Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Old School Gamer Magazine recently released its 50th issue, which covers The Most Important and Influential "Old-School" Games of All Time.

The list is a collaborative effort, and I was lucky enough to write the blurbs for Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man. The digital edition is completely free, and I'd love to hear your feedback! Thank you, if you check it out.

For it's simplicity this is still a lot of fun and challenging. It's wild to think about just how humble the beginnings of video games, let alone Nintendo, were. What was once a lovable company full of quirky characters, colorful and cartoonish art direction and whimsical music, is now staunchly anti-consumer with it's litigious approach to video game preservation. A shame. Because everything about the original Mario isn't conventional nor safe. It's so surreal. Now Mario doesn't feel whimsical nor unconventional. Instead, he's a corporate institution. I still have fun with modern Mario games. They are certainly still creative and colorful even if Nintendo as a whole leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Now even Mario has narrative ambition with it's recent foray into Cinema. I strongly disliked the Mario movie because it felt first and foremost made in a boardroom. Featuring more memes than any discernible personality. Also, funny enough, still having a relatively similar plot to the live action Super Mario movie made in the 90s. Which I do like. I don't think it's a good movie, but it's a fun time in my book.

Video games started as something carnivalesque, like film, being more a novelty that could be profited from. No pretension nor high concept ambition. Nintendo did a lot to push the ambition of video games with their home console and popular games. Certainly Mario, though it still feels like the embodiment of what was expected from video games. Zelda and Final Fantasy are better examples of how Nintendo pushed video games as a medium of expression in ambitious directions. Still, this game has plenty of charm. It can certainly feel clunky in it's rudimentary controls. But it has no shortage of a personality. Interesting that Mario started in Donkey Kong. And it wasn't until the Super Nintendo that Donkey Kong got a proper game made.

There were plenty of times where I felt the controls weren't responsive enough for my liking. But I can't ignore the nostalgia I feel given that this was the first video game I ever played.

Game #44/200 This has been my unexpected Year of Mario, as I've played and beaten 12 games from that universe (many of them being quite short). And there's still time for a few more if I choose (going to aim to beat a JRPG instead though). But I had to go back and play this game, as I've never beaten it before despite it being "the" video game. My 3 star rating is not really indicative of anything other than my personal enjoyment of it in 2023. I beat it, but only with save states at the beginning of each level, which I feel I always must make clear because I am not particularly proud of that. My shame is somewhat offset by the facts that I 1) beat each level fair and square, from its beginning 2) could have used teleports, which is a much slower way of cheating anyway 3) could have played the SNES remake, which also allows saving (albeit only at the beginning of worlds). I was satisfied enough knowing that if I put more time in, I could beat the game using either the aforementioned warps or world saves. On that note, I did consider the SNES remake, but am glad I opted for the original, as the graphics are quite beautiful despite their simplicity. I was surprised by the bright oranges, greens, etc. and how crisp everything looked. Some textures are definitely blocky, but the game is able to do a lot with only a little. But getting back to the saving issue, I truly can't imagine how anyone can beat this game from world 1 to 8 without teleporting/saving. It's not even that the levels are very hard (they're certainly not all easy), but the lives you have are SO finite and the effort it takes to get one is a lot. And it's so easy to accidentally die. With that being said, fire flower is insane in this game and you can steamroll many levels with it if you go slow. So if you learn the levels and go SLOW it's probably pretty manageable, but still. I spent an hour or so playing this and a part of me feels that I can't fairly judge the game without beating it the way it's intended, but with time being so limited, this is what I'm doing.

Side note: I beat the much more difficult Castlevania, but that game has infinite continues built in (right?)

But anyway, the iconic Mario song is lovely of course. All 4(?) tunes are good, but they get very repetitive. The backgrounds and enemies also get tiresome, but the level design was pretty good. They mostly rely on configurations of enemies since mechanics were still so limited at this time, but you'll be challenged waiting for fireball walls to rotate out of your way, jumping on a lakitu, avoiding koopa shells that bounce off walls, etc. All your standard Mario stuff but more punishing. I gotta say though, the mechanics are pretty bad. You slide quite a bit for one, but also have like no aerial control whatsoever. Considering how many insta-death hazards there are and how easy it is to get hit by a foe, it's a bit unbalanced. Couple that with how powerful you are with the fire flower and you feel a bit glass cannon-y sometimes. I did like some of the levels, the few water ones particularly (oddly) and Bowser's castles too. You can obviously see how influential this title was (love how many little secrets there are, some of the platforming sequences, some platforms themselves like the weight-operated ones, the enemy designs, world design, power-ups, etc.). At the time of its release and for maybe 4-5 years after (when did Mega Man 1 come out actually, '87?), I can see how this was the best game of its time. Now, for me, it's worthy of playing -- intrinsically fun -- but mostly interesting to study in retrospect. Props to anyone who has mastered this game though (I know it's considered fairly easy by NES standards, but still).

