The mighty multi-Marioverse explained
Game directorTomm Huletthas been working in the industry since he was a kid, starting with a job testing NES games. Since then he’s worked on everything fromPersona,Contra,Silent Hill, andAdventure Time, but no matter what he does or where he goes,Mariowill be in his heart.
Tomm asked me over a month ago if Destructoid would be interested in hosting one of his pet projects, a split-timeline that poses a theory on how everyMariogame is connected that he’d been working on with artistHoward Milligan. I was excited about the idea, but was crestfallen a few weeks later when I saw that someone had apparently beaten Tomm to the punch. I shouldn’t have worried. When I told Tomm that someone else hastried their hat at aMariotimeline, he said something like “Oh that? That’s nothing. Wait until you see the size of the thing I’ve got for you.”
He wasn’t kidding. The image he was working on ended up being too large for Dtoid to host (you can grab it for yourself here), though we were able to shrink it down toa still-massive size for our gallery’s servers. I’m not theMarioexpert that I should be, but I’m pretty sure each and every game Mario has ever appeared in has found a place on the map, includingHotel MarioandMario’s Time Machine. He even got the theSuper Mario Bros.movie in there somehow. The only thing I see missing isMario Paint, but I suppose that could be construed as part of the “Mario Sports Series.” I did have a guy try to convince me that Football was an art once, so I guess it’s only fair to call Painting a sport.
If you’re not in a position to look at this truly luxurious and expansive image at the moment, here are a few words from Tomm about the timeline:
“This chronology begins with the Magikoopa Kamek attacking a stork carrying the Mario Brothers, causing the events ofYoshi’s Island. It splits immediately, with one timeline depicting the events that follow Yoshi’s rescue of Baby Luigi, and the other charting his failure.
“Similar branches follow eachYoshititle to create three separate realities based on Mario’s parents: Blue Collar Hero, Action Hero, and Storied Hero — the latter of which creates two new sub-realities surrounding the babies inPartners in Timebeing left in the adult world: the Babies Era, where Wario and Waluigi replace the heroes, and the Adult Era, where the babies grow up to live lives of their own. Additionally, the timeline branches afterDonkey Kongand any game that involves dreaming. Finally, the Action and Storied Hero timelines merge via the resolution ofMario Galaxy, leading directly toSuper Mario 3D World.”
Brilliant stuff, Tomm. I wonder what Miyamoto and company would think of it?
