The Best Idea Yet - 🍄 Super Mario Bros: Nintendo’s Infinite Game | 2

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Mario isn’t just the most beloved plumber in history - he’s the most successful video game character of all time. With over 800 million games sold, Mario and his brother Luigi have “wahoo-ed” their way into multiple spinoffs, (Mario Kart sesh anyone?) Hollywood blockbusters… even their own amusement park. But the Super Mario Bros. origin story will surprise you like a rogue turtle shell: It features Donkey Kong, Popeye, and an artist from a forest in Kyoto. Find out how an angry landlord changed the course of video game history, and how Nintendo perfected a strategy called “The Infinite Game” to keep creating hit after world-dominating hit. Jump down that green pipe, and listen to find out why Super Mario Bros is the best idea yet.Follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting www.wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/ now. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the best idea yet early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Can I open with some reminiscing? Yes, you can. Go ahead, Jack. Every summer when I was a kid, my brothers and I would be brought by my dad down to the old Yankee Stadium. That was a classic. And this was like the good days.

These were the pennant days, baby. Little Jorge Posada. Yeah. But what was so great about Yankee Stadium was all the incredible details. Yes. It felt like discovering Easter eggs in real life every inning. Like what would you notice? Well, there was a giant baseball bat.

Okay. That was actually like the boiler where the steam came out, but it was shaped like a 120 foot baseball bat. That was a radio tower. It was Monument Park in Centerfield. Yes. It was the voice of Bob Shepard, the iconic PA announcer.

Yes. And there were pinstripes everywhere. Oh, and of course, Jack, the little Yankees' plastic helmets. You know what they serve that delicious soft-serve ice cream in? It's a sweet treat and a souvenir. You gotta upgrade.

And now, when I take off my kid hat and put on my pod hat, Yes, Jack? I can off my kid hat and put on my pod hat. Yes, Jack. I can appreciate all the layers and layers of human creativity and history that went into making up that place. When it comes to capturing your customers' hearts and minds, those details matter because it's details that help you take one product and then build an entire world around it. And Yetis, today's story is one of the earliest examples of world building. World building! Think of those famous franchises that are so expansive,

they've almost become real in our minds. I'm talking about Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, the Duneiverse, even Fortnite Jack. And the world that we're exploring today starts way back in 19th century Japan and ends up at an augmented reality theme park in present day Hollywood. It took an angry landlord, a banjo playing country guy, and even Popeye the sailor man himself to get us the most popular video game character of all time. Nick, grab your overalls and fluff your mustache because we are vaulting up the flagpole. overalls and fluff your mustache because we are vaulting up the flagpole. We're heading down the green pipe and together we're jumping into the incredible world of Super Mario Brothers. Super Mario Brothers changed the game when it comes to what we expect video games to look, feel, and sound like. Literally. It injected storytelling, character motivations,

and fantastical production design into a category that basically lacked all those things. Originating in Japan, Nintendo's side-scrolling adventure game stars, as you probably know,

two Italian-American plumbers on a quest to save a princess. And according to our buddies over at the Guinness Book, great guys, Mario himself is the best-selling video game character of all time, with over 800 million Mario games sold and counted.

Jack, can you sprinkle on a little pixelated context for us, please? That's nearly double the number two game, Tetris. Mario and his epic brother, Luigi, found their way into multiple sequels. So many spinoffs, from gaming systems like the original NES, to Game Boy, to the Nintendo Wii, to the Nintendo Switch. And of course, two spinoffs close to our hearts, Nick. Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart. Yes.

The top-selling Nintendo Switch game of all time, with more than 62 million units sold. Oh, and Mario? He's the only video game character with his own theme park. Today, we're going spelunking into the underground caves of Nintendo's history and unearthing how a Brooklyn-based Italian-American plumber named Mario was actually created by a Japanese artist who grew up in the woods. It's a story about a business leader elevating the creative vision of his employees and identifying talent in unexpected corners. Yetis, you'll learn about Nintendo's creative HR strategy known as the infinite game and how being different is better than being better. And why when it comes to product design,

the real dough is in the details. Because Super Mario Brothers is the best idea yet. Jack, you ready to jump into this thing, man? Give me that controller neck, yes. One, two, three. Watch out for the mushroom! From Wonder and T-Boy, I'm Nick Martel. And I'm Jack Kravici-Kramer. And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with

and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. again. They changed the game in one move. Here's how they broke all the rules. Lanterns hanging from dark wooden beams give the Japanese city of Kyoto a warm glow. Pink cherry blossoms and green matcha dust in the air from the many vendors paint the streets in vibrant colors. It is peaceful. It is quiet. It is the cultural capital of Japan. But as you get closer to the industrial part of Kyoto, the hum of churning conveyor belts grows louder. Suddenly, the machinery pops out a single piece of plastic. It's a playing card that features a cartoon character with vibrant colors. This is Nintendo in the year 1966.

