Wow, Mario was originally packing heat.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/114/1140839p1.html?_cmpid=ign18

Some rather interesting tidbits about the development of Mario and how Mario Brothers turned into what it is. If Mario had a gun, I bet the franchise wouldn't have made it far off the ground, and Mario would be the one getting the Shadow The Hedgehog type game.

Yep. It's even mentioned on the video game What Could Have Been trope page.

I found it interesting that Mario had a gun. I wonder how that could've affected the Mario series.

The rest of the quotes about Mario's development is fairly interesting too. Like this one.

clever, really clever.

I like how they chose to make the face simpler by just putting a hat on him. Ooh, mario was supposed to fly.

hmm related articles seem disappointing.

edited 20th Dec '10 10:39:04 PM by captaintheCaptaiN

...The last one was mentioned in the first one.

Why am I expecting rallyfan to post something here?

Mario's been so entrenched in our consciousness it's kind of hard to imagine him being any other way, but even he was a single design decision once.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escapist-news-network/2416-Nintendonts

2:14 mark. It has one interpretation of what the world would be like if Mario kept the gun.

So, Mario was going to be a Carabinieri?

edited 21st Dec '10 12:37:04 AM by RocketDude

Thats pretty interesting actually. its always fun when we look into the design process for different forms of media, where we hear why they did what they did, isn't it? Personally I love it.

So much goes into games now, and even more back then, when often games were created with a total staff you could count off on one hand.

I actually think thats part of the reason this wiki exists! It may have been tvtropes at first, now its mediatropes

edited 21st Dec '10 1:44:23 AM by anathame

Why am I expecting rallyfan to post something here?

That would be pretty impressive on his part.

Interesting to see this, though.

Many of those ideas where later used in Super Mario Land, so it's not a total loss.

So would this have meant that Mario would have evolved into something along the lines of Ratchet And Clank or into a cutified Metal Slug?

It probably would have gone nowhere thanks to the clunky control scheme. Up to jump? Really?

It reminds when I saw Super Mario 64 for the first time and thought, "I wonder what would happen if Mario had a gun?"

edited 21st Dec '10 10:39:29 AM by rmctagg09

Mario would probably have a 3rd person shooter instead of platforming in Super Mario 64.

Yeah, all Mario does is jump on animals to crush and kill them, and throw fireballs.

"Where's-a that DAMN 4th Star?!"

I always did picture Red M using a gun. I had Cowboy Bebop and Trigun to blame for some reason. I guess not, with this "Prototype" fact, many people can't just say "preposterous," unthinkable," of "blasphemy."

Also, "Let's put him in New York and make him Italian?"

Why do I have the feeling that this only adds fuel to those that follow the "Raised in Brookyn" theory?

edited 21st Dec '10 3:26:08 PM by asiacatdogblue

Mario: Other M.

Where the "M" means the mob.

I did not know there were... er, MST's of Let's Plays. As if Let's Plays themselves weren't entertaining enough already.

That video kind of reminded me of the Mario in Vice City skit on Robot Chicken (where at the end he just starts talking like a typical Italian mobster).

edited 21st Dec '10 4:45:21 PM by Customer

As if Let's Plays themselves weren't entertaining enough already.

Sturgeon's Law applies heavily to Let's Plays, just to let you know.

That should go without saying, really.

edited 21st Dec '10 4:23:25 PM by Komodin

Yeah, I was gonna pothole to that and Your Mileage May Vary but felt it'd be a bit redundant.

Well, if that happened, games would die.