Super Mario: Divided

Part 1 of the Super Mario: Divided series

I'm a big fan of Super Mario. The franchise has been a big part of my childhood for many years. My favorite game is Super Mario 64. Every day after school in 1996, after all my homework was finised, I'd hop on my good old NES and boot up SM64 and either grind out the story or just mess around in the levels and the castle. Although this game alone was super fun, I wondered if there were other Mario games out there like this one. I would find out almost 25 years later.

It was just an ordinary Saturday autumn day. Most leaves were calling it quits, and the wether got chilly. I was at work, my wife (also one of my best childhood friends) was shopping, and my kids were at home doing homework and playing video games. My children were also big fans of Nintendo, and I, being a decent middle class man, was able to afford as much of the new Mario games as possible, but they love me anyway becuse I am a great dad.

When I got home from work, I tended to my family as usual. Afterwards, I thought I would relax for a bit. However, in the process of taking my mind off the stress of work, I got bored. I had nothing to do. I was glad to be with my family, but I wanted to do something new, something that might be worth everything that I do. While I was trying to come up with an idea or two, I got a knock at the door.

I went to see who it was. It was my dad. He wore a blank expression on his face, which was unusual to me since he was always happy when he was with me.

"Hi grandpa," my kids said, excitedly. "Are we going on an adventure?"

At this, my old man smiled. "Sorry kids," he said, "not today." They were disappointed, but they understood.

"What are you doing, then?" I asked.

His unhappy face came back. "I just came to give you this," he said, referring to the box in his arms. At the sight of the box, I already knew what was in it: my old games.

"Oh, thanks!" I replied, taking the box. I was glad that my dad did this for me, but he looked very sad, and it made me feel sorry for him. "Are you okay, dad? You sure you don't want to come in?"

My wife was also glad to let him stay if he wanted. She even offered to share our dinner with him tonight, but he insisted that he could manage himself.

"Well," I said, "at least tell me why you're not happy. I'm more than happy to help you."

My dad looked more concerned now. "I'm fine, son," he said, calmly and quietly so my kids wouldn't hear. "It's you and your family you should worry about. Especially consideringg what might happen. You see, on my way to your house, I stopped at this yard sale to see if I could find a gift for your mother to celebrate our anniversary. I found one, but I also got something else: An NES game that I haven't heard about, and you won't either, yet. What made it stranger was that the guy who had it looked a little creeped out. He told me that I could take it for free, because he just wanted to get rid of it. Now, I don't know if I'n supposed to believe in the supernatural and all that shit, but judging by how eager that man was to get rid of whatever that game is, I have a feeling that there are more secrets in the world than we can see normally. So, I want you to be as careful as you can with it. I really don't want to loose you to something I can't find."

Out of total confusion, I opopened the box and looked inside. The games were stacked. SM64 was closer to the top. At the very top was the game that my dad had mentioned. Its cover art was a picture of SM64's Mario, with his body parts separated like puzzle pieces. Below the picture, written neatly in black sharpie, was the apparent title: "Super Mario: Divided." I was very curious now, and was about to ask my sad something else about it, but when I looked up, he was gone. I looked to my right and saw his black sedan drive off down the road. That was kinda weird.

Huh, I thought as I went back to me and my wife's bedroom. A lost Mario game! This should be interesting. I took this opportunity to relive my childhood, and began to set up my NES.

I played some SM64 for an hour, jumping around, playing around the levels, and playing some of the story, just like I used to. Then I deciddd that I would try the new game. I was still wondering what it was. I also wondered where, and when, this game came from. I've checked most if not every update from Nintendo news since my first time playing their games, and nowhere in those decades was there an official release notice of this specific game. In the end, I decided that it was just something that I missed.

I put away SM64 and inserted Divided. The picture on the screen was the same as the one on the cartridge, but when I was ablout to select the game, I noticed that the NES didn't recognize the title. It was just blank. I brushed this off as an annoying glitch and launched the game. The opening logos were perfectly the same I remembered. After the final logo, when it showed all the copyright information, I noticed that the only given date was the year 1996. My curiosity grew, as I knew that this game had to be released around the time SM64 came out.

The menue appeared. It waa an interactive picture of Mario spread out into pieces. I presses the start button, and a message in the SM64 font appeared at the bottom: "Put Mario back together to continue." Oh, fuck yeah! I'm only at the menu, and already there's some gameplay, and it's so cool! It reminded me of the days when my wife and I were kids; one of our favorite childhood activities was doing puzzles. When I put Mario's last piece together, he jumped around excitedly and smiled cheerfully, before it faded to the next menu.

It was similar to SM64's menu, but this time, instead of four save files, I was given four different options entirely:

Super Mario 32

Super Mario 16

Super Mario 8

Super Mario 4

I knew this had to be good. The very titles of these ganes excited me for a new approach to Super Mario. What I didn't yet realize that on my adventure, I would uncover something that would forever change my view on life, and on Mario.