Funny thing, Yetis. Before they made video games, Nintendo got its start in the 19th century making the analog version. Playing cards. Which became a huge hit in the gambling halls of Kyoto, including among the Yakuza, a crime syndicate in Japan. Yikes. Now, Jack, there is a lot of uncertainty as to how Nintendo's name actually came to be. Some say it means leave it to chance, while others, like the Yakuza, think it means chivalrous way. Wherever the cards fall in this debate, though, Nintendo dominated the playing card industry between the 1930s until the 1960s, when the bottom just drops out of the playing card market, sending Nintendo stock tumbling down. So company president Hiroshi Yamauchi tries to pull out of the nosedive by diversifying Nintendo's product lines.

And this guy gets creative. They started making ramen noodles to get by. Nintendo noodles, I love this. But they didn't stop there. They tried taxi cabs. Okay. They started making ramen noodles to get by. Nintendo noodles, I love this. But they didn't stop there. They tried taxi cabs. Okay. Even hotels that, um, excuse me, trudged by the hour. But so far, none of these Nintendo ventures offers a clear path forward.

So as Hiroshi tours his playing card factory with a stern look on his face, he knows that the very fate of Nintendo is hanging in the balance. And this guy needs an ace. He needs the next big thing. Because Nintendo Instant Ramen? Uh, Jack, I don't think that's gonna pay the bills very long. Japan is in the middle of this huge economic comeback

after World War II. And our man Hiroshi? Yeah, he wants in. So as he's walking the factory floor, Hiroshi spots a random maintenance engineer who's on his break. And that guy, he's playing with a toy, a novelty gag Hiroshi's never seen before. It's kind of an extending mechanical arm thing. The man squeezes a handle and the arm stretches out to grab something far

in front of him. It's like a kind of wily coyote thing that like would be designed to catch the roadrunner. Hiroshi approaches that engineer, and this guy is sweating buckets when he sees the boss coming because he's thinking, I'm about to get fired for playing with a toy grabber. My wife's going to kill me. But instead of reprimanding him, the president asked the engineer his name. Trying to keep his voice steady, the guy answers, Gunpei Yokoi. Then Hiroshi asks him where the toy came from, and Gunpei says, I invented it. He waits where the toy came from, and Gunpei says, I invented it.

He waits for the hammer to drop, but it doesn't. Instead, Hiroshi's curious about the toy thing. He likes the toy thing, and he even declares, you know what? He wants Nintendo to make more of Gunpei's toy thing. Not too shabby. A million units more in time for this holiday season.

They call this thing the Ultra Hand. Great name. And Nintendo goes all in on it. Now, this may seem like a wild decision, Yanks, but Hiroshi, he knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with his other diversification schemes. So instead, he leans into the creativity of this one employee. A little bit of a Hail Mary, sure.

But this toy, it pays off big time. The Ultra Hand becomes a mega hit for Nintendo, selling 1.2 million units in 1970 alone, generating millions in revenue. This is the next big thing Hiroshi Yamauchi had been looking for. After that, he doesn't look back. He sets up an R&D facility at the company

and promotes Gunpei Yokoi to run it. So instead of getting fired for goofing off at work, Gunpei gets promoted? Jack, that is maybe the greatest ROI on a work break ever. Yeah, it is. Now, this story actually becomes one of the most defining principles of Nintendo that they still embrace to this day. Fear unplugs the game of creativity. The best ideas usually come from a relaxed, playful mind, not one that's panicked about the next quarter.

And Jack, that actually reminds me of something we see today. Google's 20% time, where employees devote one day a week to a product of their choosing, whatever floats their creative boat. A few products that came out of Google's 20% time program, Google News, Google Maps, Gmail, you're using it right now. All because employees got to work on a creative idea without the fear of getting punished. Hiroshi Yamauchi doesn't know it yet, but by rewarding creativity in his employees and instilling playfulness instead of fear, he is setting Nintendo on a course that leads straight to the most successful video game of all time, Super Mario.

