Yesterday was Mar10 Day, and there are exciting things ahead. The final trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie came out, and the movie itself is roughly a month away from release. The Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park releases later this month. Nintendo also added some classics to the Nintendo Switch Online: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong for the Gameboy Advance, and Mario’s Tennis and Mario Clash for the Virtual Boy. But we’re not here to discuss those games.

Nope, we’re here to talk about how Mario games themselves have influenced us over our years of gaming! And, honestly… they haven’t influenced us too much, in my opinion. Both of us technically started our gaming journeys with Mario games. Mine was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on the SNES, which is arguably not a typical Super Mario game. I recall watching our older sister play the original Super Mario Bros. games between the NES and SNES, but Legend of the Seven Stars was the first Mario game I tried on my own.

I vaguely remember playing those games once in a while as I got a little older. Otherwise, I think I mainly watched you guys play those titles. I do remember watching you play Legend of the Seven Stars, but my first Mario title was Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. It was the first game I ever completed on my own. I find it funny that both of our starts with Mario games were RPGs as non-traditional Mario titles.

The genre of the games is what influenced us more than the titular character, I believe. Adventure-RPGs are a couple of my top genres, giving way to my more favored Nintendo franchises like the Legend of Zelda and Pokemon games. Mario, as thankful as I am to his character and franchise for helping to pave the way for video games as a whole, is not up there when it comes to games I really enjoy.

Which I find hilarious that Mario isn’t exactly a favorite of ours. But I do agree that I think it’s more so the genre that helped us recognize what our favorite games are. Mario was a great character to start with. I did always find myself enjoying the platformers, though. Super Mario 64 was a game we’ve gone back to here and there as kids and as adults. It was either New Year’s Day 2025 or 2024 that we got some new games for Christmas but we couldn’t decide what to play. So, we turned on Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo Switch Online. I also tend to play that title when I petsit or to have a quick gaming session if I don’t have a lot of time.

He was a great character to start our gaming journeys with, I agree, and his games are easy to pick up and play without any fuss. I appreciate his games for that. The platform games aren’t bad, and we did have some good times playing the newer Super Mario Bros. games for the later Nintendo consoles with our cousins and friends, but they were never my first pick. Starting with his RPG titles just highlighted our love of strong stories, as well. Visual novels grew to become one of our favorite genres during our gaming journeys, and growing up with RPGs definitely helped with that.

Yeah, we both tend to shy away from platformers. Although, I think I play more of that genre than you do. Not that I’m any good at them. I’m awful at platformers. They’re fun regardless, just not a go-to of mine. I did enjoy the New Super Mario Bros. games, but they weren’t nearly as fun to play alone. If I had no one around to play with then I just didn’t play the game. Despite us not playing Mario games too much, we almost always pick up the latest Mario title. We played Odyssey and Wonder and had a good time with them, but they weren’t the same as the older games, in my opinion. I prefer Super Mario 64 over Odyssey and New Super Mario Bros. 3D World over Wonder.

I agree that those kinds of games are better to play with others. To me, though, they didn’t have compelling enough stories to really get me into them. I recall that we beat the main story of Odyssey and, despite how popular that game was with the masses, it really wasn’t impressive to me. The graphics, mechanics, and gameplay were well done from a technical standpoint, but I wasn’t invested in it. I don’t even recall how far we got in Wonder – although the singing Piranha Plants were amazing in the first world – before we stopped turning that game on. Super Mario 64 is the main Mario platformer I will still turn on occasionally. It was simple and to the point with its levels and story.

I truly think they peaked with Super Mario 64 and haven’t been able to top it yet (at least for me). We’re the minority in this opinion, I think. Really though, I think part of it is that Mario turns 40 this year which makes him older than us. We didn’t get to start our gaming journeys alongside him when video games were growing in popularity. We were just born into the world of video games and we recently tried playing the older Mario platformers and we were so bad at them. We have a soft spot for the games that came out when we were kids.

Games like Legend of the Seven Stars and Paper Mario, which respectively came out for us when we were each about 6 or 7 years old, the prime time for us to start our gaming journeys. I do thank Mario for being there with us at the start of all of this, and I wish him a big happy birthday for being such an icon. I should turn on Legend of the Seven Stars again in honor of his birthday, but… Well, I’m a bit busy with Pokopia.

Kris

Kris is the older sister of the pair, and has been playing video games since she was able to read. She was introduced to the gaming world mainly by her uncles with the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 consoles.

As a child, she wanted to grow up to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle, but instead she works a typical 9 to 5 office job. Much of her other time is spent pet-sitting, writing, and role-playing shenanigans in tabletop RPGs.

Rachel

Often seen as the second player, Rachel grew up watching Kris play video games before she was old enough to pick up a Nintendo controller herself. Now she only sometimes gives Kris the hard bosses to defeat.

In real life, Rachel is a full-time pet sitter and part-time storyteller. She writes game reviews for Pure Nintendo Magazine, and is working on creating her own video game.