Mario Series

Created: 2012-10-07 11:40 -07:00 | Views: 21

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Super Mario Brothers 3

"Go get 'im, Buttwheat"

Adam and Josh spent many hours playing the two-player battle minigames that were accessed from the world map. One of the minigames was a duplication of the original Mario Brothers setup, complete with enemies like crabs and turtles emerging from horizontal pipes on the screen. At one point either Adam or Josh (which one of them it was is lost to time), began to stand behind an advancing crab and say "Go get 'im, Buttwheat", as if nudging the crab onward to advance on his foe. "Buttwheat" was meant to be a corruption of "Buckwheat" from the Our Gang short film series, used for no other reason than the opportunity to say the word "butt".

Yoshi

Quack Battling

"Wha Happen?"

Adam and Josh would often play the competitive mode against each other. At the completion of a match, the winner would be pictured victoriously riding Yoshi while the loser sat on the ground looking perplexed. Adam and Josh enjoyed the perplexed expression of the loser and would say for the character "What Happen?", expressing the confusion the loser felt. This quote would be said in the Mario Voice.

"UH-uh!"

Yoshi's distinctive noise when he is mounted is also present in this game, and is primarily heard when an egg is completed and he emerges from it. Though Adam and Josh were previously aware of the sound via Super Mario World, it is in this game that it took on a life of its own for them. It has become the de facto sound representing Yoshi, and Adam and Josh will mimic it (exaggerating it, of course) whenever Yoshi is present.

Super Mario World

Messing With the Key Sound

Whenever Yoshi spits something out of his mouth, he makes a distinctive low sound. Some keyholes can be accessed even if Yoshi has the key in his mouth. As the door slowly expands, the player can still make Yoshi duck and spit. Sometimes, due to the expanding door, the game would run slightly slower, so when Yoshi spat out the key, the normal spitting noise would be elongated and deeper. Sometimes, however, the normal spitting noise would still register. Adam and Josh found the elongated one funnier and always hoped for that result. The spitting would always be accompanied by furious ducking in place.

Salted Mushrooms

At the end of each level, a cinematic would play showing Mario destroying the level's castle in various ways. After the destruction was done, Mario would stand looking at his work while a dialogue box would appear, progressing the story. Adam and Josh somehow interpreted Mario as being highly fatigued from his exploits and therefore not in a right frame of mind. As Mario stared, they imagined him dreaming of food, thinking to himself "Mmmmm....salted mushrooms" in a trembly Mario Voice. Neither of them remember the origin of the phrase, other than that it was originally supposed to be "sauted mushrooms" but somehow got corrupted to "salted mushrooms".

Yoshi Abuse

While riding Yoshi, hitting the appropriate button makes Yoshi stick his tongue out to eat or otherwise put items and enemies in his mouth. This animation is accompanied by Mario gesturing forward as if prompting Yoshi to take action. Adam and Josh noticed that this animation looked like Mario was hitting Yoshi in the back of the head, and THAT was the reason for Yoshi sticking his tongue out. This kind of Yoshi abuse was something Adam and Josh were surprised that Mario was capable of.

Mario Paint

All Cat/Smiley Symphony

One of the functions of Mario Paint included a rudimentary music composer in which various sound elements like horns and cars were available. Among the sounds was a sample of a cat meowing. Adam and Josh would frequently fill each and every available sound slot with the cat sample, creating a very dissonant All Cat Symphony. Adding to this absurdity, they would set the tempo as high as possible. Alternately, they would use a sample of a brief baby laugh, represented by a smiley face icon.

Puke Music

Another feature of the game is the ability to create brief animations with predefined and user-created artwork. Loading and saving these animations is represented by a robot processing the information while a beat-driven music sample plays. For reasons unknown, Adam began to mock the music by pretending each beat was the spasm of a person holding back vomit. During a break in the beat, he would stumble around, exhausted and ragged, until the next wave of nausea arrived when the beat returned.

Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart

"Jump in the bloody water!"
Adam and Josh frequently played the battle mode against each other. If the map had water that could be accessed with a feather item, they would frequently take the opportunity to do so. Eventually, this action would be accompanied with an announcement of "Jump in the bloody water!", said in a British accent.

