Super Mario Bros. (1985)

This title is a direct port of the 1985 original that helped define the platforming genre, introduced in the NES platform. The game retains all the iconic elements that made it a classic, tight controls, clever level design, and a simple yet satisfying gameplay loop that’s easy to pick up but challenging to master, no no surprises here. Playing through the familiar worlds of the Mushroom Kingdom on the go was a nostalgic treat for longtime fans and a history lesson for newer players.

The visuals and audio are unchanged from the NES version, preserving the retro charm but also highlighting the limitations of the era. One of my favorite elements on all Mario games is the amount of secrets it has, which helps with the replayability, and this one is no exception. Nintendo tried to implement these elements right from the get go, in their first entry, and even for today's standards, it feels like a nice little adventure to find them, as much as the first time playing.

This release came as part of the Classic NES Series, and while it doesn’t add new content or enhancements, it succeeds at preserving the original experience. There are no updated sprites, remixed tracks, or QOL features, what you get is pure Super Mario Bros. For some, that barebones approach might feel too conservative, but for others, it’s precisely the appeal, a snapshot of gaming history playable on a more modern handheld system.

Overall, this title is less about innovation and more about celebration, it’s a reminder of how influential and well-designed the original game was, still holding up thanks to its precise physics and an amazing difficulty curve. Whether you’re revisiting it out of nostalgia or discovering it for the first time, this version proves that great design is timeless. And that even decades later, the very first Mario Bros entry remains as engaging as ever.

Disclaimer: This review is based on an emulated version of the Gameboy Advance re-release.

The history of video games is short compared to other artistic mediums, but there are a few works that stand out as milestones. Tetris, probably. Doom for its incredible cultural impact, as well as for still having an active modding scene. And then this game, for beginning one of the most successful franchises in all of gaming.

I decided to ay this a few days ago when I realized that I never had. It's weird. I enjoy Mario, those games are so full of life and joy that it's just infectious. They feel like playing childhood, so unconcerned with how things work, and solely focused on being fun. And that all started here.

This game surprised me with its difficulty. Three lives and you're back to the start of thr world. There's no 1 Up mushrooms in this, either. You collect 100 coins if you want an extra life.

This game came about in the era I consider video games to start being "good." The graphics are good enough to accurately represent what they're supposed to be, and the levels have some actual thought put into them with specific gimmicks and such. I think this game still approaches design as if it were an arcade game in terms of difficulty. Mainly in terms of how lives are dispensed.

The controls are also a bit floaty I guess you could say. Mario is slightly hard to control, and some levels require slightly more dexterity than I think is reasonable given how he controls.

Time to be honest. I used save states while playing this. I only saved at the start of a level, and went back to the start if I died. I think that's a reasonable compromise. I'm a 33 year old man, I can't be running through 1-1 40 times.

As a bit of gaming history this is worth a look. But later Mario games improved on the formula.

Anybody used to more "advanced" Mario controls or mechanics will feel at home here but... It's kind of repetitive. The game is all based on timing-jumping and nothing else, which has its positives and negatives. The first "you gotta think" element of the game is on its last level, World 8-4: kinda like a ghost house on Super Mario World, you have to choose the right warp to reach Bowser at last (Koopa?).

The worst, and at the same time best enemies are here from the beginning of the series: hammer bros, koopas, piranha plants, goombas. It's nice to see how the series has evolved so much. It's still a classic and a classic is a classic for stuff like that. This game saved the game industry in US, so anybody who consideres himself a gamer has the duty to play it and complete it. Its not that long or hard anyway, so no excuses.

Pros:

• An undisputed classic that is a poster child of the Era.
• Gameplay is fair and varied (impressive for the time!)
• Has a distinctive style, even from the mario series as a whole.
• Warp pipes can change the pacing of the game, which is a huge plus for repeat playthroughs.

Cons:

• Controls are outdated. Having very little aerial drift is something newer gamers will have to get used too.
• Graphics, while classic, seem a bit too simplistic even for the time.
• Difficulty comes from live system and getting used to archaic game design (aerial drift).

An oldie that is well worth a first playthrough!

I’ve played this many times over the years, but don’t remember if I’d ever actually finished it until today. It’s pretty good (shocker).

