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List of LCD games featuring Mario

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Nintendohas released severalMarioandDonkey KongLCD video games for theGame & Watchseries.

Game & Watch games[edit]

Donkey Kong[edit]

Nintendo Donkey Kong Game and Watch

Donkey Kongwas developed byNintendo R&D1as part of theGame & WatchMulti Screenseries, featuring two LCD screens. Released in 1982,[1]it is aportof the arcade game, whereMariois a carpenter attempting to rescue his girlfriend from an evil, or at least angry, ape.

Like the arcadeDonkey Kong,Mario must climb a building while avoiding barrels, but beating the game is different from the arcade version. The player must trigger a lever on the upper screen, activating a hook, which Mario must then jump and catch. If the player succeeds, a peg will be removed and Mario will return to the starting point, but if the player does not, Mario will fall to the ground and lose a life. Removing all available pegs in this manner will cause Donkey Kong's platform to collapse, and he will fall to the ground.

A remake of the game was later featured inGame & Watch Gallery 2(1997) and4(2002).

Donkey Kong Jr.[edit]

Nintendo Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch

In this 1982 game, the player controlsDonkey Kong Jr.as he works to save his father,Donkey Kong,while watching out for obstacles likecrocodiles,birds, and electric flashes. The game was released as part of theMini-Classicsseries in 1998 (a set of fourGame & Watchgamesportedto smallkeychain-bound handhelds), and was later included inGame & Watch Gallery 3(2000) and4(2002), and as DSiWare game in 2010.[2]

In this game,Mariogives payback toDonkey Kongfor stealing his girlfriend,Pauline,by locking him up in a cage.

Donkey Kong II[edit]

Donkey Kong II

Donkey Kong II,which is similar toDonkey Kong Jr.,was developed byNintendo R&D1and released as part of theGame & WatchVertical Multi Screenseries, featuring two LCD screens. It was released in 1983.[1]Donkey Kong Jr. must touch a key, which makes it move up to the top screen. He must then climb to the top screen while avoiding things such as electrical wires, crocodiles & birds. When he gets to the top screen, he must touch the key again, which makes it move right next to a keyhole below one of the chains. He must then climb up the rope below the keyhole, while avoiding birds. When he gets to the top of the rope, one of the chains will unlock. He must do this 4 times until he saves Donkey Kong. After that, the game will start over, at a somewhat faster pace. The game was later included inGame & Watch Gallery 3(2000).

Donkey Kong Circus[edit]

Donkey Kong Circusis aGame & WatchPanoramaseries game released in 1984 as an edit to an earlier Mickey Mouse game.[1]In this game, the player controlsDonkey Kong,who is placed on a barrel while juggling pineapples and avoiding flames. This game is very similar toMario the Juggler,the lastGame & Watchgame, as they both involve a character juggling while avoiding objects.

Donkey Kong Hockey[edit]

Donkey Kong Hockeywas developed byNintendo R&D1and released in 1984 as part of theGame & WatchMicro Vs.series. The game features one LCD screen and two attached control pads. The hockey features Donkey Kong as one of the players and Mario as the other.

Mario Bros.[edit]

Mario Bros.is aGame & WatchMulti Screenseries game byNintendoreleased on March 14, 1983.[3]Despite the title, it is unrelated in gameplay to theMario Bros.arcade game. It is the first appearance ofLuigi,as the Game & Watch version predates the arcade game by almost two weeks.

In this game,Luigiis on the left screen andMariois on the right screen. The game'sclamshelldesign is unusual in the series; it opens horizontally like a book (in theJapaneseright to leftreading order) and not vertically (like theNintendo DS).[4]The brothers are working in abottling plant,moving packages between the various levels of the bottling machine.

The only controls for the game are up and down buttons for each brother. Mario first gets a pallet out of the machine on the lowest level and puts in on theconveyor belt.Luigi then takes it from the other side and puts it on the belt above it. There are 3 points on each side the brothers must do this. Finally, once the package is filled Luigi tosses it onto the delivery truck. Once the truck is full, the brothers get a short break. If the brothers drop a pallet, they are yelled at by their bosses. If three pallets are dropped, the game will end.

A homebrew port and sequel, titledMario Bros. II,was also released in 1987 by Thundersoft for theCommodore 64.It replaced the bottle factory with a cake factory.[5][6]

In theremakesof this game forGame & Watch Gallery 3and4,[2]Mario and Luigi are catching what becomes a cake, which is boxed and wrapped up for delivery (withWarioportraying the delivery man). The remakes add a new twist to the game by havingBowser,who waits at the top middle of the screen, cause the conveyor belt to reverse on occasion, forcing Mario and Luigi to correct it with switches placed at their sides.

