Super Mario Bros.

On a history basis, I really appreciate this game a lot. It is the clear starting foundation for the excellent 2D platformer series we know today as Super Mario [スーパーマリオ] and it also helped renew interest in console video games and consequently revive the industry itself after Atari ended up doing the opposite. The controls are quite good as far as NES platformers go, the level design is, for the most part, pretty intuitive, and the difficulty progression is well integrated, with each world being quite a bit more difficult than the last. I want to highlight World 1-1 in particular because it is such an excellent tutorial level in teaching you aspects about the game. World 1-2, World 2-1, World 4-2, and World 6-3 were also pretty interesting design wise and the level design in general helps keep a lot of things pretty fresh.

However, I do think this game has a handful of negatives, a lot of it being derived from its status as a starting foundation. It has not aged that well compared to nearly every other Super Mario [スーパーマリオ] game. I think it's particularly clear in the design of some of the bad and underwhelming levels in the game. Levels like World 3-2 are basically "here is a straight line of enemies with extremely minimal jumping" and the castle levels that require a certain combination of movements to solve the puzzle, by which you are given almost zero immediate indication that you did it successfully or not, are not very fun to play through either. I think World 8-3 is my least favorite level of the game since it expects you to deal with a barrage of Hammer Bros, a pretty annoying enemy in general but I think it's particularly egregious here because it's very difficult to get past them without taking damage or dying, unless you know the speedrun strategies or happen to keep a fire flower on you but most players that play the game will not do either of these things.

Overall, it is definitely worth trying out but it has a handful of poorly aged design decisions that prevent it from being a good Super Mario [スーパーマリオ] game. Still though, it's an important foundation that gets fully realized and expanded upon in later titles and is one of the most important games of all time in general.

Super Mario Bros on the NES defined 2d platforming as we know it. Playing it, however, feels like a never ending challenge, due to some design choices and physics. Trying to clear all of the levels without taking warp pipes feels like a sisyphean task for a few reasons.

Limited life is a huge problem- you get 3 base lives, get at least 1 oneup per world, and can gain another life every 100 coins. Ordinarily, this would be plenty for a game like this, since it's not too long. However, lots of the game is designed against you. You need 2 powerups to go into fire flower form, but get hit once and you turn small, with powerups being sparse, especially in later levels and castles. Mario needs a running start to accelerate and cannot accelerate in the air, so if you need to jump from just a block, you may just slowly jump forwards into the void. Plenty of levels also feature chaotic enemy placement. Castles have you dodging hammers, Bowser's fire, and flames jumping from lava, and if you're not extremely precise, you'll end up taking at least a hit. And unless you have a fire flower, hammer bros are pretty difficult to maneuver around, especially in world 8 where they're just placed on flat ground in a line. This isn't even mentioning that the 1-ups are not only in hidden blocks, but after world 1 you need to collect all coins in the previous world's -3 to even access them.

As like most games on the NES, the original mario is built against the player. Alongside some odd mechanics such as no left scrolling and the previously mentioned odd acceleration, playing the game can be straight up frustrating at many times. However, when you get used to everything, it's aged surprisingly well, with tight controls being pretty possible as long as you have a solid grip on the game, and it makes for a moderately enjoyable experience.

RELEASE DATE:September 13th, 1985
GENRE:2D Platformer
WHERE IT WAS FOUND: I Had a ROM
PLATFORM: NES
SCORE:8.0
Super Mario Bros is probably the most definitive classic in video game history, there’s nowhere to lie in this information. Is it the best?? no, but it’s a game everyone who calls themselves “gamers” should play.

The mechanics are very simple, but they’re still great to control, very intuitive, you can learn how to play in your first try, the graphics, while dated, are pretty cool and even pretty for it’s time, and while it doesn’t hold with future mario games, it’s a pretty charming and colorful game, so are the characters, or better, the character, mario doesn’t have dialogue or lines, but he’s incredibly charismatic and likable regardless of that, you can see why he became such a gaming icon. The music is classic, it can get a little tiresome, but it’s nonetheless great and full of VGM classics, the history is the typical mario game story, it’s alright, generic, but still a little charming. The only negatives about this is the fact that the game starts from the beginning when you lose all your lives and some annoying mechanics (like not being able to go back in the scenario and losing all your power ups when it). But even with these, this game is an amazing experience, a fun, lovable game and a fascinating relic, that everyone should play at least once in their lives.

