So how influential was the coin item from Mario Bros. / Super Mario Bros. in gaming?

[Koopa con Carne]

Earlier today I edited the wiki's article for Coin to add the following paragraph:

While not the first video game overall to have collectable coins, Mario Bros. was likely the first to present them as abstract, secondary collectibles largely unrelated to the game's premise or narrative. In earlier games, collectable money was tied to themes of robbery or theft, such as in Lock 'n' Chase, Thief, and Shoei's Streaking[2]​; less-explicitly defined gold collectables also appeared in 1979's Maze.[3]​ Independent of the coin's evolution within the core Super Mario franchise, many unrelated titles would later contain collectable floating coins in a comparable, largely non-essential capacity, such as Kao the Kangaroo, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Jetpack Joyride, and Subway Surfers. Games connected to the Super Mario franchise, such as the Donkey Kong Country, the Wario Land, and Super Smash Bros. series, feature variations of this concept, including Banana Coins, Smash Coins, and a multitude of loosely-defined coins fictionally unrelated to the Super Mario coin.

I decided to remove it, though, as it lacks the proper literature to validate whether the Mario coin truly is the forefather of modern floating collectables. (The refs were just some external profiles for a few of the listed games.) But it does seem like all evidence points in that direction, doesn't it?

Miyamoto said in an Iwata Asks interview that he opted to implement collectable coins to the arcade Mario Bros. pretty much because he believed that money has intrinsic desirability and players would be naturally drawn to it. I find it incredibly unlikely that he drew any inspiration whatsoever the thief-centric games listed in the above paragraph. Starting with Super Mario Bros., you'd begin encountering coins that float in mid-air. And from that moment on, every single jump-n-run under the sun appeared to implement its own version of this exact pick-up. Rings in Sonic, mango's in Crash Bandicoot, bananas in Donkey Kong Country, and so on.

Further, all the games I just listed grant you an extra life upon collecting 100 of whatever basic pick-up you find in them. The mechanic whereby you gain an extra life after surpassing a certain score was already well-established convention in the arcade era, but this "collect exactly 100" convention pretty much decidedly began with Super Mario Bros. I could hardly accept that those games invented the concept of "floating, spinning pick-up" on their own; this very specifically-coded gameplay mechanic makes me refuse that notion altogether.

I strongly think the Mario coin has a significant legacy to speak of. But as I said prior, I lack the necessary literature to properly cite such a claim on an encyclopedia and while there's a litany of articles on Mario's early influence in the gaming sphere, I don't think I've seen anyone pour much effort in investigating how its coin collectible shaped all the other collectibles afterwards.

What do you think?

 

[Xiahou Ba]

Pellets from Pac-Man are practically the same thing as coins tbh.

 

[Salmancer]

Pellets from Pac-Man are practically the same thing as coins tbh.

But the player has to collect every Pac-Dot to complete each level in Pac-Man. The player does not have to collect every coin to complete a level in Super Mario Bros.

 

[Xiahou Ba]

Yeah, but it's a similar design philosophy: designing an eye-catching circular object meant to serve as a collectible, also playing a satisfying sound when you collect it. Coins are also frequently used for player direction too, like pointing to a pit or a hidden item.