Mario Nostalgia
The Museum of Mario is an interactive website published by IGN. The iconic Mario characters and Mario music immerse users in a trip down memory lane. The website takes the user through the collection of Mario games published between 1981–2013. The user has the option of experiencing the site chronologically or using the site map to skip around. The site encourages users to interact with the website through scrolling with the mouse, scrolling with keyboard arrows or interacting through a touch screen handheld device. This collection highlights the importance of calling back components of older games in new versions to gain a greater reach. Nostalgia is an emotional tool that brands use to market their products. For example, Pokemon’s revamp as Pokemon Go for mobile users, or Star Wars “Solo” are both brands that took advantage of nostalgia to promote a product. Whether you first started playing Mario in the 80s or in 2018 you will be familiar enough with the characters, sound, and goals to want to engage with the website. The Museum of Mario motivates users with the use of nostalgia in this interactive website in order to market the Mario franchise to fans of Mario past and present. In order to achieve this nostalgia, The Museum of Mario uses an interactive website published by IGN. The iconic Mario characters and Mario music immerse users in a trip down memory lane. The website takes the user through the collection of Mario games published between 1981–2013. The user has the option of experiencing the site chronologically or using the site map to skip around. The site encourages users to interact with the website through scrolling with the mouse, scrolling with keyboard arrows or interacting through a touch screen handheld device. This collection highlights the importance of calling back components of older games in new versions to gain a greater audience reach. Nostalgia is an emotional tool that brands use to market their products. For example, Pokemon’s revamp as Pokemon Go for mobile users, or Star Wars “Solo” are both brands that took advantage of nostalgia to promote a product. Whether you first started playing Mario in the 80s or in 2018 you will be familiar enough with the characters, sound, and goals to want to engage with the website. The Museum of Mario motivates users with the use of nostalgia in this interactive website in order to market the Mario franchise to fans of Mario past and present. In order to achieve this nostalgia The Museum of Mario relies on a interactive narrative, sound, and Twitter.
One affordance established from new media is the interactive spaces within the site, you can make Mario jump, make characters spin out like in Mario Kart or choose your favorite character from the franchise. These interactive features give you a more authentic Mario experience that allows you to recall memories of playing the game when you were a kid. One an example of this is when scroll to the Super Mario Bros page the user is presented with a shag rug from the 80s, the console, the game and the controller. The room is dimly lit at first, then you can click on the blinking game to insert it into the console, which turns the TV on. While we can’t see the TV once that game is inserted, light illuminates off the TV. This simulation of playing video games as a kid and staying up late with the only light being emitted from the TV evoked a sense of nostalgia. This feeling couldn’t be accomplished without the option to interact because otherwise as a user you wouldn’t have the control to transform the room into the experience of playing Mario as a kid. This can only have been effective with the use of new media and interactivity experiences for users. In our current state of technology most things are made for handheld devices for instance The Switch or mobile devices. The feeling of staying up late and the TV light flashing your face isn’t something as familiar for newer video game users. Now users have smaller screens on handheld devices and will have that feeling of staying up late and the only light being emitted from their screen but on a smaller scale. This image calls us to reflect on playing games as a kid and sitting too close to the television screen. These fond memories of playing video games encourages the user to continue to explore the website and potentially play other Mario games. Just as people of different ages will fell nostalgia for different periods of time, this site reaches so many different groups because of its span of years.
Another feature used by this site to evoke nostalgia is the use of sound. When you first reach the website, you are presented with the traditional Mario music. On each page of the site music from the version of Mario is played and in some Mario’s voice is included, the association you have with these sounds will bring back significant memories of playing Mario. Just as Star Wars has a unique soundtrack so does Mario, which makes this site accessible to so many users because of the familiarity we have with the Mario franchise. The sound on this site will bring you back to being a kid and playing the game with the sound far louder than it needed to be. This gif tweeted by a user that had explored this site confirms the association of Mario, his unique soundtrack and the feeling of nostalgia.
Another feature provided by the new media is the Twitter hashtag “#MarioMemories.” Throughout your browsing on this website you are prompted with the Twitter icon and the option to tweet about this site. Technology today allows us to instantly interact with billions of users which has become a common and effective tool used by brands to promote their products. Social media is a huge tool for companies to instantly connect with consumers. The Museum of Mario is no different, the site wants to evoke nostalgia in you and get you to talk about the site. You can connect with friends and family to reminisce about playing the Mario games as a kid or with strangers that have also experienced the franchise. Reading other users tweets and connecting with them can also be a way that the site creates a sense of nostalgia in users. The last interactive piece of the website is the option to “Tweet your own” Mario Memory. This is an example of new media, where it is begging the user to interact and tell their own story of experiencing Mario. While this site was published in 2013, the site has continued to be Tweeted about up until April of 2018. This is one of the most direct uses of evoking nostalgia in users by the site.
The Museum of Mario is a digital narrative that draws upon elements of New Media to effectively draw audiences into the site. The range of versions of Mario presented on the site reach a larger audience. The website uses interactivity and sound together to create a nostalgic atmosphere for its viewers and encourages them to revisit the franchise. The use of Twitter for users to connect with other users is a successful tool to engage with the consumers and offer a space for users of Mario to reminisce about their experience with the franchise and evoke a feeling of nostalgia.
