Rating of
2.5/5
Poor PC Master Race
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 09/10/17
1994. It was a year that marked great things for console gamers: “Final Fantasy 6” and “Super Metroid” were both released that year for the SNES, along with numerous other titles of less repute, yet which were still excellent. PC gamers, on the other hand, got the first iffy “Warcraft,” which was later ported to PlayStation, “DOOM 2,” “Heretic,” and the original “Elder Scrolls.” It was still a rather dark time for PC gaming, as, even if those titles appealed to your incredibly poor taste, you’d still need to have spent 10 times the SNES’ retail price on your PC, and there was still no guarantee that it would even run the games you threw at it. Because reasons.
1994 was still the era of the 2D Platformer, though the RPG was quickly gaining popularity and pushing Action games out of the position of superiority they had enjoyed for so long. Yet PC gamers didn’t get very many Platformers, and the ones they did receive were generally terrible, such as the DOS version of “Mega Man.” One man – a Dutchman named Mike Wiering – sought to change the situation. His one-man studio, Wiering Software, started with a homebrew ‘Mario’ fangame that sought to bring quality 2D Platforming, the likes of which Nintendo seemed to make so effortlessly, to PC. It was also an attempt at learning how to program parallax scrolling in VGA, but still…
The result of this effort by Wiering was “MARIO & LUIGI,” a blatant case of copyright infringement that was initially sold as commercial software and – SHOCKINGLY – holds a special place in the hearts and minds of those poor, poor children who were stuck gaming exclusively on PC in the 1990s. I had never heard of this game until I watched a YouTube video about a rare and uncharacteristic piece of hardware produced by Nintendo in the 1990s: A PC-compatible joystick called the 3D1. This video spoke of “MARIO & LUIGI” as matter-of-factly as one would speak about any other platform-defining piece of software, like the Genesis with “Sonic the Hedgehog” or the N64 with “GoldenEye.” I made it my mission (which took roughly an hour) to track down this lost piece of ‘Mario’ and PC gaming heritage and add it to both the MeltedJoystick database and to my personal game collection.
Presentation
“MARIO & LUIGI” represents the true enigma of PC gaming in the ‘90s. Some games could look great, but many simply didn’t. “MARIO & LUIGI” does indeed look quite nice. Wiering didn’t simply rip sprites from other 16-bit ‘Mario’ titles to create his game, though, as such a thing wouldn’t be commonplace in the ROM hacking community for several years. Instead, it appears that he reconstructed various ‘Mario’ art assets, throwing his own unique spin on them in the process. Some things in-game, like Mario himself, as well as Koopa Troopas, look beautiful and 100% authentic. Other things, like Piranha Plants, look completely alien and strange. Overall, though, “MARIO & LUIGI” is a very eye-catching game.
“MARIO & LUIGI” is also a very ear-shattering game. There is no soundtrack included (though I’ve seen some people hack-in midis from other ‘Mario’ games) and the sound effects are the dull, screeching, awfulness commonly produced by PC Speaker (i.e., a PC without a dedicated sound card installed). These sound effects sound nothing like authentic ‘Mario’ noises, and the lack of catchy chiptunes to backup the action makes the entire experience suffer.
Technically, “MARIO & LUIGI” is kind of an interesting experience. As a 16-bit DOS game, it won’t run in modern 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows. It needs the DOSbox emulator… which just so happens to have a RetroArch compatible Core! Thus I played “MARIO & LUIGI” in RetroArch like any other ancient game from the ‘90s. “MARIO & LUIGI” defaults to keyboard controls, which are abominably bad, as one would expect. I couldn’t even make it through the first stage using the keyboard. “MARIO & LUIGI” supposedly contains native joystick support… unfortunately this is DOS-era joystick support, so it flat-out refused to recognize either my XBONE controller or the Retropad or Joystick emulation modes in RetroArch’s DOSbox core. Fortunately, DOSbox in RetroArch contains a mode called ‘Mapper’ that allows keyboard inputs to be mapped to the controller inside DOSbox, which finally worked, and allowed me to play the game sanely.
Story
Oy. This is a major bummer about “MARIO & LUIGI,” but it has absolutely no story. No intro. No cutscenes. NO FRIGGIN’ ENDING! It’s just an eternal loop of the same 6 stages over and over.
Gameplay
“MARIO & LUIGI” does a fairly good job of capturing the 2D sidescrolling excellence of official ‘Mario’ games for the PC market. Hell, Nintendo was busy pushing Mario as an Edutainment icon in the ‘90s, so it was obvious they weren’t going to get it right themselves. Up to two players can take turns controlling Mario or Luigi as they make their way from left to right across 6 stages. The basic Mushroom and Fireflower power-ups are present, as is the Super Star. Even the Poison Shroom from “Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels” makes an appearance or two. Standard ‘Mario’ enemies like Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and Cheep Cheeps (fish) inhabit the stages, and there are a number of Warp Pipes that lead to hidden areas.
One particularly interesting change to the bog standard ‘Mario’ formula is that fireballs and running are assigned to 2 different buttons, and by holding up while shooting a fireball, it’s possible to change its trajectory in a very useful manner. I also rather enjoyed the fact that there is no stage timer, though the stages are so short it never would have been an issue regardless. Unfortunately, there are no bosses. Not even a token appearance by Bowser at the end of stage 6.
In general, though, while “MARIO & LUIGI” seems competently assembled, it’s not particularly competently designed. I normally hate overly challenging games, but “MARIO & LUIGI” almost goes too far in the other direction. Once I was able to use a controller and didn’t spend all of my time fighting the horrible keyboard inputs, I never died again. Stages are fairly low-key and devoid of danger, all the way until the final stage, where the player’s main foe is a series of blind jumps. And, yes, there are 6 stages. Not 6 worlds with sub-stages: 6 ENTIRE STAGES. The result is a game so incredibly short that it can be cleared in about 15 minutes.
Overall
It blows my mind that a short, easy, mediocre homebrew game like “MARIO & LUIGI” would stick in the minds of ‘90s-era PC gamers. While it has a few high points, like the custom sprites, it is generally more defined by its crushing low points, ranging from its micro-scale length to its aurally-assaulting audio. Still, Wiering Software is giving it away for free (likely to avoid Nintendo’s increasingly feral lawyers), so any ‘Mario’ fan with RetroArch (or stand-alone DOSbox) can check-out what a sad existence they had on the other side of the old Berlin Wall-style PC/Console divide.
Presentation: 2.5/5
Story: 0.5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
