Nintendo Okie

I have often heard people say that Mario games don’t need a story.  Tony himself said it a few podcasts ago.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some Goomba stomping action, but just because Mario games don’t need a story to be good doesn’t mean they should lack one.  Does it?  One could argue that Super Mario Bros. on the NES brought games back to life after the video game crash of 1983 so I can understand how “rescue the princess” was all the story you needed.    Those were the 8-bit days after all.  As Mario continued his adventures (and by that I mean rescue Peach time and time again) the mechanics and game play improved, but the story remained as deep as a rain puddle.  Why is that?  I have been thinking about this for a few days now and I still don’t have a good answer.  So as usual, I will pose these questions to all our faithful readers and hopefully get everybody to think about it. 

The rest of Nintendo’s “holy trinity” has evolved to include in depth stories. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption had the best voice acting I have ever heard in a Nintendo game and gobs of story to go with it.  I don’t know about anybody else, but when I was talking to that first Aurora Unit I was both freaked out and awe struck of the awesome story that had steamed from that original 2D game.  I can’t imagine how the Prime games would be without all the lore and journal entries to set up the universe around the game.  Keep in mind that the entire story of Metroid Prime was told through disassembled scans without a single spoken word.  It is an interesting way to tell a story when you think about it. 

What would the legion of rabid Zelda fans say if Link’s next installment had only one command, “stop Ganon”?  There would probably be rioting in the streets.  Thankfully this isn’t the case.  I hope not anyway.  The truth is the Zelda story is so complicated that the timeline will be argued till the Temple of Time itself crumbles to the ground.  Each game makes it worse too.  It is a nightmare for those like me who strive to have the story laid out in their head.  At the same time, the complexity of it all captures our curiosity and keeps us coming back for more.  With each game I wonder if Nintendo will reveal the Hyrule Rosetta Stone that will unlock the whole mystery.  They never will but wouldn’t it blow everybody’s mind if they did?

Resident Evil is another example of a complex universe surrounding a game franchise.  I have recently talked a friend of mine (an RE n00b) into playing Resident Evil 5 with me.  He has become hooked on the game and the history snippets during loading screens have made him curious about the story.  The crazy part is that each question he asks me is followed by a ten minute explanation that always ends with me saying, “it’s bananas, man.”  Heck, I tried to nutshell the main story to myself last night and it took me an hour!  This is one of the reasons I love the RE games so much.  The story is fascinating to me with its entire web tangling splendor.  Granted comparing Mario and RE is like holding a mushroom next to a hand grenade but game play aside, the addition of a good story always makes games better in my opinion. 

It’s not like a solid story will ruin a Mario game.  The Mario RPGs are popular and they all have clever writing surround the game play.  The Mario RPGs started back on the SNES too.  So how have the Mario platforming games got this far without any story to speak of.  I haven’t played Super Mario Sunshine yet.  Did I miss Mario’s one shot at a storyline?  Most people say that Sunshine is one of the lesser Mario games.  Could it be that the experience was killed by an actual story?  Super Mario Galaxy had Rosalina’s back story told through the picture books read to the Lumas.  I loved that story so much it even made me cry.  I was looking forward to more from Super Mario Galaxy 2 but the details we have so far say Galaxy 2 will focus more on game play and less on story.  This also makes me want to cry. 

I love Mario games and I will continue to play them as long as Nintendo keeps making them.  I would just like to see the story aspect catch up to the expectations of the times.  Just because Mario laid the foundation for modern day gaming doesn’t mean he should get a free ride when it comes to plot details.  Nintendo always seems to break new ground with game play, maybe they should turn some of that attention to giving their classic icon a last name.  Then after that he should fight Dennis Hopper.  Actually, scratch that last part.