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Japan: Why does Mario move from left to right?

Monday, March 31st, 2008 @ 07:30 UTC

by Chris Salzberg

Countries:: Japan
Topics:: Ideas, Software & Tools, Technology, Entertainment
Languages:: Japanese

This post is also available in:

jp:: 日本：マリオはなぜ左から右に動くのか...
zhs:: 日本：电玩人物行进方向之谜...
zht:: 日本：電玩人物行進方向之謎...

Blogger lastline has drawn over 400 bookmarks on the Japanese bookmarking service Hatena for a detailed investigation of the question: Why does the video game character Mario run across the screen from left to right, and not right to left [ja]? The blogger explains that video tends to prioritize movement from right to left, with lead characters on the right and villains on the left; the fact however that early vertical-oriented games had the action button on the right side lead to the development of games in which lead characters move in the opposite direction, from left to right.

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