Joystiq [Nintendo]

Soldier

Job experience: Mario's Bombs Away (Game & Watch, 1983), Game & Watch Gallery 4 (GBA, 2002)

Seeing Mario in fatigues isn't a very common occurrence nowadays, considering Nintendo's family-oriented business model tends to conflict with the notion of war. As the company's representative character, Mario is at his least-friendly a formidable competitor and an avenger of general wrongdoing, but never a purveyor of outright violence, especially toward human-like figures. Still, even in Bombs Away his duty is to prevent explosives from detonating. But what if it were to smear on some camouflage paint, man an M60 general purpose machine gun and rip through belt after belt of unrelenting lead? Would Mario be a hero then? What if he had been drafted and had no choice?

01/07/08