Mario Is Missing! (SNES) - Part 1

For the very first time in this site, i will review a Mario game. But don't get too excited there! It's not real Mario game. It's education game with Mario name on its title but i play as his brother Luigi. It's The Software Toolworks' Mario Is Missing! (1993). 

Mario looks fine and such until a mysterious wide hole appears beneath his feet. Then he falls into the void and never  been seen again...

 

...not really. He falls to this tundra and meet with Luigi and Yoshi. It's funny you say 'drop', Luigi. Very Funny.    

 

But another hole appears and Mario falls [World-sized pun intention] for it again. But this time, he's really missing! *Cue the title, Ladies & Gentlemen!*

Luigi told Yoshi to stay while he searches for his missing brother. Instead of -i don't know- jumping into the hole, Luigi goes inside the castle and leaves Yoshi (also me) confused with his incoherent action.

Then here comes the real title. No configuration options here. Only 'New Game' and 'Continue Game'. Fine, i'll hit the new game option.  

This is the castle's interior and it looks gorgeous what's with cell doors, armor statue, and Ludwig von Koopa's banner. I confess that my knowledge about Bowser's children is not good but i can guess that smug with blue hair is Ludwig right away. Sometime, i quite proud about myself. Anyway, what's behind this door? Probably a dungeon like in RPGs that most likely not ends with Mario being caged because that will make the game shorter than my knowledge about the koopalings. 

Hold up! Why am i transported via pipe all of sudden into this lovely town? I'm sure i just went to that castle's dungeon room. But whatever. There's pipe and there's troopa koopas (that are whispering about how ugly Ludwig's hair). This is (kind of) Mario game, you know what to do? Stomp 'em!

As soon as i leave the pipe, the yellow cactus appears and that's okay. But, what's  Einstein bloody doing here in (not so) Mario game here?

 

I try talk to Einstein but he refuse to acknowledge me. The genius jerk. On the other hand, i can talk to this kid just fine. Wait a minute! Is that Princess Peach in blue dress on that counter?

Apparently, she becomes booth attendant for The Sistine Chapel. She informs me that it's closed temporary because the chapel's ceiling is bloody missing! That's right! The artistic yet gigantic ceiling is missing. With how enormous size of the thing, how come it's missing without leaving any trace or clue? Anyway, the "Princess Peach" hands me this brochure but to be more accurate it's more like first page of newspaper about the missing of The Chapel's ceiling and historical texts about the chapel itself.   

If you press 'R' button, you can bring this minimap on top to navigate this city easier. Or you can close it by pressing the same button if you don't like minimap. Like who am i to judge you for hating minimap? Oh my god! Look at that fat lips of that housewife! She's ugly, no matter how many makeup she glosses over her face this morning. 

Time to bring up the pause menu! We have: 1) Artifact, which is the list of missing object that i have found currently (which is none for now) 2) Computer, which contains the newspaper and the dialogue of NPCs that i have talked so far 3) Globulator, which display overworld 4) City Map, which is quite self explanatory. 4) Photo Album, which shows you the collection of Luigi's photo but don't expect his photo of either embarrassing moment or his childhood because that doesn't exist there.

 

Here's what Globulator is, you will control Yoshi and you have to move him to somewhere where Luigi is so he can ride Yoshi immediately. Apparently, Yoshi is waiting at Bowser's Castle [reasonable] on Antarctica [now this is remarkable]! So  Bowser have castle besides in Mushroom Kingdom universe and it's on the south pole of our very world! Stay out of the southern icy continent, kids!     

With a bit hint from the NPCs, i know that Luigi is currently in Italy which i assume it's the hometown of his and Mario's great great grandparents. So i guide Yoshi to the part that like shoe of Europe continent, but wait! Why there's big ocean lies in west of great Asian region? Isn't that supposed to be where Europe continent lies? I'm quite confident about my knowledge about common Geography, alright? I'm not stupid.  

Turns out if Yoshi keep walks to left, he will reaches the Europe continent and the ocean is gone. That's lousy mapping there, The Software Toolworks!

I will tell you later about the benefit of ridding the green dinosaurs, from now let's say it's better for Luigi to ride on his dino friend than break his own leg venturing Rome. You see, that stone or scrap thing-y on the road near the door of the left building? That's the artifact that you need to pick up by pressing jump button ('B' button). You will inevitably jump near the thing, of course. It's dropped from one of koopa troopa because they steal the artifacts, you see. One of the artifact is the artistic ceiling. I don't want to sound like Angry Video Game Nerd, but how the hell do you fit such huge thing inside that looks barely like tiny pouch there? Scout_sf13_magicreac05.wav

 

i proudly presents you the front view of Yoshi, in case you're curious about it. If this makes you uneasy, i'm sorry. Anyway, you can travel to other section of the town by pressing up or down button if you're in a walkway. If you do that on the middle road, you can't travel and there's horn sound although i'm sure there's no car anywhere within this city.

You can also press 'select' button to bring out the city map but only if you have turned on the minimap. Just like the minimap, everyone is moving in real time unlike in city map on pause screen but maybe that's because i pause the game. :p  

 

Cue the police's siren! I'm on hot pursuit of 2 koopa troopas with a policewoman behinds me who can't do anything in this Mushroom Kingdom's common routine.

I forget to mention that you press 'A' button to talk to NPCs or the booth attendants. If you talk to one of the NPCs you can either ask about this place or opinion about one of the artifact but you can't choose the specific item. This -your generic- fat tourist gives me information about the coins of Trevi fountain that i just picked up. Demoman_thanks02.wav

 

Ok, time to be a good guy and return the ceiling where it belongs...what is this? I have to answer her questions to prove the originality of the artifact i get! Would ask some expert to analyze it, is more relevant than just some pop quiz? Whatever.

