Mario Teaches Typing lets the player enter a name, select either Mario, Luigi, or Princess Peach as the player character, and set their target words per minute (WPM) rate. In the base mode, the player must type out a given text without additional decor. There are three difficulty levels of typing challenges based on Super Mario World: the chosen character continuously runs to the right until encountering an obstacle or enemy adorned with a letter (level 1), word (level 2), or sentence (level 3). Entering this string correctly allows the character to proceed. At the end of either mode, the game presents the player with statistics, including the reached WPM and error rate.[5][6][7] Localized versions exists, such as a German release that supports QWERTZ keyboards and umlauts.[7]
Mario Teaches Typing was conceived and developed by Brian Fargo, at the time head of developer Interplay Entertainment and future founder of inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache. Fargo was acquaintances with Les Crane, a talk show host and radio announcer, who had also developed the educational typing game Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The game was successful and inspired Fargo to create a typing game of his own. Considering who could be the face and teacher of the game, he found Mario to be a good fit. Pitching the game to Nintendo, according to Fargo "they loved it and it was a huge success".[8] The CD-ROM version of the game was produced by Thomas R. Decker, a producer for Interplay whose past titles included Mario's Game Gallery and Kingdom: the Far Reaches.[1]Mario Teaches Typing reuses the title theme from Super Mario World.[7] The game was released in the United States in 1992 and in the United Kingdom in 1993.[9] The Macintosh version of the game was developed by Presage Software.(who developed Mario's Game Gallery.[10]
Fargo told IGN in an interview that when he attended Crane's talk show after the game's release, he saw that Crane was "giving me the stink eye". He called Crane afterward, who expressed disapproval of Mario Teaches Typing; the game was successful enough to become a direct competitor to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. According to Fargo, "somebody else came out with some other Mario product that was not high quality" for computers, resulting in Nintendo cutting ties with Interplay Entertainment.[8]
In the CD version, Mario was voiced by Charles Martinet, which would be among his first times using the voice for a Mario video game.[11] He also performed the motions and expressions for the character through virtual actor tracking sensors.[12] Martinet considered Mario Teaches Typing to be one of his favorite projects using the voice, as well as one of the most important; it helped him understand the character from a child's perspective. He declared that Mario would never be in a negative headspace, and when he saw the script containing criticism for failing, such as "Oh that wasn't very good, try again", he insisted that the dialogue encourages the user to continue trying, such as, "Not as good this time, but you're gonna do it better this time, let's go!'"[11]
Reception
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The game sold more than 800,000 copies.[15][16] According to PC DataMario Teaches Typing was the tenth best-selling game of June 1996 for Macintosh.[17]
Steve Fountain of the Evening Sentinel reviewed the Windows version, stating that "Mario Teaches Typing is less fun than a normal computer game, but a whole lot better than ploughing through a dull typing manual".[3] Heinrich Lenhardt, the co-editor-in-chief of PC Player, regarded the game as a competent alternative to ten-finger typewriter courses, although he believed its usefulness would be limited to hobbyists as it could not satisfy the needs of experienced typers like secretaries.[7]
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