“MAGE CAST” episode #017 – Go the Way of the Dinosaur Land – Yosh in the Shell, or: How I Learned to Love the Star Road Warrior”
2 min read
I can show you a Super Mario World, shining, shimmering, splendid.
In this detour into Dinosaur Land, featuring the inscrutable ABXY Mage (@ABXY_Reviews) and the ineffable Blue Moon Mage (@wrytersview), we dig deep into this SNES launch title, its official story out of the original instruction booklet, our first time playing the game, challenge and incentivization, the benefits of competition in the industry (the Console Wars), whether Super Mario is really for children or not, why Mario is so enduring and the history of the character as the history of video games, the consistency of Mario’s tonality, the underestimated significance of fun-factor, if Mario risks becoming an anachronism, the issue of timelessness and the question of immutable properties in games, methods to investigate game quality while circumnavigating nostalgia, innovations in Super Mario World, the origins of the names of the Koopalings, Tanuki anatomy, and all the best secrets!
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Red formerly ran The Well-Red Mage and now serves The Pixels as founder, writer, editor, and podcaster. He has undertaken a seemingly endless crusade to talk about the games themselves in the midst of a culture obsessed with the latest controversy, scandal, and news cycle about harassment, toxicity, and negativity. Pick out his feathered cap on Twitter @thewellredmage, Mage Cast, or Story Mode.
The COLORS! Yes, that’s a weird thought. I don’t think I’ve every thought about the first thing I noticed about the game, and I think it was also the colors for me. It was probably the only game I owned for the system for several months after getting the SNES too, so there were no other comparisons for me.
Colors! That was definitely what made World standout for me. I am pretty sure it was the first SNES game I’d ever seen.
If it was the only game you had for months, I bet you played the heck out of it! I remember it being exceedingly addicting. I just wanted to plumb its depths for secrets.