Mario Is Missing!

Mario Is Missing!, part of a series of educational Mario games, was Luigi's second starring role in a video game, following the 1990 Game Watch game Luigi's Hammer Toss and preceding the 2001 GameCube game Luigi's Mansion.

• Title — Mario Is Missing! • Developer — The Software Toolworks • Designer — Donald W. Laabs • Series — Luigi Mario • Platforms — MS-DOS, NES, Super NES, Macintosh, Windows • Released — MS-DOSJanuary 1993 NES, Super NES MacintoshJune 1994 WindowsJuly 1996 • Genre — Educational • Modes — Single-player

• Illustration — Luigi is talking to a local woman in a city area. 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. The player has access to a computer which keeps track of various clues learned throughout the game, including information gained from speaking to people in the cities Luigi visits and pamphlets regarding the landmarks that have had something stolen from them. Notable locations in the game include Cairo, New York City, Mexico City, Paris, Buenos Aires, Sydney and Tokyo. Missing artifacts include Big Ben, the Mona Lisa, and the Great Sphinx of Giza. Upon arriving in each city, the player must figure out what city Luigi is in and determine what artifact has been stolen and where it can be found. To figure these out, the player must talk to local people and ask them questions. Each city contains multiple tourist information centers as well as three stolen treasures, which are obtained by dispatching the Koopa who is carrying each one. In the version for Macintosh PC and MS-DOS, the number of treasures which have to be retrieved from the Koopas in each city varies, ranging between three and five that need to be recovered and returned. The treasure must be taken to the correct tourist information center, where the attendant in charge of the center asks the player general questions about the artifact they are returning to ensure it is authentic. When the artifact is restored, a picture is taken of Luigi with the artifact and is placed into a photo album. The player must summon Yoshi to Luigi's current location so the dinosaur can eat a Pokey that is blocking the level exit leading back to Bowser's castle. After helping five cities recover their missing artifacts, Luigi faces one of Bowser's Koopaling kids blocking the way up to the next floor. After beating all of them he defeats Bowser, stops his plan and rescues Mario. The ending differs between versions: the Super NES version has Luigi send Bowser flying out of his castle with a cannon where he lands in the snow, freezes solid, and then breaks up into pieces. The Macintosh and MS-DOS version has him attempt to attack Luigi before he can stop his plan, only for Luigi to avoid him and pull off his shell, leaving Bowser to slink away in embarrassment while Luigi retrieves the key to Mario's cell from the shell. Bowser returns and Luigi dupes him into looking for the key in the snow below, allowing Luigi to kick him over the wall into the snow before then releasing Mario, reuniting with Yoshi and heading for home with Bowser's plan thwarted.

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. This made them the first non-Nintendo studio to produce a Mario game on a console. They also hired staff that worked on Carmen Sandiego. The lead artist had to attend a Mario art school in Japan to learn how to present Mario characters. Laabs noted that the Japanese branch of Nintendo did not seem to fully realize the deal which Nintendo of America made, and they insisted Mario Is Missing! not be confused with a traditional Mario game. Laabs had no expectations that they could make a game which was the same caliber of Nintendo's Mario games due to the close collaboration between the software and hardware teams at Nintendo. The team made a point of using other Mario games for reference during development. Whereas Mario games are able to pose a challenge, the team aimed to make sure that it could be enjoyed by young children. The members of the team who wanted to make a Carmen Sandiego competitor competed with those who wanted to make a traditional action-based game, though they had to adhere to Nintendo's guidelines, and thus had to find a good balance between a Mario experience and an educational experience. Laabs was responsible for all versions, with each team reporting to him. Mario Is Missing! marked Luigi's first starring role in a video game, followed by the Luigi's Mansion series of games. Nintendo later re-released the game for their own video game consoles. In the United States, The Software Toolworks had released the NES and Super NES versions by June 1993. By October 1993, Mindscape had published said NES and Super NES versions in Europe. The Super NES version used audio and visual assets from Super Mario World. The MS-DOS version uses stretched-out character animations unlike the later versions. The MS-DOS version was programmed by Jeff Chasen. In the United States, The Software Toolworks released a Macintosh version on CD-ROM and floppy disks in June 1994 under the title Mario Is Missing! CD-ROM Deluxe. The new version included 127 QuickTime clips featuring 99 landmarks, like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Great Wall of China.

In 1993, a follow-up to Mario Is Missing! was released, titled Mario’s Time Machine. Unlike its predecessor, which focused on cities, this game centered around historical figures and their artifacts as the main subjects of learning.

The sprite of Luigi from the game became an Internet meme known as Weegee.