Mario Dies on the Cover of Super Mario Bros

[Mydnyght]

Why is everyone so freaked out? He's obviously got an extra life, so he'll only have to restart the level.

Yeah, but... Mario loses his fireball ability. That's still not good.

Also... Wait a second, the wall on the box art is NOT the right color! That wall is a very light blue, while the corresponding wall in the actual game is definitely gray. The game doesn't actually have very light blue walls, does it?

 

[esperandote]

He's jumping on the 16th pixel

 

[no one really]

M-M-M-MIND IS BLOWN!

I'm allowed to do that for this one right?

No...

 

[John Funk]

Or it was a collage put together by Nintendo for the purposes of box art and nobody really thought much about it at the time, and this story exists solely for the sake of generating hits and ad revenue rather than to actually contribute to any sort of meaningful discourse.

Oh, lighten up, Francis.

 

[geldonyetich]

Personally, I just look at that as being abstract art. Mario, a brick wall, a fireball, floating in space, because these elements are in the game.

But, yeah, if that was literally a scene being demonstrated, either Mario is jumping up against hat brick wall from a platform we can't see below, or he's about to lose a life.

 

[gphjr14]

For a time I wondered what exactly that was under his feet it wasn't a power but forgot about it.

 

[Stuntkid]

*when I found out when I was 5*
Older Brother: Nobody fucking cares

*Random dude finds out on the internet and gets put on the freakin news*
Me: What the fuck is that?

No, I'm not trying to be a troll, I'm seriously upset of this.

 

[DR3AMCATCH3R94]

I never played this game(born 1992), but I find this incredibly funny.

born in '94 and i was still able to play it. theres never an excuse for now playin the original

 

[FamoFunk]

Oh, damn. Poor Mario, dead before the game even started.

 

[CheckD3]

So he's dying on the box...yet he's been alive for how many decades and will live on for how many years? Kind of ironic...ain't it?

 

[searanox]

Oh, lighten up, Francis.

Well, I was being sardonic, but I guess it doesn't change the fact that I still think this sort of thing constitutes a non-story... slow news day, maybe, but if I wanted stuff like this I'd gut myself with a cheese grater and then go read Kotaku.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

That wasn't all nintendo did.

Look at this:

I don't think they liked making video games back then...

 

[baba44713]

The story would be much more clever and funny if there was at least a remote chance the cover picture is an actual closeup of an in-game screenshot.

However with the angle and the overlap I just don't buy it. Nor find it particularly interesting. Valiant effort, catchy title, but a fail nonetheless.

 

[Montezuma's Lawyer]

Why the dick is this news, and why does anyone care?

We've all seen this moronic Italian stereotype die hundreds of times, why would we give a damn over 20 years later?

WHY?!

 

[Dfskelleton]

Boy, that's kind of morbid, huh? Not many other videogames have the gall to show their hero - and the player's avatar - in the throes of death on the box art. In fact, I can't think of a single one.

The cover of the limited edition of Demon's Souls depicted the player essentially propped up dead in a corner. =)

Dead Space's cover had a picture of Isaac Clarke's severed arm floating about.
Perhaps such an occurance is more prevalent in games where you are bound to die a lot, and in Dead Space's case, in horrible ways. What you see is what you get, I suppose.