Now, of course, there's going to be some obstacles. Maybe some fallen turtle shells. But yetis, we've got the cheat codes. You hear that, Nick? One sec, Jack. I ran out of quarters. It's the sound of arcade parlors taking over the world. Mom! Give me five more minutes! Yeah, it is. If you were to walk into an arcade in the late 1970s,

you'd see hordes of young people gripping joysticks and gazing into the pixelated void. Space games were actually all the rage thanks to the smash hit Space Invaders in 1978. In fact, get this. That single space game, Space Invaders, it helped drive arcade revenues to triple in just two years. This is the golden age of arcades. Yes, it is. Especially in America. So in 1980, Nintendo launches a bunch of games, mostly knockoffs of existing popular games to crack the American market. There's Radar Scope, Space Firebird, and Space Fever.

Nintendo, really low on ideas, or really into space. Yamauchi goes all in on one space game and makes 3,000 game cabinets, but they only manage to sell a third of them to American arcades. The other 2,000, they languish in a dusty warehouse. This was their big swing for the American market, and they missed. So suddenly, Nintendo was back in a fight for their survival again. They may need to give those Nintendo hotels another shot. So for a second time, Hiroshi Yamauchi throws a Hail Mary pass and counts on the creativity of his workers. He creates a competition and opens it up company-wide.

Any employee with an idea for a new game can submit it to the president of the company. It's kind of a golden ticket from Willy Wonka. Exactly. Hiroshi doesn't know who's going to be his Charlie, but whoever it is has a chance to save the company and maybe make video game history. Okay, so Hiroshi Yamauchi puts out this call for proposals,

and lots of game designers think they have a shot. But the one who comes through is sort of a surprise. His name is Shigeru Miyamoto. Remember it, because my man Shigeru is going to become the man most responsible for the creation of Super Mario Bros. But here's the funny thing. This dude, he really doesn't fit the mold of a traditional game designer. Because Shigeru is a 29-year-old staff artist hailing from the rural village of Sonobe, 30 miles outside of Kyoto.

He's not a programmer. He's not obsessed with digital technology. He grew up, get this, immersed in nature, making his own toys out of wooden string, and exploring the bamboo forest and the underground caverns near his home. Jack, you know who this guy is? He's the Henry David Thoreau of Nintendo. But this guy isn't just some forest sprite. He sort of looks like a lost member of the Strokes, doesn't he? Yes, he does. It's a good vibe. He's obsessed with manga and Western comics and playing Beatles songs and bluegrass on the guitar and the banjo. Now, as a staff artist, Shigeru doesn't program the games. He designs the guitar and the banjo. Now, as a staff artist, Shigeru doesn't program

the games. He designs the cases and the controllers. But he is an expert in gameplay, thanks to his time as a university student logging hours and hours of study time in the arcades. Sounds like our study time, 10 a.m. Tuesday, sophomore year. Yeah, playing Mario Kart. Shigeru's idea breaks the video game mold. Instead of shoot-em-ups or maze games or obstacle courses, he wants to make a platform game

with multiple scenes and levels. And unlike the other video games, he wants it to have a story. Nice. Inspired by Western comics, he envisions something that he thinks will resonate with the American arcade goers. Popeye. Popeye. That's right. Popeye used to be huge in America, like going back to the 1930s. In fact, right as our story is taking place in 1980, a live action Popeye movie, and I assume

like half of the spinach industry, is set in Hollywood to film the Popeye movie. Shigeru's game idea is a rescue adventure with Popeye climbing ladders and fighting falling objects to save his girlfriend, Olive Oil, from a big old lug named Bluto. The president, Hiroshi, he's got to hand it to this kid. It's different from all the other submissions.

It's ambitious, creative, but he's not sure the guy with zero game design experience can pull this off alone. So he pairs Shigeru up with a mentor, Gunpei Yokoi, that toy inventor of the Ultra Hand. Best thing that ever happened to Gunpei. Like taking that break, playing with that toy. This guy's been up and up from there.