The original Super Mario Bros is one of the most important video games in the history of the medium. It was innovative and approachable. It is often cited as one of the stepping stones towards the video game industry recovering from the crash of 1983. Mario dethroned Pac Man as Mr. Video Game and gave the name meaning. He is one of the most iconic, recognizable, and celebrated names in all of entertainment; rivaling even Mickey Mouse. The pedestal Mario stands on grows more and more with each game released under his name and, despite the passage of time and the plumber's growing library of games, people still look back at this one with reverence as the one that pushed it all into stride. The legacy of Super Mario Bros is likely among the most incredible in the history of entertainment, however importance doesn't always imply greatness.

When I reviewed Pac Man, I gave it a very mixed score and that wasn't because I don't care about the yellow sphere's legacy. I judge games on fair terms through the perspective of when I play them. While I appreciate the legacy and impact of a beloved game and frequently discuss it, I don't let it cloud my judgment of the game itself including how it has aged. To some of you, it may seem unfair that I compare Pac Man, and second gen arcade game, to Super Mario, a third gen console game. I then ask, wouldn't it also feel unfair if I compared Super Mario 64, a fifth gen 3D collectathon, to Halo, a sixth gen first person shooter? Or Super Mario Galaxy, a seventh gen 3D collectathon, to Fortnite, an eighth gen third person shooter? My point is, there are some inherent aspects of past games that have no place in recent times. Unfortunately, nearly every arcade game in existence fits into this category. The video game medium has evolved so far past them to the point where nothing else about them, besides their legacy, can be appreciated. That’s just how getting old works. I critique games based on my enjoyment of them and that's how I will critique Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros was released on the Famicom in 1985 and the NES in 1986. Being the highly revered title title it is, it would see many re-releases on later platforms. Some of which are unofficial. For this review, I've played two different versions of the game: the NES rom and the fan made Flash port titled Super Mario Crossover. The latter is the one I’ve played throughout my childhood. It’s a flash port of the base Super Mario Bros game but overhauled with many additions: new characters, visual styles, soundtracks, cheats and many more. It even comes with the Special Edition and the Lost Levels; so you can consider it a port of those two games as well. Despite this, I tried my best to make the game look and play as closely as the original via the large selection of settings. For comparison, I also played the rom via emulation and the only differences I could find are the controls and visual resolution. Super Mario Crossover offers a pinch more precise control but not too much. I'll get into that in the review proper. The visuals in Crossover appear slightly more saturated than the original. The sprites also don't suffer from the same clipping as the original. It is the most accessible and best way to play the Super Mario Bros, Special and Lost Levels. You can find it on Flash Point. Now, I believe that’s way more introduction than needed. Let’s jump into the review.

While playing Super Mario Bros for this review, there was a lot I needed to re-learn. First was Mario’s movement. After playing a handful of Mario’s later games, going back to this is a major trip. Mario has a jump button and a run button. While walking, Mario has a slow startup. When running, he always feels like he’s on ice. It does not feel good. I don’t find Mario’s jump very reliable either. You can adjust his jump by how long you hold the jump button. The longer, the higher. He feels very heavy when in the air. Combined with his slippery movement, you will almost always either overshoot or undershoot jumps. Despite this, the level design isn’t very demanding. It was forgiving enough for me to get used to Mario’s imperfect controls.

