Retro Gaming Australia

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is arguably Mario’s finest portable 2D adventure to date. As well as being remembered for its fantastic level design and cool power ups (like the rabbit ears), Super Mario Land 2 also played host to the first appearance of Wario, who was more of an evil Mario doppelganger than the crazy, money hungry bastard we know today.

Flash games based on the original Super Mario Bros. are a dime a dozen, but Super Mario Summary does something totally unique – cutting the game’s 32 stages down into single screens.

The game was created by Swede Johan Peitz as part of Ludum Dare, a 48 hour game creation challenge event.

Each level has a number of challenges, with up to three stars to be obtained through collecting every coin, squashing every enemy and reaching the top of the flag pole when completing a level. Completing all three tasks gives you a time.

You can play the game here.

Last week, news broke that Nintendo had acquired the “supermario4.com” domain name and speculation as to meaning ensued. Shigeru Miyamoto, in an interview with Korean website Betanews overnight, has confirmed that Super Mario 4 is currently in development.

No details about the upcoming title were released, save for the announcement of its existence. It is unknown whether Super Mario 4 is the 2D Mario game for the Nintendo 3DS that was promised last year or the Wii U Super Mario title (to be shown at E3 this year). Perhaps it is something new entirely?

With Super Mario Bros. 4 deemed already in existence by many (referring to Super Mario World – subtitled Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan), we are curious as to how this new Super Mario 4 will eventuate and keen to hear the choice of name/codename explained. Super Mario 3D Land has Super Mario Bros. 3 at its core, maybe this Super Mario 4 will have a similar relationship with Super Mario World. Only time, and Nintendo, will tell.

Miyamoto stated that more details would be revealed soon.

Nintendo of America has registered the “supermario4.com” domain, but what does it mean?

Earlier in the year, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata announced they were working on a new 2D Mario game for the Nintendo 3DS. Could it be that this promised 2D Mario adventure is going to be Super Mario 4?

Many would argue that Super Mario 4 already exists, as Super Mario World was subtitled “Super Mario Bros. 4” in Japan. Perhaps the lack of such a subtitle for the western release of Super Mario World leaves Super Mario 4 wide open for use by Nintendo of America. This wouldn’t be the first time that audiences outside of Japan received a Super Mario Bros. game of a differing name, with the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 2 being known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and the western release of Super Mario Bros. 2 (the redeveloped Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic) being titled Super Mario USA in Japan.

However, the recent domain registration might not relate to any currently planned project and may simply be Nintendo purchasing domain names to prevent others from using them.

Discovered by an IGN reader, the supermario4.com domain name was registered in April of this year but has apparently been in existence since 2007. Visiting the URL reveals no clues as to it’s meaning, it simply redirects to Nintendo’s country selector page.

So, now we play the waiting game.

We at Retro Gaming Australia would love to see more retro-inspired rewards in the Australian Club Nintendo Stars Catalogue. So, it is fair to say we were a tad jealous when we spied the Japanese Club Nintendo offering original polo shirts featuring designs from some of our favourite Nintendo titles.

For 550 points each, members can reward themselves with a polo shirt for which they can choose both the colour (from a selection of eight) and logo from one of six which represent Animal Crossing, Game & Watch, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros.

Personally, I’m partial to the pink shirt with Animal Crossing’s Rover as the logo.

It’s a sad reflection on the state of knowledge preservation when you don’t know exactly when an important event happened. That just happens to be the case with the release of Super Mario Bros. as Frank Cifaldi points out in his investigation into the matter over at Gamasutra. The article is well worth your time.

In case you were wondering, Super Mario Bros. was available for the 1987 launch of the NES in Australia – except we currently do not know that exact date either (and not through lack of trying, let me assure you).

There was an amusing video doing the rounds a while ago that essentially showed Mario being a bit of a jerk with the titular gun from Portal.

Indie studio Stabyourself (charming) has decided to make an actual game out of this concept, called Mari0. The game supports co-operative play for four players, has a map editor, DLC, hats and runs on Windows, Macs and Linux-based systems.

Apparently it can be a bit tricky to get running, but it looks like a heck of a lot of fun.

A fellow by the name of Baron von Brunk revealed today that he had completed his LEGO masterpiece – a recreation of one of the Airships from Super Mario Bros. 3

The ship had been in the works since November 2011, and encompasses 8,000+ LEGO pieces, along with various electronics and lights.

Check out Baron von Brunk’s Tumblr for more pictures and commentary on the construction of the project.

Waluigi is the single greatest character of all time.

Mario Tennis was the second sports title for the Nintendo 64 to feature the crew from the Mushroom Kingdom, and is arguably one of the best multiplayer games on the system. The game also marks the debut of Waluigi, arguably the most important milestone in the history of video games.

Still a right jerk of a game.

The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is a good case study for the way markets operated and content was controlled in the late 1980s. Today it would be unthinkable that Nintendo would develop a major Mario sequel and not release it here, but it happened back then. It was eventually released in its updated form as a part of Super Mario All Stars, but not in its original form until its Virtual Console release in 2009.