But these two immediately hit a snag. Because getting the rights to Popeye, that's going to take years. And Nintendo needs this game ASAP. So just like Romeo and Juliet became West Side Story, and King Lear became Succession, and Jane Austen's Emma became Clueless, Shigeru and Gunpei

give their Popeye theme a little update. Popeye becomes Jumpman. Olive Oil becomes Lady. And Bluto the Brew becomes a certain well-known gorilla. First name Donkey, last name Kong. Now, they want Jumpman to be an actual character, not just some guy. So they make him a carpenter. In the game setting, a construction site. Donkey Kong throws barrels and Jumpman gets a trusty hammer to bash them before he gets

collided with. Now, Jack, we should point out, these guys, they were working with 8-bit graphics, just a few precious little pixels on a 16 by 16 screen to define their characters, which then informs how they end up looking. A red hat helps separate Jumpman's black hair from the black background, and a little mustache to help define where his nose ends and where his mouth begins. Every detail is both creative and a little mustache to help define where his nose ends and where his mouth begins. Every detail is both creative and a way to deal with the limits of their technology. Jack, it's like we always say, constraints breed creativity. When you have unlimited options, you kind of get paralysis of choice. But yet, when you're working with limitations, it can lead you to choices you may not even think of otherwise.

And we've seen this in business all the time. Some of the most successful and creative products were the result of the most constraints and limitations. But there's a problem. Nintendo needs a better name for their main character. Jumpman? Jumpman! I didn't want to say it before, Jack, but it wasn't hitting me.

It lacks a certain panache. It does, it does, it does. But then, according to legend, a happy accident happens. A bunch of Nintendo execs are talking about this in a marketing meeting when the door bursts open. In steps a man with a bushy mustache and a hot temper. It's their landlord, Mario Segale. And he's upset about some missing rent.

Mario, the landlord, chews out the group. Getting so worked up, he almost jumps up and down. He threatens them all with eviction, and then he leaves. No way. Someone makes a joke about the resemblance of that landlord to their Jumpman. And just like that, yes, Jumpman, the Donkey Kong character, gets a real name, Mario. Finally! And Mario, He's just getting warmed up. Yetis, picture yourselves in the rowdy white noise of a dark, air-conditioned arcade. You slip your quarter into the slot. The black screen comes to life.

But the game doesn't start just yet. Instead, you watch a tiny drama unfold. A minor key melody plays. Something dangerous is about to happen. On screen, a hulking gorilla grabs a girl with one arm. He climbs a set of ladders up to the top of some iron girders, the ladders disappearing behind him. He stomps and stomps until the girders shift and tilt at odd angles. Now the game is ready to start. All right, Alfred Hitchcock, where are you going with this thing? That was so dramatic, wasn't it?

That was a lot. What you just heard was the cut scene that begins Donkey Kong and introduces Mario to the world. Bessies, if you've done any gaming here in the 21st century, you know that most video games these days, they're all about world building. From World of Warcraft to Red Dead Redemption to Grand Theft Auto, you've got characters, you've got missions, you've got quests, you've got cut scenes to move the story along.

But in 1981, this was an entirely new thing. But Nintendo really doesn't know how gamers are going to react to this new story-driven game. They definitely don't want to make the mistake they made with their space games. Oh, that was bad. And make thousands of units that nobody wants. I think they ended up in the dustbin. They need to see that their game has some traction before they start rolling it out everywhere. So they run a test with a really small sample size. Like, really small. How small?

They put Donkey Kong into just two bars in Seattle. Yeah. And then it's time to watch and wait. And then what happens? Classic Mario, he saves the day. Classic Mario. He saves the day. Donkey Kong immediately starts yielding more than $30 in quarters a day in those two machines.

That's $112.98 per day in today's dollars, Nick. Not too shabby. That is big game energy. That is a small sample size, man. But you know what? Every world-changing medication, it starts with a Petri dish. Yep, it does. Because you can prove or disprove traction with a very small investment as like a startup. And that's exactly what these two bars did. So Nintendo, they've seen enough. In just one year, they go from two

units of Donkey Kong at that Seattle bar to 60,000. Boom! And make $180 million. DK, by itself, accounts for more than a third of all revenue made by all game manufacturers that year. But it's actually on like Donkey Kong Jack. But in business, just like in Donkey Kong, every time you make it up the ladder, the game gets harder. It's now 1983. Donkey Kong is everywhere. There are versions for arcades, home consoles like the Atari, and even a pocket version that sells more than a million copies worldwide. But then,

after five years of exponential growth, the great American video game bubble bursts. Too many games, too poorly designed, it gluts the market brutal. It leads to brand confusion and choice fatigue among video game players, and they start to abandon the arcades. Jack, I'm getting shades of the dot-com bubble of 2000 or the bubble tea bubble of 2024. Case in point, the Atari, whose video game consoles once reigned supreme, loses $500 million in 1983. reigns supreme, loses $500 million in 1983. The Atari game based on the film E.T. is so terrible that some 728,000 copies get dumped and buried in the New Mexico desert. They're that bad. In fact, all in, the video game industry will shrink by a shocking 97% by 1985.

