Mario's fate
 

I was sitting at the old compy tonight and a weird question arose in my mind while I was reading the "Video game features in real life" thread. At first I was thinking of answering the thread with "the ability to crush cement blocks with my bare fist", or "the ability to eat fungi and get a growth spurt". But, then I got to thinking of Mario and how he doesn't exactly die when he loses all of his health, he just takes a wild dive off of the screen. I'd also like to point out that he has a look of disgrace on his face when he falls.

This means he is indeed not dead at all! He grimaces, but we never see him hit the ground, or lava, or water and lay still. Does he just fall off the face of the earth? Where does he end up?

[Edit] It also seems like whenever he gets crushed between two surfaces, even with 200+ broken bones, he has enough energy left to fling himself out of view.

The same thing happens in Sonic. Do you think that's a coincidence?

...I think you're just thinking about it too much. A Gap in the level when Miyamoto was creating the first level of Super Mario and Mario fell in. He thought 'It looks like he died'. And then a big lightbulb turned on above Miyamotos head.

The rest is history.

Did you just make that up, or do you vaguely remember reading that somewhere, or can you link a source? 'Cause that'd be really interesting reading.

I always figured the whole falling of the screen thing was a way to avoid featuring any actual corpses. Smushed goombas don't count!

Mario is leaping from danger at the last moment to escape death, by shifting himself just a little in the third dimension (Super Mario Bros. 3 demonstrates his ability to do so) but only to suffer a more horrible fate: he must be extracted by extra-dimensional lakitus. Snide lakitus.

Of corse you could consider he just fell to a pit slightly lower then the screen. Where he remained there and starved to death.

I think he finally notices the player in the outside 3-d world, and desperatly flings himself to the screen, then frictionlessly slides down, until he manages to create a foot hold and climb his way back up to the begining of the level.

In closing, Der.

All have good points, but when you think about it

It seems both Mario and Luigi are immortal or something, and you'd figure that the Princess would be more like Princess Sara by now

:bmage: Dani

I think they both go on a fright level. To anyone who has played Luigi's Mansion, you understand what I mean. In the game, Luigi is invincible, no matter what happens to him. A door could crush him, a ghost could punch him, or he could be set on fire... in all cases, he makes it out alive.

However, if this happens too much, Luigi loses the heart to go on, and falls "dead" on the floor, when in fact, he just faints. In short... they don't die, they just get scared to easily...

Especially Mario... Sally...

We all know Mushroom Kingdom is 2D. Considering that, Mario leaping off the world itself to save himself from danger is the theory most likely. Seems like a stretch unless you consider the gravital anomaly that makes everything that falls down come back from above sooner or later. Personal waste disposal has always been a problem there.

Or maybe Mario is just drugged up. It is the Mushroom Kingdom afterall.