Let’s make this quick so I don’t get too mad. Paper Jam Bros. has all the wit and engaging battle mechanics of previous Mario & Luigi games, but it has had the soul sucked out of it. It squanders the potential of a Paper crossover and exemplifies the blandness of what the Mario series has become.
More rare Benimaru Itoh comics for you, this time from Shogakukan’s Wonder Life Special guidebooks for the first three Picross games from Jupiter (Mario’s Picross (GB), Mario’s Super Picross (SNES), and Picross 2 (GB)). Again they are in full, vibrant colour and read left-to-right and with sound effects in English already, so they’re very accessible. Also I translated all the text from Japanese into English.
Also included are all the unique artworks that Itoh drew for the books, collated and cleaned up. I love his style! I also love Peach’s outfits, Wario’s absurd villain portrayal, and Picross puzzles being an integral part of the comic’s plot.
Thanks again to Ragey for the scans, and it’s worth checking out the raws because these books also contain a wealth of unique Picross puzzles in their pages. There are solvable puzzles during the comic, but some of them had been filled in already by the book’s previous owner. And I didn’t bother translating any text explaining how to solve Picross that appeared in the comic sections.
The game known internationally as Super Mario Bros. 2 is called Super Mario USA in Japan. Top left: the game’s cover as seen in the North American version of Super Mario All-Stars, top right: the cover in the Japanese version.
Bottom: Drawings of “American Mario” from the official Japanese guide for Super Mario All-Stars, based on the name “Super Mario USA”. Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Source: see bottom of all images
And here’s another alternate depiction of “American Mario” (and American Peach!) from Futabasha’s Action Comics Super Mario 4koma Manga Kingdom volume 4, drawn by Harumi Shimamoto. It’s quite bizarre. The text says something like “Feeling very American” or if I were to put it in the common parlance of the youth, “big American mood”.
And let’s not forget “American Luigi” from the same comic as the original image (who Mario mistakes for Mexican Luigi).
The game known internationally as Super Mario Bros. 2 is called Super Mario USA in Japan. Top left: the game’s cover as seen in the North American version of Super Mario All-Stars, top right: the cover in the Japanese version.
Bottom: Drawings of “American Mario” from the official Japanese guide for Super Mario All-Stars, based on the name “Super Mario USA”. Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Store | Source: see bottom of all images
And here’s another alternate depiction of “American Mario” (and American Peach!) from Futabasha’s Action Comics Super Mario 4koma Manga Kingdom volume 4, drawn by Harumi Shimamoto. It’s quite bizarre. The text says something like “Feeling very American” or if I were to put it in the common parlance of the youth, “big American mood”.
The comic scanlations from Mario guides keep coming, thanks to Ragey’s scans and Borp! The guides done by Ape Inc in particular are excellent, and have lovely comics like this one, drawn by Benimaru Itoh. Itoh, also known as Ashura, Benny, or Mitch, has done many Nintendo comics including the Mario World guide’s comic and a full Mother 2 manga, as well as the Star Fox and Super Metroid comics for Nintendo Power. His art style is distinctive and fun, especially when the comics are in full colour like this one!
The comic is also read left to right, so with this translation into English it’s very accessible. It tells the “story” of the original Mario Kart game in vignettes, with plenty of gags along the way. And look out for a whole bunch of cameo appearances on the first and second-last page by Mother, Zelda, and F-Zero characters among others!
It’s another scanlation of comics done from Ragey’s scans. Thanks Ragey (raw scans here and here)! Ape the company did a big 2-volume guide for Super Mario World, which is of course a big, important game.
The guide has a lot of fun extras but also quite a few comics, split over the 2 books. I’ve mixed them up and put together the ones that go together, with the story comic under the Volume 1 cover and the 4koma and bonus bits under Volume 2. The story part is by the wonderful Benimaru Itoh, and part one was actually in English already, which made my job easier. The 4koma strips are by Sensha Yoshida, Tamakichi Sakura (AKA Charlie Nozawa), Yukio Sawada, and Isami Nakagawa, in order of appearance. Some of these are read Western-style left-to-right, others Japanese-style right-to-left. I’ve added arrows at the top of the screen when reading direction for a section changes.
