Mario Is Missing! is a 1993 educational game developed and published by The Software Toolworks for MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, later released on Macintosh in 1994. The player controls Luigi, who must travel around the world to find and return stolen treasures as part of a quest to find his brother, Mario, who has been captured by Bowser. Mario Is Missing!, part of a series of educational Mario games, marked Luigi’s first starring role in a video game (although he was the main character of the 1990 Game Watch game Luigi’s Hammer Toss), which would not occur again until 2001, when Luigi’s Mansion was released for the GameCube.
Gameplay
Luigi is talking to a local woman in a city area.
Mario Is Missing! is an educational game. The computer version is a point-and-click adventure while the NES and SNES have platform game elements.[1] In the game, Bowser, king of the Koopas, has relocated from the Mushroom Kingdom to the real world where he has set up his headquarters in an Antarctic castle.[2][1] Bowser plans to steal the Earth’s treasures with the use of the Passcode-Operated Remote Transportation and Larceny System (PORTALS) which allows his Koopas to teleport anywhere in the world.[2] Bowser intends to sell the treasures to pay for enough hairdryers so he can melt the ice of Antarctica.[3][4] He captures Mario to prevent him from foiling the plan and it is up to Mario’s brother Luigi to save him.[2]
The player controls Luigi throughout the game. At the beginning of the game, Luigi and dinosaur Yoshi are at Bowser’s castle and Luigi has access to the PORTALS, allowing him to teleport to cities where the Koopas are operating.[2][5] The player can view a map of the city that Luigi is in, as well as a map of the world that is known as the Globulator.[6][2] The player can use the Globulator to control Yoshi’s movements across the world, which is necessary to reunite Yoshi with Luigi.[2] The player has access to a computer that keeps track of various clues learned throughout the game, including information gained from speaking to people in the cities Luigi visits and pamphlets regarding the landmarks that have had something stolen from them.[2][6][1]
Notable locations in the game include Cairo, New York City, Mexico City, Paris, Buenos Aires and Tokyo. Missing artifacts include Big Ben, the Mona Lisa, the Great Sphinx of Giza, and strangely enough, King Kong.[2] Upon arriving in each city, the player must figure out what city Luigi is in and determine what artifact has been stolen and where it can be found. To figure these out, the player must talk to local people and ask them questions. Each city contains multiple tourist information centers as well as three stolen treasures, which are obtained by dispatching the Koopa who is carrying each one.[2][1] In the version for Macintosh PC and MS-DOS the number of treasures that have to be retrieved from the Koopas in each city varies, ranging between three and five that need to be recovered and returned. The treasure must be taken to the correct tourist information center, where the attendant in charge of the center asks the player general questions about the artifact they are returning to ensure it is authentic.[2][7] When the artifact is restored, a picture is taken of Luigi with the artifact and is placed into a photo album.[6][7] The player must summon Yoshi to Luigi’s current location so the dinosaur can eat a Pokey that is blocking the level exit leading back to Bowser’s castle.[2][8][1] After helping five cities recover their missing artifacts, Luigi faces one of Bowser’s Koopaling kids blocking the way up to the next floor. After defeating all of them he defeats Bowser, stops his plan and rescues Mario. The ending differs between versions: the SNES version has Luigi send Bowser flying out of his castle with a cannon where he lands in the snow, freezes solid, and then breaks up into pieces, while the Macintosh and MS-DOS version has him attempt to attack Luigi before he can stop his plan, only for Luigi to avoid him and pull off his shell, leaving Bowser to slink away in embarrassment while Luigi retrieves the key to Mario’s cell from the shell. Bowser returns and Luigi dupes him into looking for the key in the snow below, allowing Luigi to kick him over the wall into the snow below before then releasing Mario, reuniting with Yoshi and heading for home with Bowser’s plan thwarted.
