Mario Bros. (1983)

I owned this back in the day on my 31 in 1 cartridge but could never tolerate playing it for long. It was the kind of game I would occasionally play for 10 minutes while bored before switching to something actually fun. Playing it now on emulator it was even worse than I remember. I went as far as stage 12. It was not difficult, just incredibly simple and boring with poor controls. Mario moved like every surface was ice, had terrible momentum and needed to be already moving on the ground in order to not just jump straight up. Way too clunky and boring.

4.0/10

Pros:

• Enemy design is great. Both visually and gameplay wise.
• Sound design is great for the time.
• Gameplay loop is simple and addictive.

Cons:

• Variety is the worst holdup for this game. Only 3 enemy types and 1 level layout. Even the sound variety is lacking.
• Game is a hard-coded score chaser. The game provides no incentive to reach higher levels other than a higher score.

A simple and fun score chaser that is worth a replay.

Look: 7/10 Welp, I'm finally here. The start of what I knew as "gaming" when I grew up: the Nintendo/post-Atari console era. Mario, Zelda, Castlevanias, etc. The nostalgia I felt just from seeing the graphics of the platforms and Mario and the Koopa(turtles) and the fireballs, etc etc., came right away. Let's see if the gameplay itself holds up too.

Sound: 6/10 Great jump sound, otherwise very disappointing. The walk sound is annoying; the jingles are blah; and there is minimal "background music" concept.

Play: 6/10 Disappointingly clunky controls and goofy jump mechanics, but still a lot of fun. It took me a minute to figure out that you first get the turtles knocked on their back, then kick em (thanks mobygames heh). I kept just hitting the platform from below them thinking it'd eventually kill them :-p Also, it helped once I realized that you don't need to simply kill all the enemies in the room, instead you move on by collecting all the coins. So I started jumping over enemies more often than always trying to kill them, and it got a bit more fun. Gotta say, after clearing that first screen, I wasn't sure I wanted to keep playing. That jump mechanic is just so rudimentary... especially for an arcade game, when there were contemporaries like Bongo and Congo Bongo etc. Still, the multiplayer vibe sounds very interesting, and I need to give this another try that way.

Feel: 6/10 I got over 10,000 Score and called it quits. I wasn't having much fun with the kill mechanic or the jump mechanic (I definitely am glad they added the jump-on-top kill mechanic later.) Definitely important, definitely hit me in the feels when it first loaded up, but disappointing gameplay. Even for its year, the platforming and mechanics were mediocre. But I can imagine having someone else navigating the controls with me knocking into each other and having fun. That could definitely change my perspective.

Attachment: 8/10 I definitely will return to this to show my brothers the original arcade Mario Bros (no, Donkey Kong doesn't count), and more importantly, to try multiplayer with somebody. And I can't deny I wont forget it: it's the start of a very important series to me--Super Mario World is one my ultimate most-played and most-loved games since childhood (well, the whole Super Mario All-Stars game, but especially Super Mario World); Super Mario 64 was a new-found adult game that I fell in love with and helped me re-engage with gaming in my 20s; Super Mario RPG is an undeniably excellent game; and Super Mario Maker or whatever it's called for the DS is one of the only modern games I've played. Mario is definitely up there with Final Fantasys for important series to me, but the roots of Mario seem a bit iffier. After all, platformers require much more programming and tweaking and precision than numbers/RNG-based turn-based RPGs heh..

Completion: 1 Screen, ~11,000 Score Playtime: ~25 mins

This a good game with a big flaw which if you avoid, then this is "above good" game.

Beside that 10 minutes and done gameplay, The Controls in this one is Slippery AF. Mario doesn't stop when you want him or move exactly where you want him, It's just lucky move, It might hit, it might bit.

Though I think this is a pure average arcade game. It's just put in a quarter and if you lose, then that's It.

Mario Bros. is just good old fun. Nothing much left to say. It's not the game that changed video games forever... But we are getting there.

Mario Bros was released back in 1983 and is simply an Arcade Game where you gotta rack up those points.

Mario and his brother Luigi are plumbers in Brooklyn, New York. Until all of a sudden, Turtles, Crabs, Flies, and more are invading the sewers. Mario and Luigi must clean the sewers.

The gameplay is really neat. Enemies are walking down toward you and you have to jump on the platform they are standing on to knock them on their back. Do this enough and you move on to the next phase. You also can use the POW Block to instantly knock them down. But you can only use it three times until it's gone forever. As far as I'm aware, the phases are infinite. But I might be wrong. Still a very fun game

Mario Bros isn't the groundbreaking title that put the series on the map. But it's a fun little game that is just a blast to play

3/5

Would Recommend

The original arcade Mario Bros title is a classic I still find to be great fun and the original early character artwork (on the machine and the box art for various ports) has a nice fun illustrative style to it that's quite different to how we perceive the Nintendo mascots today.

I can imagine many 80's alcohol-fueled rages took place where this cabinet situated in a bar and an attempt at a two-player game was made.

Quite a few ports were made and many were poor (including the early '86 NES/Famicom releases). There are versions available on the switch and the GBA (with every 'Super Mario advance' title).

There was a later release on the Famicom Disk System (Kaettekita Mario Bros. which was fan-translated) containing advertisements for various food and drinks in Japan. It had 'updated' jump mechanics (you can turn in the air). Hudson also worked on some interesting 'sequels' for 80's Japanese home computers.

There was also a much better (if a little late) 1993 port (PAL only) on the NES that contains everything the arcade original offered (all cutscenes etc) but if played on an unmodded NTSC system it will run too fast. Tough but not impossible.

the gameplay is as basic as it gets. Knock enemies from beneath, collect as many coins as you can, and go for the high score.

Enemies start off as the lowly koopa-like 'shellcreepers', then crablike 'sidesteppers'(which take two hits) and 'fire flies' which you can only hit when they touch the ground. Then the game designers throw the evil 'slipice' enemy which will turn platforms into slippery platforms of doom.

With all these ingredients you can figure out all kinds of nifty tricks for racking up points.

Later on, there'll be lethal icicles and it'll throw all of the enemies at you in a manic and jumbled continuum.

If you hang around too long in one spot, green or orange fires will zip onto the screen and toast your bro alive. It gets more manic and challenging.

Mario Bros. arcade is a good time, play it on the arcade if you can.