. The player can choose to play as Yoshis or Koopas. Each player starts with 12 pieces on the closest 3 rows of the board. Players take turns moving a piece each. Pieces can only move diagonally forward to empty squares. If there is an enemy piece in the way but the square beyond it is empty, the enemy piece can be captured by jumping over it. Koopas turn Yoshis into bubbles and pop them, while Yoshis swallow the Koopas. A player must take the opportunity to jump if such move is available, continuing to jump as long as there are enemy pieces to capture. A piece that reaches the furthest row on the board becomes a King (Big Yoshi or Bowser). Unlike traditional checkers, the king is only different in that it can move backwards, it doesn't have the ability to jump multiple squares or capture a contiguous row of enemies. The game is over when the current player is unable to move (either due to having no pieces or all of them being blocked).
Go Fish
The goal is to try to make as many Books (4 of a kind) as possible.
Each player starts with 7 cards. During a player's turn, they may ask for a card they already have from the other player. If the other player has any cards of the chosen type, they must hand over all of them. Otherwise they are told to "Go Fish", or draw a card. "Fishing" is compulsory if the current player has no cards. A player can continue to ask for cards as long as they pick one the other player has or get the card they asked for after "fishing". Once a player has all 4 cards of a given rank, they lay down the "Book" and score for it.
The game is played with a deck of cards with pictures of various characters from Mario games. There are no suits. The following 13 characters are represented:
- Goombas
- Koopas
- Rip Van Fish
- Little Toadies
- Bob-ombs
- Rexes
- Piranha Plants
- Big Boos
- Yoshis
- Marios
- Luigis
- Princesses
- Bowsers (misspelled as "Bowzers")
The draw pile is represented as a pool of water, from which a dolphin jumps out when the player "fishes" from it.
Dominoes
This game is played with a set of 28 dominoes, also called "bones" by the game. Each player gets 7 dominoes at the start, the remaining 14 go into the "boneyard". The player who has the highest double goes first and must play that domino. After that players take turns adding a domino to either end of the domino chain such that at least one end of the placed domino matches the value at end of the chain. If a player doesn't have any matching dominoes, they must draw from the boneyard or pass if there are no dominoes left. It is also possible to draw any number of dominoes before placing one down. The winner is the first player to end up with no dominoes at the end of their turn. If both players are unable to make a move when both still have dominoes left, the winner is the player whose dominoes in hand have the lowest sum of values.
The dominoes show all 28 possible combinations of the following values and the corresponding pictures:
- 0: Blank
- 1: Super Star
- 2: 3-Up Moon
- 3: Coin
- 4: Fire Flower from Super Mario World
- 5: Super Mushroom
- 6: Cape Feather
Backgammon
Backgammon is played on a board with 24 triangular points. The goal is to follow a ⊃ shaped path, with Mario going from bottom to top and the human player going from top to bottom. One player plays as the Yoshis and the other as the Koopas. When not moving, the Yoshis hide in their eggs and the Koopas hide in their shells. Each player starts with 2 pieces on the 1st point, 5 pieces on the 12th point, 3 pieces on the 17th point and 5 pieces on the 19th point, with 1 being the top left for the human player and the bottom left for Mario. The player to go first is determined by rolling a singe die. A player starts their turn by rolling two dice. Each die can be used to move a single piece by the number of points shown on the die. The same piece may be moved multiple times in the same turn. A double roll allows for four moves with the value rolled. Only one player's pieces can be on a particular point. A piece can't be moved if it would land on a point occupied by two or more of the opponent's pieces. Moving to a point occupied by a single opponent piece will cause that piece to go to the bar in the middle of the board. The owner must first bring those back before being allowed to make other moves. Bringing a piece back requires a dice roll that allows a legal move from "point 0" (e.g. a roll of 3 allows a piece to re-enter on the 3rd point as long as there are less than 2 opposing pieces there). Once all of a player's pieces arrive in the final 6 points, they can be taken off the board using a die roll needed to move them to "point 25" (e.g. a roll of 4 allows taking a piece off from point 21). A die roll can also be used to take off the piece furthest from the goal if the highest die roll is higher than the distance of that piece from the goal. A player that can't make any legal moves ends their turn. The winner is the first player to take all of their pieces off the board.
As there are no bets, there is also no doubling cube.
Yacht
This game is also known as Yahtzee, Kniffel or Dice Poker. The goal is to fill in an initially empty scoresheet using rolls of five dice. A player may roll the dice up to 3 times per turn and choose to hold some of the dice between rolls. The player must choose a line on the scoresheet, gaining points depending on which line is chosen and the value of the dice. Each line can only be chosen once per game. The winner is the player with the most points when the scoresheet is full.
The lines on the scoresheet are as follows:
- Yacht: 50 points if all the dice show the same value, otherwise 0 points.
- Big Straight: 30 points if all the dice show a sequence (1-2-3-4-5 or 2-3-4-5-6), otherwise 0 points.
- Sm. Straight: 25 points at least 4 dice show a sequence (1-2-3-4, 2-3-4-5 or 3-4-5-6), otherwise 0 points.
- 4 of a Kind: The sum of all dice if there are 4 with the same value, otherwise 0 points.
- Full House: The sum of all dice if there are 3 with the same value and 2 with a different but identical value, otherwise 0 points.
- Choice: The sum of all dice regardless of value.
- Sixes: The sum of the dice showing 6.
- Fives: The sum of the dice showing 5.
- Fours: The sum of the dice showing 4.
- Threes: The sum of the dice showing 3.
- Deuces: The sum of the dice showing 2.
- Aces: The sum of the dice showing 1.
Gallery
The main menu of the game, with the alternative name Mario's Game Gallery
The intro to Checkers
Checkers gameplay
Checkers instructions
Checkers instructions
Go Fish intro
Go Fish gameplay
Go Fish instructions
Go Fish instructions
The intro to Dominoes
Dominoes gameplay
Dominoes instructions
Dominoes instructions
The intro to Yacht
Yacht gameplay
Yacht instructions
Yacht instructions
Backgammon intro
Backgammon gameplay
Backgammon instructions
Backgammon instructions
Media
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 Main Menu (DOS) | File info 0:30 |
Staff
- Main article: List of Mario's FUNdamentals staff
Quotes
- Come here, fishy-fishy! Here, fishy-fishy!
See also
Trivia
- A SNES port of the game (under the Mario's Game Gallery name) is rumored to have been in development before being canceled.[citation needed]
- Mario refers to Toad by a pet name, "Little Toadie". This nickname originates from the 1993 Nintendo Character Guide, a set of guidelines and information given by Nintendo of America to licensing partners.
References
- ^ Wesley, David; Barczak, Gloria (2010). Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry: Avoiding the Performance Trap. Gower Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9780566091674.
