The World of Nintendo (1996 TV series)

The 1996 version of The World of Nintendo is the second show St. Clair Publications has produced with that name, as well as the best known and longest-lasting. It is also the most impactful, as numerous other shows that "The Pubs" has produced have relied on the show for some of their canon (for example, Marth was considered a Mario character in Super Smash Stadium from Season 36 to March 2016!).
Active for a little over 16 years and airing over 400 episodes, it was one of St. Clair Publications' most successful TV series, winning accolades for its deep plots and characterizations.
==Premise==
The show was a crossover series featuring all of Nintendo's franchises working together. It was patterned after Captain N: The Game Master, and its resemblance to that show as well as the Mario DiC cartoons was most obvious early on, with Bowser often being called "Koopa" or "King Koopa" and his castle being referred to as "the Neon Castle". Likewise, references to Pokémon in the show stuck to the animé. By March 2003, however, Alex began following the canon of the games more closely, using "Bowser" and "Bowser's Castle" more consistently (but would use "Bowser Badlands" as the place where Bowser and the Koopas lived), and while Ash Ketchum and Gary Oak were still major players, Pokémon episodes tended to follow the games.
The show was originally called "Mario and Luigi's Adventures in the World of Nintendo", then "Mario and Donkey Kong's Adventures in the World of Nintendo" for the second half of Season 1. The show assumed its current name for Season 2. The show initially focused on the Mario and DK franchises, then expanded to Kirby for Season 2 and Banjo-Kazooie and Pokémon for Season 3. Kirby would disappear partway through Season 7, while the Season 8 finale featured Banjo and Kazooie leaving when Rare's logo change made Microsoft's buyout of the company official. However, starting with Season 10, the show would expand to (almost) all Nintendo franchises (franchises like Animal Crossing, Wii Fit, and Nintendogs are the most notable ones to get ignored...).
Non-Nintendo franchises would also show up on occasion, with Sonic being the most notable.
Each episode would typically run in a "two shorts" format; this was expanded to three shorts starting in Season 6.
===Episodes===
===Major plot events===
*Season 3: Transforming from Pokémon Scentsation, Erika is fired from Celadon Gym as the result of a complaint from Ash Ketchum. (She returns during Season 9 as part of a "reboot" Alex made in light of Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen.)
*Season 4: Professor Oak apparently dies of cancer, only to mysteriously reappear starting in Season 9 as part of the same "FireRed/LeafGreen reboot" that brought back Erika.
*Season 6: The season finale sees Brock fired as the result of an apparent sex scandal; various episodes over the next five seasons mention him appealing this, but it's ultimately shot down by Season 11's end.
**Also, Hailfire Peaks is destroyed as the result of a "terrorist attack". Life in FCHS: The Video Game and The World of Nintendo 2 both feature the destroyed Hailfire Peaks as a level, but by the time of Life in FCHS: The New Old Video Game and Land of the Lost Pubs, the Peaks are restored.
*Season 7: This season's finale sees Corona Mountain erupting, and Mario uncharacteristically refusing to help, apparently as revenge against the Piantas for the events of Super Mario Sunshine. ("Maybe next time, they'll think before they falsely accuse me of polluting their already dirty little island, eh, Luigi? Karma's a you-know-what!")
*Season 10 and 11: Peach steps down as the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom; Marth replaces her. Agatha also retires from the Pokémon League, allegedly after having served as a Trainer for 51 years.
*Season 11 and 12: Professor Oak is controversially fired as the result of a scandal; Professor Ivy (an animé-exclusive character from the Orange Islands arc who Brock hates for some reason) replaces him.
*Season 13: Cranky Kong dies.
*Season 15: A series of episodes made JUST before the North American release of DK Country Returns shows K. Rool dying, the Kremlings disbanding, and the Tikis replacing them.
other stuff pending
==Ending==
The show technically spent its 17th season "on hiatus" and wasn't officially cancelled until the summer of 2013. The final episode aired the same day the Wii-U was released in the U.S.; Alex claimed he was putting the show on hiatus until he could get a Wii-U, which apparently wasn't feasible at the time since, while he'd gotten rid of his GameCube, he still owned GameCube games, and since the Wii-U was not backwards compatible with them, he "didn't want to hold on to three systems at once".
However, the 2013 season was also the season when Alex learned of "social justice warriors" and his political beliefs began to change in response. Since he'd learned of them through Anita Sarkeesian, who'd been producing a show at the time called "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" and would later become a central figure in the Gamergate scandal, and since he started releasing material critical of her around the time (culminating in a 2015 Pokémon game called "Tropes vs. Women in Pokémon Training"), some cynics have argued that Sarkeesian had her hand in the pot and was pressuring Alex into cancelling the series, a rumor that Alex has vehemently denied but that the final episode, which hinges on a "feminist" suing the Pokémon League, seems to prove.
==Revival attempts==
In 2016 and 2020, two episodes were produced as part of a special "Mash-Up Week" gimmick that St. Clair Publications was doing at the time. The gimmick involved Alex producing other people's shows in exchange for them doing one of his.
For 2016, Dick Wolf produced an episode in exchange for Alex producing Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2020, Rebecca Sugar produced an episode in exchange for Alex working on Steven Universe. Both episodes used custom openings; the former used Law and Order's famous opening while the latter, referencing a running gag seen on St. Clair Publications, mirrored Jersey Shore.
While both episodes were well-received, neither has led to a revival.
==In other languages==
This show did not air in foreign languages until Season 4.
==Notes==
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Category:Animated Series
Category:1996