It’s one of my earliest gaming memories, watching my mom play through Super Mario Bros. and upon reaching Bowser, jumping over him and hitting the axe to drop him into the lava instead of fighting him. At the time, I had a basic understanding of how video game bosses should work, so I was confused when there wasn’t really a “fight” to be had against Bowser. Speaking at a press conference following his recent receipt of Japan’s Order of Culture award, Shigeru Miyamoto shed some light on the lack of a fight against Bowser at the end of Super Mario Bros.
“…And the biggest invention, or rather, the most intriguing aspect of Super Mario, is that Mario doesn’t actually fight Bowser. Normally, if there’s a boss at the end, you have to fight him, right? But creating a battle is difficult, and we were really struggling with how to do it.
When I thought, ‘I can’t create a battle like this,’ I realized that since it’s a game where you keep running to the right, how about making it so that the person who reaches the far right wins? Then I had a brilliant idea: ‘Why not just jump over the opponent instead of fighting?’
All you have to do is jump over Bowser, and he’ll fall. I found it surprisingly fun when I tried it, and I was really happy when I realized that.”
(Quote Source: denfaminicogamer.jp, translation from Nintendo Everything)
It ultimately came down to development difficulties. Miyamoto and his team struggled to implement a traditional “fight” but were able to work within the “running to the right” framework they’d already created with Super Mario Bros. to create a solution that they felt was “surprisingly fun.” They must have been onto something, considering how huge the game became – players the world over have been racing to the right edge of their screens in order to drop the Koopa King into lava for over 40 years now.
Image source: Mario Wiki
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Written by Jaxson Tapp
As a lover of gaming and the written word, Jaxson currently fills his time not only with playing games, but also writing about them. Ready for anything, Jaxson’s passion for puzzle games, JRPGs, tough platformers, and whimsical indies helps him bring a well-rounded opinion to Nintendo Wire’s reporting.
