Yesterday, I was participating in a thread about the great mysteries of gaming, and someone asked why it was that Bowser kept kidnapping Princess Peach. After a bit of thinking, I was able to come up with this:

Peach is the figurehead ruler of Mushroom Kingdom (the day to day running is in fact taken care of by the Chancellor) and while she has a living grandmother (Super Mario RPG), she does not appear to have any living parents in Mushroom Kingdom. Since she does not appear to have any brothers either, this should theoretically make her Queen Peach, but it does not, which would indicate that there is a problem with the succession.

It would therefore seem that the crown in Mushroom Kingdom can only be passed onto male heirs, much like how women aren't able to inherit the crysanthemum throne in Japan. Assuming that whomever Peach marries gains the crown, then to Bowser, the warrior ruler of the Koopa (and a small, resource poor land nestled in the volcanic mountains), this represents a golden opportunity.

If he is somehow able to kidnap (and hold) Peach, he can:

a) Force her to marry him, thus making him the legitimate heir to the crown in Mushroom Kingdom - the more likely scenario given the games.

b) Hold her captive indefinitely and either take over or control Mushroom Kingdom's resources and politics, using the threat of harm to their beloved princess as a bargaining chip. It would also help stifle rebellion and/or destroy the morale of any defenders.

All in all, this shows that the storyline of the Mario games is a lot deeper than would appear on the surface, with intrigue, war and geopolitical maneuvering going on right under our noses.

Click to expand...

This made me wonder somewhat about the Mario backstory. The Mario series has been described as many things but a deep, coherent story has not been one of them. I was thinking that perhaps we could reconstruct a story from the video games and their manuals. I know we perhaps shouldn't do this, but the subject piqued my curiosity and I have about an hour to kill.

I'll begin:

We know the story of Mario and Luigi's 'birth' from the Yoshi's Island games and Partners in Time. Partners in Time tends to suggest that the brothers were raised in Mushroom Kingdom, but it's likely that they were in fact raised in Italy, going by their accents. Of course, there may be a country in the Mushroom world that speaks gibberish Italian, which would make more sense and eliminates the need for the brothers to travel from Italy to the Mushroom Kingdom. This notion is contradicted though, which I'll note later on.

Now, as many of you already know, Mario's first appearance was in Donkey Kong, wherein he was described as a carpenter named Jump Man. I'll assume that Jump Man is Mario's nickname, given to him for his surprising athletic ability. In this game, he is trying to rescue his girlfriend Pauline from Donkey Kong. Nothing else is known about Pauline, but it seems that some time after the incident, they broke up and we never hear about her ever again.

At this point, Mario seems to try his hand at the plumbing game. Going into business with his twin brother Luigi in the original Mario Bros., they embark on a quest to rid the area's sewers of the monsters (flies, crabs, Koopa etc.) that have infested them for fun and profit. I'm not certain if they were paid for this work, or if they simply lived off the coins that they found floating out of the pipework. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't give us much of a backstory to work with.

Afterwards, came Super Mario Bros. The backstory from the manual:

One day the kingdom of the peaceful mushroom people was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles famous for their black magic. The quiet, peace-loving
Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks and even field horse-
hair plants, and the Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin.

The only one who can undo the magic spell on the Mushroom People and return them to their normal selves is the Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King. Unfortunately, she is presently in the hands of the great Koopa turtle king.

Mario, the hero of this story (maybe) hears about the Mushroom People's plight and sets out on a quest to free the Mushroom Princess from the evil Koopa and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People.

You are Mario! It's up to you to save the Mushroom People from the black magic of the Koopa!

Click to expand...

The SMB manual, it turns out, explains quite a lot. It explains the prevalence of floating bricks in the Mushroom Kingdom, the status of the Koopa as a 'tribe', the importance of Peach and Bowser's possible intentions in kidnapping her (to stop her from using her magical power to protect the Mushroom Kingdom while he launches an invasion).

It also tells us that Mario did not in fact know Peach personally at the start of the first game. He wasn't even living in the Mushroom Kingdom at the time, but had, during his job as a plumber, merely heard about the Mushroom Kingdom's plight. Given that he and his brother had already built up plenty of experience fighting the Koopa in the sewer system, they decided to help. Little did they know what they were in for.

