Totally Rad Christmas!

Saturday Supercade Segment 4: Super Mario Bros (w/ Mike and Todd)

Gerry D / Mike Westfall, Todd Killian

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:22:20

What's up, dudes? Merry Cave Christmas! I hope Koopa Klaus doesn’t bring you some bob-ombs! Mike Westfall from the Advent Calendar House  and Todd Killian from Christmas Clatter are here to talk all things Super Mario Bros! Mushrooms, and fire flowers, and tanookis! Oh my! We get into all of it! The games, the badges, and the cartoons! Yep, Lou Albano is the best, but I kind of want Buster Pointdexter as a pajama-clad Mario! So grab your poinsettia cape and candy cane mushrooms and jump down the warp pipe for this episode!

Advent Calendar House
FB: @adventcalendarhouse
Twitter: @adventcalhouse
IG: @adventcalendarhouse

Christmas Clatter
FB: @christmasclatter
Twitter: @XmasClatter
IG: @christmasclatter
linktree

Give us a buzz! Send a text, dudes!

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com! Later, dudes!

SPEAKER_07

It was 1985. Ronald Reagan began his second presidential term. Back to the Future was released. Ario Speedwagon couldn't fight this feeling, and Mario fought to rescue Princess Peach Toadstool from Bowser the King Koopa. I'm your host, Jerry D with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s. Toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Joining me are two Totally Rad Christmas All-Stars. From the Advent Calendar House, it's Mike Westfall. Mike, how's it going?

SPEAKER_03

Hey, paisados!

SPEAKER_07

How are you?

SPEAKER_05

Doing well. How are you?

SPEAKER_07

You know, I'm ready to give Nick some of my stew and and just kind of call it a nap. Very nice. And from the Christmas Clatter podcast, it's Todd Killian. Todd, what's happening, man?

SPEAKER_01

Hey, bambinos.

SPEAKER_07

Close enough. Yeah, that I'll I'll take it. I'll take it. What's going on, guys?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, I'm excited for this one.

SPEAKER_01

I needed this.

SPEAKER_07

Merry Cave Christmas to you all. Yes. So I've been wanting to do this one for two years, and I've been kind of putting it off just because you know there are other things I wanted to get to and and some things that guests have requested. But today we're talking Super Mario Brothers and everything Mario in general. And I love Mario. The games are amazing, they're so much fun. There's just I mean, literally, he does everything, and it's so cool. But like, what's y'all's experience with Mario? Like, what do you remember about Mario?

SPEAKER_01

I remember the very first Mario that came with the the NES the most. And I remember thinking, hey, the guy from Donkey Kong's in this game. What you know, what's that all about? Yep. Yeah, pretty much. I didn't even know his name at the time. And and the thing I remember the most is I ended up getting the the Nintendo as a birthday present in July. Me and my sister shared it as a birthday present. Our birthdays are only three days apart.

SPEAKER_06

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01

Three three years and three days apart. She's older than that. Okay. And so we got it as a as a joint, you know, birthday present. End up being mostly mine anyway, over over the course of the years or so. But I grew up in a one TV house. So I had to share the TV with the parents. And then finally, my my dad, who works at TV station, brought home this. I tried to find a picture of it of this like 13-inch color TV, but it had like two little five-inch screens on the side of it as well. That's that were that were black and white. Yeah. And it took like no time before the 13-inch screen just could put. So I inputted Mario into that little five-inch black and white screen and sit there like this and played it the whole time in black and white.

SPEAKER_05

You had a Game Boy before everyone else. Yeah. But you couldn't take it anywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

That's that's hardcore. That's a hardcore gamer right there. Yeah. What about you, Mike?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, well, the NES was a gift for my dad, actually. He uh and before that, we had a console called the Intellivision. It was made by Mattel. It could play ColecoVision games. There was a port of Donkey Kong on that. There was Port of Donkey Kong Jr. on that. And then a friend of my dad's got the Nintendo Entertainment system. He was like, I want a Nintendo. So we got one as a gift. We got Super Mario Brothers. And I'm a like my favorite game now is The Legend of Zelda. But when I was a kid, I was all in on Super Mario. I had Mario decals all along my bedroom wall that I shared with my brother. I had like I would eat Nintendo Zerial System every morning, but I only like the Mario side. Yeah. And then of course, when they uh came out with that Super Mario Bros. Super show, I remember like coming home from school and parking myself in front of the TV, waiting for episode one to start. I I was hooked and I was all in.

SPEAKER_07

That's awesome. I actually unfortunately when the show came out, it was at the time when I was having to to take a bus to my mom's school because my mom was a teacher, and then I had to stay at school until she was ready to leave. So I missed a lot of these. I caught a few, and the thing I remember most about the show in particular was Captain Lou Albano.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

I mean, and I only knew him from Hulk Hogan's Rockin' Wrestling.

SPEAKER_05

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_07

That was like that that was like where I really knew him from. And I did listen to your show about this episode, Mike, and he did appear in a live action sketch. That's why you I think your guest was Pope. Adam, Adam Pope. Adam, Adam Pope, yeah. And and so that's why he remembered, or that's why he read that credit. So it is true, he he did appear on that. Okay, yeah, yeah. But he did not voice his own character, which was strange. Anyway, I that's like where I knew Captain Lou from. And so when I saw him as Mario, I was like, hey, it's the guy from Hulk Hogan. So but the game itself, I actually it's kind of similar to yours. My my friend had one, it was awesome, so I wanted one. Unfortunately, my dad, I uh my my aunt started a college fund for me when I was young. My dad took like some of the money out of it and bought a Nintendo, bought a Nintendo for me. You know, it's okay. I student loans, whatever, but it's just a different sort of investment. That's right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I here we are talking about it almost 40 years later.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, I wouldn't have remembered uh a you know a college fund, but but I remember Nintendo, and yeah, it came with Mario and Duck Hunt. Yeah, played Duck Hunt a bit. The dog got on my nerves, so I started playing Mario and and did everything I can to learn all about the warp pipes and everything. And I was like all in on Mario after that.

SPEAKER_05

So you try to shoot that dog?

SPEAKER_07

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I tried to shoot that dog. You can all every time, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, every time it uh didn't work. But uh, I only like a couple of years ago learned that you could actually control the that the second player could control the ducks. Oh yeah, yep, yeah, so that was something.

SPEAKER_01

But let me ask you guys this. Uh, because you know, I I played the the NAS at a friend's house too before I got one. What was the first game that you ever played on the NASCAR? It was Super Mario.

SPEAKER_07

Mine was actually Zelda. Really? Yeah. My friend had Zelda, and and uh it was awesome. I I was not very good at it, but yeah, I I played it.

SPEAKER_05

And that was the first game I played. The first game I saw was my dad's friend's son, which is what my our first both of our first experience with the NES uh had a game called Wizards and Warriors, was the first one I saw, and he was like battling this cave full of bats. I do remember that was one of the early games that we got too because they had it, and so somewhere in my parents' house, hopefully, is a video Christmas morning. I want to say 1989. We had we got Wizards and Warriors, and we got the Nerf Fencing Swords. We're there's a video of my brother and me like fencing each other with the nerf fencing swords and just letting that Wizards and Warriors title music play, and then just hitting reset to let it play over and over.

SPEAKER_07

That's awesome. I think I actually have Wizards and Warriors downloaded as a ROM for emulator on my computer.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, I loved that game.

SPEAKER_07

Man, so you so you went all in on the uh sword and sorcery games. Heck yeah, I I dig it. I did Conan was another one that was fun.

SPEAKER_05

Didn't have Conan and what was that?

SPEAKER_07

Was it called the Wizard? No, the Warlock? No, what was it called? You know, you know which one I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03

I uh is it the Immortal?

SPEAKER_07

The Immortal, that's it, yes, the Immortal. That was another one that was fun, although that one was also rather difficult because it's you know, we had the dodge and slash. I as a kid I couldn't get the timing down. Yeah, I still can't. It's not quite the uh side scroller that Mario is. No, yeah, yeah. Mario and and what I like about Mario is that it's actually designed to kind of help you learn how to play the game just from level you know one-one. So the very first world is they put everything that you could possibly face, with the exception, of course, of like any water, but anything that you could possibly face there, so you can figure out the mechanics. And I like games that do that because as much as I love Mega Man and you can kind of figure out the mechanics, there's I mean, there is no first level, so basically it's like just pick a guy and go, you know, it's like just the circular loop of guys you you pick. So I like games where it's like, okay, this first level is a little bit easier. You can kind of figure out, oh, this mushroom is different from the ones trying to kill me, you know, this mushroom makes me big, cool. And you know, just figure it out because uh it's not like they had, you know, you couldn't go online at game spot. What is it? The any of those Game Spot or whatever, and and figure out let me just read the FAQ on it, you know.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, and before we had gotten the subscription to Nintendo Power magazine, which was like the holy grail of where you would learn all of these tips and tricks, and they would great maps in there. Before we had that, my cousin had a subscription, so he would print, he would like Xerox copy pages of the magazine. So I we would he would bring over binders of that, and I'd have copies of that, and uh that's a good memory in itself. These these black and white, badly photocopied maps of of Zelda Dungeons.

SPEAKER_06

That's awesome. Do you still have them?

SPEAKER_05

No, I uh I sold them all. Well, I didn't sell them all, I think I gave them they're in a better home somewhere. I'm not sure where, but but someone took them. Gotcha. But I think I recycled the uh the maps themselves, the the photo-copied ones. Just like, well, I have the actual back issue now, so I don't need these.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, it's true. Yeah. So Mario actually first appeared in 1981 in Donkey Kong, like you mentioned. He was originally well, when they were designing Donkey Kong, they wanted it to be a Popeye game. So he was originally gonna be Popeye, which is crazy. I mean, can you imagine like what the world would be like if Popeye had been the main star of this rather than Donkey Kong?

SPEAKER_05

The only reason I can is because Nintendo of eventually did get a Popeye license and they did make a Popeye game.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, they did, didn't they? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So they did and it was very similar to Donkey Kong, but at the same time, it was very different.

SPEAKER_07

So uh right, right. Wow, I completely forgot all about that. Yeah, because Pauline was gonna be olive oil, and and then Bluto was gonna be the the I guess Donkey Kong's character.

SPEAKER_01

Yep, yeah. Wow, Donkey Kong does look like Bluto then.

SPEAKER_07

He does look a little bit like Bluetooth. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05

Got a tie.

SPEAKER_07

So they were gonna call Mario Mr. Video, which is something that that again, I don't know if I don't know if his name if he would have taken off as much as he did if his name wasn't Mario.

SPEAKER_05

Probably not.

SPEAKER_07

Then they were gonna call him Jump Man when they decided to add jumping to the game's mechanics, and again, that wasn't quite suitable. Eventually, they named him after Mario Segale, who was like the landlord of their building, they owed some money, and so they worked a deal out with him, and so they named him after him, and that's how Mario got his name, which is crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_01

So, so if Mario would have gone with jump man, then what would Michael Jordan call his logo?

SPEAKER_07

I don't know, just air, I guess. Air Man.

SPEAKER_05

That's a different guy, nope.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. Then Capcom had some words with them. Yeah, Mario's history is is crazy. So after Donkey Kong, he came out with his own game, just Mario Brothers. This is where Luigi's introduced, and I don't know if you remember Mario Brothers, but it's basically there's like some crazy animals and creatures appearing in the sewers of New York. And so he and Luigi have to go clear it out because they're plumbers at this stage, and they were originally carpenter. Well, Mario was originally a carpenter in Donkey Kong, that's why he gets the hammer as one of his weapons, and all of a sudden he's a plumber now, and he's trying to clear this. And apparently, a few years ago, they decided that he had no official occupation, he just did whatever, and then a year later in 2018, they decided no, that's not true, and they reverted him back to he is a plumber, he just happens to do these other things as well.

SPEAKER_05

Well, all right, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

So, so just in case anyone's wondering, Mario is a plumber, but he's also, I guess, a doctor and an archaeologist at some point, and uh he's worn a lot of hats and he's done a lot of jobs, yes. He has just like Barbie, he's like Barbie, yeah, Mario, the Barbie from uh the 1980s video games, the Barbie of video games, Mario Millicent Mario, and that's another thing, yeah. So, you know, when the movie came out and his name was Mario Mario, I was like, that's not his name, he has no last name, and I was all upset because you know Bob Hoskins was playing Mario Mario. Well, apparently it really is his name, Mario Mario, even though the original creator, was it Shigeru Miyamoto, just like retconned that said no, that's not that's not uh his last name, he has no last name, and then he changed his tune later on.

SPEAKER_05

They if they retconned and like gone back and re-retconned so many different things.

SPEAKER_07

You know, they need like a series Bible like Legend of Zelda has, you know, it would make things so much easier.

SPEAKER_05

Just just just tell us, but even then there's a lot of retconning going on. It's like these aren't Bowser's children, they're just coupones, they're just couponines, yeah. Yeah, it's no stop.

SPEAKER_07

What what does a couple in mean? You know, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

They had a manual that said these are Bowser's children, they did, yep.

SPEAKER_07

I'm gonna say it's an alternate timeline.

unknown

Sure.

SPEAKER_07

It worked for Zelda, it worked for Zelda. Let's let's just keep it going here.

SPEAKER_05

The theory that I like is that they're a troupe of actors and they're performing for us in each of these games, and you can see it in kind of the the background of Super Mario Bros. 3, how it opens with a curtain and some of some of those uh wooden platforms are on kind of wires. So that's supposed to be oh, it's all a stage show.

SPEAKER_07

So in real life, uh they're all best friends, they they go and have a pint after after the show.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, let's go go-kart racing.

SPEAKER_07

Makes sense, they do like to party.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

We just we finally broke down and got a switch, and we've been playing uh Mario Party. Nice, and the kids love it. I mean, this is like the first real I don't know, we had a you uh a we that they were playing for a while, but we they really haven't. So this is like the first real video game experience, and they're they're digging it quite a bit. And so we we went ahead and we beat it, we got all the gems from from Mario Party, and now they all they want to do is like unlock all the new characters, and yeah, as soon as they unlock one, they're fighting over who's gonna be one, and those Mario parties are they're pretty good when I was in my uh mid-20s before I had kids.

SPEAKER_01

Me and uh I was married, and and our my best friend was married, then they'd come over like during the week just to hang out, and me and him would head up to a spare room in our house upstairs and play Mario Party till like 4 30 in the morning, or like be at work at six.

SPEAKER_07

When you could do that in your 20s, you know, we could do that and be just fine.

SPEAKER_01

Those are the days we did that for weeks, and it had such a blast doing that.

SPEAKER_07

How are you all at uh Mario Kart? As long as I get Donkey Kong, I do okay.

SPEAKER_05

I think I'm great at Mario Kart when I'm playing with friends, and then I get on online play and everyone smokes me.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, I understand that. I was never great at Mario Kart. I think the best one, the the best Mario Kart was when I uh on the one on the Wii. I think it was what Mario Kart 8, I think it was, or maybe it was seven.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, that was just called Mario Kart Wii.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay. Maybe that one. I think that's the one I was best at number five or number six, and I had to buy like that little wheel, and uh yeah, the wheel, I have the wheel, and I was actually okay with the wheel. It's like, oh, this is just like driving.

SPEAKER_05

But I was terrible with the wheel.

SPEAKER_07

If if you asked me to like to to use the cursor, you know, or the control pad, I couldn't, I couldn't do that. It was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_05

I was so used to it, so I was better with the controller.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes because I never actually played Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo. I played it like once on the N64 and and then like that was it. So I hadn't played it again until the Wii. So I was trying to do it, and I was just I was miserable, it was just awful. So finally I bought that. I was like, okay, it's like I'm driving. I get this.

SPEAKER_05

I'll tell you what. Going back to that first one on Super Nintendo, it's the controls are so different compared to what the N64 one kind of refined as the Mario Kart control scheme. It's just I I can't get the hang of it going back to the first one, but 64. I'm pretty decent at still.

SPEAKER_01

Nice. That that's mine. The 64 is the one I I'm the best at. You know, but yeah, I never really played it on NES that much.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, my wife still has her old Super Nintendo. So before the kids were born, we would like break it open and play a little, or when she was pregnant, you know, with their first uh, we'd play a little bit, and she's like she kills me at Mario Kart. I mean, it's terrible, like it's so bad. And and you know, she has like no mercy, you know. As soon as you start playing games with friends, or you know, you're just like ruthless, and so yeah, she doesn't mind red shelling me, anything, you know, it's it's like whatever, anything goes. So I usually end up like last place, but but on the Wii, I was actually pretty good. I was like first or second, so I'll take it.

SPEAKER_01

I kind of I kind of skipped the Super Nintendo. I played it some a lot of basketball, but I kind of was into the Sega Genesis at that time. Yeah, that's what I had too. It was kind of an either-or situation at my house. I couldn't have both, so pretty much, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I mean I was a super nintendo kid, so I played a lot of Mario Kart, played a lot of Super Mario World, played Super Mario All-Stars, which was the one that combined all the NES ones and kind of gave them more souped up graphics, and then they brought over what they called the lost levels, which so in Japan they made a more direct sequel Super Mario Bros. 2 that was basically just the first game, but they added some things like poison mushrooms, and it was a lot harder. So Nintendo Power had this contest where okay, if you get through all eight worlds in these lost levels without using warp zones, you would get to world nine. So they had a world nine challenge. If you get through this and you take your picture and you send it in, we'll send you a patch. Oh, and I forgot to take it out, it's in my closet, but I still have the patch.

SPEAKER_07

Nice. So you did it, that's cool.

SPEAKER_05

I did it, and uh, and I still have the patch to prove it.

SPEAKER_07

That's awesome. I uh I just um I was the same as you, Todd. It was either you can have a Super Nintendo or you can have a Genesis, and there were rumors that uh Mortal Kombat was going to be released with blood and the full fatalities on Genesis, so I I went with Genesis instead, and and of course they did, and it was awesome. Of course, the graphics for the Super Nintendo were better, but you know, I mean it it did take them a while before they they finally figured it out, and then they figured it out, and it was like, wow, okay, well, I wish I'd gotten that instead. But my best friend that I I mentioned had the flag and had all the games that I played, and he had the Super Nintendo, so I'd go to his house and play, you know, like Mega Man X and and some of those Mario games as well. But you know, it's just one of those where hindsight I probably would have gotten with the Super Nintendo, but I still am pretty awesome at Mortal Kombat, so I I think it's I made the right choice.

SPEAKER_05

I held out and I got Mortal Kombat 2 for Super Nintendo and then they decided, all right, here's your blood.

SPEAKER_07

Here's your blood, fine. That's right.

SPEAKER_05

Mortal Kombat 2 is my favorite because it was supposed to be like sweat, right?

SPEAKER_07

They like painted it gray or something in the original.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, that's right, and you knew the right code, you could turn that sweat back red, but it was like it it wasn't perfect, it was weird and all digitized and game genie.

SPEAKER_07

No, that that's awesome. The game genies, they were so cool. Did you ever did you use it a lot in the game genie?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I did, but you know, as fun as it is to put the codes that they have listed in there, it's also fun to like change a letter here and there, especially with Super Mario Brothers, because you could get to some crazy, like glitchy level. Which is like, oh, we're underwater in a castle at the same time. This world doesn't have a number, it's just a picture of a crown because they ran out of space.

SPEAKER_07

That's all we need, just the crown, you know. It doesn't matter. So the the basic premise, and we'll get to the the shows in a little bit, and we'll mention the movie, but it could just because we have to. But the basic premise is that Bowser, who's the king of Koopas and they live in Mushroom Land, has uh he's trying to take over and he kidnaps Princess Toadstool, which was her original North American name, although in Japan she was always Princess Peach. And Mario has to go rescue her. So I assume you know how he gets here, I assume somehow he found a warp pipe when he was working under under the ground and in New York in his own game, and somehow he ended up transported here. I don't know if they ever officially say because uh there's also a version where a stork brings him to uh yes, Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island, yeah. So I don't know which one it is. Did he grow up there? Is he from New York? I don't know, but or maybe both, maybe both are true. Moved to New York or yeah, he tried to make it big. There you go. Got a job as a carpenter like Harrison Ford. There it is. But but I assume somehow he he found a pipe that took him to to the Mushroom Kingdom, and he fight finds Peach, who's usually blonde, but in the cartoon has red hair for some reason.

SPEAKER_05

Well, in the older North American artwork for Super Mario Brothers, she is more of a brunette in a lot of those, or I guess she is a redhead in a lot of those.

SPEAKER_07

So the the being blonde was a retcon then.

SPEAKER_05

Yes.

SPEAKER_07

Well, they say blondes have more fun, so I get it.

SPEAKER_05

Well, yeah, just do doing a lot of uh changes. Like, remember, like Mario used to have the red overalls in the first game, and they decided, all right, let's give him the blue overalls because it's easier to draw in the game.

SPEAKER_07

So yeah, yeah. And the reason for his uh big nose is not because of stereotypical well, I won't go there, but it's because they just tried to make his face look more like a face with their with their aphid graphics.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, going back to Donkey Kong, they uh a lot of what makes Mario look the way he is was because of graphic limitations. So yeah, the overalls were just all right, they helped show hand movements a little more, and he's got a mustache because that looked better, and he has a hat because that was easier to animate.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, they wouldn't have to animate his hair whenever he jumped.

SPEAKER_05

So it's a lot of things like that that make a lot of sense when you think back and look at like pitfall, and it's just a you got a square as your head.

SPEAKER_01

Pitfall. I like pitfalls. I love that game. That was funny.

SPEAKER_05

You can collect all the treasures and it just freezes and you're done. That's how you know you're done when the game just freezes.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, no, Donkey Kong was the first game that that had a right. Donkey Kong was the first game that had a story to it. You put in your quarter and you see Donkey Kong climbing up this scaffolding with this damsel in distress. Pauline you got a game, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Pauline, who apparently was also retcon from being Mario's girlfriend to just Mario's friend. So in my own headcanon, they dated, they broke up, it was mutual, and now they're just friends. Yeah, why not?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, got lost, and then she became the mayor.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Why not? You know, gotta grow, gotta live. Yeah, so um I think there's just they've expanded everything over the years. They've had the you know, the original was like the uh the super mushroom, the uh the one-up mushroom, they had the fire flower as well. Then they just started adding all sorts of things. We get the tanuki suit as well, which or raccoon suit, I guess. We had both, which which by the by the that's right, we did. By the way, I I did look up what a tanuki was because I had no idea. Apparently, it is a Japanese raccoon dog, which is more in the fox family than an actual raccoon family. So yeah, so that's interesting. I didn't know that, but yeah. So I mean, then we get the cape. Do you remember the cape? Of course.

SPEAKER_05

I remember the cape, the cape was hard to get used to, but then once I got the hang of it, and you could like fly through entire levels of Super Mario.

SPEAKER_07

It was yes, for me, it was very hard to get used to, but it did have a cool little spin thing that you could do. Yep, so I like that. Let's see, the red leaf was right, was what turned you into the that gave you the raccoonies. That gave you the raccoon, yeah. Yep. Then you had the full suit. Wasn't there also like a frog suit as well?

SPEAKER_05

Frog suit for swimming.

SPEAKER_07

What animal swims better than a frog, except maybe a fish. I don't know. So works, but he is jump man, so you got to make sure it's a frog so he can jump right.

SPEAKER_01

Stick with the brand, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

That's right. Yeah, we we wouldn't know anything about that here. I mean, there's just there's so many different things. Eventually he gets meets Yoshi, Luigi is introduced, and then second player can be him. And then in part two, which I think you were have like a whole article about, don't you, Mike, on Super Mario 2?

SPEAKER_05

Oh goodness, that's yeah, brought back years and years and years ago. I had an old article about uh the Japanese version of what we know as Super Mario Bros. 2. It was a game that Nintendo partnered with with Fuji Television, which is a TV station back then. They had these uh this sort of festival with their mascots in it, and they call it it translates to like heart-stopping panic or heart pounding panic. It's like dokie doki panic. That checks out, and that that's why that's so they brought it over and they added Mario characters to it instead of this family of mascots for Fuji TV, and that's why Super Mario Bros. 2 is so different in this dream world with Ward and the shy guys and throwing vegetables.

SPEAKER_07

That's from this old game, shy guy, and they kept like so many features of it, like or so many characters of it, but they didn't really. I think you even mentioned that uh they don't keep Wart.

SPEAKER_05

No, Wart doesn't get to hang out, he makes a cameo in a Zelda game, he makes a cameo in Link's Awakening, but that's it.

SPEAKER_07

And it almost seems like like they kind of merged Wart and Bowser, at least the characteristics, to get like Bowser as we know him today. You know, Wart's like evil, I guess. I mean, I don't know about Bowser being allergic to vegetables, but it just seems like uh or maybe it's just because they're both reptilian, they're both oversized, they have the crowns, they're kings of their respective areas, and I don't know. It just I always got that feeling like they merged them somehow, but maybe they didn't. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I remember having a subscription to the Nintendo Comics System, which was by Valiant Comics, probably their greatest hit, to be honest. But uh, I remember they had like a letters to the editor thing, and someone asked in there, whatever happened to Ward? Why is Bowser commanding characters like Shy Guys and Flurries and stuff from Super Mario Bros. 2? And their answer to that was that, well, I guess we figure that when Bowser says jump, these baddies say how high. He's just more he rules with more of an iron fist than Ward ever could.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05

The comics answer to it.

SPEAKER_07

Huh. Okay, I'll take it. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I bought it.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, so so Bowser's the emperor, and Ward is just Darth Vader. Well, maybe not, because I don't think he's mine. Maybe it's reverse. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure. Darth Maul, maybe what's that one?

SPEAKER_01

Just Darth Maul, you just seem then.

SPEAKER_07

Darth Maul, yeah. Yeah, he gets killed off right away. No big deal, but he survived somehow through his hate.

SPEAKER_05

Sure.

SPEAKER_07

Why not? And yeah, and then Super Mario 3. I remember from The Wizard, man, which was awesome. The power glove, though, not realistic.

SPEAKER_05

No, I had the power glove, my we bought the power glove, I had it for like a week. Decided this sucks, and I we I returned it and I bought double dragon to the revenge.

SPEAKER_07

Great game. I had that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Much, much better investment there. The power glove. It was literally.

SPEAKER_07

The one thing that uh 8-bit Christmas got super right was uh everybody's reaction to the power glove.

SPEAKER_01

To me, any of them alternate controllers for the NES were terrible, even like the big arcade joystick thing.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, see, I like that one. I had the it was called the advantage. I I was good at it in certain games, like for some like I was better at things like Mega Man 2 with that. Oh wow, just I don't know. I just had the hang of the joystick as opposed to the cross-control pad.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, it's a it's a great idea because I'd go, you know, at this time I'd still go to the arcade and play games with the same sit you know setup basically, but for some reason at the house, I don't know if it's because I'm used to like sitting Indian style on the floor playing and trying to put that on my lap, and I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

I used to have a little tykes picnic table and I would stand it on its end and put the joystick on top of that. Nice and stand up like at the arcade, nice just at my level, it was just tall enough.

SPEAKER_01

I should have bought built the podium, is what I should have done.

SPEAKER_07

Well, and you probably could have. You're pretty handy with uh tools, so I bet even young Todd could have done it. Yeah, and there's something different about an arcade and and playing on a joystick there while you're standing. There's like an energy around the arcade, even when you're hanging out with friends, you know, it's just it seems more laid back, like when you're playing video games with friends at your house, even if you're really into it. But an arcade, there's just you know, the music's going, you hear all the different games go in. There's just this like frantic feel to it that I always found fun. And so whenever I'd play on a joystick, I I was terrible at home. And like you taught, I was I was actually pretty good at an arcade. I was never really great at many video games except for Mega Man and like fighting games. So Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, you know, Fists of Fury, all those, all those kind of fury.

SPEAKER_05

Haven't thought about that in a long time.

SPEAKER_07

That was uh some of those killer instincts.

SPEAKER_01

I was below average in every in every video game except two, and then on those two, I was completely untouchable. And uh one was super spike volleyball for the NEA.

SPEAKER_05

Oh that's a good one. Yeah, I was bad at it, but I loved it.

SPEAKER_01

That was a good one, and the other was Joe Montana's football on the Savage Genesis.

SPEAKER_05

Was it the one where it talks?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, had the play button.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, like digitized Harry Cowl's voice.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, it's yeah, I I was terrible at every football game except uh mutant league football.

SPEAKER_05

I was a Tecmo Super Bowl kid.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, nice, nice, yeah. That's the only ones I was ever good at. The mutant league hockey, mutant league football, everything else. Well, no, I was pretty good at RBI baseball for Nintendo, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_05

My favorite baseball game was for Super Nintendo. It was Ken Griffey Jr.

SPEAKER_01

presents Major League Baseball. I remember that one. Yeah, there was a baseball game on uh the N64 I had where you you could like create your own team and you know shuffle players around and stuff. And I would like I always try to play a 162 game season, and I could never get through it. It was just way too long.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, that's that's uh that's long. That's long, man. Oh man, Super Mario has spawned so much. I mean, I mentioned the movie with Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. Not a great movie.

unknown

Nope.

SPEAKER_05

I like it really, I understand, I understand it's not a good movie, yeah. Yeah, but I've always had a good time watching it. Like, I but I do remember the first time watching that first trailer. I think I was in for one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. Oh, yeah, and this trailer comes on, and it's just like, what is this? And I was mixed feelings of excitement that they're making a Super Mario Bros. movie, but confusion as to what did I just see?

SPEAKER_07

It's like the Masters of the Universe movie. Yes, I have that exactly so jazz, it's like they're making He-Man movie, and then you see it and you're like, Oh, was that I want to like it so bad. Do I like that? I don't know. I mean, like, why why take He-Man out of Eternia? And I know why now, because it's budget, it was canon films, but but you know, it's like at the time, you're like, I don't get it. Why did they why did they create these new characters? Why didn't they just use Merman and and you know some of the Trap Johns, you know, triclops? It's like, why did they create Karg and all these guys? I just I didn't get my my little what are the seven-year-old, eight-year-old brain just couldn't comprehend. Yeah, and uh, I kind of felt that same way when when Mario was coming out. It it barely had anything really to do with Mario except that they were brothers, they were plumbers, Koopa was in there. I think Princess Peach was in there, although I think her name is something else.

SPEAKER_05

It was oh, was it Daisy after the uh the Game Boy game?

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay. See, I haven't seen it in the game.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, they can they kind of combined they used Daisy's name, but it's it's Princess Toadstool or Peach or whatever, because her dad, the king, gets turned into this big giant fungus.

SPEAKER_07

Slime, yeah, yeah. As you know, as as one does, and eventually you get back on track.

SPEAKER_05

That definitely feels like they had a script and a concept going, and they just dropped the Mario characters in there and made this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, I agree. That that's happened a lot. It's like that's this movie, and let's just throw in some IP and yeah, call it a day.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're we're about to get into the actual Christmas of this all, but yeah, I know I keep putting it off. I'm just having so much fun talking about the games. Uh, what are y'all feet, y'all's feelings about Chris Pratt as Mario and the new movie coming out?

SPEAKER_01

I love Chris Pratt. I mean, I love Chris Pratt. Maybe if he's like original Andy Dwyer. Oh, yeah. It might it might pull off, but I'm sure it'd be fine.

SPEAKER_05

It's just it's so silly.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, I'm gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_05

Oh footage is so silly, but uh some of these other like Keegan Michael Key is Toad, I'll watch that.

SPEAKER_07

That one, yeah, that that one was good.

SPEAKER_05

I'll take that black as Bowser, I'll watch that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, I also agreed with that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it'll definitely get watched. It's either gonna be epically great or such a tragedy that you'll watch it over and over again because it's so bad.

SPEAKER_07

So bad it's good one, which is funny because like Charles Martinette has done the voice for Mario since what since well, since his creation, basically, not since his no, no, since uh since what 92, I think something like that.

SPEAKER_05

He it was for for like a trade show demo, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And but it's like I mean, we have this guy here, why not use him?

SPEAKER_05

I just he does get a cameo in this, so at least they're throwing him a bone, like they're making him a part of this, and so that's gonna be part of the joke somehow.

SPEAKER_07

We'll see somehow.

SPEAKER_05

So all right, I guess they're not just like leaving him behind or whatever.

SPEAKER_07

He's actually in the one thing I thought was cool is he's actually in the Guinness Book of World Records, just because he's played the same character like more than any other person, like well, yeah, in so many different appearances because all he has to do is record the yeah, we can yeah, it's it's here officially the most roles performed with the same character. He's got at the time of that record, it was over a hundred, which is crazy. Yeah, but I mean, hey, let's use him. He's uh he also does Wario and Waluigi. Why not just yeah, missed my calling? Well, you know, I did send you that thing about how to become a Muppet, uh a Muppeteer. He did. So you know, I'm trying, I'm trying to help you out. So the show we mentioned it in beginning in the beginning of the episode in 1989, they had the uh the Super Mario uh Super Show. Hey Paisanos, it's the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and then later on it became what Super Mario World, where they changed the song, which uh the first song was so good. Why why change it up?

SPEAKER_05

No, it was a different series. They had that, and then they did the the Super Mario Brothers 3 cartoon on Saturday mornings. Oh, and then they transitioned that into Super Mario.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, I see. Okay, well, that makes sense then. Still, it's kind of a bummer. That first one was just such a great song, and yeah, no, I got hooked on the brothers.

SPEAKER_05

Uh I mean, Captain I'm not sure what happened there, and and not all of the voice actors like even they got they had to pick a different voice for the princess and Mario and Luigi are all different voices, but but Toad stuck around and King Koopa stuck around.

SPEAKER_07

Well, I think Koopa's voice is so distinct. Yes, Captain Lou wasn't quite as Captain Louie, I guess, as he had been in other appearances. So I could see how anyone with a voice that's similar could have taken over the role. You do kind of miss it. I I after watching the other episode, and it just it didn't quite feel right. And I don't know if it's just because I've seen so many more of the original super show than I have of the new one or or what, but it just it didn't quite sound like Mario to me.

SPEAKER_05

No, it was definitely a you had to get used to it, I remember they because he started with the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon, and that was the first time I realized, whoa, this is a different voice. Yeah, so that took some getting used to, but it happens, it does happen.

SPEAKER_07

I know Kermit looking at you. I still can't, I'm still not used to, and I know it's only been like a couple of things here and there, but I'm still not quite used to the new voice of Kermit yet.

SPEAKER_05

It's different with Muppets because you have to have someone who can perform the Muppet character, like you have to be a puppeteer and a voice actor. And I think Matt Vogel's doing a fantastic job.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. He's I mean, he's he's doing good, it's just it's not the Kermit I'm used to. So I just it's taken me a little bit.

SPEAKER_05

Steve Whitmire after Jim Henson died. You will get used to Matt Vogel eventually. If it's the rest of y'all 10 years like it did the last time, it took people so long. Like, yeah, we're gonna get used to it. And now we go back and we watch the Muppet Christmas Carol, and it's perfect.

SPEAKER_07

It is, yeah. I mean, I I can't imagine, and I love Jim Henson, and he's he's my Kermit, you know, that's like my Kermit, but at the same time, I can't imagine him and and his voice in Muppet Christmas Carol. I mean, at at this point, it's it's it is Steve, you know, and so so I know I'll get used to it, but it that's that's neither here nor there, right? Uh we're talking, we're talking Mario right now. We are yeah, so we have Captain Lou, we have Danny Wells as Luigi. None of these guys really rang a bell to me, except for again, for for you know, Mr. Wrestler over there. What about y'all?

SPEAKER_05

Well, I going back, I know a few, like Harvey Atkin as Bowser. I've heard his voice in other cartoons. I used to watch this cartoon after school called Stunt Dogs about these stunt performers, and there was a bad guy in that show who was also voiced by Harvey Atkin using the same grovelly voice, and the first time I saw him was like, hey, wait a minute. That that might have been the only reason why I watched that show because I recognized a voice on it. And then Toad is voiced by John Stalker, who's done a number of things, but I recognize him most other than this as a voice in the Care Bears family. He's he's Mr. Beastly.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, was he on Dinosaur's? His voice sounded very much like the uh the the ankylosaurus. I think I think you're right. I'm gonna look it up again.

SPEAKER_01

I thought I heard a gummy bear gummy bear's voice in one of the episodes we watched too, but I couldn't might have been.

SPEAKER_05

Could be. Yeah, John Stalker is uh Ankle.

SPEAKER_07

That's him, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Ankle, excuse me.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, um, I just found I just found out that uh Dinosaur's had a Christmas episode, so I'm I'm down ready to do that. Stego claws. So I'm yeah, I guess I'm excited to cover that one. Oh good.

SPEAKER_05

I'll get back right. Uh you getting Sean Robert for that. I haven't yet, but uh he he's a good he's gonna be a good get for that.

SPEAKER_07

Okay, I'll I'll ask him. Yeah, I've got him coming on to record Leprechaun's Christmas Gold because I know I know it's one of his favorites, so I'm excited to talk that one. Good. But yeah, so uh other than really for me again, I didn't really notice him except when I heard Ugdar's voice this time, and and I was like, wait, that guy sounds like the guy from the dinosaur's. But other than that, most of the voices I I I really don't have any connection to, you know, it's not like a Frank Welker or uh Don Messick or anybody that's in everything, you know, or it's her strong, even you know, obscure, yeah, yeah, definitely much more. But let's talk Koopa Claus, Koopa Claus, yeah, yeah. This was from October 23rd, 1989, and this one was this was a Fun one. I like this one. I like it more than the other one, that's for sure. I don't know about y'all.

SPEAKER_05

Yes. Yeah, I'm with you.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, right on. Okay, I dig it. If we want to break it down in a nutshell, and and I realize we're we're running low on time here, so we'll kind of just run through these pretty quickly here. But in a nutshell, King Koopa tries to bomb the Santa's workshop and uh take his toys and replace them with like broken toys. And so Mario and Peach and Toad and Luigi, who just kind of happen to be there just because, just coincidentally, I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Exactly.

SPEAKER_05

Like they literally dig up into the North Pole Bugs Bunny style.

SPEAKER_07

Bugs Bunny style, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And Mario's dressed in this like Hawaiian shirt and a sun straw hat, yeah. And never changes it throughout the episode when he's at the North Pole, he's dressed for a Hawaiian vacation.

SPEAKER_07

You know, I figure maybe he had a bite of fire flower and just kind of warmed him up inside. I don't know, but there's like a lot of funny bits in this in this. So, like when Koopa takes Santa, he ends up using him as a sled in one part. So I I I really laughed at that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I hadn't I haven't seen Santa abused as much in a in a cartoon or film as I've seen in this.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, this was this was a strange one. So Koopa, as he's loading up all his stuff and a bunch of bombs, you know, and I guess they're ice bombs that he's gonna use uh to to bomb freeze the north pole. Well, we never said Koopa was like the sharpest pencil in the box. So that's like his plan, and I do like the bit about the uh Randolph, the red-nosed triclide. Yeah, that was good.

SPEAKER_05

He's got like uh bicycle handles as antlers, all of the heads, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_07

All three of his heads, all three of the heads, and they all have the nose as well, yep. And so they yeah, they like take off, and as we said, they just kinda somehow manage to wind up at the North Pole, Mario and and gang, and that's when they notice that something's not quite right. They were only five miles. Yeah, they were five miles, but I mean, still that's that's that's a long way from Hawaii land, sure is, yeah, which made me wonder is Hawaii land like Hawaii, or is that like Hawaii land? Is that like some sort of mirror reflection in this mushroom kingdom?

SPEAKER_05

I think that's what they're going with. They go, they've gone a lot of places like that. There was like a Zorro type episode where I forget what it was called, but it was like Mexico adjacent.

SPEAKER_07

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05

There's a lot of those.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. Not quite like Mexapo or something. Yeah, it's it's just funny that how they they do these things, and then the north, but the north pole is here.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, this it's the legit north pole.

SPEAKER_07

It is the north pole, so maybe that's why whenever explorers go to the north pole, they can't find it because it's actually not really in our world. I don't know. That's a stretch. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01

I'm trying. I didn't realize Mario was so good at like math because it's like uh they flew over him where they were at Hawaii land, and then he calculated that he's heading to the North Pole just by on his trajectory of flight, you know.

SPEAKER_07

Well, he he is a doctor and an archaeologist, so that is true.

SPEAKER_01

We forgot he has video.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, that's right. We forgot rule number one. Yeah, I apologize. It's Christmas Eve. So, first of all, why are they going on a Hawaiian vacation on Christmas Eve? But I would, would you? I don't think I would. Huh. See Bab just did. Oh, that's true, yeah. Yeah, he did. He had some cool pictures though with uh Kermit. Yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was great.

SPEAKER_07

But so secondly, I mean, Toad is like, hey, we're by Santa, let's go get some presents. Then Toad has like a legit arc in this whole thing.

SPEAKER_05

Yes, Toad is the uh boy do I love presents character. We're going for that trope here, and oh my goodness, just through the whole thing, he's gotta like correct himself, just like, I love presents. Oh, what's Christmas without presents? Oh, oh, Aunt Santa, and Santa, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Let's let's go save those presents. Hey, and Santa. It was very uh it was laid on thick for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, he's definitely like orcoing it. Yeah, right. That's right. Well, I was watching this with my nine-year-old, and she's like, Come on, you know, smart kid.

SPEAKER_07

Well, it's so much so that like Princess Peach has to like like give him her her present early, you know. She's like, Fine, here's your present. And he's like, Oh, you know, it's a snowboard, and he's so excited, it's awesome, you know. And which, you know, spoiler alert comes in later. Anyway, so so they go, they see that you know, everything's kind of frozen and Koopa's there, and there's a whole thing. So they come up with this plan, and I love this plan because Mario makes Luigi do everything. I don't know if you noticed. He's like, he's like, go over there, grab that, toss it over here. He's like, What? This he's like, Okay, we'll bring it over here, and then all right, he picks him up. He's like, Okay, don't jump on that. Like, Mario does nothing in it except come up with the plan. But you know, that's what big brothers are for.

SPEAKER_05

His mind's racing, he's get that's how he's got to communicate. All right, yep, yep, jump on the teeter totter, here we go.

SPEAKER_07

And you made a point about uh teeter totter. I was also Seesaw, that's how I that's how I learned it. So you're a teeter totter guy? Okay, yeah, interesting. Well, uh anyway, so he basically it's like a catapult, I guess. And so they they get this big block of ice to to hit Koopa in his you know faux sleigh, and they they make no plan about how to get Santa, like how to save him or anything. Luckily, Koopa uses his bag as like some sort of parachute and and manages to like slow their fall so that they don't die from this these heights, yeah. Like that cape.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, Koopa could just not grab the hold of Santa and it'd been the end of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_07

But yeah, so then and this is the part that I liked. They're like, all right, now we gotta go catch him, and like it's just him Cooper rutted and then using Santa as a sled.

SPEAKER_03

Right, riding on his back like belly whopping Frosty the snowman.

SPEAKER_07

It's ridiculous, and I loved every minute of it. It's like, oh, poor Santa.

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_07

Oh man. But how do I forgot how they uh how they catch him because they run into some flirt, some uh flurries, isn't it, at one point? Yeah. Uh huh. But how do they how do they end up catching how do they end up stopping Koopa?

SPEAKER_01

Koopa's screaming at the at that moment. Oh, that's what it was. That's right. Yeah, the Avalanche because he's gonna let everybody know that Christmas is a bum coup.

SPEAKER_04

Christmas.

SPEAKER_08

Christmas is a bum go.

SPEAKER_01

And then uh and then Mario uses his plumber snake to lasso Santa out of harm's way. So right.

SPEAKER_07

I don't know. That's kind of suspect to me. I don't know if I'd be grabbing that thing. Oh no. It's terrible.

SPEAKER_05

Putting that plumber snake in the game, right?

SPEAKER_01

That would have been cool. Yeah, or like Castlevania, that the whip.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Well, that's another game. I want I so good. I love Castlevania, but yeah, you're right. So he causes an avalanche, Mario saves Santa. Then Coop's like, what about me? And like he actually has the nerve to just jump off. Well, he doesn't even say anything, he mimes it, which I like. He just kind of goes, and so Koopa's like, You gotta be kidding me, but eventually he does. Oh, but unfortunately, the North Pole is still frozen, so there's not enough time. Nobody's gonna get their presents, and Toad is just like, Yeah, what I got my present, I'm all good. He has no clue until Peach is like, Yeah, or he says, Why Santa said? And Peach has to explain, Yeah, you got your present, nobody else is gonna get theirs. And then in a true selfless moment, yeah, Toad decides to give Santa his uh his board and says, At least you can give one present out. And Santa strangely says it's the like the most giving, loving moment he's ever experienced in in in the history of Christmas, apparently.

SPEAKER_05

Really, Santa?

SPEAKER_07

There's that's a yeah, I don't know if I brought that up a long time, Santa. Maybe he just wanted to make Toad feel better about himself. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

He's a saint, he's trying to teach the whole leave the 99 sheep to celebrate the return of one.

SPEAKER_07

There you go. I like that. So apparently that selfless act fills Santa with so much Christmas spirit, it warms his heart and soul, I guess, so much that uh it completely melts the North Pole. Yeah. And so then they're able to take off, and everything's fine. You know, they they get to go with him and deliver presents and you know, all that. Now, this thing is bookended, and this was my favorite part. Yeah, I like Mario, I like I liked it all, but my favorite part was actually the live action segments, which if you're watching it on Tubi, by the way, is not the correct live action part, right? So just an FYI. It's on that one, it's from the the other episode, like little little ones or something like that. And so uh it's not the right one. The correct one is where Mario and Luigi, it's Christmas Eve.

SPEAKER_05

No, no, no, no, no, no. The Tubi one is correct, excuse me. Oh, is it really? Yeah, so they they're actually there's a live-action Christmas segment in one episode, and this Koopa Claus episode is in a different segment.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, I see. Why wouldn't they put it on the same one?

SPEAKER_05

I don't know. But someone on YouTube did a few years ago. I did see that. So I cheated in my episode of the Advent Calendar House and just covered both halves of that.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, okay. Well, that's what we'll do because good it's the other one, it's it's about a little boy that runs away and then they have to convince him that his parents love him. Well, all that stuff, you know. The usual no, no, in this one, Mar, it's Christmas Eve, and Mario and Luigi get a visitor in their Brooklyn apartment.

SPEAKER_05

That is such a cool looking apartment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

I don't know if I buy that. That's really a Brooklyn apartment. I mean, I've never been to Brooklyn, but it just from all the movies I've seen, it just seems big to me.

SPEAKER_05

Well, it's also their like it's a work site. It's well, that's true.

SPEAKER_01

The rent's gotta be expensive on that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. I hope he gets a lot of coins from those question boxes.

SPEAKER_05

I guess so.

SPEAKER_07

So, yeah, but they get a visitor and it's a Santa Claus-looking guy named Nick, but he's just wearing like red uh long johns.

SPEAKER_01

Well, there's New York, so take that, Anthony.

SPEAKER_05

It's flatbush Santa. That's right.

SPEAKER_07

That's right. So you can tell he's clearly something has happened to him, and so they take him in. Luigi goes out to look for his stuff, and Mario ends up feeding him like the dinner that they were gonna eat. But Mario's so nice, he's like, No, no, I'm I'm full. You eat mine too, and you know, he he kind of feeds this guy. He's just Mario's such a good guy, and Luigi comes, you know, he's like, Well, what about your brother? He's like, Oh no, he's full, also. He's you know, we're stuffed, yeah. And he comes and he's like, Oh, I'm starving. And I like that bit, but anyway, in the end, it midnight dings. I don't know who has a clock like that, but that's a cool alarm clock. That it was like it's hey, it's midnight!

SPEAKER_05

Christmas reminded me of Buster Poindexter hanging out with the clock.

SPEAKER_07

Oh man, I now I want like a Buster Pointexter Mario.

SPEAKER_03

Let's go that. Oh, now I need that. Get out of here, Chris Pratt. Get Buster Poindexter and Mario.

SPEAKER_07

That would be cool. It's a me, I'm the ghost. Yeah, I mean, yeah, so they give him, they end up giving Nick their presents because they you know, he doesn't have anything, it's a pair of boots and a wrench that they were gonna give each other. Very gift of the magi kind of thing, where they're right, because you're like, Where are your boots? Yeah, yeah, which you know, Merry Christmas. Oh Henry. Anyway, so eventually it's like the next, I guess it's Christmas Day later on. They discover that the cops found his stuff, and they their original gifts to each other, it's still there under the tree. Just remember.

SPEAKER_05

No, it's it's the gifts that they gave to each other, and they gave a little card and it's signed SC.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, that's what it was. Yeah, the card, yeah. And they're like, SC, I thought his name was Nick. Yeah, and then they see the those terrible reindeer, the terrible little puddle. Yes, so bad. Oh, ho ho. Oh man, yeah, it's great. I loved them in their pajamas, that was fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Seeing them in their pajamas, yeah, with their little nightcaps.

SPEAKER_07

I and now, like, that's how I want it. I want to picture Mario and Luigi like all the time now, just uh as Buster Pointexter in those pajamas.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_05

I think at the end of uh Mario 2, you see Mario kind of sleeping in a nightcap. I think we do, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yep, yep, checks out nightcaps. Well, especially since so much from the show was like borrowed from Mario 2. I mean, I that definitely makes sense.

SPEAKER_05

There you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Anybody have any experience with a nightcap?

SPEAKER_07

I do not.

SPEAKER_05

I have a heater.

SPEAKER_07

Yep. And I I I can't sleep in like pajama pants. I can't. It's I get too hot, so I have to wear shorts when I sleep. It's just one of those things.

SPEAKER_05

But I could go either way.

SPEAKER_07

That's cool. But like you said, I have a heater, so right, it's usually shorts for me. No, no experience with the nightcap, but I do have experience with uh cavemen. Not really, but that's my sag, and I'm sticking to it.

SPEAKER_02

Well done.

SPEAKER_07

So the second episode is it's from that other show, the Super Mario Super Mario World that you were talking about. Sag actually came from the Super Mario 3. And in this one, they introduce uh well, not introduce, he'd already been around, but they they feature prominently Ugtar, which by the way, Ughtar backwards is Ratku, just so in case you're wondering.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, of course. They're in Dinosaur Land, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

So again, I don't know if that's is that just like another place in the whole mushroom kingdom world? I I have no idea. Is this like a whole nother dimension? Like, I have so many questions. I do too.

SPEAKER_05

I I think the way they explained it in the manual for Super Mario World was that they were going on vacation to Dinosaur Land, and then up, here's Bowser kidnapping the princess again while they're on vacation.

SPEAKER_01

How do they decide which like reptiles are like just reptiles and how are like the other ones are sentient? It's like there's no rhyme or reason to it.

SPEAKER_05

They're all sentient, the clouds have eyes that everything.

SPEAKER_01

We got the orange raincore monster in the pit, though.

SPEAKER_07

That's well, and then doesn't Mario use like some sort of creature as like a wrench to to pry those bars to bend the rice, yeah. Very flintstones, yeah. It's definitely very flintstones, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Yoshi's hyper intelligent because he's got a saddle.

SPEAKER_07

That's right, yeah, yeah. That's like I I guess their version of clothes, so yeah, so you know, it's like the the Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse rule. If they're wearing clothes, they can talk.

SPEAKER_05

There it is.

SPEAKER_07

No, poor Pluto, but anyway.

SPEAKER_05

He doesn't have opposable thumbs.

SPEAKER_07

No, he really doesn't, yeah. So he got the short end of the stick on that evolutionary scale.

SPEAKER_05

Yep.

SPEAKER_07

But so in this one, it's the middle of August, and it's just everyone's fighting, especially Yoshi and Ugdar, they're fighting over ribs, fighting over corn, fighting over everything, and it's kind of spilling out. So they get the idea to, you know what, everybody's nice around Christmas and the holidays. Let's just celebrate Christmas. And I like how Luigi's like, hey, you know, it's like August, right? Warriors like, hey, they don't know that here.

SPEAKER_05

And so this is the exact plot of the back to the future cartoon episode, except instead of celebrating Christmas where they are, they go back to Dickens era in 2045.

SPEAKER_07

Which by the way, I just dropped when this era. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah. So but yeah, so they decide to have Cave Christmas. Cave Christmas. Merry Cave Christmas.

SPEAKER_00

Cave Christmas. It's a day when everyone's nice to each other. Uh a boring man.

SPEAKER_07

And so they tell him about Santa Claus, and Ugdar's not impressed that you gotta be good. He's like like good boys. Does he even says something like Uga Bummer or something like that? Uga Bummer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

But of course, Bowser being Bowser, he and Bully, I guess, is his son's name in this.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So when Bowser Jr.

SPEAKER_07

I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

When they were developing the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon, they didn't have all the couplings named yet. So they just kind of went by the drawings, gave them names and character traits, and then later Nintendo like just decided to give all the couplings names after rock stars and people.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. And they didn't end up, but what have but you know, they're not really Bowser's children anyway, so it's okay.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

So Bowser Jr., I'm gonna say uh is nicknamed Bully just for continuity.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's it's Roy for those of you who know them in their games and in Mario Kart. This is Roy with the sunglasses and the purple head.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah. But apparently, I I mean, I don't know. Anyway, so he they're eavesdropping, and he's like, you know, all right, well, let's take all their stuff. And so that's like their plan, they're just gonna take their stuff. Ugdar, though, doesn't like this whole being good thing, so he wants to go take the presents first, and he ends up getting caught when Bowser and his son take the presents back to their castle, so then it's a matter of Mario having to rescue him. And I like how he's dressed, uh, he's got the beard and the hat, and he's supposed to be Santa. I just thought that was a nice touch. But he rides Yoshi to the castle, get in, and manage to free him. And in the end, I like how, and yes, there was a little piece where Ugdar was gonna be fed to like some sort of orange dino. That's the Rancor you're talking about. The Rancor, yeah. I wonder what he would be what a Rancor would be called in like Mario World. Oh, jeez. Because they all have like a Yoshi. I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

Anyway, so that uh Blarg, I think it's the lava monster in those.

SPEAKER_07

Oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe something like that. I don't know. But anyway, so they managed to save him using the cape, which I liked as well. It was a nice little reference, and I liked how Mario actually broke the question mark, you know, the question boxes, so that was kind of cool too. And while the I don't know if you noticed, but while he's running away, there's actually a song that's kind of like a parody of uh rocking around the Christmas uh tree. Yeah, something like rocking with sleigh bells with sleigh bells, yeah, rocking with the sleigh bells the whole night through. Nothing could be nicer than being with you.

SPEAKER_01

It's like the lamest lyrics ever. Well, you know, in that that that first episode we talked about, they had Bobby Helms Jingle Bell Rock.

SPEAKER_05

They did, but then in reruns, I remember they couldn't use those, they they lost the rights to using those songs, so it was like the same little instrumental track in every episode, and then they used that same track in all the Captain N episodes because they ran into the same problem there, and it was weird. But I just I have that memory in my brain. It's just like, oh, here we go. Here it's the song's called Mega Move.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, and it has to it's it's uh basically more expensive to buy rights, TV rights, especially when it's gonna be something that's gonna be run in syndication. Yes. Right. And so there's a whole lot of that going on. So like in Knight Rider, they bought the rights to the song, but not like the rights to the original songs, because that's more expensive. So then they have like cover bands and studio bands playing them. Yeah. Now they they do really good. They they get really close to the the actual like what it sounds like, but it's not you know it's not really yes singing over owner of a lonely heart, you know, in Knight Rider. So this is something similar. Same same thing with like the Muppets Muppet Family Christmas, where you know they have to cut out a lot of that just because of rights.

SPEAKER_05

But by the time they get to this cartoon, they got wise and was like, All right, let's have the actors doing the coupling voices sing parody songs.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, yeah, let's come save some money there. So anyway, with the with the cape, Mario ends up freeing Ugdar. They go through a warp tube, and and I like how in the end, you know, Ugdar is like, uh, you know, I don't need any thanks for saving me. That's all the present I need, Santa. As he's going to sleep. Of course, he does say, Well, you know, if Santa wants to leave me a present, you you can. So we get that classic little bit there, and of course he does. And then when he sees Mario asleep, he's he thinks that Santa forgot to give Mario a present, and so he drops off a present for Mario. Yeah, it's all nice. What do y'all think of these episodes? Are they part of your Christmas canon?

SPEAKER_05

Koopa Clauses, Koopa Claus, yeah. Not so much this one because I don't have the same strong memory of it, but I watched Koopa Claus and and the other segment with Captain Lou and Danny Wells so often that yeah, I watch not every year, but right to come back to.

SPEAKER_01

Nice. What about you, Todd? I think this might actually be the first time I've seen any of these because the time uh Mario became cartoon and stuff, I was kind of at the age where I wasn't watching that a whole lot. Oh, I gotcha, yeah, you know, and you know, things and you know, I was kind of like pre-teenager, so right. I'd watch it but not really watch it, kind of kind of thing. And but I'll tell you what, the live action bit with uh Nick and as goofy as that was, I really enjoyed it quite a bit today.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, I wish it was longer. I do too. I I would have loved to have seen just a show of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, even like the the the crazy reindeer that come across, they even had like the red glow on the front one for the for Rudolph and stuff, and it's just like uh like I said, as corny and cheesy as it was, I just really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_07

And and I I agree, I think from now on, I remember Koopa Claws, it was never in my canon, but now that I've like really dived into it, I think that's definitely gonna be from now on. I think I'm gonna catch that now. As far as the games go, so they actually have three of the top five best-selling games, which I thought was really cool. So it's Super Mario Bros. Number two was Duck Hunt and the best-seller games. Uh, Super Mario Bros. The original has sold over 50 million copies, which is just crazy. Super Mario Bros. 3 was ranked third, then Tetris was fourth, and then Super Mario Bros. 2, the US version, or I guess international version, uh, was ranked fifth. So, I mean, out of like the top five best-selling Nintendo games, they have three of them, and that says quite a bit for just the Mario franchise in general.

SPEAKER_05

I'm not surprised. Well, especially with the first one, and helps to pack it into the game, into the system. Yeah, that's why that's number one and Duck Hunt's number two.

SPEAKER_07

That's right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Super Mario Bros. 3. I remember the hype around that. Like, oh yeah, yeah, I do too. I remember that first commercial for it. It's just a bunch of it's like a crowd of people across the globe chanting Mario, Mario, and the different color shirts, and then when you zoom out on the planet Earth and it's like a face of it's Mario's face with all these people in in different colored sweatshirts. But that was that was real, that was how we all felt like everybody was waiting for that game, and then we saw it in the wizard, and that's the only reason anyone even went to see that movie. It's a fun movie, but that's the only reason anyone ever watched it.

SPEAKER_07

I agree, yeah. That's why I wanted because the power gloves in it, I gotta I gotta watch this, and then Mario 3. Oh, I'm I'm all in, all in. Of course, we know how the power glove turned out, but Mario 3 was like a fun game. I really liked Mario 3.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah, still one of my very favorites, yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, same here. So it sold uh 58 million copies, Super Mario Bros., which is just unbelievable. Mario Kart 8 sold it's the next highest up. It's actually sold 47,200,000 copies, which is again quite an achievement. Yeah, you know, I I do gotta know, guys, you know, what would you say would be like your hap, hap happiest memory or moment of Mario?

SPEAKER_05

I mentioned that my dad got the NES as a gift, the Super Nintendo was a gift for me one Christmas when I was 11. So I I remember that pretty vividly waking up, and there's the big super NES box. We got Super Mario World packed into it, and I also got Super Castlevania 4 was the other game I got that Christmas morning. So we played a lot of that. That is my favorite Castlevania game to this day. Nice, that was a fun Christmas morning, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I remember Christmas 1996. I got the N64 for Christmas that year, uh, with Mario 64, and I thought, man, I'm I'm gonna have a you know a lot of fun playing this game. And and and I I kind of you know plugged it up by that time. I you know, I was working and and had uh semester and a half of college behind me or something. And and you know, I had so I plugged it up in the in the TV in my room and didn't really play it a lot. And so I was at a a church party for New Year's going from 96 to 97, and we were playing basketball, and I blew out my knee and had to be had to have it in the brace and couldn't move for six weeks. And so I sit there and just destroyed Mario 64 in those six weeks, and even though my leg was hurting and I had to have it propped up and stuff, I just had a blast because I had no reason to do anything else, an excuse to get out of any kind of chore or work or anything. And I remember my sister brought home a magazine that showed where all like 120 stars were in that game, and and and and within that six weeks I had them all at the game beat, just kind of knew my way around back and forth, and and so it Mario helped turn what could have been just a just a bummer of a situation into one that I look back on finally.

SPEAKER_07

Nice, yeah. That's awesome. For me, it's also when my dad brought home the Nintendo for the first time. It was it was in the evening, it was around six o'clock because we had just eaten dinner. I'll never forget we're playing it, and my happiest moment, as weird as it is, is the very first time I jumped and got the very top of the flag. Yeah, you know, like you got it, you run and you you jump and you get the flag, and it's just you know, however many points. But like the very first time you I got that flag was just like, whoa, I made it to the very top. Look how many points I got. I mean, it was like it was just like just blew my mind that you could do that because before then it was like the first few times we had tried it. Uh, we would just jump from the bottom and and you know, I was like, Oh, I I made it a little higher this time, but you know, you you you don't really get that much. And I mean, it was it was cool. I I I was like so proud of myself, and everyone was like, Whoa, and it had to be like 87 or maybe 88 when it happened, but it was it was just one of those memories that it's like I I don't really remember what day it was, I don't really remember you know what time of year it was. I just remember playing the game and getting that flag, and that was cool. So that's that was pretty exciting for me. You know, but now we come to my favorite part of the show, which is a little bit I like to call gag me with the spoon. So this is where we do our best impression of our least favorite part, and I almost picked everything that Ugdar says, but uh but in the end I decided to to go with something else. But as a guest, I'll let y'all go first, and uh it can be anything. So after you.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Well, there was a few parts I I had, but when Mario had bent the the bars to get in the castle to save uh Uctar, he got stuck, and all I could say was push Santa push, and then Yoshi backs up and goes, Where do you push Santa?

SPEAKER_05

Good night, everybody.

SPEAKER_07

Welcome to Totally Rad After Dark. Oh man, that's yeah, that's that's not a great line there.

SPEAKER_05

Uh I went with a line from Koopa Claus where they're trying to follow King Koop and Santa into this dark cave, and Luigi says, It sure looks dark in there. And the princess says, the whole world would look pretty dark without Christmas.

SPEAKER_00

And Toad responds, yeah, what's Christmas without presents? And Santa.

SPEAKER_07

That was so good, bro.

SPEAKER_05

I didn't want to tear my voice. Yeah, I did want to tear my voice up trying to yell bahum coop. So I'll let you have that.

SPEAKER_07

Yep, that that's gonna be me right now. So this was just it was one of those lines that's like really. I mean, that's it's like the most forced thing. So it's coop, and he goes, excuse me here. I'm gonna try. Christmas, Christmas is a baum coop, a ba hum coop, bahum coop. That was terrible. I'm sorry. Oh man, there were quite a few lines that weren't great, but you know, it's written for kids, so it is what it is. But I do have to know, you know, GI Joe taught us that knowing is half the battle. What do you guys think the other half is?

SPEAKER_05

Realizing that trying to freeze the North Pole doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely. What about you, Todd? Uh keep your plumber's snake at arm's length away.

SPEAKER_07

I those those are both better than mine. So knowing is half the battle, the other half is just getting better security at the North Pole.

SPEAKER_02

There it is.

SPEAKER_07

Because man, Koopa just froze that whole thing. Oh man, guys, this has been so much fun. Before you plug your shows, favorite Mario character.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, geez, Donkey Kong. Nice. Because I Mario Kart has always Donkey Kong, and I bond it with Donkey Kong.

SPEAKER_05

So I have a soft spot for Wario. I just like I just like listening to him. He's it's just goofy sounding with that voice.

SPEAKER_04

He's just like, I'm a Wario, I'm gonna win.

SPEAKER_07

I've always been like just straight up Mario, but lately I'm really digging Yoshi. Like, Yoshi's my guy now. I kind of yeah, I I like being Yoshi in anything, so and and my three-year-old's like the dinosaur. It's like, yes, he's a dinosaur, yeah. So so I kind of am have a soft spot now for Yoshi as well. But you know, enough about me. Let's talk about your shows. What do you guys want to plug?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I have the podcast YouTube channel, Christmas Clatter, where we uh celebrate everything that makes Christmas special and check us out. The easiest way to find us is just to go to ChristmasClatter.com and that will take you wherever you want to go.

SPEAKER_07

Right on.

SPEAKER_05

Well, the Advent Calendar House is in the middle of a long winter's nap at the moment, but I dropped my 100th episode this past Christmas Eve. You can check out all of those at adventcalendar.house. If you want to say hi to me, I am on Twitter at Fall Westmike.

SPEAKER_07

Which, by the way, I still couldn't believe like two of your guests had never seen your hundredth episode, you know, the actual show. I was like, wait, what? This is something we watch like every Christmas.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, we did we did Santa Claus's coming to town for episode 100. I've been saving it for that. Yeah, and and my friend Joey had never seen it, and I didn't realize it when I chose him. I just chose like, well, you've been on the most of these. Come on on. He tells me he'd never seen it before, so yeah, it blew me away too. But we had a lot of fun with it.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, it was a great episode. I loved it. I just it was just one of those, like, wait, what? People people didn't know that this was on every year. That just kind of blew my mind. But definitely go check out both those shows, they're my favorites. The guys are amazing, Todd and Mike. Hey, thanks. I know we've never met in person, but you guys are some of my best friends, so thank you for for coming on and talking Mario with me. And on that note, I'm gonna end it by saying, I didn't get to ruin Christmas. The Mario Brothers beat me again, and I'm floating away on an iceberg. What else can go wrong? Well, you can check us out on our social media pages, Facebook and Instagram at Totally Rad Christmas and Twitter at Rad Christmas. And if you're feeling like Toad warming Santa's heart, leave us a review on iTunes. Not only does it help us reach more people, but you also get a free sticker. Now don't forget to check out our merch shop on tpublic.com and our brand new website, totallyradchristmas.com, courtesy of Tis the Podcast Elf Tom Crow. Mario Christmas to all, and to all a good night. Later, dudes.

SPEAKER_05

Are you tired of not being able to fit your eight-hour VHS tape full of holiday specials into your costereo? So was I, till I discovered the Advent Calendar house. It's a podcast you know on the internet. They talk about all your favorite holiday specials. I'm the most important part because From the Must Watch Christmas Classics to the lost treasures at the bottom of the bargain bin.

SPEAKER_00

I'm Olive! I'm the other reindeer!

SPEAKER_05

Now I don't have to hook up a VC onto my car battery anymore. Thanks to AdventCalendar House. Visit AdventCalendar.house now to download your first episode free! And all the other ones free. It's a free podcast. Just go listen. Catches, toys, green, everything.

SPEAKER_01

Hello, this is Todd Killiam from the Christmas Clatter Podcast. What makes Christmas special to you? Is it the movies or the music, the food or family, the gifts or decorations? Maybe those quiet moments of reflection. Whatever it is, join me for Christmas Clatter, a monthly podcast dedicated to everything that makes Christmas special. Visit ChristmasClatter.com for all social media links and find Christmas Clatter Podcast on all podcast apps. Thank you, and remember to keep Christmas hope alive every day.