As we gathered in this morning’s review of Super Mario Bros. : The film without spoilers, the film is a torrent of references to the whole Mario universe but, taking advantage of the scenes taking place in New York, it also saves a good handful of winks. other Nintendo games and franchises that were successful in the 80s on NES and arcades and that we have compiled here.
Of course, we recommend that you read on once you’ve seen the movie (and let us know if we’re missing any!) because we’re inevitably entering the territory of spoilers…
Did you track down all those NES games in the Super Mario Bros. ?
- donkey kong, 1981. The first job young Miyamoto was given to save Nintendo in the West, the one that started it all, was to have its appearance in the movie, beyond the fact that Mario and Donkey Kong themselves share a large part images. depicting their rivalry. On the tape, you can even see the arcade bearing the name of Jumpman (like Pac-Man or Walkman, before being baptized Mario in honor of Mario Segale). The gaming references that led to Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. and the Donkey series itself continue throughout the film, including the appearance of Pauline and the red beam scene and the music that plays when Mario and DK fight. the Smash Bros.
- Punch !!, 1983. The pizzeria featured in the film in a few scenes in Brooklyn is named after the innovative boxing game first released in arcades. It marked the debut of a certain Koji Kondo as a composer…
- Balloon battle, 1984. Designed by Yoshio Sakamoto and programmed by one Satoru Iwata, first as an arcade counter game and later expanded for the NES. One of the ball fighters is clearly visible on the Brooklyn night.
- Demolition Crew, 1985. Amidst the Super Mario Bros. boom, Miyamoto lent his characters to different professions and sports. Here, Yoshio Sakamoto put them to work as bricklayers for the evil foreman Spike, whose film actor first leaked a few years ago. He embodies the former chief plumber of Mario and Luigi and winks at the NES and the arcade game.
- Child Icarus, 1986. A year later, guess who, Sakamoto-san was working on the first Pit adventure while creating something much more ambitious called Metroid. In the film, Mario himself is playing a game on his NES when he feels like a failure.
Baseball, 1983. Ok, this one’s taken with a grain of salt, but you won’t tell us that the merchandise and fonts on Mario and Luigi’s stuff don’t make any reference to the NES game that made the console a hit to American children and their parents. . Conceived, moreover, by Shigeru Miyamoto himself and presented in New York with professional players which, today FIFA, was one of the greatest sporting successes in the history of Nintendo.
If we count all the references to Mario’s own games in its more than 40-year history, that gives us another nearly endless list, but what do you think of these nods to Nintendo’s early days in homes and stores of this decade?
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