I mean, Jack, that's one of the biggest bursting bubbles of any industry in the history of stuff. But Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi actually sees an opportunity here. As long as they can stay on their feet, they have a chance to launch something new in a field that's suddenly a little less crowded.

But it's gotta be great. Right, because if that quality dips, you risk seeing all your games get buried in that same New Mexico desert. So he leans on his two favorite star players, the artist Shigeru Miyamoto and his Italian-American hero, Mario. Love these guys.

Shigeru starts kicking ideas around, and one of his friends makes a massive suggestion. With those overalls, that pudgy physique, and his willingness to take on sticky situations, Mario seems less like a carpenter and more like a plumber. Yeah, I'm seeing the wrench in action now. This gives Shigeru an idea. What happens if you move Mario from the construction site to the sewer, and from wherever Donkey Kong takes place to New York City.

And why New York? Well, Mario's Italian name had come courtesy of that angry landlord, Mr. Segali. And as far as Shigeru knew, New York, that's where the Italian Americans came from, Jack. So why not set Mario's new adventure in the cavernous pipes below America's biggest city, where I grew up worried that alligators were going to come out the toilet and eat me, Jack?

So Shigeru draws on his childhood memories of exploring the subterranean limestone cave near his home. He thinks back to being eight years old and shining a flashlight into the cavern, revealing different passageways. This is the sense of wonder and joy he wants to capture for the players in his new game. The deeper they venture, the more there is to find. So Mario, the plumber, sinks down into the sewer pipes of the Big Apple, jumping on enemy creatures like scary plants with big red mouths as he plunges deeper and deeper into the belly of the beast. But along the way, he gets a brother, Luigi. Exactly like Mario, only he's lankier, got a little bit different mustache, and he's a big fan of green. This new game allows for simultaneous play, so Mario and Luigi can

enter a friendly rivalry. The brothers can't hurt each other, so it's all about outscoring each other in competition. Now, Jack, we should point out, this is a big change to Nintendo's business model because they're basically doubling the revenues simply by adding Luigi. It means that each round of gameplay yields Nintendo two quarters. It's kind of an insight, Jack, that hotel and restaurant industries, they already know. If you can double your occupancy rate without doubling your real estate, that's a double win. Shigeru's new game is dubbed, what else? Mario Brothers. Mario Brothers.

And launches as an arcade game on June 21st, 1983, in both the United States and Japan. Right away, it's a hit, if not a blockbuster. In the U.S. alone, Nintendo sells 3,800 Mario Bros. game cabinets. No more Nintendo ramen. Mario Bros. is only the beginning. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi has plans that extend well beyond the arcade parlor. He wants to conquer American living rooms with the next level of Mario. Hey, Hiroshi! Dibs on Yoshi! Okay, besties. So it's with the next level of Mario. Hey, Hiroshi, dibs on Yoshi.

Okay, besties. So it's nearing the end of 1983. Mario Brothers has been burning it up in arcade parlors, even as the video game sector itself is kind of in shambles. At Nintendo, Mario Brothers' nature-loving rock star creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, has his pick of assignments. He's going to get a second home somewhere in the forest, I'm feeling. But Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, has his eyes on the next level. Hiroshi is thinking that thing we always say, Jack. A-B-L-E. Able. Always be launching everything. Don't get too comfortable. The gaming and the entertainment business has always had their eyes set on the consumer's home. And at this moment, the field of battle is shifting

from the arcade parlor to the couch. Forget the Battle of the Bulge. This is the Battle of the Barca Lounger. This is the struggle for your sofa. He wants it to have better graphics than any Atari and be more affordable too. He wants to have his bananas, but not slip on the bananas too.

What they come up with is called the Famicom, short for family computer. Okay, but I like Famicom. It retails for less than 10,000 yen or about $250 in today's dollars. It's got the improved memory and graphics Hiroshi wanted, plus some fabulous new game controllers designed by the father of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Nick, these game controllers hit. Simple, intuitive, with direction arrows on the left, A and B buttons on the right, start and select in the middle. This is the origin of how the controllers came to be. A, B, A, B, A, B, trick code, trick shot. Right. It launches with three games, all Mario adjacent.

Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. Popeye! Hey, they got the rights! They got the rights. Guys, congratulations, guys. So a home version of Mario Brothers comes out just two months later. It looks like it's going to be a winning strategy, but there's a problem. Uh-huh.

