Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 21 (Patreon)

 Welcome, everyone, to the 21st issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone.  

Today, I will talk about a fan art contest held by the British Computer and Video Games magazine in 1996 for ideas for new Mario power-ups. Please note that some of the entries feature crude humor and cartoonish violence.

C&VG Mario Power-Up Contest

Computer and Video Games was a British video game media brand, existing as a magazine from 1981 to 2004, and then as a website until 2015, when it was shut down. This makes it the longest-running video game brand in the world, although of course now with it no longer existing, it is only a matter of time until another brand outlasts a 34 year lifespan.

Over the years the magazine was published, it regularly hosted fan art contests where readers could win consoles and games as prizes. One of those was held from June to August 1996, with the theme being "invent a new power-up for Mario". The reason I have decided to make an entire article featuring the entries is that this is a rare instance of many different pieces of reader-submitted artwork across a single event in a magazine, and because some of these allow us to look back at how the franchise has evolved and to make comments on whether the power-up idea was replicated by Nintendo eventually.

The entries were split up into two showcase segments, one in the September 1996 issue (Issue 178) and one in the October 1996 issue (Issue 179). First, here is the introduction text:

The first entry, Mad Cow Mario:

While Mario has never been a cow, there was an unused farm-themed power-up slated for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, "Chicken Mario":

Next up, Apple Mario:

While this would be much more reasonable to expect, Mario has not turned into an apple yet. The closest to this I can recall is a Mario variety manga where Luigi is turned into a pumpkin and Peach into a literal peach:

Next, this crude idea:

Undoubtedly, Mario games would not stoop to this level for their power-ups, but this reader did predict this becoming a damaging move in the Mario franchise, in the form of Wario's Wario Waft, debuting in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Then, this flying machine:

This has to be the most prescient entry here, as just 3 years after the contest, this official art was used in a brochure for Nintendo Space World 1999:

While the flying controller never appeared in a game, the fact that Nintendo had what seems to be the exact same idea 3 years after this reader is very impressive.

Next, this column of three entries:

While the first two forms would be rather outlandish for Mario, it is baffling how, after 34 years of using power-ups, Mario has never been able to throw thunderbolts. While Mario has been able to use electricity powers through items (Lightning Bolt in the Mario Kart series, Thunder Rage in the Paper Mario games) or badges such as Zap Tap in Paper Mario, he has never had a form that allowed him to repeatedly and freely shoot lightning.

More entries:

Neither of these has been made into a power-up; although, for the sake of completion, licensed Mario ice cream that looks like Mario was produced:

In the lower left corner of this page, the staff mentions which power-ups they found boring:

The biggest piece of irony in this entire article is that 3 of these became reality at some points after this, while the more original fan-submitted ideas have not. Mario has worn boxing gloves in the Boxing event in Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games; the Ice Flower has become a staple of the series after its introduction in Super Mario Galaxy; and Mario has had two soccer games, Super Mario Strikers and Mario Strikers Charged (being a British magazine, "football" here refers to a soccer ball). 

The next page shows the winner of one of the two Nintendo 64 consoles:

The power-up is called the Rainbow Whistle, and it allows Mario to "tame" enemies to work for him. While never manifesting in a Mario game in this exact manner, both the "having enemies work for Mario" and "using enemy abilities as Mario" aspects have appeared separately. In Mario Party 3's Duel Mode, many different types of enemies can be recruited and will use their attacks against other players or to protect their master as long as they are paid a salary each turn. In Super Mario Odyssey, instead of taming the enemies, Mario takes over their bodies. Still, the concept here is very well-thought-out and I would not personally be surprised to see it being mimicked even more closely in future Mario games.

Four more entries below the winning one:

While Mario has golfed since before Super Mario Bros. (being the main character of Golf for the NES, which was released in 1984, one year before Super Mario Bros.), he has never used a golf club to attack (although Peach did in one of her Smash attacks starting with Super Smash Bros. Melee). Mario has also never worn an ape suit, unless the cosmetic Diddy Kong suit from Super Mario Odyssey is counted.

The plunger has also never been used by Mario (however, Luigi will have the ability to shoot plungers from his Poltergust G-00 in Luigi's Mansion 3), but the caption "used for climbing" makes me believe the reader intended the plunger to be affixed to the wall, whereupon Mario would use it to bounce higher - this was used as the main mechanic of the Pokio capture in Super Mario Odyssey. Finally, Mario has never been a magnet, but Baby Wario has had a magnet as a permanently held item in his appearance in Yoshi's Story DS, functioning in a similar manner.

The entries continue in the next issue, starting with the second winner:

This power-up is an amalgamation of various space-related ideas, most of which have since appeared in Mario games. Mario has worn a space helmet to breathe in space in Super Paper Mario (and Super Mario Land 2), and then again purely for decoration in Super Mario Odyssey; although none of them were Yoshi-shaped. Rocket boots seem to have been inspired by the Super Mario Bros. movie, although interestingly, have not appeared in a Mario game. 

More entries:

The left one, while not an in-game outfit, appeared in a render of Mario for Mario Artist: Talent Studio, a Mario Paint-like game for the Japan-only Nintendo 64DD add-on:

Three more entries:

From my recollection, rain was never usable for Mario not just as a power-up, but as an item effect as well. The only instance of a playable character in a Mario game having a rain-related ability is Mallow in Super Mario RPG, who could summon a small raincloud for his health-restoring "HP Rain" move. The other two entries are not "power-ups" per se, although I must note that if the last one is interpreted as "Mario summons copies of himself", then this exact thing happened in Super Mario 3D World with the Double Cherry, as well as with Paper Mario's Copy ability in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. At no point did the copies play in a band, though.

Another very elaborate entry:

This one was inspired by the Hang Glider in Pilotwings 64, however, the sheer amount of added functionality here makes it less suitable as a power-up and more as a control scheme for some manner of Mario sports game centered around hanggliding. Being able to shoot objects (called "goofers" here) that then have functionality themselves (puffing air in different directions) is an amount of complexity that I personally do not see Mario games employing for power-ups. Still, various aspects of this have been covered by the Cloud Flower from Super Mario Galaxy and the Winged Goomba's Shoe from Super Mario Maker.

The final entry:

Interestingly, the visual design of this power-up highly resembles a capture from Super Mario Odyssey; however, Mario cannot capture Bob-ombs there. Still, the functionality of throwing incendiary objects and exploding is covered by other captures in that game, particularly the Fire Bro and the Bullet Bill. If a Super Mario Odyssey 2 is ever released, one of the captures we can reasonably expect is a Bob-omb due to some classic enemies missing from the first game likely coming back.

I hope this look into the minds of British Mario fans from 1996 and comparison to what Mario games actually implemented could be of interest.

This concludes today's issue. Thank you very much for reading.