Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory
Game & Watch Table Top version
Developer(s)Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)Nintendo
SeriesMario
Platform(s)
Release
  • Table Top:
  • April 28, 1983
  • New Wide Screen:
  • June 8, 1983
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Mario's Cement Factory[lower-alpha 1] is a 1983 LCD game developed and published by Nintendo under their Game & Watch series. It follows earlier Mario games, like the arcade and Game & Watch versions of Donkey Kong. Players control Mario as he navigates elevators and funnels cement through a factory, while trying to prevent the cement from crushing his fellow workers. Two versions of the game were released — a Table Top unit and a handheld game akin to most other Game & Watch titles. Development was headed by Nintendo R&D1, led by engineer Gunpei Yokoi.

The game has been re-released several times; it was featured as part of Game Boy Gallery for the Game Boy, Game & Watch Gallery 4 for the Game Boy Advance, and as a digital download for the Nintendo DSi. It has been described by critics as one of the strangest games in the Mario franchise.

Gameplay

Mario's Cement Factory puts players in control of Mario, who works at a cement factory where he funnels cement into cement trucks. Mario must navigate two dangerous elevators and avoid falling or being crushed and losing a life. He must also continually empty cement into the trucks, or else the cement will overflow and crush one of the workers below, which costs players a life. There are two game modes: A and B, the latter being faster paced and more difficult.[2][3][4]

Development

Mario's Cement Factory was developed by Nintendo R&D1, which at the time was led by Gunpei Yokoi, and published by Nintendo.[5] Like all Game & Watch releases, each unit is a standalone portable device that doubles as a clock and can only play the one game.[6] Hirokazu Tanaka composed the game sounds.[1]

Two versions of the game were released. The first is part of the Game & Watch Table Top series and debuted on April 28, 1983. It has a full color illuminated screen, and approximately 250,000 models were produced.[7] The Table Top series did not sell as well, leading to Mario's Cement Factory being one of only four Table Top units ever produced.[8] A smaller handheld version was later released on June 8 as part of the New Wide Screen series. It has a monochrome screen with a color overlay, and approximately 750,000 units were produced.[9][10][11]

The game was released the same year that Nintendo's Famicom system debuted in Japan, and two years after the first Mario title (the arcade game Donkey Kong).[12]

The first revision of the tabletop version is notable for playing a brief excerpt of the Queen song Another One Bites The Dust whenever a new game is started.[13] In later revisions of the game, this excerpt was replaced with a generic melody.[14]

Re-releases

Mario's Cement Factory has been re-released in various forms. It was included in the 1995 Game Boy Gallery for Game Boy, featuring updated graphics.[15][16] It was also re-released in the Nintendo Mini Classics line, which repackaged Game & Watch games in small Game Boy-like devices.[17][18] Both the New Wide Screen and an updated version were included in the 2002 Game & Watch Gallery 4 for the Game Boy Advance.[15] In 2009, the game was re-released for the Nintendo DSi's DSiWare download service (along with other Game & Watch games).[19][20] The DSi version was released in Japan on August 18.[21] It was released in North America and Europe in March 2010.[19][22] The DSi version was also given as a reward on Nintendo's now-defunct Club Nintendo service.[23]

Reception

The Table Top unit of Mario's Cement Factory

Mario's Cement Factory has been called one of the best Game & Watch games, and praised for its relative complexity.[3][24] One critic called it fun,[25] another an "old favorite",[4] while another praised its replay value.[24] Staff for the magazine Video Games regarded it as a more difficult game than many before it.[26] Yet, it received some criticism; it has been called primitive by the standards of today,[3][27] and one review of the DSiWare release complained that the controls were too "picky and precise".[28]

It has been called one of the stranger entries in the Mario series.[29][30][31] Mario's role as a cement factory worker has been mentioned in multiple articles that cover the array of professions Mario has undertaken.[32][6]

The original units have become collector's items and, like many Game & Watch titles, a complete-in-box unit can sell for over US$100.[29][25] The game was featured in a Gunpei Yokoi exhibit in Harajuku in 2010.[33]