After the big crash of 1983, American retailers are feeling gun-shy about investing in another home console. Okay. American retailers are feeling gun-shy about investing in another home console. So when Nintendo brings their console to the Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, in January of 1984, not one single vendor places an order. Shigeru may want to head back to that home in the woods. Hiroshi knows he's going to need a breakthrough game to bundle with this system. Something so incredible,

even skittish American retailers can't deny its power. He needs a blockbuster, and he needs it now. It's 1985. We're in Nintendo's Kyoto offices on the site of the company's new top secret project. The room is very quiet. The only sound you hear is the scratching of pencil across paper or the rub of an eraser. Shigeru Miyamoto has his head bent over his drafting table, coloring in little squares with colored pencils and markers. Beside him, a young code designer named Takashi Tezuka, nicknamed Ten-Ten. Super Mario

was designed on three sheets of graph paper. I mean, this is straight out of an artist's studio. Nick, it's 1985. Yeah. Real-time design interfaces are still a ways off. Plus, remember, Shigeru was an artist before he ever became a game designer. Good point, good point. This allows Shigeru

and Ten-Ten to conjure the surreal, spectacular universe that they call the Mushroom Kingdom. It's a world with bright blue skies and bricks that hold secret coins hanging in mid-air. There are flying turtles, mushroom men, and piranha plants that pop up from their pots like deadly Jack-in-the-Boxes. It's the forest he grew up walking through, but lit up like Lisa Frank stickers. The coffee flows. The graph paper stacks up as the story unfolds before them.

Princess Toadstool has been kidnapped by a monster. Not a gorilla, but a muscly turtle demon named Bowser. Bowser! With fangs and a spiky shell that makes him look like some kind of pro wrestler. An amphibious pro wrestler. Yeti's the new game, Super Mario Brothers. To save the princess and the day, Mario and Luigi are back as our hero plumbers. They move between treacherous worlds via green eldritch pipes,

which transport them to water levels, sky levels, castle levels, where mini-bosses wait to do battle and giant turtle shells beckon concussions. Defeat them, and you are greeted by a little toad, a creature with a mushroom hat and a smart little red vest who says one thing and one thing only, thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle. So Shigeru and Tenten designed 32 stages in all. Yes. Multiples more than any game

that's ever come before. And the longest reptile tongue in the history of gaming. They discuss weaponry. Should Mario have a gun? What? But instead, they decide on magic powers

like fireballs, size changing, or temporary invincibility, along with some permanently clean white gloves. And many of those magic powers are mentioned. They're stashed in hiding spots as secret Easter eggs, which only adds to the game's intrigue. But unlike Donkey Kong or the first Mario Brothers, which were platform games, Super Mario Brothers pulls off another innovation unprecedented in gaming history. What's this one?

This is one of the world's first side-scrolling games. Whoa! So once you've blown past an Easter egg, there's no going back. Whoa, dramatic. That is just like life, Jack. Deep. For months, Shigeru and his team work in secret.

Everyone is heads down. Shigeru, Ten-Ten, all the engineers converting their pages of graph paper into gameplay. But that's not all. Shigeru remembers how Donkey Kong had a real musical score, not just beeps and bloops. So this time, the music has got to be truly next level.

Their young composer, Koji Kondo, creates not a single score, but several mini-scores, each just a few phrases long. Then he combines and recombines them to make the music sound fresh and unrepentative. Super Mario Brothers is an opus. I mean, Jack, the mood is generally happy. This is upbeat. I mean, unless until the game takes us underground. Oh, but once you get close to Bowser and try to defeat him and his minions... Oh, that's a vibe. The music signals when Mario is low on time or when he's about to save the day.

It kind of sounds like a combination of Beethoven and Diplo. But Nick, speaking of hurry up... Yes, Jack? The development phase is not fast. I'm not shocked. It takes the better part of a year. The clock is ticking down on this level. And President Hiroshi Yamauchi's gotta be thinking,

where in the Koopa kingdom is my game? Okay, besties. It's now the summer of 1985. Hey, you and I are not born yet. In America, Back to the Future just hit the multiplex, New Coke just hit the shelves, and the side ponytail was living its best life. But in Japan, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi is impatient.

