Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 44 (Patreon)

Welcome, everyone, to the 44th issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone.

In this article I will present 5 less well-known or popular Mario games as a way to expose them to an audience who may be interested in trying them out.

The Broth Recommends

This article is slightly different than usual. Long-time patron Fish has suggested that since I specialize in obscure Mario infromation, I could write an article recommending various little-known Mario games that I believe deserve to be played by a wider audience. While the list of games I present here has been chosen according to my own opinions on the playability of these games, the information I will present about them will be strictly factual, as usual. Please let me know if you either enjoy this sort of content and would like to see more topics that rely partially on my own opinions, or if you prefer me to leave my personal preferences out of the articles entirely; your feedback will determine how I approach future articles.

Unfortunately, the truly obscure games in the Mario series are obscure for reasons that are inversely proportional with how enjoyable they are to play: usually, they are either rare arcade machines with gimmicky physical components or software that can only technically be considered a game. As much as I would enjoy being able to recommend playing extremely elusive titles like I Am A Teacher: Super Mario's Sweater, Super Mario World Barcode Battler II Edition, or Pika Pika Mario, the fact remains that these are either nearly impossible to actually find and play, or do not have much gameplay to begin with. As such, please understand that for this article, I will prioritize playability over obscurity, so you will likely have heard of most if not all of these games (especially if you are enough of a fan of obscure Mario content to follow my blogs), but you may not have considered playing them before.

I will attempt to describe the positive qualities of each of these titles with the intent of compelling the readers who would enjoy that genre of game to possibly give it a chance, as I believe every game deserves to be played, even just for a short time, to truly understand if it is right for you. Each game's section will start with a "pitch", where I attempt to summarize the game's appeal as briefly as possible, and end with two segments where I offer my opinion on who this game would most likely appeal to and who it is less likely to appeal to. Of course, please feel free to try out all of the games on this list nevertheless if you feel inclined; my opinions are only there as an attempt to save you time in choosing the best fit for you.

Without further ado, here is my list of lesser-known Mario games I believe are worth playing:

1. Game & Watch version of Super Mario Bros. (the unique 1986 version, not the 2020 port of the NES Super Mario Bros. in Game & Watch form)

Pitch: a game that offers a creative solution to representing a sidescrolling platformer on hardware that is incapable not just of scrolling, but of displaying smooth movement in general.

First, I must address that currently, "the Game & Watch version of Super Mario Bros." is more commonly used to refer to the 2020 Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary special release of the original NES Super Mario Bros. (as well as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and a Mario-themed version of Ball) in a portable form that outwardly resembles a Game & Watch system, but is actually running modern hardware that emulates a NES. That is not the version I am talking about. 

I am referring to the 1986 version of Super Mario Bros, which was released towards the end of the Game & Watch series, being one of the most advanced games on that hardware - which has very little in common with the NES version outside of the basic setting and characters. 

What makes this game unique is its ambitious goal of attempting to represent sidescrolling levels within the limitations of Game & Watch hardware, which cannot even move sprites around on the screen, and can only turn discrete portions of the screen on and off. This is accomplished by dividing the screen into a grid. Mario can occupy 15 different spots on the screen, 5 per row in 3 rows. Each line between two grid segments can contain a platform, and each segment has room for Mario, a Bullet Bill, and a hammer. The game changes its mechanics for each level to get the maximum amount of value out of these assets.

The gameplay consists of 9 "loops" of 8 "worlds", which would more commonly be called 9 sets of 8 levels. Take a look at these explanations from the manual:

As you can see, there is a variety in what enemies appear: Bullet Bills that move horizontally, Lakitu who drops hammers vertically, and Fire Bars, called Spinning Flames, that reuse the same graphic the platforms use but become contextually apparent. There are also various modes of scrolling like autoscrolling, where the entirety of the screen moves one segment left on each beat, or manual scrolling where Mario is transported to a different screen after reaching the end of the first. Finally, there are even different modes of movement, with the "channel" level actually having Mario swim instead of jump - while the sprites used are obviously the same, once the player is playing it, it is very easy to adjust to the swimming.

The game is a very rare example of an LCD system attempting something as ambitious as multiple levels and is worth playing it for that alone, but the platforming is actually surprisingly challenging, especially on later loops.