First, she asks about who made the ceiling. The answer is Michelangelo. Simple! Next, she ask what Sistine means. Paintbrush, maybe. *shrug*   

 

Ok, my answer is wrong but no need to be so salty like that, you git. Then i can't go back to the quiz immediately because when i talk to her again, she refuse and stating that she is busy. Actually, the game wants you to talk to people about more fact on the ceiling before you can do the quiz again.

In case you're wondering about how the computer looks, here it is. It presents us with this easily-readable table. The Row headers represent the topic: the artifacts and the geography location of the city. While the column headers represent the NPCs and the brochure/newspaper that you have heard or read. You can replay the dialogue or reread the brochure/newspaper by pressing 'Y' button on highlighted cell. This is useful especially to "arm" yourself against the quiz.

Ah, thank you, Einstein! That's the information that i look for. You can't speak to NPCs if you press the 'A' on their back. Maybe it teaches you not to talk to someone from their behind but i'm accustomed in any RPGs that the NPCs will automatically face me if i strike a conversation to them. So that good manner teaching is kind of moot to me.

Thanks to the hint of the genius professor, i manage to answer the question well this time and now she let me return the ceiling. I got money for that good deed and also good luck word for finding Mario. Oh, right! I was searching for the famous Italian plumber. What am i doing up until now?

Whatever! I will just continue to walk around this city and return the artifact because Luigi is basically good guy. This time the artifact that game chose within my possession is coins from Trevi fountain as hinted by the ugly lady. I understand that coins are easy to steal by koopa troopas but they're not integral part thus why Trevi fountain is shut down because of their missing? If the stolen part is the statue of the fountain, i can understand. But again, it's not something that can fits into the small pouch. 

Sometime the question is something obvious like this. I mean she, the brochure and me already said that Trevi is the name of a fountain not a restaurant obviously. My weakness lies on time period topic. It seems too much for me to remember the date on history lesson especially the exact time that includes day, month, and year. I have this weakness since i was elementary school boy. Heck! I can't even remember my parent's birthday or my brother's. And of course, i can remember mine because i'm goddamn selfish.

There's 3 stolen artifact in total. But i only retrieve 2 of them. Apparently, 1 is missing because it's vanished if left unpicked off-screen. Therefore when i exit the town, this message appears. The exit pipe is blocked by the cactus. But if Yoshi is present, the cactus retreats and you can use the pipe to exit the city.   

 

That means i have to go back to Rome and...OH MY GOD! The koopa troopa's number is multiplied! Poor Timmy is surrounded by koopa troopas and the ugly lady too. It seems the game punishes me by adding more koopa troopas which makes finding the artifact harder. But to me the game becomes more interesting. I mean sure. The koopa troopa stomping activity becomes more frequent to the point of being jarring, but hey! That's what you expect from Mario game, right? Even though, we know this is not Mario's game. It's technically Luigi's game.

 

Here's what i mean by the game choose the artifact for you. I have all the 3 but would it be better if i return the spear to the coliseum instead present the ceiling here? Of course, yes. But "No!" said the game. I have to return the ceiling to the chapel, again. Scout_jeers10.wav 

 

This is what i forgot to do. You can enter the tourist attraction that you have saved. Here's The Trevi Fountain but i can hardly see the coins. Why the coins are so important, again? Anyway, i can't find Mario here but at least i can see nice digital replica of the fountain here.  

Now that the artifacts in Rome are all safely returned (although there's still koopa troopas around), i can move on to next level which takes place in China. I can tell that here is China by looking at the structures and China-fied Super Mario World theme around here. Therefore, i ask Yoshi (who's always start at Antarctica) to get to China.

 

But before, i tell Yoshi to go to Beijing. I check my beloved country first, Indonesia. Well, freak! It misses Java Island (where i reside here right now), Sulawesi Island, and Irian island. Kalimantan/Borneo Island looks like lose some weight there. What's that island on corner of South East supposed to be? Sumbawa Island? That's way too big! Maybe a lots of you don't know about Indonesia that much, but at least you know Bali Island which roughly lies between Java Island and Lombok Island (that's on the west of Sumbawa Island), right? It's not in here too. I'm very disappointed with your Geography knowledge, The Software Toolworks. >:I

You know what's the famous landmark in China? That's, right! It's The Great Wall of China. But it's currently closed due to missing stone. Which important part of The Great Wall, is this stone? Beats me. The thing that really weird to me is the reward for returning the said stone. It's in Dollar instead of Yuan and it cracks me up. I know the strangeness also happens before in Rome where it's supposed to be Lira but i just realize this currency misusing now because i'm not so bright.

You can count on the police to give you well-guiding direction. The child gives you information that often relates with his childhood experience. Einstein tells information in scientific manner. They all have character, is what i like to say.

Nice try, The Software Toolworks! But i know that you like to use imperial units so i'm certain that the answer is in the most option. I laugh at the funny fact that China use USA's standard because that's not what happen in real life, again.

By using savestate in between the questions, i can finish the stage quite easily. I fail to notice earlier that there's scoring system in the game. But i don't think it's neither important nor relevant.

The doors that lead to well-secured city, are sealed with bricks. And there's Ludwig Von Koopa himself behind this bars. Maybe i will fight him once i finish the remaining stages in this hub which is still many. The duel between Ludwig Von Koopa versus Werdito Von Izenger will be delayed on next article....maybe.