Please enjoy the colourful artwork and the silly jokes. Yoshida’s first strip opens the 4koma section with a very crude joke, and later there’s one that references a Japanese singer which I’m sure I didn’t fully grasp, but there’s some real gold in here and hopefully you get a kick out of it.
Another quick comic scanlation here. Again thanks to Ragey I had nice scans of this official Nintendo guidebook (see the raw scans here). Ape (co-creators of Mother and Pokemon) used to do some totally sweet guides for Nintendo games, Japan only of course. This one is for Super Mario Collection (AKA Super Mario All-Stars) and features a few 4koma gag strips scattered throughout, containing some fun interpretations of the games in the collection clashing, or metatextual comparisons between “then” (the 80s) and “now” (the 90s).
There’s just seven strips which I’ve combined by author. The first three are by Sensha Yoshida and the next four by Tamakichi Sakura, a pseudonym of Charlie Nozawa, the illustrator of the Western-published Super Mario Adventures comic. One of the latter strips is a kind of tribute to Yoshiharu Tsuge, another mangaka that Nozawa must have respected deeply. Please enjoy and share.
I’m on record as a booster of the 1993 live-action Mario film. It’s got great effects and design, fun performances, and a fascinating reinterpretation of the Mario world and characters. So when I found references to the movie in various manga, I knew I wanted to translate them and bring them to a wider audience.
This package is a collection of pages from various manga sources: two 4koma gag strips, an excerpt from Yukio Sawada’s Super Mario-kun, and several sections from Kazuki Motoyama’s KC Deluxe Mario manga run. I’ve cleaned the scans and translated all text into English, while localising game and character names. I also inserted handy intermissions providing context for each of the pages as they come up.
Translating humour is always tricky but even if the jokes don’t land, at least we’ve got some amazing depictions of Bob Hoskins, the animatronic Yoshi, Dennis Hopper, etc. to look at. It’s interesting too seeing how the characters within the manga react to the existence of the movie and alternate versions of themselves; there’s a few different takes on this throughout.
Anyway please enjoy, there’s more information and credits in the images. If you find any more references to the movie in any manga source, please let me know and I’ll gladly add to this collection!
Just in time for Kerstmis (as the Dutch call it), here’s two short comics from the Dutch edition of Club Nintendo magazine. This version of Nintendo’s official magazine shared a lot of content with other European editions. In fact after translating the first image I realised that it was already printed in the UK edition, but what the heck, here it is anyway. I’m pretty sure the second image has not been available in English before, though!
Thanks to Geoffrey de Vlugt for uploading the magazine scans here, and to my friend Dangermouse for some translation assistance.
In collaboration with dkgirder.com, here’s my newest scanlation project! The official Nintendo “Wonder Life Special” guide for Donkey Kong (Game Boy), aka DK94, contained a short comic by Kotobuki Shiriagari about Mario and DK Junior having a little adventure together. I.M. Gibbon ( @imtherealgibbon ) scanned it for me and I’ve translated it from Japanese into English.
Unlike a lot of manga, this is in colour and also printed in English-style left-to-right. This makes it very natural for English readers to digest. There are a couple of cultural allusions though; big pipes are common in Japanese playgrounds apparently! You might know Shiriagari for his absurdist, surreal manga and art, or you might know him as the guy who did Mona’s comic strip collection for WarioWare DIY (which you can read here)! His style certainly shines through in this comic, it’s quite funny. I also like seeing Mario and Junior being pals (and shaving their body/facial hair).
As always, check out the scanlation tag on this blog for more of my comic projects. Sorry it’s been a while between comics!
I really do like this movie. The main Mario games do little for me, but I feel the concepts were well developed and delivered in this film, and the characters are a lot of fun. I highly recommend the site Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive as a haven of fandom and analysis, with information on the production, merchandise, and cut content gleaned from the script, novelisation, production stills, etc. I know the movie is considered a “flop” but its combination of cheesiness and interesting design makes it very enjoyable for me. Also check out the aborted semi-official sequel comic.