Like nearly allGame & Watchtitles,Mario Bros.features the standard Game A and tougher Game B.

Mario the Juggler[edit]

Mario the Juggleris aGame & WatchNew Wide Screenseries game featuringMarioas the juggler in the very first Game & Watch game,Ball.Released byNintendoin October 1991,[1]it was the final game to be released in theGame & Watchseries.

Mario's Bombs Away[edit]

Mario's Bombs Away

Mario's Bombs Awayis aGame & WatchPanoramaseries game released in 1983.[1]

The game consists of a military-clad Mario delivering bombs from left to right, while keeping them away from flaming oil spills and enemy torches. It features a colour LCD screen without an internal back-light, which faces downward in order to expose the translucent rear to an external light source, e.g. daylight. The player views the action in a mirror that reflects the screen.

The game was later included inGame & Watch Gallery 4(2002).

Mario's Cement Factory[edit]

Mario's Cement Factory Tabletop

Mario's Cement Factorywas a game developed byNintendo R&D1and first released in 1983 for theGame & WatchTabletopseries.[1]The game was soon after released as part of theGame & Watch New Wide Screenseries, and also as part of theMini-Classicsseries in 1998 (a set of fourGame & Watchgamesportedto smallkeychain-bound handhelds). It was also remade as part ofGame Boy GalleryandGame & Watch Gallery 4,and has aDSiWarerelease.[7]

In this game, the player assumes the role ofMario,working in acementfactory.The player must empty cement from the hoppers into the cement trucks below. A conveyor belt at the top moves cement into hoppers which can only hold three loads at a time. An alarm sounds when one has been filled to capacity. To move Mario around the screen, the player must use elevators located at the center. If the player moves to the center when an elevator is not present, Mario falls to the bottom and loses a life. Losing a life may also occur if the player stays on the elevator too long, in which case Mario will either fall or be crushed.

There are safe zones at the top and bottom of the elevators allowing Mario to hang without danger of being hurt.

The game includes two game modes, Game A and Game B. By selecting Game B, the player begins at a higher difficulty level than Game mode A. It was also the 7th Mario game.

Super Mario Bros.[edit]

Super Mario Bros.was released in two different versions: YM-801 (Crystal Screen series, released June 1986) and YM-105 (New Wide Screen series, released March 1988).[1]Later the same game was repackaged into a yellow special edition Disk-Kun character case (YM-901-S), a character used to advertise the Famicom Disk System. This version was limited to 10,000 units, never sold in stores, and given away to winners of the Famicoms F-1 Grand Prix tournament.

The game plays like a scaled down version of the original NES game and features eight levels, whichMariomust pass in order to rescue the princess. The game also features 1 Up Mushrooms, Stars, and the enemies Bullet Bill and Lakitu.

Each of the eight worlds feature Mario navigating a scrolling platformer. Mario must avoid getting trapped behind walls as the screen scrolls and navigate successful jumps which can lead to falling into the water below. The level progresses until Mario has moved all of the allotted "distance" points. Distance points are removed for each successful forward movement and added on for each successful backwards movement. Upon beating the eighth level, Mario receives a kiss from the princess, Bowser is thrown out of the castle, and then the game loops with longer distances.

Within the levels,1-Up MushroomsandStars—staples of theMarioseries—can be found by hitting the floor above Mario. When the mushroom is collected they will add a life (unless Mario has the maximum 3 reserved lives, in which case only points will be added); when the Star is collected Mario will be invincible for 10 seconds.

Game watches[edit]

From the early mid-1980s to the late mid-1990s,Nelsonic Industriesproduced a line of multi-purposewristwatchescalled Game Watches. These electronic devices employed an LCD to either tell the time or to allow players to play a game. In 1989, Nelsonic obtained licensing from Nintendo to produce a series of Game Watches based on popular Nintendo franchises such asMario/Donkey Kong,The Legend of Zelda,andStar Fox.These games would enjoy limited inherited popularity based on the popularities of the original series, and they would periodically be re-released in a variety of colors. Originally retailing at moderate prices, these games have now become collectors items on the secondary market and fetch large prices at places like eBay.