Shigeru Miyamoto is still tinkering with his top secret new game. But to his credit, Hiroshi stands back and lets his game designers cook. He even agrees to delay the game's release by a few weeks at Shigeru's request. After one last sprint, it's finally ready. Nintendo, the luck and chance company born of trading cards 100 years earlier, chooses a most superstitious date for the launch, Friday the 13th of September 1985. Super Mario Brothers for the Famicom system hits the Japanese market. Would you like to know what happens next, Nick? Jack, you're moving so well left to right, I would love to know what happens next. It is a raging success. Nice.

Teens are playing the games for hours, even after they beat it, just so they can find every last Easter egg. Mom, have dinner without me. And the images take you to a forested world never before seen in gaming. And amazingly, it works equally well on the home system. It's so popular, Nintendo starts bundling Super Mario Brothers together with their new gaming machines, which only makes them sell more. So that's exactly like Hiroshi planned it, Jack. The software is selling the hardware. Nintendo can finally get out of the

instant ramen business and close those one-hour hotels. Nintendo sells 1.2 million copies of Super Mario Brothers, and they've only tackled Japan. There's still the United States to conquer. Let's hit that American mushroom. In October 1985, Nintendo does a limited launch of their home console, now called the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short. They do their test launch in New York City, Mario's home turf. And just like with the debut of Donkey Kong, Nintendo sees exactly what they were hoping for. Traction. Retention gets attention. Remember, yetis, you don't need a big test market to demonstrate traction.

Whether it's two bars in Seattle or a handful of Manhattan department stores, when a product's got the juice, you can see it in the cup. Even if it's just a small sample size. And man, does this's got the juice, you can see it in the cup, even if it's just a small sample size. And man, does this game have the juice. Yeah. By early 1986, both the NES console and Super Mario Brothers are bundled together in stores all across the US. For $130, a customer can get a console, two controllers, and a copy of Super Mario, which is a cartridge that you have to blow in when it's not working. And that means they're buying themselves weeks of gameplay. And for 20 bucks more, they

also get a light gun and a copy of Nintendo's hit arcade game, Duck Hunt. Duck Hunt was around before Super Mario? It was. Wow. That's why we do these stories, Nick. It brings me back. It's the little things you learn along the way. Speaking of little things, gamers obsess over finding each hidden flower with invincibility powers, each secret trick to warp you from level four to level eight. Not even Wario and his cute pink trousers can dunk on that gaming parade.

Nintendo sells a million NES systems in the first year. Wow. Three million units the next year. Wow. And as for Super Mario Brothers itself? Ah, forget about it. Within five years of its launch, sales of the game crack 40 million copies globally.

Gabba ghoul, Jack. You want some 1980s context? Serve it up. Okay, here we go. Super Mario sold five million more copies than Michael Jackson sold a bad. The detail-rich nature of the game spawns a culture shift that we're still experiencing today. Yeah, we are. Gaming magazines start to multiply. Friends gather in living rooms in dens to watch each other save the princess and beat their

friends' high score. Nintendo now owns your living room, just like it always strategized. Besties, if you've ever watched a Let's Play video on YouTube or a live gameplay on Twitch, this is where it all began. Now, obviously, Nintendo doesn't stay on top forever. They'll eventually face competition from Sega launching the so-called console wars that will dominate the early to mid-1990s. But Nintendo lives by the code of always be launching everything. ADLE. And it's fed directly into their strategy ever since. Here's just a taste of where Mario goes next. Super Mario Bros. 2 is released in North America in 1988. Great year, Nick. Great year.

And in 1992, a new era kicks off with the debut of Mario Kart, the iconic go-kart racing game with lots of red shells. Your 10 a.m. when you could have been at class go-to option with the dorm. Since its launch for the Super NES, we've had over a dozen different iterations of Mario Kart. Bringing millennials and Gen Zs in pursuit of stars and fear of red shells

and an avoidance of banana peels, all for the Mushroom Cup. Mario Kart is the best-selling racing game franchise of all time, with almost 185 million total units sold worldwide. Jack, forget sales of bad. That's almost thriller numbers. Oh,

and we totally blew past Super Mario for the Nintendo Wii. Good point. Which, fun fact, was also designed by Shigeru Miyamoto. And also, fun fact, caused your uncle to blow out his back the second day he had it, Jack. Shigeru Miyamoto is still at the company. Nick, this man is Nintendo's chosen one. Take us to your leader. Oh, wait, it's Shigeru. And today, people are still so devoted to this practically perfect game, they're even putting themselves in it. Jack, I can actually take this one because I really want to go. But in 2015, Nintendo entered a partnership with Universal Studios

to create an immersive attraction at their theme park known as Super Nintendo World. That's right, yetis. They made known as Super Nintendo World. That's right, Yetis, they made an actual Super Nintendo World where you can actually put yourself into the game. It's an augmented reality situation where instead of escaping reality, you're enhancing it. So Nick, I feel like I need a hot pocket or something. We've come to the end of our own epic Nintendo journey. We've shot out the end of our own epic Nintendo journey. We've shot out our red shells, we've slayed Bowser, and we've saved the princess. Yep.