Mario Mario, Luigi Mario, Daisy, Yoshi, Iggy, Spike, Toad (Goomba form), Koopa, Lena
The enthusiasm of I.M.Gibbon of DKGirder inspired me to do a cast portrait of “Mario’s Brooklyn Years”, or “Mario’s Blue-Collar Period”. In the time before Super Mario Bros. and the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario had many jobs, and a set of friends and foes in our world. You can see them in Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Wrecking Crew, and many of the Game & Watch games (such as Bombs Away and Cement Factory). The colours were chosen based on official art from the pre-SMB period, except for Stanley who uses his NES sprite to stand out more, and Spike who is a combination of his Wrecking Crew ‘98 and Mobile Golf looks for the same reason.
Mario (Jumpman), Luigi, Pauline (Lady/Louise), Stanley the Bugman, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong (Senior), Foreman Spike (Blacky)
This is the fourth Mario & Luigi game. Hmm. Unlike Paper Mario, which often reinvents itself and not always for the better, this series is reliable but can feel safe. Sure it’s been beefed up (pardon the pun) and had extra bits bolted on, but it’s still following the formula established way back in Superstar Saga. But it’s a good game nevertheless, and often manages to overcome staleness or bring a smile.
These games are JRPGs with a platforming element. As always you control both Bros, Mario always using the A button and Luigi being assigned B. You jump around, hammer stuff, learn new ways to jump or work together to get around the environment and collect stuff, and then there are turn-based battles. They try to keep these fun and dynamic with timed hits and the ability to dodge and counter any enemy attack, which requires observation and reflexes. This is successful, but towards the end I found my favoured special attacks and just used those to make the battles go quicker.
A significant portion of the game’s mechanics are recycled to some extent from previous games, but presented in new ways or at least tweaked slightly. For example, Bowser’s Inside Story had Bowser growing to giant size and fighting with the DS held sideways. This game has Luigi becoming huge instead. The big new idea of this game is the dream world, where Luigi will sleep and Mario will enter his dream. This isn’t executed in a way that develops his character though unfortunately (except in a couple of instances), as it’s more like an alternate surrealist 2D version of the environment you’re in. It does give lots of fun gameplay opportunities though with Luigi gaining many bizarre abilities, and battles in the dream world being taken on solo but with flashy group attacks on swarms of enemies.
As always with this series, the script and characters are very pleasing and funny. Silliness abounds and fun new characters are introduced along with a fanservice parade of returning ones too. Popple, Kylie Koopa, Broque Monsieur, Starlow, and Bowser’s three minions Goomp, Paraplonk, and Guy all make welcome returns from previous games, along with a world populated by Beanish, Toads, Yoshis, and Hoos acting as tourists on Pi’illo Island. The island itself has new NPC races as well as instant standouts such as the Zeekeeper, the Massif Bros (pictured above), Britta, and others. The antagonist Antasma is mostly just cheesy and new helper partner Dreambert has his moments despite being played mostly straight, especially when he loses his composure. It all works together to create a quite busy world that feels good to run around in and interact with.
The first thing I noticed about the game though in trailers was how amazing it looks. AlphaDream have become absolute masters of 2D spritework, with wonderfully drawn characters that are so animated and shaded as to appear 3D. They can’t hack actual 3D though apparently, so the Giant Battles which appear with polygonal graphics were outsourced to Good-Feel! The graphics are definitely a selling point for this game, and this bright and colourful world is captivating.
Apart from the many small improvements to the game formula (quick example: selectable perks on ranking up), I just want to applaud this game for, like its predecessors, making the Mario world feel expansive and interesting. The newly released Paper Jam Bros looks to be following in Sticker Star’s doomed footsteps and adopting the tired, basic New Super Mario Bros aesthetic. Getting to know this new setting of Pi’illo Island was nice and the range of characters felt like a celebration of the quirkiness of this series. Its slow pace may have felt a drag at times but Dream Team (Bros.) can stand with the best of the Mario RPGs, a nice solid entry.
AKA Mario Slam Basketball in my area, but I imported a US copy because that’s all I could find. A weird localisation choice, because the theme song has audible vocals saying “3 on 3”.
So I’m following up the visually daring Strikers with this entry, which at first glance seems pretty conventional. It’s got all the Mario staples, but the courts are well realised and varied, each with their own hazards to be aware of. There’s also the novelty that later on you can unlock some Final Fantasy players and courts, a crossover element that comes due to the game being developed by Square-Enix. This was a selling point for me, along with the surprising inclusion of Dixie Kong; an all-Kong team is possible, and glorious!
