Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. was arguably the game that started it all, or at least, the game that made Mario a viable property in his own right, separate from Donkey Kong. It starred Mario and Luigi and was set entirely within a sewer full of crabs and turtles that they had to clear out.

Much like the current Smash stage, I would mostly recreate it as is. If I were to change anything though, I would probably make it easier and much less frustrating to navigate, possibly making the upper platforms pass-through.

Potential theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toZH-2kw-DY

Koopa Troopa

Descending into the sewers on their first big gaming adventure together, Mario and Luigi would find the place infested with both crabs, called Sidesteppers, and turtles, called Shellcreepers. If they wanted to effectively handle these creatures, the brothers would have to hit them from below, flipping the Shellcreepers onto their backs before jumping up to their level and kicking them away before they could right themselves.

These turtles would later reappear in the Mario brothers’ first console adventure, this time under the name of Koopa Troopa, the primary minions of the evil king Bowser. These Koopas liked to tuck into their shells to protect themselves from damage and were likewise known to sprout wings and fly. They would go on to appear across the Mario series, more often than not menacing Mario as his enemies, but sometimes helping him out as his allies, such as Kooper and Koops, Mario’s party members from the first two Paper Mario games, who will be represented among the color swaps.

As a playable character, Koopa Troopas are light and speedy, with high defense owing to their tough shells, though not much in the way of power. Their moves will pull from their shells’ defensive capabilities, their wings as Paratroopa, their utility as a projectile when hiding in their shells, and other tertiary abilities demonstrated in various games.

Likelihood rating: Good possibility

Luigi

 

When Mario Bros. first debuted in 1983, it was billed as more of a two-player game, a departure from the single player Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. Two players could compete or work together to rid the sewers of the pests running around everywhere. Naturally, this meant more than one character was needed to play the different roles. And so a green color-swap to contrasted with Mario’s red was created.

This was Luigi, Mario’s timid brother and ever-faithful sidekick. Though he started out the exact same as his brother, he would go on to be differentiated from his brother throughout their long careers. Thanks to Super Mario Bros. 2, he would become faster and jump higher, and thanks to peripheral media like the cartoon Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, he would take on a more timid and reticent nature than his bolder brother.

All of these traits carry over into his playstyle. He is similar to Mario in many ways, but moves faster, and jumps higher, with a bit more physical comedy to his movements than his brother. His moveset will be similar, but will also pull in many of the power-ups and abilities that Mario’s moveset might have missed. For instance, in place of Mario’s fireball, Luigi might consider making use of the iceball instead, making him more of a complement to his brother than simply a copy.

Likelihood rating: Already in

Jumpman

With Pauline trapped at the top of a tall construction site with an angry gorilla keeping her close, it was time for the main playable character to jump into action. This was her boyfriend and the gorilla’s owner, a gruff blue-collar worker, probably a plumber, with a unique talent for jumping.

Though he would eventually be renamed Mario, this figure was originally simply known as Jumpman. For most of the early 1980s, before he became entangled in the political battles between magical mushrooms and turtles, this man found work across the gamut in the field of heavy labor. He frequented construction sites and cement factories, working as part of a demolition crew, cleared out turtle and crab pests from the sewers, and even wrapped presents over the holidays.

This version of Mario represents that time period in his history. He will likely be heavier than regular Mario, with attacks that hit harder, though still with extraordinary jumping abilities. His moveset will pull from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, as well as Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew, and even the Game & Watch games Mario’s Cement Factory and Mario’s Bombs Away.

Likelihood rating: Probably not

Classic NES Series

CLASSIC NES SERIES

Today, let's cover the Classic NES Series, a series of special edition emulations of old NES games released for the Game Boy Advance. While these games covered the full gamut of the NES's library, for our purposes today, we're only covering six of those. Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, and Super Mario Bros. were released internationally, and Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, and Wrecking Crew were only released in Japan. Generally speaking, they largely seem unchanged from their original versions, so today's blog was pretty easy.

Here's what we've got so far:

Characters:

Mario: handstand, jump, crouch, spin, spin on bar, hammer, spring, key, pick up and throw, giant, float, fly

Luigi: invisible

Wario: metal

Yoshi: fire breath, tongue

Donkey Kong: punch, barrel, stomp, jack, grow giant, throw enemies

Donkey Kong Jr.: hop, throw switches

Pauline

Birdo: Robirdo

All characters appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All characters appearing in the DKC series

All characters appearing in SM64

Bosses:

King Bob-Omb

Goomboss

King Boo

Chief Chilly

Stages:

Construction Site

Big City

Forest

Ship

Jungle

Desert

Airplane

Iceberg

Rocky-Valley

All stages appearing in SMB2, SMW, SMW2, and SMB3

All stages appearing in DKC series

Palm Beach

Poison Swamp

Secret Factory

Ice Area

Thanks for reading! Next up, let's cover Diddy Kong Racing's DS remake!

Character Sheet: Jumpman

JUMPMAN

Today, we have one single newcomer, and it's not one I expected to add. As I revisited some of these early Mario games, I started to notice that there was a distinct difference between the Mario we all know and love, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom who bounces around, eats mushrooms, and jumps on turtles, and the pre-Super Mario Bros. era Mario. In all of those early games, Mario had a much greater focus on construction, hammers, jacks, filling up cement trucks, and fighting gorillas. So, with that wide of a gap between the two eras of the character, a distinct name to help differentiate, and a few design possibilities to go off of to be able to distinguish the two characters on screen, I think I have enough of a case to make two separate characters.

For reference, the possible design ideas include going the 8-bit pixelized route, base his design off of those early Donkey Kong posters, or even possibly pull from his appearance in Saturday Supercade. Either way.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Hammer

Now, I'm a little iffy here because some of Mario's other alt forms likewise use a hammer, but Paper Mario's would function significantly differently, and Builder has a lot of other unique aspects to him that I think it's fine. If there's any version of Mario the hammer is essential to, it's this one.

Side B: Klaptraps

An old move that had been in Mario's early movesets when I only had the arcades to rely on. This is based on Donkey Kong Jr. where Mario would flick a whip to send a Klaptrap forward to attack his opponent. The Klaptraps would be pixelized to differentiate from other characters that might use them.

Up B: Jack

This one is based on the springs that tend to crop up in a lot of the early Mario games and other games that hearken back to the early games. Basically, he'll just drop the jack on the ground and bounce off of it, somewhat Sonic-esque.

Down B: Cement

While there are a few others I can go with, this game was the one that finalized Jumpman's differentiation in my mind, so I went with this in honor of that. He will pull a cord and a cement dispenser will appear in the sky and drop a load of cement on top of anyone standing under it.

Final Smash: 100m

So, 8-bit Donkey Kong is an option, but I rather like a different option I've thought of. The layout of 100m from the Donkey Kong arcade will appear above the stage. Jumpman will jump across it, hopping over each of the removeable hinges and making them disappear, causing all three of the center floors to come crashing down on top of the stage.

Entrance: He will climb up a ladder onto the stage just like he does in Donkey Kong.

Taunts: Up, he will hold up a finished cake from Mario Bros. (Game & Watch). Side, he will flick his whip. Down, he will flop down onto the ground dead, just like his current Smash taunt.

Thanks for reading! Now, let's update the roster!