A gamer is a gamer for life no matter how old he or she is. If you were a serious gamer, you were at least aware of the rise of the industry during the early 90's. For most of us, there were only two fronts — the young, innocent Nintendo NES and the more mature Sega Genesis. These were the good old days. If purchasing a system out of these two is too painful and you want to leave those awkward moments of childhood behind, I would recommend purchasing The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! on DVD.
Be warned, the show caters to the Nintendophiles who know every musical note, sound effect, and level of the original game series. Segaphiles and newcomers might feel queasy at the bright colors, corny dialogue, and dated animation. We fans of the old school NES know better. We watched the show despite it all because it was connected to our grand pubas — Mario and Luigi.
The format of the show (1989-1990) was part live-action (with Danny Wells and Former Wrestler Captain Lou Albano as Mario and Luigi) set in the basement of the Mario Brothers plumbing business, while the other half was animated and set in Mushroom Land (where the majority of the original game took place). Like Mystery Science Theater 3000, the live-action segments didn't always create a laugh and were more filler. The part everyone wanted to see was the cartoons, which were slightly better than the live-action — give or take a few cringe-worthy aspects.
One of the good parts about the show is the music, which was composed by future Power Rangers creators Shuki Levy and Haim Saban. They managed to extend the musical score of the original game (as well as its 1988 sequel) and give it different variations from show to show (See "Koopa Klaus" and "Karate Koopa" for examples.)
Also noteworthy is the almost magical incorporation of most of the sound effects from the original games (which are incorporated in the live-action segments as well). My memory fails me as to whether the worlds were this detailed in the original games, but if they did exist they look much better on the show (especially the "Koopa Klaus" episode). That's where the good part stops and only Mario fans would care about those things. As a show, it had more bad parts than good.
The voices of the Mario Brothers (Danny Wells and Lou Albano) are exactly what they should sound like. Not a lot of thought went into what Princess Toadstool (Jeannie Elias) sounds like as she has this rather whiny, squeaky kind of voice (especially every time she starts to cry, ugh!). Toad, her assistant, acts like an equal in voice to the Princess, but male.
Article comments
1 - Snarkattack
Oh, I see - I thought the Zelda cartoons would be bundled together with this show...that was a bit anti-climactic! But I still have fond memories of this show!
2 - Scott Butki
Excellent piece, Matthew. Keep up the great work.