Let's Wander the World- Mario Is Missing!

Ahh, so this is how I was able to play through this game multiple times as a youth.

Seriously.

So, are we going to see playthroughs of Mario's Time Machine and Mario Teaches Typing?

Every second it gets worse and worse. The sound Yoshi makes at the end is utter horror.

Mario Paint?

YAO. YAO. YAO. YAO. YAO.

I was planning on doing the next update tonight from the road, but the hotel internet is a special kind of fail. I can only get access in the hotel bar and I don't think Mario Is Missing works well with beer.

Next update will be Thursday at the earliest.

Moscow! This has my favorite music from the game. (True awesomeness begins at 15 seconds in.) In other news, I thought Russia was considered part of the Asian continent?


Is... is this supposed to be helpful? Was there a day in school where we learned that alphabet and I happened to be sick? Also, is Cyrillic normally spelled this way? I've never seen that spelling before.



Here are our three missing items:

Okay, can I hurt this kid now?



Artifacts collected! Slightly odd is that despite the pamphlet saying we were looking for a cannonball we found have cannon, but oh well.



Another "Wha?" moment with the possible answers:



I thought it was interesting that only the joke answer has the alternate spelling of Tsar:

One of the other things I like about Moscow is how absolutely impressive the pixel art for the sites is. St. Basil's and the Kremlin are nice examples of shading, but the Bolshoi Ballet picture has always impressed me. It uses so few colours but it really looks fantastic.

Moscow. Zoom in on the Kremlin (Point C). You can see the gold tops! And no, I have no idea what's going on with the driving directions at the end there.

Bolshoi Theatre



The Kremlin



St. Basil's Cathedral (Poor article needs references!)

It's actually an alternate spelling, based on transliteration (like tsar and czar, or Mao Tse-Tung and Mao Zedong) and is considered to be archaic. Definitely weird in a game that favors the modern readings of both Mao's name and tsar.

Some quality time with Russian Google reveals that гум (GUM) is this place. Unfortunately I couldn't find any good pictures and was too lazy to place it on a map of Moscow.

We've mentioned the PC version, but has anyone played this tortured NES port? It's like one of those Chinese games that try to fit a SNES game into a NES cart. I do like the intro though.

Crap, there's a recreation of this thing here at Caesars Palace and I never knew what it was. I just call it that annoying thing all Asian tourists have to get pictures of.

That said, I've played and beaten this game on two different platforms. You really must try the NES game, because it's the exact same game without any graphical satisfaction. The ending is literally Mario walking out of a door, instead of the THRILLING CONFLICT at the end of the SNES game.


And though this game got the cathedral and the Kremlin right, it never was able to undo the damage Tetris did as far as making people think the cathedral IS the Kremlin. To this day people say if you get enough points you can launch the Kremlin into space.

I'm going to have to look for this next time I'm there, I'm curious now.

Anyway, we start off with the professor-dude being a jerk:



The San Francisco music is pretty different from other music in the game I have to admit I haven't been able to figure out what Mario theme it's a remix of.

And here are our items. At this point I have to note that I have never figured out what the "Bonus" value means. Why some items have it and others don't and what triggers it is beyond me. And why the bonus for the fog horn is twice the reward for the entire top of the Transamerica Pyramid is also confusing.







And evidently the Pacific Ocean has shrunk. Maybe that's part of Bowser's plan!

http://flickr.com/photos/marc-bouras...56913/sizes/l/

It's along the sidewalk on the north side of the property, just walk south past the Forum Shoppes entrance and toward the street where cars go flying in and out off the street. There's a cafe of some sort right next to it.

And yes, the lettering does say "MAXIMUS SHOPILUS" back there. It's Caesars f'n Palace, the class and dignity only goes so far.

I know this is way too current for a 16-bit Let's Play thread, but apparently the Russians do come in through Alaska, since they have a bridge and everything.

I also like how there is nowhere to stop in Canada. There's just four trees and a path to Alaska.

You know what? We haven't watched any Koopa destruction in a while, and it is so fun.



Oh, ew:



And a couple parts of this animation:





Artifacts!

One of those row houses is faaaaaabulous.

Actually, the two uppermost cities are Vancouver and Montreal, so while it may not be to scale at least they didn't ignore the country!

Mario Map:



Google Map. The ocean is really strikingly blue.

Transamerica Building


Coit Tower


Golden Gate Bridge

And upon our return, an EPIC BATTLE:



Not really, as he can't hurt you and just runs back and forth:



You simply jump on him a couple of times and take your leave:





What awaits us beyond the gate?

Oh. The same room with a different color scheme and a different kid.



I'm not sure if this is an emerald or a turtle shell.



Might as well try Door #1, eh?

Yeeeeahhhh... only one guess as to what country we're in. Oddly, this city has the same theme as Nairobi.





The pamphlets:

"This Is Sparta"? Yes, I'm allowed to be shot now.



I managed to annoy Peach with a wrong answer, but I really don't think there are that many naked people on buildings in Athens:



Um, a harem? I, uh... hmm.



Anyhoo:

Since the Erechtheion Temple and Parthenon are quite close to each other the map doesn't really differentiate them well, but you get the idea.

Hadrian's Arch



Parthenon



Erechtheion Temple (or Erechtheum, I guess)



And upon our return we see a Koopa Kid at the gate:



So since the cities aren't exactly hard to figure out, where does everyone propose we go next?

Buenos Aires
Sydney
Mexico City
Paris

Buenos Aires, because I've been there and therefore have a vested interest in the digital version's authenticity (haha).

Also, you didn't post the pixel-arty artifact shots for San Fran!

Ack, good catch! I blame the Trick or Treaters for distracting me.







Man, after the Moscow ones these look kinda boring.

Kishi, you're the only one who cares.

Buenos Aires is evidently very, very smoggy, and the music is incredibly repetitive.





Also, while technically correct I believe that there are some noticable differences between the Argentinian, Mexican and European Spanish languages. I'm not sure if it's just word choices and accents or some major grammar differences, but if anyone would like to elaborate please do.



Anyway, We'll grab Yoshi right away.




Or maybe it's not smoggy and I just think it looks gross? Or this was supposed to be a joke?

Here are the items for this city:







I liked this comment:

I actually got stumped for a bit while playing. I went through and got rid of all the Koopas and only had two artifacts! I was befuddled and kept running up and down the southernmost street in the city wondering if I missed one until I took a better look at the map and noticed the half-cropped Koopa on the top street.



It was promptly destroyed, which secured the third artifact:





Also, this is one of the stupider puns, but at least I managed to frame it so it looks like a talking head in a pipe: