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Mario and Bowser are Taking Over New Years…in Japan

top of the ojyuhakoThis year, New Years dinner with the family will be totally different…well at least the design on the top of the box. I saw this article done by miki800, a person I follow on tumblr.

おせち料理 – osechi ryouri – Japan’s traditional New Years feast; eaten by most people across the country – even foreigners.

japanese osechi ryoriTraditionally, osechi contained only vegetarian food items, owing to the kind hearted Buddhists, but over the years traditions have changed and now we have many non-traditional and regional osechi. (I have a friend who’s osechihas fried pork cutlets – very non-standard. That would be like eating hamburgers on Thanksgiving!) While many families still make their own New Years feast, some families buy their osechi ryouri from high end stores like Takashimaya or much cheaper fare from places like 7-11 or Hotto Motto.

The foods contained in the osechi are symbolic of the New Year; even the tiered bento-style box, お重箱 – ojyuuhako, is symbolic. What better way to teach the futures generations about the old ways than with a traditional item spiffed up for a new generation? (Please take note of the Mario wearing a hakama on the ojyuuhako.)

famicon cardsThe best part of the whole package, at least for us gamers, will be the sixteen original cards that will be included with the purchase. The New Years dinner can be ordered from Takashimaya, an online and terrestrial store for buying Japanese goods. The box and cards will go on sale 9/30 for 27,000 yen. If you are in Japan and would like to eat like the Romans this New Years, head over to Takashimaya’s online store and reserve your box today!

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My First Mario Game

USgamer has been doing these community questions lately and they have done a lot to stoke the fires in my own brain. This weeks question is: What was your first Mario game? This question got me thinking about my own relationship with the flagship franchise which I was introduced to early on but didn’t quite get hot and heavy with until a few years later.

original NES Action SetWhen I was a child I didn’t own a Nintendo Entertainment System, unlike many of my peers. I was one of those poor flock of 80’s kids who had to listen to the cool stories, who had to watch the cartoons, and yet still bought Nintendo Power. I now look back with some longing; a desire to have been more of a gamer at a younger age than when I really got into it. I am sure that in the end I won because of all the time I spent outside with my friend poking rats with sticks or whatever.

When I was 7 or 8 the NES was huge and you couldn’t go anywhere at the time, as a preteen white kid in the 80’s, without hearing about Mario, Zelda, or Castlevania. I even got to touch some of these game when I went to my cousin’s house for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Occasionally, one of my creepy neighbors, the one who’s father/guy who lived upstairs/possible family member, would let me play his Nintendo. It wasn’t until I turned 10 and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System came out in America that I was able to finally become a full fledged member of the “gamer” community.

So, while Super Mario Bros. for the NES would have undoubtably been my first Mario game – officially. It really wasn’t the first Mario game that I became completely enamored with; that was Super Mario World for the SNES.

world map
Just look at that massive map filled with eclectic worlds!

One of my fondest memories of playing Super Mario World on my SNES was that when I played it I was forced to play it on a small 8 ~ 10 inch black & white TV. Living in a 4 person household, in the midst of the Midwestern countryside, after having moved from Omaha, a much larger city, meant that there were a lot of people vying for TV time on our single 19 inch television in the family room. The only other option we had in our house was that little black & white TV, which nobody else wanted to use besides me.

an old yellow tv
It wasn’t this TV, but it wasn’t much different.

On those all too infrequent days that I was able to plug the machine into the monstrous 19 inch color display, it was like having my eyes healed by Jesus. It looked as though the whole world was given life again. The vibrancy of the green jungles of the opening levels felt insanely rich. The ghost house levels were fun while being the slightest bit scary – the right amount of scary. Each different world was weaved together so well in that game and I feel very special for the fact that I have these two experiences with that game that on other person in the world probably has had.

I remember so many Saturday afternoons spent staring at that dull screen trying to finally make it to Bowser. When I finally made it to Bowser’s castle, my parents bugging me to get ready for church, I had to get ready for church so I only had a few minutes. We always we to church on Saturday evenings. I got to the Bowser fight. I tried two or three times before my parents were going to get really upset with me. I paused the game. When we came back from church while I was waiting for the chili to be done on the stove for dinner I beat Bowser. I am not sure if the power of Christ helped me that day or not (Being that I am an atheist, I doubt it.), but that day is one of my all time greatest gaming memories.

super mario world snes cover artSuper Mario World was my first Mario game. It is also the greatest of all the Mario games, not only because, objectively, it is a meticulously crafted piece of video game history, but also because of all of the personal memories that are completely intertwined in my experience with that game.