Do the Mario! Why not do the Luigi?

For some reason, when I woke up this morning, I had this burning desire to prep the ol’ Nintendo Family Computer and play Super Mario Brothers all day. Unfortunately, my eyes—and my fingers—had a pretty rough night due to several days of grinding for virtual cash on a locally published Chinese MMORPG. My eyes just kept on snapping shut and my fingers did their best to foil every tap on the keypad.

Fast-forward, 10 hours later, I find myself sitting in front of computer with eyes strained from watching Mario jump, smash, and pummel his way through different worlds and fingers still stinging from the friction with the pad and buttons. Ahh, the price of a good gaming session.

What’s funny is I never got far. World 4-1 isn’t really that far into the game, especially if you consider that shortcut in World 2-1. Still, I think I did pretty well, considering I haven’t controlled the pudgy red-clad plumber in more than 10 years. Next time I play the game, I’ll make sure to give those Goombas and Koopa Troopas a run for their coins.

Here are some screenshots of my disastrous adventure:

After nearly half a day reliving my childhood playing Super Mario Brothers, I managed to ask my wife a question that has been bugging me ever since the animated series starring Mario and his lean brother Luigi hit the boobtube back in the late 80s: If there’s a line saying “Do the Mario,” why isn’t there a “Do the Luigi”? Poor Luigi.

Screenshots taken by Joel. Characters and other elements appearing in these screenshots are owned by Nintendo.