Mario's Early Years!

The Mario's Early Years! series is a trilogy of point-and-click educational games released on MS-DOS and Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Software Toolworks. The three games consist of Fun with Letters, Fun with Numbers and Preschool Fun.

Mario's Early Years!
CD collection cover art
Genre(s)Edutainment
Developer(s)Software Toolworks
Publisher(s)Software Toolworks
Mindscape (SNES)
Composer(s)Rob Wallace
Sam Powell
Platform(s)DOS, SNES
First releaseMario's Early Years! Preschool Fun (DOS)
  • NA: Q4, 1993
[1]
Latest releaseMario's Early Years! Preschool Fun (SNES)
November 1994

Gameplay

In each product, the player has a number of islands to choose from. Each island contains a different activity. The game highlights any items or characters which are clickable. Throughout the activities the player is prompted by voiced instructions and every word, letter or number is read out. The SNES versions of the products contain less activities than the original DOS ones. The Super Nintendo versions support the SNES Mouse peripheral.

Development

To create the games and ensure suitability for children, Software Toolworks hired child development specialists, educational research experts and speech and language teachers.[2]

Educational goals

The three games are each made up of several minigame activities designed to reinforce or foster basic skills[3] and help children in discovering aspects of everyday things, providing them many hours of entertainment.[4] The respective games help children recognise colors, letters and numbers.[5] Fun with Letters teaches phonics to users. Fun with Numbers teaches grouping, separating and organising objects to/from a set as well as thinking about numbers through songs.[3] Preschool Fun teaches learning materials for children on their first school year with a mix of Mathematics and English language.[6] All three products aid in promoting self-esteem, interaction between children and parents,[2] developing new skills and imagination as well as confidence and being positive about learning.[4]

Release

In the United Kingdom the games were released as Mario Teaches Words, Mario Teaches Sums and Mario's Playschool respectively. Software Toolworks also released a compilation on the PC titled Mario's Early Years CD-ROM Collection,[3][7] also known as Mario's Early Years! CD Deluxe.[2] The game were also released in the French and German languages.[8]

Reception

Computer Gaming World said that the PC version of Fun with Letters "has enough balance between active and passive activities to keep kids engaged for hours".[9] Nintendo Power wrote in December 1994 that Preschool Fun noted that the "simple learning activities provide lots of reward" but that "such simple activities without any game play elements will become tedious even to the youngest players over a short period" and that the digitized voice is "annoying".[10]

References
  1. "Mario Turns Schoolmaster". Electronic Games. Vol. 2, no. 1. Decker Publications. October 1993. p. 11.
  2. "Children soon to embark on learning adventures with Super Mario Bros". Standard-Speaker. April 16, 1994. p. 11. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  3. Scisco, Peter (June 1994). "Education Reviews - Mario's Early Years!". CD-ROM Today. No. 6. Matt Firme. p. 107.
  4. Scisco, Peter (December 1993). "Fun + Learning = Mario's Early Years". Working Mother. McCall Publishing Co. p. 72.
  5. Scisco, Peter (August 1994). "Tyke Casting". CD-ROM Today. No. 7. Matt Firme. p. 41.
  6. "Mario's Playschool [v1.0.1]". Internet Archive. July 30, 2015. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  7. Scisco, Peter (May 1994). "New! From the Software Toolworks!". Electronic Entertainment. No. 5. IDG. p. 113.
  8. Mindscape International Catalogue (PDF). Mindscape. 1993. p. 8.
  9. Donovan, Felicia (March 1994). "Mario's Early Years: Fun With Letters". Kids & Computers. Computer Gaming World. p. 134.
  10. "Now Playing". Nintendo Power. Vol. 67. Nintendo of America Inc. December 1994. p. 105.
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