This game introduced to the world many enemies including the Goomba: little mushrooms who betrayed the Mushroom Kingdom to join the Koopa Troop. I love these little guys.

SMB2 somehow all took place in Mario's dreams in the land of Subcon. He dreamt about enemies not commonly found in the Mushroom Kingdom - Snifits, Shyguys, Phantos, Ninjis etc. It is possible that the appearance of these enemies were actually just memories from his childhood (Yoshi's Island). The manual

SMB3 is where it starts to get interesting. It is in SMB3 that we're first introduced to Bowser's kids, after which, we never saw them again. It is once again in the manual that we're given more information:

The Mushroom Kingdom has been a peaceful place thanks to the brave deeds of
Mario and Luigi. The Mushroom Kingdom forms an entrance to the Mushroom World
where all is not well. Bowser has sent his 7 children to make mischief as they
please in the normally peaceful Mushroom World. They stile the royal magic
wands from each country in the Mushroom World and used them to turn their
kings into animals. Mario and Luigi must recover the royal magic wands from
Bowser's 7 kids and return the kings to their true forms. "Goodbye and good
luck!," said the Princess and Toad as Mario and Luigi set off on their journey
deep into the Mushroom World.

Click to expand...

The Mushroom Kingdom was in fact just a gateway to the Mushroom World - suggesting that the brothers are indeed from Italy and that they somehow found themselves in the Mushroom Kingdom (perhaps after wondering there through an wormhole in the sewers?)

I'll let you guys continue to flesh out the story with the events of World, Sunshine, Super Mario RPG, the Paper Marios, Luigi's Mansion and the Mario & Luigi games.

What about spin off games, you ask?. Well, I don't know if we should consider these canon, but I do find the story to Dr Mario rather amusing. According to Dr Mario, at one point, Mario took a job as a researcher at the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. From the manual:

Hi everybody! I'm Mario. How's it going? Over the last few years, I've
been involved in some pretty wild adventures. Now, believe it or not, I
work in the virus research lab at the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. Today I'm
about to begin my research as usual.

"Dr. Mario, something terrible has happened!"
"What's wrong, nurse Toadstool?"
"One of the experiments has gone out of control. The viruses are spreading
quickly!"
"Oh no! We've got to do something! I have just developed a new vitamin
that should be able to take care of it. I sure hope this stuff works!"

Click to expand...

Wild stuff.

AHH! BURN IT! SEND IT TO HELL!

This stuff was all answered in the Mario brothers movie. I think Bowser wants to turn us all into monkeys or something

...Not trying to start anything. But you said that games had become to complex and deep right? @_@ I think personally that Mario games are "explore and have fun" no real story. Just look at the games, it's about pick up and play with memorable characters. Really the story is as important to Mario games as Wii Fit is to killing gaming.


Nice effort though, thanks for putting it together.

I'd suggest this was the reason Nintendo didn't make an extensive backstory for Mario.

Nintendo never presented Mario as the Harry Potter of videogames.

titiklabingapat said:

Nintendo never presented Mario as the Harry Potter of videogames.

Click to expand...

I don't know about you but I always wondered how Mario got that hammer shaped scar on his ass.

As I explained when I started the thread, I know that the Mario backstory isn't terribly coherent. I was just wondering what kind of story, goofy as it may be, would emerge from putting the pieces together.

You know pong has a backstory too.

Its about the Thermonuclear War between two Races in the world of Pong, both sides have satellites that are used to bounce rockets away from their countries. This war has been going on for minutes and for some inexplicable reason a time-loop causes the whole war to begin over again when either side has been destroyed. They are tired of this endless war and need rest.

Or it might be, you-know about two moving blocks bouncing a ball around.

vicious_killer_squirrel said:

As I explained when I started the thread, I know that the Mario backstory isn't terribly coherent. I was just wondering what kind of story, goofy as it may be, would emerge from putting the pieces together.

Click to expand...

Something like your avatar? Haha.

Actually I think the begining of Mario is racist. You have the smaller but smarter white man jumping and dodging the big black gorrilas attacks to try and get back the white girl the black man stole. And using his God given intelligence he manages to defeat the savage and reclaim to girl. Miyamoto is a closet racist, why isn't Link black? Mario? Pikmin? all his characters are white...or purple.

Leave it to Mega64