Why is Super Mario so popular? - 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I'm Rob.

And I'm Georgina.

Now, Georgina, you recently

mentioned in one 6 Minute English

programme about NFTs and that

you had a collection of Pokemon

cards when you were younger.

Yes - I did, and I still

can't find them. Why did

you bring that up?

Well, Pokemon started out as

a video game series that turned

into anime movies and trading

cards among other things - and

in this programme we're talking

about a video game character

that is iconic - a word which

means widely known and recognised.

That character's name

is Super Mario.

Ahhh I spent many hours of

my childhood playing with

Nintendo's Super Mario or his

rival, Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now, these days, video games

are everywhere, and people

of all ages enjoy playing them.

There's also competitive

e-sports events where gamers

compete for what are often

considerable amounts of money.

Yes, and there are also

streamers that appear on

platforms like Twitch and

YouTube who have become

celebrities in their own right.

Talking about celebrities,

I have a question about the

famous character we're talking

about in this programme.

Many people remember Super

Mario Bros. as being the

first time we saw Mario, but

he first appeared in

another game - which

was it? Was it: a) The

Legend of Zelda

b) Donkey Kong; or

c) Pokemon

I'm not sure about that - I

can't remember him being

in Pokemon, so I'll go

for a) The Legend of Zelda.

OK, Georgina, we'll find out

if you're right at the end

of the programme. So, we

established at the start

of the programme that

these days the video games

industry is thriving.

True - but it wasn't

always that way. It's

hard to imagine now, but

in the 1980s the console

market was struggling,

particularly in the US.

Keza MacDonalds, video

games editor for the

Guardian newspaper, explains

what was happening in the

early 1980s. Here she is

on BBC World Service

programme You and Yours,

speaking with Peter White.

Well, back then, especially

in America, there had been

a flood of games that were

just not very high quality.

One of the games that's

often cited as a factor in the

collapse was this game called

ET on the Atari, which was

so bad they ended up burying

thousands of copies of it

in the desert, because

nobody liked it.

And, so we'd had that,

especially in America, this

didn't happen so much in

Europe, but in America just

been lots and lots of software.

None of it was all that great.

There hadn't been anything

really revolutionary in some

years, so the video game

boom was really falling off

a cliff and Nintendo is

what rescued in

the US especially.

Keza MacDonald used the

term a flood of - meaning a

large number in a short

period of time - to

describe the number of

games that were coming out.

She used cited, which

means referenced or

noted, when talking about

the game ET being a

reference for a factor

in the collapse of

the console market.

And she said boom - a

sudden period of growth.

So as ET was mentioned as

a factor in the collapse,

many people say that Super

Mario Bros. was the reason

that video games really

took off, especially

in the US.

It's interesting to consider

what might have been if his

creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, had

never created that character.

The question is, why is that

game so popular, what made

it so fun to play?

Here is Keza Macdonald

speaking again with Peter White,

on BBC World Service programme,

You and Yours, explaining why

Mario is just so popular and

what makes the original

game so satisfying to play.

It's just such a joy

to play. It's running

and jumping, and it's

the joy of movement. When,

when you play, even the

original Super Mario Bros,

you just feel this sense of

joy in your movement,

and it's one of

the greatest games ever made.

And a lot of games from 35

years ago are basically

unplayable now. They might

have been a step to

something greater, but

Mario was one of those few

that really holds up

today as it did then.

Keza Macdonald said that

some games from 35 years

ago are unplayable - so,

not possible to play them.

But she said that Mario

holds up - a term used to

say that something's

standards or quality

has not lessened.

It certainly does

hold up - in fact, I

played it the other day

and I had lots of fun

with it - it reminded me

of my childhood, and

it's still as good

now as it was then.

Which reminds me of

your quiz question, Rob.

Yes, in my quiz question

I asked Sam which game

had the first appearance of

that famous plumber, Mario.

I went for a) The

Legend of Zelda.

Which is wrong, I'm afraid!

Mario's first appearance

was in Donkey Kong, and

his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto,

never thought he would

be that popular.

Well, I guess we've all

really learnt something today.

Let's recap the vocabulary

from today's programme about

Super Mario, starting with

iconic - famously associated

with something and

instantly recognisable.

Then we had a flood of

which means a large amount

of something in a

short space of time.

Cited means reference

as or noted.

Boom relates to explosion

and means a short period

of sudden growth.

Unplayable describes something

that can't be played or a

game that is very

difficult to enjoy.

And finally, holds up

means that the quality or

standards of something

hasn't changed and

still looks good

or plays well.

That's all for

this programme.

Bye for now!

Bye!