Episode 45 – This Generations Mario

The name Mario evokes such a great feeling of nostalgia in me, and many other people who had an eight bit childhood. Saying it or even hearing the tiniest bit of that theme song floods me with emotions and memories of happier times when we had zero responsibility and life was good. Since the original Mario was released a lot has changed in the world, and in video games. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes that there are a great number of people who didn’t grow up playing 8bit games. They grew up playing 16 bit games, or 32/64 bit games! And I’m sure there is some kid whose first console ever is the Wii, and he wont understand how revolutionary it truly is.

A current high school senior was born in 1989. That means they probably didn’t even see a video game until they were 5… 1994. That’s 2 years after the SNES dropped. If they were the eldest in their family, then they never even saw my beloved NES, and (unless they had Mario All Stars) never played Super Mario Bros.

If that’s not enough to freak you out consider this: anyone just a mere 2 years younger than the current Seniors (that would be Sophomores for those playing the home game) probably didn’t even play the SNES and jumped right into the PlayStation or N64. Now that really freaks me out.

So if Mario, and the Mario theme (along with seeing that 8bit pixilated beauty of a sprite) can bring such a sense of nostalgia what will do it for these guys?

For players of those two generations I think it may maintain at Mario, either World or 64 as those are quite iconic and two really great games. However I can easily see Sonic replacing Mario for those unfortunate children who didn’t have an SENS, and instead had a Genesis. As I said before Sony never really had a mascot or a game that was bundled with the PS1 so I don’t really know where those kids will turn for nostalgia.

The thing with those games though is that none of them were as groundbreaking as Super Mario Bros. I mean that game set the bar for just about every video game that was released after it.

This may sound a little pre-emptive but I have a sneaking suspicion that Halo may very well be this generations Mario, in terms of nostalgia. Halo, like Mario before it, really set the standard for every game to follow it. Just think about how many other games have been called the “Halo killer.” It seems like every first person shooter that comes out on the PS2 (and now PS3) is being called “Sony’s Halo killer.” Most recently it was Resistance: Fall of Man. But what ever the next one is, it will don the title too.

The Master Chief certainly is iconic looking enough. He has the clean lines that icons yearn for, the kind of guy that even the most terrible of artists can draw and people will understand who it is. Mario had that. You put any guy in overalls and a red shirt and you’ve got Mario.

But to make a game rich in nostalgia it must have memorable music. I’d say Halo’s music stands out among other games. And I’d also say most gamers would be able to pick it out; much easier than say from Call of Duty or Project Gotham Racing.

Coupling all these things together with the fact that Halo 2 is still the most played game on Xbox Live a solid two years after its release. And if Live was invented when Halo 1 came out I can guarantee that would be the most played game on Live. It’s still a favorite when people get together. All this tells me that the Halo brand is alive and kicking ass in more places than just my own mind. And we all know that when a brand gets this much esteem and praise it was because the first title was solid.

So I’ll say it again. I truly believe that Halo will be this generation of gamers Mario.

I had been thinking about this for a while… until I saw this video. It is an extremely talented group of High School students performing the Halo theme at some HS talent event in the middle of nowhere Illinois. They totally rock the song, with much of the rocking coming from a violin… my new favorite instrument.

So obviously these guys know what they’re doing they could have played any song and it would have been awesome. I can only imagine what the Zelda theme would have sounded like. Probably beyond anything I could ever hope for in my lifetime. So with any piece of music ever written at their disposal they chose the theme from Halo. That right there speaks loads about them.

What I thought was most interesting was that towards the end of the song just as they are kicking as and rocking harder than Kiss in the 80s they launch into the Super Mario Bros theme. It got the (mostly non-gamer) crowd a little more into the performance because they all cheered once it started. I initially took it as just that, a simple “here you old fogies might recognize this” additive to appease the parents in the audience.

But the more I think about it, and listen to the song (which has to be near a dozen times in the past two days) I think its more of a passing of the torch, a nod to the elders as the new generation moves foreword. A subtle way of saying, “this is the song for our generation, you guys had Mario, and we respect that, but this one is ours.”

Some gamers might not be happy about this and really, calling something the "new Mario" won't make anyone who is archaic enough to remember Super Mario Bros happy. And while Halo may not have had the effect on us the way Mario did, but we are passed the age where these things can make a difference. It's up to the new generation. They need to choose the game upon which their nostalgia lays. And I believe they have spoken...



(there is also a 'studio' version… also amazing)

[Edit: added the last paragraph. - eight]