Mario's FUNdamentals

Template:Infobox Mario's FUNdamentals, originally released as Mario's Game Gallery, is a compilation game in the Mario franchise, published by Interplay Entertainment and developed by Presage Software Inc. for PCs running Microsoft Windows. Exclusive to the United States, it was originally released in 1995, and later reissued and retitled in 1998, with Brainstorm Entertainment developing and Mindscape publishing this re-release; a version for Macintosh computers was published by Stepping Stone.

This game marks the debut of Charles Martinet as Mario's voice actor in a video game, who has since become the official voice actor for Mario. Five traditional games are included: checkers, backgammon, Go Fish, dominoes, and "yacht", a version of Yahtzee. Players play against Mario in these games, though at times they can also play against Bowser. Gameplay for all the games is similar to their real-world counterparts, though pieces are altered to be themed after the Mario universe.

Both versions of the game have received mixed reception. Upon its initial release, various publications found it to be a good educational game: The State and The Miami Herald praised it for "providing fun for the whole family"; and the Los Angeles Times said that it would appeal to younger gamers. Much later, the game was negatively received by authors David Wesley and Gloria Barczak, who labeled it and the other Mario games manufactured by third-party publishers in the 1990s, which were made without the supervision of Nintendo, as "a flood of ill-conceived Mario spin-offs" that almost destroyed the Mario brand.

Gameplay

Checkers

Checkers is played on a 8*8 board with alternating red and black squares. Game pieces only occupy the black squares. The player can choose to play as Yoshis or Koopas. Each player starts with 12 pieces on the closest 3 rows of the board. Players take turns moving a piece each. Pieces can only move diagonally forward to empty squares. If there is an enemy piece in the way but the square beyond it is empty, the enemy piece can be captured by jumping over it. Koopas turn Yoshis into bubbles and pop them, while Yoshis swallow the Koopas. A player must take the opportunity to jump if such move is available, continuing to jump as long as there are enemy pieces to capture. A piece that reaches the furthest row on the board becomes a King (Big Yoshi or Bowser). Unlike traditional checkers, the king is only different in that it can move backwards, it doesn't have the ability to jump multiple squares or capture a contiguous row of enemies. The game is over when the current player is unable to move (either due to having no pieces or all of them being blocked).

Go Fish

The goal is to try to make as many Books (4 of a kind) as possible.

Each player starts with 7 cards. During a player's turn, they may ask for a card they already have from the other player. If the other player has any cards of the chosen type, they must hand over all of them. Otherwise they are told to "Go Fish", or draw a card. "Fishing" is compulsory if the current player has no cards. A player can continue to ask for cards as long as they pick one the other player has or get the card they asked for after "fishing". Once a player has all 4 cards of a given rank, they lay down the "Book" and score for it.

The game is played with a deck of cards with pictures of various characters from Mario games. There are no suits. The following 13 characters are represented:

• Goombas
• Koopas
• Rip Van Fish
• Little Toadies
• Bob-ombs
• Rexes
• Piranha Plants
• Big Boos
• Yoshis
• Marios
• Luigis
• Princesses
• Bowsers (misspelled as "Bowzers")

The draw pile is represented as a pool of water, from which a dolphin jumps out when the player "fishes" from it.

Gallery

• 1 MGG.png

  The main menu of the game, with the alternative name Mario's Game Gallery.

• 2 MGG.png

  A game of checkers, with checker pieces replaced by Yoshis and Koopa Troopas.

• 3 MGG.png

  Mario asking for Big Boo cards to the player in Go Fish.

• 4 MGG.png

  The title of Dominoes.

• 

  Gameplay of Yacht, with the player's HUD keeping track of the score for both players.

• 

  The title of Yacht.

Staff

Main article: List of Mario's FUNdamentals staff

Quotes

• Come here, fishy-fishy! Here, fishy-fishy!

See also

• Mario Teaches Typing

Trivia

• A SNES port of the game (under the Mario's Game Gallery name) is rumored to have been in development before being canceled.
• Mario refers to Toad by a pet name, "Little Toadie". This nickname originates from the 1993 Nintendo Character Guide, a set of guidelines and information given by Nintendo of America to licensing partners.