Super Mario Bros. 2

Today we will be discussing the sequel to one of the first games featuring Mario, the plumber that we know and love today. The game Super Mario Bros., packaged with the NES, became a craze all around the world. Everyone was waiting for its successor.

    Work was started on the new game in Japan for the Famicom Disk System. It was essentially the same game as the first, but with new features that added a bigger challenge. For example, a poison mushroom was added along with the normal mushroom that made Mario smaller. The stages themselves were also much harder, including wind that made Mario harder to control and red piranha plants that would still attack when Mario was on the pipe.  This was also the first game where Luigi got his characteristic high jump and slippery movement, which carried on to the rest of the series. However, the game was essentially an expansion pack to the original Super Mario Bros. Still, it went to sell millions of copies in Japan, so plans started to be made to release it to the US.

    Howard Phillips, a Nintendo employee who frequently tested Famicom games before they released in America, played the new game and realized how difficult it was. He told Nintendo’s president that the game would not be well received in America, who then realized alternative plans had to be made. The answer came when Doki Doki Panic, a separate game, was developed by Nintendo. The game was similar to Mario in many aspects, although the core gameplay was different. Now, instead of stomping on enemies, vegetables that were picked up from the ground were thrown at them. A simple palette swap was all that was needed to turn Doki Doki Panic into America’s Super Mario Bros. 2.  American gamers never knew the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, so this led them to wonder why Super Mario Bros 3 went back to the mechanics of the original game.

    Now, this leads many to wonder, what if Super Mario Bros 2 was released in America in its original form? To start with, Shy Guy would have never entered the Mario universe as the character originated from Doki Doki Panic. If Phillips’ prediction was right, perhaps the Mario series would not have succeeded very well in America. This would make it a Japan exclusive series, much like Fire Emblem. In addition, after the video game crash of 1983, the industry depended exclusively on Nintendo. If one of the most hyped successor to one of the best selling game of all time failed to deliver, maybe people would start losing interest in games again.

    Super Mario Bros 2. Is one of the only games to be completely revamped for fear of it being too hard for Westerners, and I hope you enjoyed learning why today.

Virtual Boy

Virtual reality and 3-D technology is all the rage now in video games, with new advents such as Oculus Rift and the 3DS. However, one of the first forays into video game virtual reality was not so successful. Dubbed the Virtual Boy, it is widely regarded as one of Nintendo's biggest failures.

The idea for the Virtual Boy came about when the company Reflection Technologies wanted to find a use for its LED display technology. After many attempted applications for the technology failed to come to fruition, the company decided to set its sights on the video game industry. It showed its technology to Gunpei Yokoi, the creator of the famous Game Boy. He was very intrigued by the technology, and thought he could use it to create a gaming environment that was not bound by the confines of the television screen. In addition, Reflection's demonstration included a feature that could detect movements in the head, which was initially also part of Yokoi's vision. The project was now a go, and development started on a prototype.

However, problems came in early on. The original idea for the system was wearable goggles, but this idea ran into complications. Research had yet to have been done on whether having such high radio emissions that close to the head was detrimental to one’s health. Further health concerns resulted in changes in the design and degradation of the technology. This forced the final product to be limited to resting on the table, which removed any chance for the head-tracking feature from the original tech demo. At this point in time, the project should have been scrapped as these limitations forced the final product to be far worse than Yokoi’s original vision.  However, Nintendo still decided to release the product, and in 1995 the Virtual Boy launched in Japan to little enthusiasm. The Japanese media were still concerned about the health risks, which limited any sales. Although the situation was a little better in America, demand quickly diminished and the product was considered a commercial failure worldwide by 1996.

For one moment, let’s imagine a reality where the health controversies associated with the Virtual Boy did not exist. This means Reflection Technologies’ original vision could have come to fruition. Since the original tech demo could claim to be some form of Virtual Reality, I believe this version of the Virtual Boy could have been at least a niche success. The next question is whether or not this would have caused virtual reality to make any impact on the industry. This depends on whether further applications of the technology could be conceived, potentially involving multiplayer play. If that could happen, virtual reality could very well have been accepted as a standard in the gaming industry far earlier than it has today.

The Virtual Boy is a system that was truly one of Nintendo’s biggest mistakes, and I hope you enjoyed learning what it could have been.

Nintendo Playstation

This time, the blog will feature a very pivotal moment in video game history. The emergence of Sony, one of the current leaders in the video game market, was one that could have very easily gone another way.

Sony actually never intended to enter the video game console market on its own. Nintendo, the leading console manufacturer in the 90's, was exploring options for CD technology after its floppy-disk add-on to the Famicom was lackluster. It turned to Sony, who was a key player in the CD market. Surprisingly enough, Nintendo and Sony decided to collaborate and make a 32-bit CD add-on to the Super Nintendo. Dubbed, the "Playstation", it was a surefire way at extending the lifespan of the Super Nintendo.

From the beginning of this relationship, there was disagreements. Nintendo wanted the CDs to be encased in plastic with a lockout chip, so the company could have full control of software licensing. However, Sony wanted the lockout chip to be on the console itself so the CDs could be open to any developer. Regardless, Sony went ahead and announced the new system at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991. The very next day, Nintendo announced it was going with Philips to create an alternative add-on. This humiliated Sony and it even tried to sue to get Nintendo to change its mind. Eventually, the companies did reconcile and the final version of the Nintendo Playstation was to be jointly developed by Nintendo, Sony, and Philips. However, development issues and legal wrangling led the project to its demise. Sony would go on to create its own version of the Playstation, and Nintendo would release its competing N64.

Now, what might have happened if the Nintendo PlayStation actually did release to the market? Well, since Nintendo and Sony would no longer be competitors, it is easy to see the Nintendo PlayStation completely defeat its sole 32-bit competitor. The Sega Saturn would have stood no chance to the combined forces of Nintendo and Sony. Whether a 64-bit successor to the Playstation would have been created is another story altogether. The main reason why many software developers left Nintendo during the 64-bit era was due to the N64's cartridges having limited memory compared to Sony's Playstation. However, if Nintendo embraced disc technology in the 32-bit era itself, I feel it would have realized its potential and stuck with it for the following generations. Therefore, the combined forces of Sony and Nintendo would have continued Nintendo's success from the 16-bit era. The Sega Dreamcast would have failed a lot sooner than it did, leaving Microsoft as the only competitor to Nintendo.

Complicating the deal with Sony is widely regarded as one of Nintendo's greatest mistakes, and I hope you enjoyed learning why today.