If there were no 1-ups, we'd be stuck with the following alternatives:
-Start the game over from the beginning (not really an issue with the way modern games use saves, but think about, say, playing on a GameCube without a memory card)
-Give the player infinite lives a la Super Princess Peach, taking away the challenge for more experienced players
-Make the player go to a far-away area every time they die (think about some of the places in Sunshine for an example)
The current system works fine as it gives a nice compromise between helping out and adding to the challenge--the challenge of the level and also to accumulate these mushrooms is still there, but there are still consequences if the player dies too much.
I think this is a very good analysis. There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of time it takes to truly "play" a game these days, with all the overworlds and portals and so forth. As the poster says, it's very annoying and disruptive to have a steady stream of, say, battles with a particularly difficult boss, suddenly disrupted by having to tromp around the overworld and find the manhole cover to jump back in, or whatever. Yet it's the threat of this annoyance (presented by a finite number of lives) that makes a challenging part of the game more intense to play.
The NSMB-related interview with Miyamoto that was linked on TMK recently is relevant as well. Miyamoto explains that enjoying a Mario game is often a case of having one's emotions manipulated in various ways, especially being manipulated into a state of "nervous excitement," in his words. 1-ups give the gamer a list of "chances," and when we have limited chances at anything in life, we inevitably get more excited and serious. And those are important emotions to feel in the course of playing a video game.
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