Mario is Missing! (Super NES)

Mario Is Missing is an educational adventure game that was released for the Super NES in 1993. It was unique in a variety of ways including being a relatively rare game that stars Luigi, being an educational game on a console, and being a Mario/Luigi game that was also released on other platforms.

The plot of this game is that Mario has been kidnapped by Bowser and you, as Luigi, must find him. There's also an evil plot by Bowser that must be stopped. He plans to melt Antarctica by using hairdryers.

In order to rescue Mario, Luigi must travel the world solving geography based puzzles. You must return stolen artifacts by answering questions about local landmarks and history. Bowser is trying to sell these artifacts to pay for the hairdryers. Locations include such places as Cairo, Paris, New York, Mexico City, and Tokyo among others.

This is essentially a point-and-click adventure game with an educational emphasis. The goal is to teach basic geography and history to a younger audience and is an early example of "edutainment".

Those expecting anything resembling a traditional Mario game will be disappointed. As an educational game it's just ok. There isn't a whole lot of fun mixed in with the pointing, clicking, and answering questions.

This history of this game is somewhat interesting though. Nintendo did not develop this game but instead licensed the characters to The Software Toolworks who originally created this game for DOS based computers. Shortly after, it was ported to the Super NES and NES and then later on the Macintosh and Windows.

As a game for younger players it isn't bad but the Carmen Sandiego games are better. There isn't much in the way of replayability and it really isn't something adults today would find very interesting, even for nostalgia.

Images above are from the Super NES version of the game with the ad being from the October 1993 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

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