Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo Entertainment System
If you are a child of the early 80's, like I am, no doubt you share the same fond memories for Super Mario Bros. that I do. If I search my memory banks as far back as they can possibly go, I can remember when this game came out. Or pretty darned close to it anyway.
I must have been a little over 3 years old. I loved playing the Atari at my dad's house, and also over at my grandma's. But I knew there was this new system out there that was even better, called the Nintendo. Things were a blur for me back then. I don't remember if we got a Nintendo right away or if we waited a year or so before getting it. But I do remember a Christmas at my mom's house. Unwrapping a big box, and there it was. The thing everyone in the household wanted: A Nintendo Entertainment System. The system included 3 games on one cartridge (Mario, Duck Hunt, and Track & Field). Also on the side, we got Mike Tyson's Punch-Out as well.
It was a great thing for me and the family. We loved our Nintendo and played it all the time. In particular, I played it all the time.
Super Mario Bros. is perhaps the most influential game in the history of the industry. Most games back then were very basic and simple. You played to rack up a high score, but you could never really beat the game. There was no real story or end goal in mind. Games like Space Invaders and Pac-Man that were very repetitive and you did the same thing on and on forever. Mario laid out the groundwork for not only every 2D side scroller that has come along since then, but every game as well.
The graphics for its time: great. Mario looked far more advanced than any other game out there. Gone were the simple black backgrounds of most games. The levels looked great. They all looked different too. Some levels had blue sky and clouds flouting up above. Some were dark and ominous. There were underwater levels. Some stages you jumped from tree to tree. Some you jumped around on giant mushrooms. You ran across bridges on others. Some levels had different colored trees in the background. This all sounds very basic now, but for the early 80's, this was unprecedented.
The characters all looked different and had their own quirky styles. You had goombas, beetles, spinies, flying fish, etc. And of course - the Mario Bros themselves.
The basic gist of the game is that the Princess has been kidnapped. And you must rescue her. There are 8 stages. Each stage has 3 levels in it that you must traverse. And then a boss level at the end where you have to defeat Bowser. Right when you think you've won and have rescued the Princess, you bump into Toad and he tells you he is sorry, but the Princess is in another castle. So you move on to the next stage. At the end of the game, the cock block cycle ends and you finally rescue the Princess.
The gameplay is simple, but classic. You run from the left of the screen to the right. You must jump on the heads of your enemies to kill them. You smash blocks, collect coins and power ups, and discover secret areas. Power ups include a mushroom that turns you into "big" Mario. If you are hit when you are little Mario, you die instantly. But if you get hit when you are big, you shrink in size, but don't immediately get killed when damaged. There is also a fire flower that allows you to spit fireballs at your enemies, and a star that grants you temporary invincibility.
For being one of the first games of its kind, the game offers a lot of secrets too. There are pipes you can go down, which lead to extra coins or power ups. Hidden blocks that contain extra coins or power ups. Warp zones where you can skip ahead in the game. Hidden lives located in invisible blocks that are placed strategically throughout the game. Vines that take you up into the clouds where you can discover secret coin caches. You could just run straight from the beginning of each level to the end, but discovering all the game has to offer is part of the fun.
The boss levels are fun but challenging. Many of them contain multiple paths that you must run through in the proper order to get to Bowser at the end. It's funny how after all these years I can still remember these orders with no sweat (OK, maybe 7-4 gave me a few troubles...). At the end of each boss level, Bowser guards a bridge leading to the end of the castle, and you must run by him and chop down the bridge with an ax, plunging him into the lava below. Each boss stage becomes more difficult as you play on. Bowser not only spits fire at you, he leaps around and throws hammers too. Fireballs jump up from the lava below. And as you progress the game also removes ledges which can help you evade him as well. Good luck making it past him in level 8-4 if you are small and will die with one hit. I've done it before, but not without great difficulty.
When you beat the game, you can go back and play the game over again, but with slightly more difficult enemies. I'm usually too lazy to play through the game a second time, so I don't know what happens when you do beat the game again on the harder difficulty. But just the fact that they took the time to do this shows you that this game was made with a lot of love.
The thing I love about this game is that it is a timeless classic. Even 30 years after its release, it is still easy to pick up and play and have a great time. Sure, it looks old - but that is part of its appeal. The design is fantastic. It is fun, simple, and just incredibly well done.
The last game I reviewed was Mortal Kombat. That game is the complete opposite of Super Mario Bros. That game definitely shows its age. You pick it up and bumble around with the primitive controls, terrible graphics, and steep difficulty level - and you wonder how the hell anyone ever thought that game was good. But with Super Mario Bros, you pick it up and fall in love all over again almost immediately, despite its shortcomings.
I have no doubt that even a hundred years after its release, people will still be playing this game. To me that is the sign of a true classic.
Overall:
A+
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