Before Mario was “Super Mario” had no name. Well, yes: Shigeru Miyamoto referred to him as jump man, which was and is pretty generic, but it had a reason for being: Donkey Kong got all the limelight and the rest is video game history. Then we met his brother Luigi, with whom he competed in Mario Bros., and then his true nemeses will arrive: Bowser, Tatanga, Wario… Even Wart if we consider Super Mario Bros. 2. Is it that there are only good humans in the saga? Well, Mario’s original rival It’s almost, almost a carbon copy of him.
Good old Mario made his desktop debut with Atari and, logically, Nintendo wrapped up the Japanese Famicom (the equivalent of the NES in the West) with his presence. However, what we can consider as a true rival in all aspects will not appear until months before Super Mario Bros. hit the Japanese shelves: Wrecking Crewthe adaptation of the same Game and Watch game, with the difference that this time we were not competing in a friendly competition with Luigi, but with the unpresentable of Spike.
Foreman Spike, translated on occasion in European territory as Foreman Spike, is a character created expressly to mess with Mario. And that his sprites are almost identical in the game. According to the first Mario encyclopedia published in 1994 (Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten) he is a foreman of American origin and already in his file we can see that he has fully assumed his role as a great rival of the plumber.
I’m the original rival! My job is to get in the way of Mario’s job. I break stairs so he can’t climb them.
Where did this character come from? Well, as can be read in the manual Wrecking Crewis the foreman of the work in which Mario and Luigi are working, implying that this occurs before both ended up in the Mushroom kingdom.
And well, beyond what Nintendo itself says, Technically, Donkey Kong and Jr. cannot be considered Mario’s rivals, although they have done great work for him in their first games, they never competed with him except in cases such as Mario Kart.
When it comes to her looks, on the other hand, she’s practically a Mario Doppelgänger with a beard and, very important, sunglasses. Because as an entire generation learned through movies and video games, that distinguishes the noble protagonists from the baddest.
In fact, and as a fact to keep in mind, Foreman Spike was designed by none other than Hiroji Kiyotake, to whom we also owe Wario’s appearance and manner. Which raises something very curious: where have you been all this time?
Nintendo did not forget about Spike. He just didn’t have much work for him.
With Mario fully occupied with his troubles with Bowser, Wario and the rest of the personalities from his own video game saga, there wasn’t much room left for his true profession: plumbing. He even started playing sports and refereeing boxing. However, the call of duty will return with Wrecking Crew ’98. And, as expected, Spike was there waiting for him.
Released only on Japanese territory, in Wrecking Crew ’98 not only do we find out that Spike has trimmed his beard and gained enormous muscle, but he is now in the service of the King of the Koopas. Is that a promotion or the opposite?
The curious thing about the matter is that Nintendo has rescued Spike on numerous occasions, but without really giving him prominence. He has appeared in WarioWare Gold, he returned recovering his original sprite as one of the Super Mario Maker costumes, he had his own label in NES Remix and we even owe Mario the third color in the Super Smash Bros. saga.
In fact, it has even appeared in the Mario Golf sagas, although things have a trick: in Mobile Golf it is possible to unlock it together with Mario or Peach only in Japan, since for this you have to connect the Game Boy Color to a mobile phone through a specific cable. Things of the time that did not reach this part of the world.
It can be said that it has always been there, but at the same time it has never been noticed. At least until 2023. Technically, 38 years after he became Mario’s first great rival. And for the first time he has a voice.
Without going into more detail, in Super Mario Bros. The Movie, both Mario and Luigi come across a huge character with a beard, a very sharp nose and much more muscular than them belonging to the world of construction. In fact, they even claim that they worked together in the past. We have the double clue of his identity both in the embroidery on his jacket and in the role associated with his voice actor, Sebastian Maniscalco: It is nothing more and nothing less than Foreman Spike!
And be careful, if we go to the official website of the Mario Brothers plumbing, they have even bothered to leave a review of their services.
While just about every Nintendo character has had a great chance to shine on consoles and beyond (Peach even starred in her own video game) just about every enemy has had a recurring role in their adventures. But his first great rival has been without being there. Who knows? Perhaps after going out on the big screen Spike will receive new orders from Nintendo again.