So this is a 3D basketball game controlled entirely with swipes on the DS touchscreen (and the L button). This works fairly well, and the mechanics are robust enough to reward skill (or at least exploiting the AI, which I found necessary to unlock the elusive Ninja). At times the challenge was high enough to get me in quite a tizzy, but it kept me trying again with its quick-fire matches and my eventual triumph was quite satisfying.
As expected of a Mario sports game, it’s no vanilla simulation. Panels can be run over when not in possession to grab items like shells and banana peels; you know the Mario Kart drill. When you’re dribbling though, the game is keeping the ball and bouncing on those panels to accrue coins. Baskets don’t just give you 2 points; no, 20 is the baseline, and each coin adds points. A full load of 100 with one of the special shots (unique to each character) can give you 140 points in one basket. Beating the opponent is not hard, but to get a tourney’s unlocks you need to stay 200 points ahead.
It was fun getting through these unlocks, changing up my team, and braving the dangers on each court. The game’s well made and it looks very nice. Lovely pixel art sprites bounce on the select screen, the portraits are attractive and expressive as is the game’s official art, and the courts have a nice visual identity with lots of detail on the sidelines. Have a scroll through this page, it’s neat. Even the Final Fantasy characters were made to fit right in, which can be an issue when worlds collide. It’s a gem on the DS, another reason why it’s one of my favourite consoles ever.
Now that I’ve played Ubisoft’s semi-crossover cartoony casual soccer game, let’s see how Nintendo’s equivalent of the era stacks up. Mario Strikers Charged (Football) is a Western-developed Mario Sports game, the sequel to Mario Smash Football/Super Mario Strikers on the Gamecube. Next Level Games, the Canadian developer, has since worked on other titles for Nintendo, but for an early effort of theirs this is very well made.
The thing that most stands out about this title is the visual design. The official artwork is totally radical and extreme, dudes. All the usual Mario cast members have been given an overhaul and an attitude. We’re playing street soccer, with padded armour uniforms and no rules. The courses are grungy and dangerous, the menus are futuristic with glowing lights everywhere and holograms. It’s a tremendously refreshing take on the Mario universe.
Matches are dynamic, with a robust set of tricks to keep the pace up. You’ve got two types of tackles, super moves for scoring multiple goals at once(!) or wiping out opponents, and even Mario Kart-style items to throw. It’s faster and more exciting than Academy of Champions, that’s for sure. And despite the unskippable animations each time a captain performs a Megastrike, it’s worth it to see Peach grow wings, Mario’s eyes glowing as he’s wreathed in fire, or Donkey Kong charging electricity before slapping 6 balls at the goal. The awesome excess of it is quite pleasing.
I also like the way it handles teams. Your team captain is your “main character” type, and has the flashy moves and a unique item that sometimes comes up. You supplement the team with 3 mooks, like a Boo or a Hammer Bro, which is good for inclusion without being such a “waste” of a character slot as seen in many other Mario spin-offs. These sidekicks have their own attributes and special shots which makes it customisable and a varied play experience. Finally, the goalie is always a Kritter, a rarely seen but appreciated use of a Donkey Kong character to flesh out the game.
So there’s a lot to like about the game. Unfortunately I did not finish it, simply because of the difficulty curve. I wanted to at least unlock Diddy, but although the first cup of three was almost laughably easy, the second one stopped me in my tracks completely. I backed out to change up my team, only to learn that I had to start over with the first cup again, playing about 10 matches I’d already done. I’m sorry, Mario Strikers Charged (Football), but you’re asking too much of me.
With only three cups, it also seems that content has been reduced from the previous title, at least on paper. The online multiplayer seems to be a big back-of-box feature, but of course that’s gone now with the WFC. The Challenges mode was a nice addition but also becomes brutally hard and there’s only a dozen of them. So that was it. I really love what they’ve done with the presentation and the feel but I would like a “reduce difficulty” switch, please. And I wish Nintendo would allow experimentation like this a bit more often. It’s wild and fun.
