Mario is Missing!

"Mario is Missing will be Missing From Your Game Library!"

After much joy and celebration of Super Mario World, fans of Mario now have the chance to play the game where Luigi is the protagonist. Although it isn't even made by Nintento, that doesn't mean another company is automatically worse, right? Well, read this review and you can see for yourself.

Needless to say, this game is very different compared to Super Mario World. And unfortunately, not as good. It is far from being an adventure game, and it certainly won't be remembered for long as a good game in the Mario super series.

Visuals: 5/10

You will quickly notice, from the very few second when you start this game, that the graphics are worse than they were Super Mario World. Luigi is actually an exact clone of Mario, he just has green as his color clothing. This is very sad that there is not much detail between the two brothers. During gameplay, when you see all the houses, you might notice that most homes look different from each other, and even more so in other cities. In the background, you will see a wallpaper of houses, which is good enough since you won't be paying too much attention to the places where people live.

Audio: 4/10

Sadly to say, Mario is Missing only has one main song for all the levels in the whole game. They are played slightly differently than in other levels. For example, if you are in a stage in Russia, you will notice the folk ness in the music. Whenever you are in the castle, the castle music plays, and that is pretty much all in terms of music. The sounds don't get any more exciting. When landing on enemies, you will hear the same *poof* that you did from other Mario games. Almost the same sounds were taken from the other versions. Not too mention there are very little of them.

Gameplay: 2/10

The worst part in Mario is Missing is probably going to be its gameplay. I will point out from the beginning that it is impossible to die, even during boss fights. No enemy can touch you, you are invincible. What you have to do in this game is find artifacts from enemies and then give them back to where they belong, but before that you have to answer questions about the artifact you want to return. You will find clues from talking to people and reading newspaper articles. Once you secure a city, you will get a score, and a password will be given to you. There is no challenge to this game. Once you find the three artifacts in the city you are in, and give them back, you secure the city in move on to the next. Let me explain to you this city thing. You have to travel around the globe as Luigi and Yoshi, and go to real life cities to find the stolen artifacts that Bowser and his minions have stolen. I think the only positive aspect in the game is its geographical learning value. By the end of the game you will have probably learned a few things about world geography. Unfortunately, this alone cannot make the game great, and learning should stay books, unless somebody can do a better job.

Story: 3/10

Mario is Missing. The title of the game explains it all. So one time out of the blue Mario falls through a black hole and Luigi is left to find him with the help of Yoshi. Obviously this is all from the works of Bowser. You will see this all happen on the main menu video. The story never takes any plot turns, it pretty much stays the same.

Originality: 2/10

There is nothing original about this game, except of course for the slight educational value of geography, and that's why I gave it a 2/10.

Replay Value: 1/10

I remember when I was very young I first played this game and knew I disliked it within the first two minutes of it. Now I have given it a second chance, and have dedicated myself to at least completing the game. And once I did, there was absolutely nothing left to do. This game is short altogether, and very possible to beat it in a single sitting with no challenge, but it will be too boring to play it all at once.

Miscellaneous

Unlike Super Mario World, you cannot save your game onto the cartridge, you will have to write down passwords to continue from your last point. Every time you complete a level a password will be given to you, so get ready to have that pen and paper handy.

FINAL SCORE: 3/10
Exact Score: 2.8333333

The Good
-educational value in the subject of world geography

The Bad
-poor graphics, audio, replay value, gameplay
-horrendous boss battles

Here is a game that will not be as popular as the other Mario games out there, but we can see why. This game was not made by Miyamoto, so we know why this game failed horribly. Hopefully this will be a lesson to all the game developers that only Nintendo and its crew can make great Mario games.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/02, Updated 09/03/02