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Growing up I had two unembarrassed passions—Super Mario Brothers video games and dinosaurs. It’s nice to know exactly what you like. Both of these subjects require a child to exercise the imagination-based quadrants of their developing brain to more completely comprehend the world at large. Consequently, they’re somewhat interconnected. The Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario Brothers speaks to the limitless nature of human imagination, and the existence of dinosaurs is an abject lesson in how perfectly bizarre the universe can be. Exposure to either is a truly mind-expanding experience.
On our annual field trips to the Morris Museum (Morristown, NJ), the tiny but efficient dinosaur exhibit was always the highlight of the day. Also—my parents would give me a little spending cash to purchase the Astronaut Ice Cream that was available in the gift shop. Back then I dreamed I would either be an astronaut or a “dinosaur-guy.”
These aspirations proved to be short-lived, however, because eventually I found out you had to be all math-y and science-y to accomplish either. I’m terrible at both. My ice cream preferences turned boringly terrestrial, and I swapped out my dinosaur books for the Nintendo controller. But years later, my interest in both remains strong. Can you tell your Super Mario Brothers villains from your obscure dinosaurs?
Take the quiz: SMB Villain or Obscure Dinosaur?
Comments (15)
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13/15. Not bad considering I’ve never played Mario and wasn’t much for dinosaurs. Let’s hear it for guessing.
posted by Todd on 6-2-2008 at 10:49 am
Second test I got 100 on (the other was the Nintendo historian) I guess I ended up in the right field.
Great test though.
posted by Kinglink on 6-2-2008 at 11:13 am
Should rename this to “How well do you know SMB 2″ seeing how most of the Mario Villains in the quiz are from that very game.
posted by Momotsuki on 6-2-2008 at 11:41 am
Shockingly, I got 15/15. It’s a good thing that I’ve watched the ending credits to Mario Bros 2 so many times.
posted by Ewzzy on 6-2-2008 at 11:44 am
12/15
I’m an old school Mario player, I haven’t played any Mario newer than SNES, so I’m pretty proud of myself.
posted by Melodye on 6-2-2008 at 11:45 am
15/15. 1-Up!
posted by Austin on 6-2-2008 at 11:58 am
14/15…i too am an old school nes and snes mario player…
posted by nicole on 6-2-2008 at 1:44 pm
15/15, woot.
Incidentally, you talk about the Ostros being toppled by turtle shells, but I don’t think the two coexisted in any level of SMB2 (although I might just play through tonight for nostalgia’s sake).
Since the American SMB2 is essentially Doki-Doki Panic (another game created by Shigeru Miyamoto) with replaced character sprites, the turtle shells are VERY rare and can only be found by pulling up certain turnips.
posted by Ira on 6-2-2008 at 2:46 pm
100% woot woot! I suppose being an Earth Science teacher AND child of the 80’s helped with that though . . .
posted by Lindsey on 6-2-2008 at 5:23 pm
15/15!
Nice to see my favorite dinosaur (troodon) on there, too.
posted by Delia on 6-2-2008 at 9:33 pm
87 — not bad considering that most of the Mario ones were from SMB2, which I’ve played maybe once or twice ever (though I’m old hat at all of the other Mario games).
posted by M on 6-3-2008 at 4:48 pm
14 of 15. Not bad. How I do miss the 8 bit revolution from 1985. Cool quiz.
posted by Kevin on 6-5-2008 at 8:25 am
13/15, not bad. Considering I know more about SMB than dinosaurs. :)
posted by Skyhawk on 6-8-2008 at 5:11 pm
15/15.
I still play SM2 in my spare time.
posted by King Koopa on 6-9-2008 at 1:38 pm
I got 10/15
Not bad!
I was familiar on some characters :D
posted by Lanz16 on 9-6-2009 at 2:25 pm