There are a total of 8 batches of 4 levels in the game. Each batch is refereed to as a world. Yeah, imagine if there were eight earths in the solar system and you could just hop from one to the other. Jokes aside, I don’t remember encountering too many challenges in this game mostly because I would discover the warp zones. These hidden areas allow the player to skip forward in the game. They often contain one to three warp pipes that will transport Mario to a later world allowing the player to skip large chunks of the game. This is a key strategy in speed running the game and was my main strategy in beating it. For this review, however, I attempted to beat the game without using any warp zones an I could not make it past world 5. There are a total of 5 level dynamics: the surface, the sky, underground, underwater, and the castle. These dynamics are used interchangeably with the exception of the castle which is only used for every last level of each world. There are eight of these total. In each, Mario will fight Bowser, the main villain of the game. Bowser, also known as King Koopa, kidnapped Princess Peach, aka Princess Toadstool, and it’s Mario’s job to rescue her. A damsel in distress story, the most pre-21st century trend in all of storytelling. The fights with Bowser are all the same and very simple. Actually, if you utilize the right warp zones, you will only need to fight him once. In each fight, all you need to do is demolish the ground Bowser is standing on with an ax sitting behind him. He will fall into the lava pit repeatedly over and over again. No wonder he’s such a menace. He’s borderline fire proof. Too bad he’s too short to climb out within five minutes. The first 7 encounters with Bowser end with Toad infamously telling Mario “our princess is in another castle”. On the eighth, you rescue the princess and the game ends.

There is more to Super Mario Bros than its simple premise and standard setting platforming. Shaking things up, we have a variety of enemies and three total power ups. The main power up is the super mushroom which gives Mario a growth spurt and allows him to break certain blocks. This lasts till he gets hit by an obstacle or enemy losing the growth spurt and extra strength. Next, there is the fire flower which changes Mario’s clothes and grants him the ability to throw bouncing fire balls. One hit, though, and you lose everything; mushroom too. Lastly, there is the star power up which grants invincibility and allows Mario to kill enemies simply by touching them. This power up only lasts for a limited time expiring after about fifteen seconds.

There are many enemy types in the game such as the goomba, koopa troopa, cheep cheep, bullet bill, spikey, blooper, lakatu and hammer bro. Special mention to the latter three, they are a pain in the ass. I’m positive those are not all the enemies in the game. There are other mechanics like the one-up which can be achieved in many different ways. To name a few: 1up muchroom, 100 coins, killing a long string of enemies or however many points you need on the score board. The player will also have 400 seconds to beat each level of each world. When time runs out, Mario loses a life and the player needs to try the level all over again. Lose all of Mario’s lives and its game over.

Back in its day, Super Mario Bros was the greatest game ever made. Today, it is still among the greatest games ever made. Despite the imperfections, it has aged better than every game before it and most games after. It is truly among the earliest examples of an accessible, timeless, quality experience and it would’ve taken no less to make video games profitable again. It is a game that deserves its praised reputation by reinventing the standard of what a video game should be and, at the same time, leaving plenty of room for improvement.

Super Mario Bros, the sequel to a 1983 arcade game of a similar name, established a new standard in platforming. Bouncy sound effects, creative obstacle designs, bright colors and quirky mobs basically turned each level into a sort of vivid fairy tale adventure, whose quartet of stage backgrounds depict the 'story' in slow-motion, while joined by an equally simple set of memorable jingles (jovial to relaxed, ominous to eerie). Gameplay-wise, the best moments are largely due to its touch of self-inflicted humor, especially in the more difficult lategame levels that occasionally resemble a wild form of theater, punctuated by abrupt deaths (acting as punchlines) and shaken by fluctuating game speeds and enemy behavior. The effect of Koopas lazily moving about, to suddenly launching and rebounding off walls is both amusing and nerve-wracking, and their flawed hitboxes only add to the impression. Some exploration depth also surfaces in the case of warp pipes and invisible blocks, while their maze-like final stage ranks among their most noteworthy ideas, a brief preview of what's to come.

A milestone in 80s gaming, this release laid the foundations for several Mario games to follow: From the momentum-driven platforming (perfected by the technically brilliant SMB3), to the hidden secrets and level-skipping (stretched to astronomical heights in Mario World), to their sense of humor (leading to the slapstick chaos of Mario 64) and lastly, to their iconic artstyle (somewhat explored by Mario Sunshine's delightful aesthetic). However, several generations and graphical 'improvements' later, this remains their most visually distinguished effort.

The game that improved every aspect of the side-scrolling platformer overnight, SMB still holds its legacy quite well almost 40 years later and returning to it it still is an addicting platformer, even if graphically it looks like a New Mexico Indian tapestry. While its arguable that the series has suffered its various pitfalls in quality, this game for better or worse is definitely the series in its purest form. The only negative I can think of is that the constant scroll can easily trap you if you are not careful. A solid, if simplistic game. Though I feel SMB3 perfected everything about this.