If you play video games, then you’re familiar with Super Mario World, one of the most renowned games of its generation. Mario travels through Dinosaur Land to save Princess Toadstool and eliminate Bowser, but there is actually much more to the game than meets the eye, including subconcious ties to the modern world, bridging the East and the West of the modern world together. Mario’s objective throughout the game is to complete levels without dying, obtain objects such as power-ups that help him through these levels, and defeat enemies in castles and on the way to these castles, finally ending at the master castle that belongs to Bowser. The concept of Mario, illustrated through Super Mario World as well as previous versions of the Mario brothers games, has interesting connotations spanning the globe. Firstly, Mario represents the American Dream. He is a plumber, not a king, not a powerful entity. By gaining coins (equivalent to money) and attaining objects (power ups), Mario is amplified and more successful. Thus the consumeristic concept of obtaining power and wealth in order to achieve success is displayed in this game. Other Eastern philosophies and concepts (remember, the origin of Nintendo and the evolving games are is in Japan) are obviously moving West, as well. Eastern philosophy dictates that a being is at one with his surroundings. Western ways of living have less concern for the environment; everything is consumeristic. Mario follows the Western ideals: he manipulates the world around him, rendering creatures as enemies and thus destroying them, and utilizing the natural resources of the land (vines, mushrooms, clouds, shells) for his advancement. There is an urge to collect coins, even though the coins don’t actually aid you unless you collect an immense amount of them. These concepts, while relatively innocuous in the video game, are actually a symbol for the transfer of ideals from Eastern to Western.The transfer of these ideals can neither be stated as good or bad, but rather an objective view of the modification of philosophy in the world today through viewing an extremely popular game released in the Western world. With so much it represents, and so much that can be accomplished by Mario within its bounds, no wonder it is considered one of the most intriguing games ever made.
If you were not familiar with Super Mario World, you could reason that Bowser is