I played Super Mario World. It was released in 1990 and the game’s creator is Nintendo. The platform of the game was originally played on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and other nintendo systems (e.g. Switch, Wii, DS), but I played the version adapted for a laptop on a web browser. The target audience is most children to adults, as the game has a rating of E for everyone. Since there is minor violence (e.g. jumping on goombas) and it is somewhat censored by the pixelation, I would say ages 5+ can play the game. The game originally contained Japanese text but an English version was adapted and many other languages in following years, so the target audience is also global.
Super Mario World invites the player to care about the world through its linear and emergent narrative and clear supporting character delineation. However, it is interesting to consider the gender norms that the narrative may perpetuate.
[Exposition in the beginning]
The linear and emergent narrative of Super Mario World invites players to care about the game through creating mini/smaller challenges to reach other parts of the narrative. In the start of the game, the player learns about their overarching goals through written text from the narrator or game master. This straightforward communication to the player creates a mechanic that the designer uses to lay the foundation of the game. The dynamic this creates is a preface that all the tiny actions by the player will contribute to a larger goal. The aesthetic this appeals to is challenge and fantasy. Because the designer explicitly tells the player their goal in the beginning, they can tap into the player’s desire to overcome obstacles and play the role of hero saving Princess Toadstool. This creates an overarching linear narrative where Mario/the player faces a conflict (missing princess) and reaches a resolution where he saves the day heroically. However, the designer leads the character through a series of small, manageable levels to build up to the goal such that a player could disregard the bigger goal and the narrative would “emerge” and be the player’s experience itself. I think this can be supported by the psychology of world building article that states the world building is creating a story for the player to care about. Right from the start, the designer uses the common damsel in distress trope to get the audience to care about Princess Toadstool, without even showing the princess herself.
[Mario dying after touching cute opponent]
[Yoshi clearly shown as a friend]
Another mechanic that Super Mario World uses is clear supporting character delineation between friend and foe. The psychology of worldbuilding article states that the second layer of worldbuilding is through the supporting characters driving the story in different directions (forward or backward). The designer makes it quickly clear to the player that Yoshi is a friend of Mario from the friendly note the player can read from Yoshi. In contrast, the opponents of Mario/the player are less explicit. Players learn that they are opponents through trial and error, namely by Mario turning red/falling off the screen when they touch and thus learn to jump over them in the future. A critique I have is the lack of visual difference between the character design of opponent and friendly characters in the game. By using the same bright colors in opponents, it is not immediately clear to the user that they are opponents. The opponent I think portrays an opponent clearly is the bullet, which is black and large, contrasting to Yoshi, green and small. I see the reason to make cute opponents may be to avoid being too frightening to young children, but I think finding another visual principle, like their primary color being red, could overcome this challenge.
An ethical topic that arose relating to Super Mario World for me was its reinforcement of patriarchal norms, which is unfortunately the premise of the narrative. Even in this version without Princess Peach, the common “damsel in distress” trope is completed with Princess Toadstool being the damsel and Mario being the hero. For so long, the media has treated women not as characters but as objects, a goal or reward for completing the game. My fear is that Super Mario World reinforces the notion that women are property of men, and men battle each other to win possession over a woman. While this is not explicit in any of Super Mario World’s narrative, it is embedded in the underlying narrative. Why do we learn so much about Yoshi’s (male or gender neutral) personality and skill while we learn none of that of Princess Toadstool? I think Nintendo later improves their narratives by giving female characters roles of power, such as Super Mario Galaxy’s Rosalina, who Mario completed missions for, but it is interesting to see the default of the character a user can play as to be male.