Notes

  1. ↑ Japanese: マリオズ・セメント・ファクトリー[1], Hepburn: Mariozu Semento Fakutorī

References

  1. 1 2 Tanaka, Hirokazu. "Nintendo Archive - Works". Sporadic Vacuum (in Japanese). Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved November 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Game & Watch™ Mario's Cement Factory". Nintendo of Europe. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Gilbert, Henry (March 20, 2011). "The 8 best Game & Watch games". GamesRadar. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  4. 1 2 Robertson, Andy (April 23, 2010). "DSi Ware's Game and What?". Wired. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Marrujo, Robert (August 2, 2018). "The History of Game Boy (Revised for 2019)". Nintendojo. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  6. 1 2 Ryan, Jeff (2012). Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Penguin. p. 61. ISBN 978-1591845638. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  7. ↑ Panayiotakis, Michael (June 24, 2008). "Game & Watch: A Retrospective: Just add table". DS Fanboy. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  8. ↑ McFerran, Damien (January 1, 2021). "Feature: How Nintendo's Game & Watch Took "Withered Technology" And Turned It Into A Million-Seller". NintendoLife. Retrieved July 25, 2021.
  9. ↑ Panayiotakis, Michael (June 24, 2008). "Game & Watch: A Retrospective: Not just any old Wide Screen ..." DS Fanboy. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  10. ↑ Powers, Rick (August 29, 2002). "Mario, This Is Your Life". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  11. ↑ Nintendo (October 23, 2018). Super Mario Encyclopedia: The Official Guide to the First 30 Years. Dark Horse Comics. pp. 237–238. ISBN 9781630089450. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Game And Watch: Mario's Cement Factory". YouTube. Event occurs at 0:13.
  13. ↑ "Mario's Cement Factory (Alternate)". YouTube. Event occurs at 0:23.
  14. 1 2 Frear, Dave (January 4, 2016). "Game & Watch Gallery Advance Review (Wii U eShop / GBA)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  15. ↑ Thomas, Lucas M. (July 17, 2011). "Game & Watch Gallery Review". IGN. Retrieved August 27, 2019.
  16. ↑ North, Dale (August 5, 2009). "Nintendo's Game & Watch come back as Mini Classics". Destructoid. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  17. ↑ Thompson, Michael (August 5, 2009). "Nintendo Mini Classics resurrects Game & Watch titles". Arstechnica. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
  18. 1 2 Aaron, Sean (March 22, 2010). "Nintendo Download: 22nd March 2010 (North America)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  19. ↑ Van Duyn, Marcel (July 10, 2009). "Game & Watch Games to be Released on DSiWare". Nintendo Life. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Game & Watch Mario's Cement Factory (2010)". Nintendo Life. 15 April 2010. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  21. ↑ Van Duyn, Marcel (March 25, 2019). "Nintendo Download: 26th March 2010 (Europe)". Nintendo Life. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  22. ↑ Whitehead, Thomas (January 14, 2014). "Club Nintendo Rewards Updated for January". Nintendo Life. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  23. 1 2 Knight, Rich (November 28, 2011). "Portable Plumber: The Complete History of Mario in Handheld Games". Complex. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  24. 1 2 Cipriano, Jason (May 3, 2010). "Game & Watch Revival - 30 Years Later And Still Ringin'". MTV.com. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  25. ↑ "Video Games". Video Games. Vol. 2, no. 1. Pumpkin Press. October 1983. p. 76.
  26. ↑ Riley, Adam (April 11, 2010). "Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory (Nintendo DS) Review". Cubed3. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  27. ↑ Thomas, Lucas M. (July 27, 2010). "DSiWare Capsule Reviews: Third Week of July". IGN. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  28. 1 2 Lynch, Gerald (March 11, 2017). "The weirdest Super Mario games ever". TechRadar. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  29. ↑ Rouner, Jeff (August 29, 2013). "10 Mario Games You've Probably Never Heard Of". Houston Press. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
  30. ↑ Gaspin, Ben (June 30, 2017). "The 7 Weirdest MARIO Spin-Off Games". Nerdist. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  31. ↑ Houghton, David (October 9, 2017). "26 jobs that Mario is inexplicably qualified for". GamesRadar. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  32. ↑ Walker, Matt (August 24, 2010). "Gunpei Yokoi Exhibit in Harakuju: "The Man Who Was Called the God of Games"". Nintendo World Report. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
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