Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I'm Rob.
And I'm Georgina.
Now, Georgina, you recently
mentioned in one 6 Minute English
programme about NFTs and that
you had a collection of Pokemon
cards when you were younger.
Yes - I did, and I still
can't find them. Why did
you bring that up?
Well, Pokemon started out as
a video game series that turned
into anime movies and trading
cards among other things - and
in this programme we're talking
about a video game character
that is iconic - a word which
means widely known and recognised.
That character's name
is Super Mario.
Ahhh I spent many hours of
my childhood playing with
Nintendo's Super Mario or his
rival, Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.
Now, these days, video games
are everywhere, and people
of all ages enjoy playing them.
There's also competitive
e-sports events where gamers
compete for what are often
considerable amounts of money.
Yes, and there are also
streamers that appear on
platforms like Twitch and
YouTube who have become
celebrities in their own right.
Talking about celebrities,
I have a question about the
famous character we're talking
about in this programme.
Many people remember Super
Mario Bros. as being the
first time we saw Mario, but
he first appeared in
another game - which
was it? Was it: a) The
Legend of Zelda
b) Donkey Kong; or
c) Pokemon
I'm not sure about that - I
can't remember him being
in Pokemon, so I'll go
for a) The Legend of Zelda.
OK, Georgina, we'll find out
if you're right at the end
of the programme. So, we
established at the start
of the programme that
these days the video games
industry is thriving.
True - but it wasn't
always that way. It's
hard to imagine now, but
in the 1980s the console
market was struggling,
particularly in the US.
Keza MacDonalds, video
games editor for the
Guardian newspaper, explains
what was happening in the
early 1980s. Here she is
on BBC World Service
programme You and Yours,
speaking with Peter White.
Well, back then, especially
in America, there had been
a flood of games that were
just not very high quality.
One of the games that's
often cited as a factor in the
collapse was this game called
ET on the Atari, which was
so bad they ended up burying
thousands of copies of it
in the desert, because
nobody liked it.
And, so we'd had that,
especially in America, this
didn't happen so much in
Europe, but in America just
been lots and lots of software.
None of it was all that great.
There hadn't been anything
really revolutionary in some
years, so the video game
boom was really falling off
a cliff and Nintendo is
what rescued in
the US especially.
Keza MacDonald used the
term a flood of - meaning a
large number in a short
period of time - to
describe the number of
games that were coming out.
She used cited, which
means referenced or
noted, when talking about
the game ET being a
reference for a factor
in the collapse of
the console market.
And she said boom - a
sudden period of growth.
So as ET was mentioned as
a factor in the collapse,
many people say that Super
Mario Bros. was the reason
that video games really
took off, especially
in the US.
It's interesting to consider
what might have been if his
creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, had
never created that character.
The question is, why is that
game so popular, what made
it so fun to play?
Here is Keza Macdonald
speaking again with Peter White,
on BBC World Service programme,
You and Yours, explaining why
Mario is just so popular and
what makes the original
game so satisfying to play.
It's just such a joy
to play. It's running
and jumping, and it's
the joy of movement. When,
when you play, even the
original Super Mario Bros,
you just feel this sense of
joy in your movement,
and it's one of
the greatest games ever made.
And a lot of games from 35
years ago are basically
unplayable now. They might
have been a step to
something greater, but
Mario was one of those few
that really holds up
today as it did then.
Keza Macdonald said that
some games from 35 years
ago are unplayable - so,
not possible to play them.
But she said that Mario
holds up - a term used to
say that something's
standards or quality
has not lessened.
It certainly does
hold up - in fact, I
played it the other day
and I had lots of fun
with it - it reminded me
of my childhood, and
it's still as good
now as it was then.
Which reminds me of
your quiz question, Rob.
Yes, in my quiz question
I asked Sam which game
had the first appearance of
that famous plumber, Mario.
I went for a) The
Legend of Zelda.
Which is wrong, I'm afraid!
Mario's first appearance
was in Donkey Kong, and
his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto,
never thought he would
be that popular.
Well, I guess we've all
really learnt something today.
Let's recap the vocabulary
from today's programme about
Super Mario, starting with
iconic - famously associated
with something and
instantly recognisable.
Then we had a flood of
which means a large amount
of something in a
short space of time.
Cited means reference
as or noted.
Boom relates to explosion
and means a short period
of sudden growth.
Unplayable describes something
that can't be played or a
game that is very
difficult to enjoy.
And finally, holds up
means that the quality or
standards of something
hasn't changed and
still looks good
or plays well.
That's all for
this programme.
Bye for now!
Bye!