"Tainted Block!"
In Battle Mode, players can drop debilitating items on the ground. One tactic was to drop the item on top of an item block in the hope that the opposing player would hit the item in the course of attempting to get their own item from the block. Whenever either Adam or Josh used this tactic, they would announce in a high-pitched voice "Tainted Block!"

Takin' Care of the Good Fruit
While playing the battle mode one day, Josh started singing random lyrics along with the music. For no discernible reason, he sang "Takin' Care of the Good Fruit, Takin' Care of the Good Fruit...", much to Adam's confusion. Josh has no explanation.

"Where are ya, Solomon?"
Similar to Takin' Care of the Good Fruit, Adam randomly started referring to the opposing player as Solomon. When he would have difficulty locating the opponent, he would say in a rough voice "Where are ya, Solomon?". Adam has no explanation.

Hopping/Music
One ability of the karts is to make a minor hop off the ground, even while driving. While playing battle mode, Adam and Josh would occasionally gratuitously and constantly start hopping on the field. While battling, they would often turn the sound down and listen to the radio. They noticed that two songs in particular - "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode and "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys - worked very well while playing. Whenever "Just Can't Get Enough" was on the radio, Adam and Josh would call a temporary truce. Instead of battling, they would drive around hopping to the beat of the song, only to resume their battle when the song ended. One instance of playing while "Sabotage" was on the air resulted in a memorable scene. Adam had just finished making a quick turn and dead stop. Just as the song had a rising note followed by a guitar riff leading back into the main melody, Adam fired a red shell into the distance, which curved to the tune of the music and hit Josh just as main melody returned. This improbable synchronization of the game and the song is looked back on fondly. Inspired by these musical accompaniments, Josh created a compilation of songs that fit the game well, that he dubbed "The Mario Kart Mix".

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Double Daersh
Inspired by Coach Zee's pronunciation of certain words, Josh dubbed the game "Double Daersh". (See Tales Series.)

"Hi, I'm Daisy!"
Adam, being partial to both Princess Peach and Princess Daisy, would usually choose both of them for his team. In the game, whenever the two characters on a kart swap roles between driving and using items, one of them will utter a phrase or make a noise. When Daisy became the item user, she would exclaim "Hi, I'm Daisy!" Both Adam and Josh (though Josh was the worse offender) would abuse this, repeatedly switching roles such that Daisy was constantly introducing herself.

Mario Tennis

Mario Mispronunciations

"Mario Tennie"
At the title screen, numerous characters call out the name of the game. Certain character's voices are more easily differentiated from others, especially Luigi and Waluigi due to their nasal tone. These two in particular seemed to pronounce "tennis" as "tennie", a fact that Adam and Josh exploited and often repeated.

Scoring Mispronunciations
Game scores and other events are narrated in Mario's voice. As such, certain words have a particular inflection to them that Adam and Josh have embraced. The following are words and phrases that they have taken note of and in typical form exaggerated:
- "Deuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce-a!"
- "Let/Net" (said in a high-pitched tone)
- "Match Point..." (said reverently)
- "A-championship a-point-a...." (extra exaggeration, said reverently)
Adam and Josh also apply these mispronunciations to real tennis - particularly deuce.

Toad's Deep Thinking
Whenever a player prepares to serve a ball, their character stands with their head down, looking at the ground. For some reason, when playing Toad, Adam and Josh would wait longer than normal before serving. They attributed this to Toad being in deep thought before snapping back to reality and hastily serving. Though there was no evidence of it being the case, Adam and Josh imagined this serve to be more powerful than normal.

Flat Jumps

Named by Josh, Flat Jumps are an anomaly that occurs throughout the Mario universe (and platformers in general), but most notably in the first Super Mario Brothers game for the NES. A Flat Jump occurs when a player attempts to make a running leap but unexpectedly makes a high-arcing jump that achieves very little distance. More often than not, this leads to the player getting hit or dying.

Mario Voice

Similar to the Kirby Voice (See Kirby Universe), Adam and Josh have a defined voice for Mario. It is similar in pitch to Mickey Mouse's voice but slightly lower and less jovial. It is not known which one of them first used it, but it has become Mario's de facto voice across all games.