Today, everyone knows that Mario is a plumber by profession. But in a bizarre game from 1983, he had a completely different occupation.
Prize question: Who is the most famous Italian plumber in the world? If you answered “Mario,” you’re one of the people who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last 30 years. Congratulations!
Since the early 80s, we have been accompanying the rotund adrenaline junkie with a moustache on his adventures and rescue missions. With his dungarees and signature cap, Mario has established himself in our minds as a plumber for decades.
But Mario wasn’t always a handyman. In November 1983, he devoted himself to a completely different profession in a game called “Mario’s Bombs Away” – as a soldier
You probably wouldn’t do that today
From today’s perspective, it’s a difficult setting, especially for such a child-friendly franchise. In the 80s, standards were different. Mario’s Bombs Away is an official Nintendo game that was released in 1983 as part of the Game & Watch series. In it, you play Mario in green soldier’s garb, transporting a bomb from left to right:
On the left side of the screen, Mario is handed a bomb that must find its way to the right, where it will be armed by another comrade and thrown at the enemies. Of course, it must not be ignited by the torches along the way, otherwise Mario himself will be caught.
But that’s not bizarre enough: The whole thing is made even more difficult by another soldier who calmly smokes one cigarette after another and flicks the butts onto a trail of oil. Of course, this trail runs right where Mario is balancing with the explosive device.
Back then, Mario wasn’t as well known as he is today Mario Bros. had only just been released as an arcade game in June 1983, and Super Mario Bros. didn’t hit the market until 1985 for Nintendo’s Famicom and 1987 for the NES. Accordingly, Mario’s little trip to the front in 1983 is also relatively unknown.
However, Nintendo’s Game & Watch systems were among the first truly successful handheld consoles from the Japanese company. Each Game & Watch had one game built in, including Mario’s Bomb Away, but also classics such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. If you want to hold one of these in your hands, you’ll pay well over $200 today.
The games in this series were also immortalized in the so-called Game & Watch Galleries, which can be played on various iterations of the Gameboy. Mario’s Bomb Away, for example, is available as an unlockable game in Game & Watch Gallery 4 for the Gameboy Advance. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that it’s well hidden there.