mgaughan – Games and Culture

The Dark Side of Nintendo: Mother 3

Everyone knows Nintendo for being the game company that creates games that usually target children. They make light-hearted game series such as Mario and Kirby that are just fun games where players commonly run around, jump on things, copy enemy powers, and save the princess. No one would ever expect a Nintendo game with familial and animal abuse, characters with questionable gender, a once-peaceful village corrupted by modernization, or a twin brother who kills himself shortly after finding his own twin who he has not seen for over three years. No would ever expect it but that’s precisely what everyone got in Mother 3, the darkest game to ever be developed and produced by Nintendo.… Read the rest

Mario’s Extra Lives: The Theory of Schrodinger’s Cat

In Super Mario Bros., why does Mario start out with three lives? No, I’m not talking about how it’s less burden on the player if they mess up or how the player can just start over if they die. Looking at the question from Mario’s perspective, why does he have three lives? There’s clearly only one Mario and if he dies, he is dead; so there must be some factor giving him extra chances. Since there is only one Mario, the only conclusion we can draw is that he is not dead when he dies (sometimes) but how is that possible? … Read the rest