Mario is Missing! - for SNES

Mario is Missing! is a 1993 Super Nintendo learning adventure developed by The Software Toolworks and published by Mindscape. The premise is a neat reversal of the usual arrangement: Bowser is loose in our world, Mario has vanished into it, and the brother who normally holds the second controller has to go and find him. Luigi leads, working his way through the world's cities with a travel agent's itinerary, and Mario is Missing! becomes the rare Mario title where the skill being tested is geography rather than jumping.

Most of the game is about working out where you are standing. You track down troublesome turtles, recover what they have taken, and show that you know the city well enough to put things back where they belong before you can move on. The box puts it plainly: if your grasp of geography is good enough, you will get the goods, stomp the hoods and pull Mario out of Bowser's guest house. It is a one player game pitched at families, and it explicitly asks parents to join in rather than supervise from across the room. As the packaging also admits, this is no Koopa stomping mayhem, which is worth knowing before you load it expecting a platformer.

Mario is Missing! is talked about far more than most educational games of its era, partly because of its reputation and partly because people are genuinely curious about a Mario game built this way. Taken on its own terms it is good natured and it does teach, which is more than the jokes about it suggest. Taken as a collector's piece, Mario is Missing! fills in a corner of Mario history that the main series never went near, and a Super Nintendo collection that tells the whole story rather than just the highlights has room for it.

• Genre: Educational Adventure
• Players: 1
• Region: NTSC
• Release Year: 1993
• Developer: The Software Toolworks

Cartridge Only: No Box or Manual
Please note that this listing is for the game cartridge only. The original box, instruction manual, and any other accessories are not included with this purchase unless explicitly stated in the listing. What you receive is exactly what you need to play: the cartridge itself, tested and confirmed working.

Condition & Authenticity
This game has been tested and is fully functional. We do not authenticate or certify originality, and listings are intended for players and everyday collectors rather than professional grading or authentication purposes.

Images & Regional Differences
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