Mario Is Missing!

About This Game

Gameplay

Mario Is Missing! is an educational game. The computer version is a point-and-click adventure while the NES and Super NES have platformer elements. In the game, Bowser, king of the Koopas, has relocated from the Mushroom Kingdom to the real world where he has set up his headquarters in an Antarctic castle. Bowser plans to steal the Earth's treasures with the use of the Passcode-Operated Remote Transportation and Larceny System (PORTALS) which allows his Koopas to teleport anywhere in the world. Bowser intends to sell the treasures to pay for enough hairdryers so he can melt the ice of Antarctica. He captures Mario to prevent him from foiling the plan and it is up to Mario's brother Luigi to save him. The player controls Luigi throughout the game. At the beginning of the game, Luigi and dinosaur Yoshi are at Bowser's castle and Luigi has access to the PORTALS, allowing him to teleport to cities where the Koopas are operating. The player can view a map of the city that Luigi is in, as well as a map of the world known as the Globulator. The player can use the Globulator to control Yoshi's movements across the world, which is necessary to reunite Yoshi with Luigi.

History

To capitalize on educational games which were popular at the time, Nintendo partnered with The Software Toolworks to create an educational Mario game. Nintendo licensed the Mario characters, but was otherwise not involved in the game's development nor was Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The Software Toolworks released the game for MS-DOS in January 1993. Its lead designer was Donald W. Laabs, who saw working with Nintendo as a way to compete with Carmen Sandiego creator Broderbund and hoped to license Mario for that purpose. They were able to get a licensing agreement due to one of the company's executives' strong relationship with Nintendo of America, and because Nintendo was also interested in making educational games featuring Mario.