Originally created by visionary game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario Games have been one of the most successful franchises in the video game medium,

with titles still being made today and origins stretching back to the very early arcade games.

In the past few years, countless people have asked me to make a video on the symbolism of this or that video game, usually those

with exhaustive mythologies like Warhammer or Elder Scrolls.

However, by looking at the structure of the early arcade Mario games and then moving to

Super Mario Bros., we will be able to unlock the most basic elements of video game symbolism and how it connects

to universal patterns.

Hopefully this will give all of you a few keys for looking into other games as well. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world.

Our best games endure through time because they're microcosms and ritualized versions of some basic pattern of reality. They permit us to engage with the structure of the world, whether it be hierarchy and upward and downward movement like shoots and ladders,

competition and war like chess or team sports, or the excitement and surprise of fortune like

dice or card games. While in our lives war is bloody, costly, and destructive, chess and

football provide a boiled down ritualized experience and practice of the same pattern

without the egregious consequences.

In video games we experience effort, perseverance, adversity, and adventure in cycles as

worlds or levels begin and end. We're celebrated for our success and death is most often the image of our losses.

There have been different iterations of Mario from the early beginnings, often marking the

progression of video games through technical feats and even content elaboration. For this reason,

these games are some of the best for discovering a basic sense of video game symbolism.

Of course, we all mostly came to know Mario from the classic Super Mario Brothers,

but to understand how it all comes together, we need to start with Donkey Kong.

In Donkey Kong, a giant King Kong-like ape kidnaps your beloved,

and holds are at the top of a series of

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