What are our takeaways from the story of Super Mario Brothers? All right, so Jack, takeaway number one for me? Creativity comes from connections. Like Steve Jobs once said, creativity isn't creating something new, it's connecting existing things. So when the video game industry collapsed, they weren't creating anything new. They were just doing the same old versions of the same old space games. But what made Mario become so unique was Shigeru's outsider background. He connected his love of the wilderness, music, magical worlds, all together to make a game that was truly creative.

What about you, Jack? What's your takeaway after hearing the story of Super Mario Bros.? My takeaway is that I'm obsessed with Nintendo's Infinite Game. Ah, the Infinite Game. Nintendo hasn't had a major employee layoff round in three decades. Wow. The company basically does not fire people. In fact, during their last tough quarter, they actually gave people raises. Whoa. Why are they doing this?

Because like we've said before, fear means game over for creativity. Oh, it ends it. Or as Nintendo's former president Satoru Iwata said in 2013, I doubt employees who fear layoffs will be able to develop software that could impress the world. So Nintendo's epic runs aren't a matter of coincidence. Nintendo's products are only as good as their employees' creativity. And creativity simply doesn't mesh with fear. At Nintendo, creative teams trust that they'll be given the space to always be launching everything and make sure each launch is amazing.

That's the infinite game. But Jack, Super Mario wouldn't be the best idea yet without us sharing the best facts yet. But in honor of today's subject, we're going to introduce a little thing, Jack. You ready for this? Jack, what we got that makes this episode a little bit more special is a time limit. So Jack, without further ado, because we're running out of time, what's the best facts yet? Wario is an evil character in Super Mario.

True. But why is he called Wario? War in Japanese means bad. So Wario is actually Japanese for bad Mario. Similarly, in Japanese, the word for good is yoi, which is how we got the character Yoshi. Okay, okay, okay. There have been two Super Mario films, Nick.

You ready? Yeah, yeah. The last one made over a billion dollars in the box office in 2023, but the first one 30 years earlier was loved by no one. You're kidding. What happened to that one? One issue in the 1993 film was that Mario's last name was Mario. That's weird.

Which would make him Mario Mario and his brother Luigi Mario. But we all know the truth. Mario and Luigi, they're one-name stars. And finally, an unopened Super Mario Bros. cartridge broke the world record for highest sale price at an auction in 2020. And how much was it? $114,000. Or in Princess Peach coins, 50,000 coins.

Jack, I think either way, the main takeaway here is that I'm going to keep saying Mario and you're going to keep saying Mario and we're totally cool with it. I didn't know you could say it the proper way. I didn't even realize I was saying it a different way. Either way, Super Mario Brothers is the best idea yet. Coming up on the next episode of The Best Idea Yet, this one is a long and comfortable journey about the Birkenstock, Arizona sandal. Yeah, the Birkenstock sandal. This one's personal, right, Jack? You got a bunch of these things, like a dozen of them. Follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to every episode of The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. The Best Idea Yet is a production of Wondery hosted by me, Nick Martell. And me, Jack Ravitchi Kramer. And if there's a product you're obsessed with and you wish you knew its story and the business insights that helped it go viral, drop us a comment with your idea and we'll look into it for a future episode. We're on it.

In the meantime, our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gauthier and our producer is Matt Wise for Wondery. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan and Taylor Sniffen is our coordinator producer. Our associate producer is H. Conley. Research by Samuel Fatzinger. This episode was written by Katie Clark Gray. We use

many sources in our research, including the essential 2011 book, Super Mario, How Nintendo Conquered America, by Jeff Ryan. Sound Design and Mixing by Kelly Kramarik. Fact Checking by Erika Janik. Our Music Supervisor is Scott Velasquez and Jolina Garcia for Freeson Sync.

Our theme song is Got That Feeling Again by Black Alack. Executive producers are me, Nick Martell, and me, Jack Kravici-Kramer from Nick and Jack Studios. And Dave Easton, Jenny Lauer-Beckman, Aaron O'Flaherty, and Marshall Louis for Wondery.