Delzethin's Oral History of Mario

It’s no secret that many fans of Mario believe the franchise had a “bland” era before getting weird again on the Switch. Earlier in July, Delzethin put out a video going over how the Super Mario brand seemingly lost its way and later corrected course.

Have you noticed how creative and WEIRD Mario games have gotten again during the Switch era? Far cry from how safe and bland the series was for a while. But why did the latter originally happen, and how did it turn back around?

Check out Youtube to see how in video essay form! pic.twitter.com/OKp5vaVvhe

— Delzethin (@Delzethin) July 24, 2024

The video is split into three chapters:

• Ch. 1 goes over the history of Mario’s creation and the wackiness from the NES era to the GameCube era.
• Ch. 2 details how the franchise started playing things safe and over-relied on the franchise’s most recognizable aspects.
• Ch. 3 reflects on how the creativity came back in full force during the Switch era, despite a few missteps.

If you’d like, you can watch the full video below.

Author’s Note: I’m glad we’ve moved past the era of safe, sterile Mario and fully embraced the franchise’s creative nature again. What do you think the future holds for Mario and his friends? As always, let us know in the comments below!

Credits:
Writing: Perkilator
Social: Perkilator , @Zerp
Editing: @Zerp

 

Unless actual Mario devs are interviewed, this is not an oral history.

 

Meh, I don't really pay attention to Mario games other than the main series nowadays, so for me Mario remains extremely consistent (NSMB aside, and even then I think that's overhated).