Unfortunately, the original systems are now very expensive, and this particular game has for a baffling reason never been part of any of the Game & Watch Gallery collections (while the similarly-advanced Zelda one was), so the most affordable way to play one would be to find one of these licensed Nintendo Mini Classics keychains:

Who would enjoy playing this game: People who are interested in the capabilities of the Game & Watch LCD-based system and the creative solutions it presents to problems, as well as people who wish for a Game & Watch system that has a large amount of variety.

Who would not enjoy playing this game: People who value graphical fidelity and above all, the ability to smoothly move anywhere on the screen, for all games.

2. Picross 2

Pitch: do you like Mario's Picross for the Game Boy but wish the images you made were larger?

Picross 2 is the Japan-only sequel to Mario's Picross that also features Wario (like Mario's Super Picross) and even Peach, being the origin of her archaeologist outfit as seen in Super Mario Odyssey:

The bulk of the gameplay is the same as in the other Mario Picross titles, or for that matter Picross games in general, but there is an addition of Mario actually walking around small overworld maps selecting puzzles instead of doing that from a menu:

The maps become more elaborate as the player progresses, with each of them being based on some real-world location, many of which are connected to archaeology (Nazca Lines, Greek temples, Egyptian tombs etc.) What makes this game unique is that most puzzles are actually 4 puzzles in one: a 30x30 pixel square broken up into four 15x15 pixel squares that need to be solved separately in order to solve the full image. Some go as far as being a 60x60 pixel square with two layers of subdivisions:

This is the earliest example of a type of puzzle that modern Picross games call "Micross". While modern Micross can get even larger than 4x4 puzzles, this was really impressive for the time. This also makes Picross 2 a much longer game than the other Mario Picross titles, as there are over 200 of these kinds of puzzles, which is equivalent to over 800 regular puzzles. Compare Mario's Picross, which had 255 puzzles in total, of which none were larger than a single screen.

Who would enjoy playing this game: People who like Picross puzzles and would not be deterred by the slight language barrier (it is easy to ignore all text once you learn what the menu functions do).

Who would not enjoy playing this game: People who do not like Picross, for obvious reasons.

3. Donkey Kong Land 3

Pitch: if you felt Donkey Kong Land was too different from Donkey Kong Country, and Donkey Kong Land 2 was too similar to Donkey Kong Country 2, this game strikes the perfect balance between preexisting aesthetics and new gameplay content.

The reason I am including Donkey Kong Land 3 on this list is because of a widespread misconception that it (and Donkey Kong Land 2, and in the case of particularly misinformed players, Donkey Kong Land) is merely a downgraded port of Donkey Kong Country 3 to the Game Boy. However, this is not true. Each of the games in the series handles its relationship to the corresponding Country title differently:

-Donkey Kong Land is a completely different game from Donkey Kong Country. It features unique worlds, unique level themes, unique enemies, unique music, and even some unique mechanics. The lack of a Donkey Kong Country-like title for the Game Boy was later corrected with the release of the Game Boy Color version of Donkey Kong Country (not to be confused with the even later Game Boy Advance version).
-Donkey Kong Land 2 took the opposite approach. It has the same worlds, graphics, enemies, music etc. as Donkey Kong Country 2 (albeit of course adjusted for the Game Boy), but it is not actually a port. Instead, although the levels are called the same, they have been redesigned while still keeping the same concept. It is a lot like playing a remixed version of the original.
-Donkey Kong Land 3 takes the middle path. While keeping to the original game's assets, now the levels are completely new. It can be compared to playing an expansion pack for the original.

For example: in the original Donkey Kong Country 3, the treetop levels would consists of three trees next to each other, with the player ascending them and switching between the spaces inside the trees. However, this is expanded upon in Donkey Kong Land 3, where some levels have vast amounts of trees, something never seen in the original:

There are ideas in this game that were not explored in the original, such as a mill level where Squawks must be used to progress, or a mountain level that must be descended instead of ascended. In addition, completing the game unlocks a time attack mode, also a feature not present in the SNES game.

Note that the Japanese version of this game is a Game Boy Color exclusive and adds full color to the levels at the cost of not having readable text for players who do not know Japanese. 

