PARIS: Surrounded by thousands of objects bearing the likeness of Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber, 40-year-old Kikai reflects that his “life would be totally different without Mario” who also marks four decades this week.
The colorful “Super Mario Bros.,” released for Nintendo’s home consoles in Japan on September 13, 1985, was a landmark of early video gaming.
Players controlled the eponymous character as he ran and hopped his way from left to right through a colorful world of platforms, pipes and scowling enemies — all set to the jaunty eight-bit music that has stuck in minds for decades.
“My father bought me the game, and I’ve been playing for as long as I can remember,” Kikai told AFP in his office lined with somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand Mario-related objects, from plastic figurines to plush toys and carpets.
Created by legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario has obsessed several generations of fans like Kikai.
The character’s first appearance came in 1981 arcade game “Donkey Kong,” when he was known simply as “Jumpman.”
Mario’s christening came in 1983 with the “Mario Bros.” arcade cabinet, but his true rise to fame was with “Super Mario Bros.” on Nintendo’s Famicom console (known as the NES in Europe), which has sold more than 40 million copies.
“It was a lucky accident, because at the start there was no plan for this character to become a video gaming icon,” said Alexis Bross, the French co-author of the book “Mario Generations.”
The plumber’s look was initially chosen to conserve scarce computing resources and make him stand out on screen, with bright blue overalls and a cap that saved on animating hair.
Miyamoto created Mario as “a completely functional character under very strict technical constraints” governing the few pixels making up his image, Bross noted.
But as the games endured through the years, their star became a “generation-spanning” and even “reassuring” presence, he added.
“He’s a regular man, not unlike us, who has no special powers at the outset and stays a bit frozen in time.”
Beyond Mario’s mainline adventures, spinoff games have dropped him, his buddies like brother Luigi and his rivals like dragon Bowser into “Mario Golf,” “Mario Tennis” and the vastly popular “Mario Kart.”
Graphics have evolved from 2D to 3D as the games’ reach has spread to many hundreds of millions of players worldwide.
But the original pixelated look has long inspired artists making their own riffs on the character.
Lyon-based street artist In The Woup, who declined to give his real name, has been mashing Mario up with other characters like Gandalf from “The Lord of the Rings” or “Star Wars” antagonist Darth Vader in guerilla mosaics dotting cities around the world for years.
“Bringing things from my games console out on the street means bringing immaterial things out into real life. I thought that was pretty crazy,” the 39-year-old said, a Mario mask securely concealing his face to keep up his anonymity.
Many of today’s children and teens have turned toward more recent heavyweight gaming titles such as Fortnite and Roblox.
But Mario still enjoys a high “parental nostalgia” quotient, with those now heading into middle age still buying the games and playing together with their offspring, said Rhys Elliott of analytics firm Alinea.
Nintendo has looked to evolve along with its audience, recently launching a range of baby clothing and accessories in Japan.
Mario also graces goods from luxury watches to Lego, as well as being the star of theme parks in both Japan and the US.
And in 2023, the plucky plumber made a successful leap to the big screen after a 1993 flop that was one of the first ever game-to-movie adaptations.
The more recent film brought in over $1.3 billion, with a sequel in the works for next year.
With gender relations in a different light today than 40 years ago, Mario’s objective in-game is no longer securing a kiss from a grateful rescued princess.
Nintendo’s princesses are more likely these days to star in their own titles, as the company “adapts to new audiences, following little by little developments in society,” author Bross said.
Even now, fans are eagerly awaiting a new Mario-led 3D adventure following the blockbuster release of the Nintendo Switch 2 console this June.
Bross hopes to see “a totally new idea that will be a new milestone in the history of videogames.”
40 years of ‘Mario’ games that have grown up with fans
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40 years of ‘Mario’ games that have grown up with fans
- Surrounded by thousands of objects bearing the likeness of Nintendo’s moustachioed plumber, 40-year-old Kikai reflects that his “life would be totally different without Mario”
Egypt reveals restored colossal statues of pharaoh in Luxor
- Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt
LUXOR: Egypt on Sunday revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.
The giant alabaster statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were reassembled in a renovation project that lasted about two decades. They represent Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,400 years ago.
“Today we are celebrating, actually, the finishing and the erecting of these two colossal statues,” Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said ahead of the ceremony.
Ismail said the colossi are of great significance to Luxor, a city known for its ancient temples and other antiquities. They’re also an attempt to “revive how this funerary temple of King Amenhotep III looked like a long time ago,” Ismail said.
Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt. The pharaoh, whose mummy is showcased at a Cairo museum, ruled between 1390–1353 BC, a peaceful period known for its prosperity and great construction, including his mortuary temple, where the Colossi of Memnon are located, and another temple, Soleb, in Nubia.
The colossi were toppled by a strong earthquake in about 1200 BC that also destroyed Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, said Ismail.
They were fragmented and partly quarried away, with their pedestals dispersed. Some of their blocks were reused in the Karnak temple, but archeologists brought them back to rebuild the colossi, according to the Antiquities Ministry.
In late 1990s, an Egyptian German mission, chaired by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, began working in the temple area, including the assembly and renovation of the colossi.
“This project has in mind … to save the last remains of a once-prestigious temple,” she said.
The statues show Amenhotep III seated with hands resting on his thighs, with their faces looking eastward toward the Nile and the rising sun. They wear the nemes headdress surmounted by the double crowns and the pleated royal kilt, which symbolizes the pharaoh’s rule.
Two other small statues on the pharaoh’s feet depict his wife, Tiye.
The colossi — 14.5 meters and 13.6 meters respectively — preside over the entrance of the king’s temple on the western bank of the Nile. The 35-hectare complex is believed to be the largest and richest temple in Egypt and is usually compared to the temple of Karnak, also in Luxor.
The colossi were hewn in Egyptian alabaster from the quarries of Hatnub, in Middle Egypt. They were fixed on large pedestals with inscriptions showing the name of the temple, as well as the quarry.
Unlike other monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt, the colossi were partly compiled with pieces sculpted separately, which were fixed into each statue’s main monolithic alabaster core, the ministry said.
Sunday’s unveiling in Luxor came just six weeks after the inauguration of the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, the centerpiece of the government’s bid to boost the country’s tourism industry. The mega project is located near the famed Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.
In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
“This site is going to be a point of interest for years to come,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who attended the unveiling ceremony. “There are always new things happening in Luxor.”
A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to official figures.
Fathy, the minister, has said about 18 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
