“And Mario Saw That It Was All Good.”

As a boy, I used to eagerly await my father’s readings of a night-time story before bed. Dad would read many stories and the ones from the bible struck a particular chord, probably as they were reinforced by the weekly visit to church. An all powerful God, floods, famines, angels, devils, miracles, kings and queens, giants, people rising from the dead and so much more, and all in one book, it was magic to me. As I got older and began to question these stories I was reading things like Marvel comics and playing the arcade games that arrived with the computer age. A little further on and I realised that all these stories had a common thread or metaphor that our society utilises as a form of control to advertise why it is right in its structure. The underlying messages within the stories are great, as a moral code they sit well with me. However, Mario as an avatar is a more believable framework for them in a modern context.

 -Dominic Johns, 2007

Mario Series