What struck me about it this time was how well they handled the feeling of precise movement for the time. It feels great when you manage to slow down just the right amount to avoid an obstacle, or barely slip through airborne foes with a well-timed jump. The designs and placements of enemies and other stage elements contribute to that too, definitely not just because of good controls.

I’ll always find it a bit annoying just how little margin for error you have in a game like this, in particular when you get stuck in Mario’s vulnerable small form. You definitely can’t just blast through everything first time, but the levels here are simple enough to try a few times, learn what to do, then execute it relatively easily.

The simple, colorful visuals are iconic for a reason, and the music is obviously great. Not a fan of some maze-like castle stuff, or the underwater movement, but otherwise the game feels good and is as enjoyable as you’d expect. What else can I really add? A psychoanalysis of man’s endless hunt for a princess who’s always in another castle? Another day…

I believe this is the first video game I ever played. Like for so many other gamers, I lost my virginity to Super Mario Bros, when dad brought home an NES one day in the late eighties. The game is so perfect as an introduction to gaming that I still present this to younger generations when they start to show interest. As I did for my nephews and also my younger brothers. Each time you would get a little bit further and figure something out or discovering something new, as your reactions and skill increased. When pops reached Bowsers castle for the first time we lost our shit.

I replayed SMB for this review and I'm still having a lot of fun. It's just a great video game, tight and responsive and challenging, but always fair. If you die -it's your own fault. There's really nothing new to add about this absolutely legendary title that changed gaming forever. My only wish is that it continues to get played for generations to come.

So, first of all, I want to personally apologize from my absence on Grouvee. I’ve just been kind of busy with general work and studying.

Ok, so this is it. The game that singlehandedly revived video games as a whole and defined Nintendo as a mainstay developer. To be honest, there’s really nothing I can say about this game that hasn’t been said. It’s like "the" 2D platformer, everything I say about this applies to every single other good platformer. But I’ll try to do this justice.

PROS:

• The game has a really clear and fun difficulty increase but it never really gets to challenging where it becomes bothersome. World 1 is fairly easy, but as it goes on, it trusts that you fully understand all the mechanics that it offers.

• I mean, what can I say about the absolutely memorable and iconic level designs. This is a staple of having diverse levels that introduce mechanics and build up to the flag that’s famously really hard to nail.

• The music is probably the most iconic video game score of all time. Yeah, maybe not the best, but the Ground Theme, the Underwater Theme, the Star Theme, all just referenced all the time. The simple 8-bit themes are catchy and simple, whereas basically anybody will recognize the Overworld tune.

CONS:

• Ok, my gripe with this game is basically just thanks to the NES’s limitations. The graphics, though memorable, are dull (and even though I can’t really blame Miyamoto and his team) it’s just really hard for me to appreciate.

• Sometimes, besting the levels comes to RNG. That wouldn’t be the problem for some games, but for a game that is supposed to mechanically build up, its super frustrating and the pace of the game gets immediately ruined.

The game is good. Like really good for it’s time. Maybe a remake on the Switch bundled up with the original trilogy (and The Lost Levels, yes I know this is just a Super Mario All-Stars but like not with the weird gravity thing All-Stars has) could be possibly one of my favorite games of all time. It’s good though, and you probably know that already.

This has historical value, but is definitely one of the weaker outputs of the series. Icy feet drains the flow completly out of it and make this game barely enjoyable, the otherwise simplistic platforming is thus artificially made more difficult, but in an annoying, not skill requiring way. Plus, it introduced this mechanic to the platforming genre, cursing the whole output of similar games in the 90s. People praise the easter eggs you can explore in this game, it really didn't make me enthusiastic.

Super Mario Bros. has the luck of being at the right place at the right time, but inventing the platforming genre would otherwise habe been done by another title in the historic vecinity of this one. I do not think this is actually worth to play in 2020, there's many more enjoyable Mario games out there.

I played through this game on the NES Online app in the Nintendo Switch. (Not really sure what to call that).

I really enjoyed the game, though I found it to be quite challenging. I definitely used save states to manage to beat the game. I didn't play the "second quest" do I need to to consider having beat the game?

I found the music to be catchy, graphics pretty good, and solid controls.

Someday if I go back to this game it would be to try to beat it without abusing savestates. Which, I freely admit I use to try to get through a game like this.

Total time played: 118mins.