Who would enjoy playing this game: People who like Donkey Kong Country games and would like to play new levels in that style, who did not know that this game is not actually a port of Donkey Kong Country 3.

Who would not enjoy playing this game: People who dislike Donkey Kong Country 3 (particularly Kiddy Kong) and people who prefer a game to use new aesthetics instead of making new levels with preexisting aesthetics.

4. Super Mario Advance 4 (Wii U Virtual Console version, not the original GBA version)

Pitch: It's Super Mario Bros. 3, except with 38 new levels, featuring mechanics imported from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario World, as well as completely new ones - only on the Wii U.

At the time of its release for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, Super Mario Advance 4 was a game that contained much more on its cartridge than could be accessed simply by playing it, because it was used to promote Nintendo's short lived card reader accessory for the system: the e-Reader. The e-Reader was wildly unsuccessful and discontinued after only 2 years due to the frustrating method of obtaining cards (some were sold in packs that contained a set amount of specific cards, while some were sold in random packs, while yet others could only be obtained from specific retailers as promotions) and the lengthy and tedious method of inputting data (for some games, several cards needed to be scanned in a row).

The game contained 38 levels that were unlocked by scanning the appropriate level card with the e-Reader (the level data was not actually encoded on the card; it merely unlocked content already on the cartridge - what was later came to be called "on-disc DLC", or in this case "on-cartridge DLC"). However, in North America, only 12 of these were released, while the rest was only available in Japan. Of course, due to the majority of players not owning an e-Reader or the cards, very few of them played any of the levels at all, and the mere existence of the levels became an obscure fact that occasionally cropped up in articles and videos about "Mario content that exists but very few players ever got to experience".

However, this all changed when the game was released for the Wii U virtual console in 2015/2016, depending on region. This version simply allowed the player to select any of these previously card-exclusive levels right upon starting the game, without needing to unlock them in any way. Now, the question is, just how good are these levels?

Please consider this animation:

This is an expanded version of a Super Mario World mechanic that allows Mario to run up walls, now allowing him to run on ceilings as well, all within the Super Mario Bros. 3 engine. Other surprising returns of mechanics from different games are: sand to dig through from Super Mario Bros. 2, the coin snakes that can be controlled by the player from Super Mario World, one-way flipper doors from Yoshi's Island, items trapped in bubbles from Super Mario Advance, and many more. The extra levels contain 23 enemies not originally in Super Mario Bros. 3, as well as the Cape Mario power-up and the Blue Boomerang, a kind of prototype for the Boomerang Mario power-up that lets him throw a giant boomerang.

As the designers wanted to entire players to purchase the e-Reader cards, they made the extra levels very creative and significantly longer than the base game's levels. Although there are only 38 of them (and 5 of those are "classic" levels from older Super Mario games in the Super Mario Bros. 3 style, so there are 33 completely original levels in total), the sheer size of the levels, as well as their replay value through the addition of 5 Advance Coins to collect in each level, make them equivalent to about half of the base game in amount of content. As such, by playing the Wii U Virtual Console version of the game, you get roughly 150% of what you would have gotten with the GBA original.

Here are just a few of the ideas present in these levels that are not seen in the base game:
-Speedrun levels. These would later become common as Super Mario Maker popularized them, but at the time of its release, this was still highly experimental.
-Elaborate maze-like ghost house levels with over 20 doors (note that the original game did not contain ghost houses at all).
-A level with many vegetables to pluck from the ground, with some surprises like giant vegetables, Poison Mushrooms or coins included when Mario plucks one.
-A level that takes place inside one of those moving tanks that can be seen in World 8. While in the base game, only singular rooms inside them can be seen, this level makes an entire autoscrolling area out of it.
-A tall vertical tower consisting entirely of Note Blocks.
-Finally, another level that uses the Goomba's Shoe, bringing the total number of Goomba's Shoe levels to 2.
-A level that takes place in a tall tower of blocks of which both the outside and inside are explored:

...and many more.

I personally believe that if you enjoy Super Mario Bros. 3 and have access to a Wii U, you should at least consider playing this game as it offers many things other 2D Mario platformers haven't to this day.

Who would enjoy playing this game: People who like Super Mario Bros. 3, or classic 2D Mario platformers in general.

