Well good googly Christ: what can I say about this guy that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? I’ll start to say something and you’ll be all like "Shut yo mouf!" But I’m talikn’ bout Mario dig?

The first game I can remember playing is Donkey Kong on the ColecoVision my dad bought me. I’m sure I had played other games before, why else would my dad shell out the coin for a ColecoVision? (Other than he was trying to buy my love and assuage his guilt for breaking up the familial unit I had grown so accustomed to) But DK is the first game that stuck in my head. I played that game for months. I could play for hours on end on one life. I found the cheat for pissing Kong off and turning his face red. Man did I love that game. And even though the game was named after DK the true star was Mario. DK was the first Mario game. (Which is why I’ve always had a problem with Donkey Kong Jr.: it casts Mario as the villain. That ain’t right.)

Then came Mario Bros. Which of course introduced Mario’s oft-neglected brother Luigi. I’ve always been a big Luigi fan. In fact my brother and me came up with a name for Luigi – Super Spinach. It made sense when I was eight. Of course I played the holy hell out of Mario Bros too. That game along with Joust is one of the best 2 player games ever. And for the same reason: it can be played co-op or vs. or both. Many arguments were started and/or finished during the course of Mario Bros. Reign on my life.

"You shot that shell at me on purpose!"

"Did not!"

"Did too"

"Did so!"

"Hey you stole that one, he was mine!"

"That’s what you get for trying to shell me!’

"You want a shell? I’ll give you a shell!"

And so on….

Great, great stuff.

Then came the game that taught me how to curse: Super Mario Brothers. (Mario World is the game that taught me how to curse creatively) Actually, now that I think about it THIS is the game that introduced Super Spinach. When Luigi got a Mushroom, he became Super Spinach. That makes slightly more sense. But man, hard game. Especially for a kid still aged in the single digits. Indeed this was the game that helped me learn how to get the distance from my controllers. But I still played it religiously. I knew where all the warps were located, I knew about the life crowning tick with the turtle shell and the steps and I still hate those freaking fish. I think this game helped me with my asthma, cuz I sure built up my lungs from all that damn screaming. I’ve matured since then, now I just stifle my screams and weep bitterly when having a tough time with a game.

I never was all that fond of Mario 2. Much later I found out that it was because it wasn’t really a Mario game at all. It was just called Mario in North America. Which is not to say that it was a bad game, just not a Mario game. At least they had the common decency to make it all a dream at the end (sorry if I ruined it for you. Also – Soylent Green is people)

Mario 3 is the best Mario game ever. That is my belief. At least right now it is. And really, most Mario games are only separated by fractions of greatness. But man did 3 rock! I remember walking to the local video store as was daily ritual and seeing a strange and glorious game upon the shelf. It was the Japanese version of Mario 3 complete with the adapter. I didn’t know that. I just knew that it was a Mario game with funky letters on the cover. So I rented it for a week. A glorious, resplendent week. My friends and me muddled our way through a lot of the game figuring out what meant what as we went along. The first time we got airborne with the raccoon suit: man did we holler. We didn’t beat it though. I waited for the domestic version. Even then it took me a while until I saw the credits roll.

I could keep going on and on (and on…) about all the subsequent Mario releases but my point has been more than made. Any console that has a Mario game on it is in my collection (Those CDI and Where’s Mario games not included [God Damned pretenders to the Throne]). There is a magic to Mario games. Hell, there’s a magik to them too.

Admittedly the alchemy is different when transferred to the third dimension but no less potent. Mario 64 was a place – a world full of possibilities and countless nooks and crannies to explore. Racing the penguins and surfing a turtle shell through a world of lava and sitar music were new experiences, true, but are now just as much a part of the Mario Mythos as collecting coins and flower induced firepower. I could spend countless pages waxing nostalgic about my fond memories, but I won’t they are my memories, not yours. You should play all these games and make your on memories.

One last thing though - notice how I only talked about certain moments within these games. I never mentioned the play control, which is a large part of any game. This probably more than all is why I treasure these games so. The control is dead on perfect for all these games. Mario World still has the best camera system and how many years has it been out for?

Okay this, I promise, is the last of the last of the recollections about Mario and his games. My fondest memories? Playing with and watching my two younger brothers play these games.

- Tyler