Mario is Missing

Mario Is Missing! is an educational game and the first game where Luigi is the main protagonist with Mario in a supporting role. The main gameplay consists of moving around a city in side-scrolling manner while jumping on Koopas to collect stolen artifacts. Luigi then must secure the city by taking these artifacts to their respective locations and correctly answering two questions about the landmark.The computer version is a point-and-click adventure game, while the NES and SNES versions have more of an emphasis on platforming.

Released: 1 January 1993
Platforms: MS-DOS macOS
Genres: Puzzle Strategy Adventure
Developers: The Software Toolworks
Publishers: The Software Toolworks
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Educational

About

Mario Is Missing! is a 1993 educational game developed and published by The Software Toolworks for MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, later released on Macintosh in 1994. The player controls Luigi, who must travel around the world to find and return stolen treasures as part of a quest to locate his brother, Mario, who has been captured by Bowser. Mario Is Missing!, part of a series of educational Mario games, was Luigi's second starring role in a video game, following the 1990 Game Watch game Luigi's Hammer Toss and preceding the 2001 GameCube game Luigi's Mansion.

›Story

Bowser, king of the Koopas, has relocated from the Mushroom Kingdom to the real world, where he has set up his headquarters in an Antarctican castle. He plans to steal the Earth's treasures with the use of the Passcode-Operated Remote Transportation and Larceny System, which allows his Koopas to teleport anywhere in the world. His main objective is to sell the treasures to pay for enough hairdryers so he can melt the ice of Antarctica. In order to do so, Bowser captures Mario to prevent him from foiling the plan, and it is up to Mario's brother Luigi to save him.

Keywords

time travel
edutainment
high score
turtle
anthropomorphism
language selection
declarative title
cheat code
western games based on japanese ips
meme origin
kidnapping
missing relative

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Mario Is Missing! is an educational game. The computer version is a point-and-click adventure while the NES and Super NES have platformer elements. In the game, Bowser, king of the Koopas, has relocated from the Mushroom Kingdom to the real world where he has set up his headquarters in an Antarctic castle.

Bowser plans to steal the Earth's treasures with the use of the Passcode-Operated Remote Transportation and Larceny System (PORTALS) which allows his Koopas to teleport anywhere in the world. Bowser intends to sell the treasures to pay for enough hairdryers so he can melt the ice of Antarctica. He captures Mario to prevent him from foiling the plan and it is up to Mario's brother Luigi to save him.

Development

To capitalize on educational games which were popular at the time, Nintendo partnered with The Software Toolworks to create an educational Mario game. Nintendo licensed the Mario characters, but was otherwise not involved in the game's development nor was Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The Software Toolworks released the game for MS-DOS in January 1993. Its lead designer was Donald W.

Laabs, who saw working with Nintendo as a way to compete with Carmen Sandiego creator Broderbund and hoped to license Mario for that purpose. They were able to get a licensing agreement due to one of the company's executives' strong relationship with Nintendo of America, and because Nintendo was also interested in making educational games featuring Mario. This made them the first non-Nintendo studio to produce a Mario game on a console. They also hired staff that worked on Carmen Sandiego.

Reception

Due to the educational content rather than action-adventure that players of the time were used to, reception of the title was initially mixed. Still, profits of the NES and Super NES versions exceeded $7 million for The Software Toolworks during the second quarter of 1993.

Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewed the Super NES version at the time of its release: three of the magazine's four reviewers commented that the game was too slow and easy for experienced players, but that it offered great appeal to its young target audience while providing good educational value. Reviewers for GameFan praised the game's Super NES version and compared it to Carmen Sandiego. Nintendo Power noted the game's "excellent" graphics. GamePro, reviewing the Super NES version, called the game "a good way to learn geography" but wrote that players should not expect it to be exciting. The magazine also noted that younger players would need help in progressing through the game.