Who would not enjoy playing this game: I honestly doubt that anyone who likes Mario games enough to be reading in-depth Supper Mario Broth articles would truly dislike this game, but not everyone may be able to obtain it due to it only being available for Wii U. Workarounds exist to load the levels in the Game Boy Advance version as well, which can be found here - however, you will need the necessary third-party hardware to load them onto the system.

5. Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move

Pitch: a game that many people did not consider because it uses the Mario vs. Donkey Kong naming scheme, but which actually has completely different gameplay from the usual Lemmings-style Mario vs. Donkey Kong games.

This game is not obscure per se, as you have most likely heard of it: it was one of the many Mario vs. Donkey Kong series games, and it was released in 2013 as a digital-only title for the Nintendo 3DS. However, unlike all the Mini Mario-centered games before it and after it, it has completely different gameplay mechanics.

The usual Mario vs. Donkey Kong games are, in spirit, based on the 1991 PC game Lemmings, where the object was to get a number of small characters from a starting point to the finish point without letting them die, which they would on contact with any hazard. The difficulty comes from the fact that the Lemmings do not stop walking. When bumping into a wall, they simply turn around and keep walking in the opposite direction, and of course, they walk off cliffs, like the real-life animal the name is referencing, the lemming. (Although note that this is based on a misconception; real lemmings do not regularly walk off cliffs. The misconception was popularized with a faked 1958 documentary where the film crew staged this behavior.)

The same happens in these games: the Mini Marios walk in a direction until they reach a wall, whereupon they turn around, and they walk off cliffs. The player must hastily remove the obstacles in their way before they get destroyed, and (in some of the games) arrange the arrival of the Mini Marios at the goal in such a way that each of them arrives within a short time of the previous one, as the door closes after a certain time if no Mini Marios pass through it. This results in very frantic gameplay as the player constantly must pay attention to every single element of the stage at once, often needing to tap on several things nearly simultaneously or within a very short time of each other, which turns many people off from the series.

However, Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move completely discards that concept. There is a hint towards that even in the title: note that it reads "and" instead of "vs." like the rest of the series, but that is so subtle that most players are not expected to read it and deduce that this means a drastic change in the gameplay. Instead of the 2D side view, the game has a 3D view on the top screen, and a top-down view on the bottom screen:

The object here is not the management of several Minis, but rather the creation of a path for a single Mini to follow, by dragging pieces from the pipe to the map. Simply clearing a level only requires making a path from the entrance to the exit, while getting 100% completion also requires collecting the three M coins on the way, which usually means using all of the available space to make a lengthy path that winds itself through the coins. 

Interestingly, this is also based on a preexisting PC puzzle game, in this case, the 1989 Pipe Mania. If the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series ever continues (it is currently in the sixth year of a hiatus), who knows what other classic PC puzzle will be referenced next?

The game contains four modes: "Mario's Main Event", where the path tiles are given in a random order and the game also provides ways to sometimes clear already placed tiles to make room for new ones, "Puzzle Palace" where only a specific set of tiles is given all at once and they must all be used to create a perfect path to the goal, "Many Mini Mayhem", the only mode that has the same "many character management" aspect as the other games, and finally "Giant Jungle", where the board is extremely large and the object is let the Mini traverse the entirety of it without letting time run out, by collecting extra time clocks. Beating levels perfectly unlocks more extra levels, as well as 3D models of the Minis that each play their own remixes of the game's main theme when examined.

To summarize, the reason I am recommending this game is because it is so different from the rest of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong franchise that a player who dislikes the regular series gameplay may enjoy this game - so if any of my description interested you, please consider looking up video gameplay or more detailed reviews of the game to see whether you should give it a chance.

Who would enjoy playing this game: People who like touchscreen-based puzzles revolving around creating a path on a map.

Who would not enjoy playing this game: People who do not like puzzle games, or who prefer the regular Mario vs. Donkey Kong gameplay to this one (which I am certain also happened to many people who were fans of the series and bought this one without researching it, which just underscores the importance of looking up gameplay and not simply buying a game on the basis of it belonging to a series).

I hope that this article was informative, and possibly could cause you to consider playing some of these games for yourself. 

Thank you very much for reading.