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NES Works Gaiden #041: BattleCity & Super Mario Bros. (Patreon)

Published:
2022-06-08 11:45:09
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

A big milestone for the Famicom this week, as Namcot publishes its most ambitious arcade-to-console conversion to date. Yes, BattleCity would change video game history forev—

Sorry, no, wait, it looks like the actual major release in this week's episode is Super Mario Bros. The biggest release for Famicom to date, as it happens, both in terms of size and clout. But I'm sure no one wants to hear about that.

Files

Previews only

BattleCity / Super Mario Bros. retrospective: Tank you, Mario | NES Works Gaiden #41

The Famicom finally reaches maturity with the arrival of Mario's greatest adventure—and perhaps the greatest action game anyone had ever created to this point in history. Pushing the Famicom hardware to its absolute limits, Super Mario Bros. would become one of the most beloved games of all time and transformed a character that began as the star of a string one-off arcade machines into a reliable, franchise-carrying cultural icon. Not that Mario wasn't recognizable before, but Super Mario Bros. turned him into true video game royalty. Also, Namcot delivers a pretty fun arcade conversion called BattleCity, which would have likely been the highlight in any other NES Works Gaiden episode. But, well, Super Mario Bros. Production notes: Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! Plus, exclusive podcasts, eBooks, and more! NES/Famicom footage captured from @Analogue Nt Mini Noir. Video upscaled to 720 with @Retro Tink 5X.

Comments

Raftronaut

“I played this game as a kid on a pirate multi cart” is an experience I certainly had. One of our rental stores had a Bootleg multi cart of Nrom Famicom titles. It’s how I fell in love with games like Balloon Fight, and Mappy. Consequently I have a great deal of nostalgia for early Famicom titles. Seeing those games much later in life and finally piecing together how I knew about them was a real thrill. Battle City co-op is such great fun 👍

Bob

To what degree is Mario inspired by Gunpei Yokoi? I'm not talking about his name, I know that came from the NOA warehouse manager or whatever. I'm saying elevating a maintenance man to an unlikely, resourceful hero on an utterly epic quest. That sounds like Yokoi's arc to me. Do you think his colleagues had that kind of reverence for him, or that it seeped into the idea of Mario somehow?

Jeremy Parish
>>85454955

I really doubt it. Yokoi wasn't some blue-collar maintenance man, he was a highly educated engineer who oversaw Nintendo's assembly lines, and I can't imagine anyone saw his toy and game design work as an epic quest. The only real Yokoi connection I can see here is that Mario was originally conceived as "Mr. Video," an all-purpose character who could fill any role as needed, similar to the silhouette people that showed up in Yokoi's Game & Watch line the year before DK debuted.