Mario is Missing!

Mario is Missing! is an edutainment title intended to teach kids geography. In the game players controlled Luigi on a quest to find his kidnapped brother, Mario. The game was released for the NES, SNES, PC, and the Mac.

This game is one of the hand full of educational Mario games that was released that doesn't follow the actual Super Mario storyline. This game is either the only, or one of the few Mario games that take place in the "Real World." This game is the prequel to the educational Mario game, Mario's Time Machine.

This game uses the Super Mario World sprite of Luigi. This sprite was also used with the NES version as well, compared to the sprites that were used in previous Mario games, that is quite an achievement. This is technically the first game with Luigi being the star of the show. However, this game was not part of Nintendo's franchise so they don't count it. That is why they say that Luigi's Mansion is the first and only game staring Luigi.

Story
Bowser, up to his old tricks yet again, builds a castle up in Antarctica and plans to melt all the ice and flood the earth. Mario, Luigi, and their dino companion Yoshi, go to Bowser's castle to stop his evil plan. When our heroes get there, Luigi does not want to go into the castle so Mario goes in alone and is captured by Bowser. It's up to Luigi to save Mario and the world.

Gameplay
Luigi must go all over the world (20-25) different areas and learn about where he is. In each stage (country/city/state) Luigi has to learn all about the place he is in by talking to people and different famous building or attractions that are in that place. In order to win the stage, Luigi must answer quizzes from 3 information booth ladies (which closely resemble Princess Peach) and by calling Yoshi to the place where he is so Yoshi can scare off the Pokey that is blocking the warp pipe back to the castle. Once Luigi has completed the 6 levels of a room in the castle, Luigi must defeat one of Bowser's Koopa Kids. After defeating the Koopa Kid, Luigi can advance through to a different room of the castle with 6 more stages. After completing all the rooms of the castle, Luigi faces Bowser and rescues Mario.