Old Games: Encyclopedia Bombastica: Mario is Missing!

Well that looked like a truly horrible game, funny that I never heard of it even though I grew up with the NES and SNES... I'm not sure if I really figured out what your were actually supposed to be doing... :-P Thanks for the video Dan, you are the only reason that was entertaining lol

I rented this as a kid knowing it was bad, but not knowing why. I didn't know it was an edutainment game until the factoids started showing up. After that, I was strangely compelled to see the game through. I beat it, but I've forgotten all of its lessons over the years.

One thing I do remember, though: The music is pretty rad!

I think i played the PC version of this. I never realized what the point was, i think i just walked around from place to place.

I'm an asshole and that's actually a G930 if anyone else cares. It's the headset I use.

G230's wired.

I really enjoyed this, but isn't the idea of this Bombastica series meant to be someone knowledgeable talking in-depth about the game and its systems?

ETA: A similarly styled Old Game Show type thing would be rad.

What was the point of this EB? WHAT? WHY? "This game sucks! Let me make a video... What? Really? We play... games we like? Oh."

Like those games, it was farmed out to some crappy French studio (and it shows). But I doubt there's any connection otherwise.

I fell asleep no less than 2 times during this video, and by no fault of Dan's.

Christ, this game... I remember getting it on PC way back when it came out. I don't think I ever wrapped my head around what it was, and why.

This reminded me of the old GameInformer video of Dan playing dota...he just does not change tack when something isn't working (also he repeatedly read what the NPC said when he returns the wrong thing but I don't think he was really understanding what it was trying to say). Not defending this game's design or anything (it's kind of unclear that you can even pick among the artifacts) but at least he could just try returning whichever one was selected to the right place.

Only tangentially related, but my grandma had an NES at her house that I would always play when I went over there, and one of the games she had was the NES port of Mario's Time Machine, which I guess is in the same 'educational series' as Mario is Missing. I've probably beaten that thing in one sitting like 10 different times. I should totally dig up a copy of that game.

I rented this game a bunch as a kid, but I never owned it.

Yeah it blows me away that every time i see someone play this they fail to realize you can select an artifact while highlighting it on the menu, even though there's a border around the one you have selected.

The pickiness with talking to people is 100% bullshit though

@jaymii said:

Ya that's what I love about the series. I guess he captures the essence of why it is so confusing, but I would have preferred him tearing the game apart from a knowing standpoint and showing us why the game is badly designed instead of just showing us it's hard to figure out. Still entertaining though.

Didn't realize there were so many hardcore mario is missing mlgs in the woodworks.

And as far as informative goes; brad's recent bombasticas were pretty bereft of historical info and everyone (me definitely included) liked those fine. I don't think they implied anything particular about bombastica's format other than it basically being a quick look of older games. It's only that jeff started it that's causing people to assume encyclopedic knowledge of the game is required, i suppose.

This game is news to me!

@ripelivejam: That, and the fact that the name of the segment is ENCYCLOPEDIA Bombastica.

@serujiow: which makes me wonder why it was such a sore sticking point with dan's EB and not brad's. But whatever, might be more beneficial to pm him and bring it to his attention so he might course correct in future installments, if it's really a sticking point with some.

what headset is Dan using?

@atlitalien86: looks like a logitech g930, i've had done for a few years, pretty solid

nice. they seem comfy, I find it hard to find good headsets that wont hurt my ears/ head with after thirt minutes or so/ ( I wear glasses)

This game was a waste of my weekend rental from the video store. Same with Mario's Time Machine.

Agreed, as someone who drives a car in a metropolitan area. Fuck jaywalkers.

I kind of thought Encyclopedia Bombasticas were for older games that the staff enjoyed or have a fondness for. I didn't get that vibe from Dan on this. That said, I never saw this before! It's both familiar and strange, like a poisoned home-cooked meal.

Thanks Dan. This was fun!

The original pitch for Encyclopedia Bombastica was to quick look every game ever made, so this fits nicely into that idea.

I'll always remember this game as the game that taught me the Golden Gate Bridge is orange.

In my defense, I was a little kid.

This is what I like about Giant Bomb. You play horrible games so that I don't have to, yet I get to see them.

I beat this when I was a kid and seem to remember enjoying it (PC version). Not nearly as much as Mario World obviously, but I liked it more than the Carmen Sandiego games.

I think a lot of the enjoyment simply came from it being a Mario game though.

This looks like a real bad game.

So this is a game about Luigi murdering then stealing from the Turtle residents of San Francisco?

Is this the short sighted version or is Dan actually describing everything on the screen as if we can't see it.

exactly. i don't think a highly detailed history/deep mechanical investigation was ever the intent, just to show off the game. but if that's what you want you always have jeff's EBs to fall back on as he tends towards that.

e: though i do take issue that they may be running a tad behind on quick looking every game ever made.

@pabba: I am pretty sure Dan has specifically told the story of the effort he put forth to get the game, and how completely and utterly crushed he was when he got it and it was hot garbage, either on a UPF or Bombcast.

I understand how this game works now, but as a kid who randomly owned a loose copy of it without a manual, it was really obtuse. All of the mistakes Dan is making here now, I totally made as a kid. You have to stumble upon the solutions to the bad interface and guess at what the hell the mechanics want you to do, and if you aren't lucky enough to accidentally figue it out, you're going to wander around wondering what the hell is going on.

Like, you can talk to every person in town, but Dan tried it and happened to be facing the wrong way, so he thought you couldn't. This is totally reasonable. It's like if you tried to open a door, couldn't turn the handle and assumed it was locked, when really it's just an old and shitty doorknob that you have to crank really hard to get moving. You're not going to try that door again just in case you did something wrong; you're brain is going to file that door under the "I can't open this shit" area and you're not going to think twice about it. This whole game works under the assumption that you've either read the manual or lucked into doing things the correct way the first time. And as someone who owned the game but no manual as a kid, I appreciate Dan's approach to this EB. His confusion is exactly what I felt. It feels like a really accurate representation of what this game was back in the day.

But even if it wasn't difficult to understand, there'd be no reason to defend this game. It's just awful. It doesn't deserve a fair shake with him finding an online manual and and playing through it with precision. That's not what this game was. That wouldn't be showing this game in an accurate light, in my opinion.

I thought thew idea of these EB videos was to school you on an old good/important game you might not know much about...certainly that's how Brad/Jeff do it. This is just Dan fuddling through a game

I had, and believe I still have, Mario's Early Years: Fun With Letters. It was awful.

I think as a kid I kept trying to believe it was a good Mario game but it was not. I think I just got it not as a gift though so I wasn't too sour about it.

Remember renting this for the weekend when I was a kid and not being able to figure out how to present artifacts. Game didn't have a manual with it, either. Of all the rental games to be missing a manual, why'd it have to be this one?

This game is a filthy post apocalyptic nightmare. Clearly it shows what is in store for the future of metropolitan North America. Bug out bags for everyone!

I miss Encyclopedia Bombastica. But from what I hear, they are currently looking into returning to it in some form.

Yay for home streams.

How have I NEVER seen this?!?!

The PC version is also fully-voiced, so it has more story AND some really over-the-top, badly recorded dialog.