The earliest of the Nintendo-licensed watches wasSuper Mario Bros.,which was released in June 1989.[8][9]TheSuper Mario Bros. 2Game Watch was released shortly after.[10]Subsequent to this Nelsonic released Game Watch versions ofSuper Mario Bros. 3(1990),[11][12]Super Mario Bros. 4(1991, based onSuper Mario World),[11][12]andSuper Mario Race(1992).[13]Additionally,Donkey Kong(1994) was released as a wristwatch, featuring Mario.[14]

Critics were generally pleased with the game watches and praised their stylishness as articles of clothing. Gameplay was roundly criticized as oversimplified, however, and the watches were considered to have been largely unsuccessful in evoking their original NES title namesakes.Super Mario Brothers 3was described as "nothing like the NES game" and its single-screen layout resulted in play dynamics that were described as "boring".[15]

List of games in the Mario series for the
Nelsonic Game Watch line
Title Date of release Based on
Super Mario Bros. June 1989 Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2 1989 Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3 1990
1992 (UK)[15]
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario Bros. 4 1991 Super Mario World
Super Mario Race 1992 Super Mario Kart
Donkey Kong 1994 Donkey Kong

Barcode Battler II game[edit]

In 1992,Epoch Co.was licensed to print a series of Nintendo-themed cards for theirBarcode Battler IIplatform. Card sets were printed with both Mario and Zelda themes.[16][17]Functioning similarly to an LCDe-Reader,the Barcode Battler II required players to swipe barcodes printed on cards across a visual input in order to enter characters, enemies, items, and spells into the console. TheSuper Mario World: Super Mario Bros. 4set features 30 software-only cards and is based on the SNES's originalSuper Mario World.[18][19][20]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefg"Obscure Pixels - Nintendo Game&Watch".Archived fromthe originalon 30 November 2018.Retrieved11 July2009.
  2. ^ab"The Complete GAME & WATCH Gallery Collection (GB/GBC/GBA/NDS) << Balduin Blog".10 June 2007. Archived fromthe originalon 13 November 2007.Retrieved11 July2009.
  3. ^Aaron's G&W Archives (section: Nintendo 1980s G&W Flyers from Japan)Archived29 October 2009 at theWayback Machine;see link to 'Donkey Kong II/Mario Bros. Flyer'. 2006-01-05. Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  4. ^Redsell, Adam (9 November 2012)."The Secret Life of Super Mario".AusGamers.Retrieved8 June2021.I am of course referring toMario Bros. IIfor the Commodore 64 (!), the highly anticipated follow up to the Game & Watch version of Mario Bros. Now, when I say "bakery" I really mean "cake factory"; and when I say "cake factory", I really mean the same bottle factory they worked in four years earlier. Repurposed. For cakes.
  5. ^"MARIO BROS II".Retro Gamer.25 August 2008. 25 August 2008.Retrieved8 June2021.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: location (link)
  6. ^"GAME&WATCH".Nintendo.co.jp. 10 July 2009.Archivedfrom the original on 24 November 2017.Retrieved11 July2009.
  7. ^"Mario Bros. (wristwatch) (GW)".GameSpy.com. Archived fromthe originalon 17 December 2007.Retrieved12 March2010.
  8. ^"Mario Bros. (wristwatch)".IGN.com. Archived fromthe originalon 11 December 2007.Retrieved12 March2010.
  9. ^"Handheld Museum- Nelsonic Super Mario Bros. 2".Handheld Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 25 September 2009.Retrieved18 March2009.
  10. ^ab"Super Mario Bros. 3 Game & Watch (wristwatch)".IGN.com.Archived fromthe originalon 29 December 2007.Retrieved12 March2010.
  11. ^ab"Super Mario World (wristwatch)".IGN.com. Archived fromthe originalon 2 March 2007.Retrieved12 March2010.
  12. ^"Handheld Museum- Nelsonic Super Mario Race".Handheld Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 4 August 2009.Retrieved18 March2009.
  13. ^"Handheld Museum- Nelsonic Donkey Kong".Handheld Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 16 January 2021.Retrieved27 February2009.
  14. ^abBielby, Matt, ed.No. 1 Nintendo Game Watches.Super Play.Issue 2. Pg. 21. December 1992.
  15. ^Conveni Wars - Barcode Battler IIArchived26 July 2011 at theWayback Machine.Epoch, Co. 1993.
  16. ^Thayer, Andy.Barcode Battler: Gone but not ForgottenArchived19 October 2012 at theWayback Machine.1up.com.29 July 2011.
  17. ^"Archived copy".Archivedfrom the original on 1 October 2011.Retrieved7 August2011.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^"Archived copy".Archivedfrom the original on 17 February 2014.Retrieved7 August2011.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  19. ^"Archived copy".Archivedfrom the original on 17 February 2014.Retrieved7 August2011.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)