It's Super Mario Bros.! You know it, you've played it, so let's get to the point. This game obviously deserves an immense amount of credit for innovating on the basic building blocks presented in 1981's Donkey Kong, making the most kinetic and thrilling platformer the world had ever seen. Given that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is right around the corner, it felt right to revisit the title that started it all.

But how does it hold up today in 2023? Pretty good, actually, at least for the first few worlds. The movement and sense of momentum in the first Super Mario Bros. has always felt amazing, and it's easy to see how it served as the foundation that would allow future Mario games to reach the heights that they did. So many staple mechanics of the franchise got their start here, whether it's pipes, stomping on koopas, the fire flower, cheep cheeps, and mushrooms.

But the level design? It's fine at first, but those last few worlds... ICK. There's a lot of sections that feel right at home in the frustrating Mario Maker troll level bucket, and then there's the few levels that have you navigate a maze without direction as you hopelessly watch your timer drain to zero... It's super frustrating, but the most frustrating thing here is that if your run out of lives, you have to start from the beginning of the game. Thank god for save states.

This game is incredibly important and influential. Its music and graphics are iconic, and its release alongside the NES is often cited as one of the factors that helped the video game industry rise from its rut following the infamous 1983 crash. But for all the things it did well, it just doesn't reach the stratospheric heights reached by its sequels. Still, it's a game everyone should play at least once!

Been having a blast going back to this Iconic game, It's still super fun to play even today in 2023. I think it's the sign of a well made game when even almost 40 years after its release people are still playing and enjoying it.

If you are on your own playthrough, here are some quick ways to skip around to whichever of the 8 worlds you feel like playing!

Honestly, if the game was just 4 worlds? I'd argue paced very well and enjoyable. 8 worlds though? I had to skip World 3 because on Switch World 3-1 has a bug that makes you unable to get past it so I had to use the pipes to go to 4-1 and then make my way to the end of the game.

The game expects you to play the game because it exists and not for a developing reason the game gives you as you progress the worlds. It is all about finding the princess, without an interesting twist for 6 worlds and instead using the same bit.

I also forget the game has a run mechanic until it is required to progress. Also, not a fan of the puzzles that are "GO THIS SPECIFIC PATH, DID YOU NOT FOLLOW THE EXACT PATH? GET RESET" if that was a player-made level in Super Mario Maker it'd be complained about. Holding this to the same standard.

Preliminary: At last I'm here! One of the most important games of all time and of my childhood. I forgot how much I had played the original till I started playing this, tho I was very used to using the warp tubes ha (I forced myself not to... I swear the game tries to get you to use some of them, it was easier to get to those "secret" exits than the main ones a couple times :-p or maybe it's just cuz I'm so used to them)

Look: 8/10 The classic Mario look begins! So many of the iconic enemies already in this one. Simplistic NES look, but it really does so much with the NES limitations.

Sound: 8/10 Foundational. None of the tunes are particularly phenomenal (wellll, maybe the water level tune), but all are fundamental and essential!

Play: 9/10 Yay to being able to fireball the Koopas (even the red spikey things!)... not so yay that you can't bounce off enemies and, of course, the controls and mechanics in general aren't as nice as in super mario 3/super mario world. And not a huge fan of the trampoline mechanics (tho what can you expect... compare this to its contemporaries on the Speccy and this wins by a landslide so...) I always got annoyed that you can't go backward in the levels but it's fine... (I accidentally had to use the 4-2 warp tube to World 5 cuz I had already run too far enjoying the safer upper area ha). Also his momentum/slowing down and other little clunkinesses can be forgiven considering this is the first heh. As per usual, the water levels were not a favorite (tho the music for them was great). And the water level segment in the final castle (complete with the great music, to boot!) was surprisingly well-done and cute in its context. (Lol @ flying fish in the castle segment of it :-p ). Speaking of that final castle though, the castle puzzles were silly imo. They just weren't fun to solve.. (unlike the secret 1-ups and warp pipes and such! all were a blast to either already know about, or come upon).

As I got deeper and deeper, just so many deliciously close calls. And so many of the basic features you would want in a 1985 platformer--no fall damage BS, mid-jump movement even if not perfect, tight controls that allow for last minute Fireballs etc. Mostly great collision masks too. Right after playing Ghosts n Goblins, it felt so apparent. And wow--to think Ghosts n Goblins was an arcade game, with such clunky and bad mechanics, and yet this was for a console. I know I keep saying it, but NES really was a "gamechanger" (heh).

Feel: 9/10 The Bowser fights always felt silly in this one--just so straightforward and weird. (I almost retracted this statement when he started throwing hammers buttttt then I discovered yet another way Fire Mario is OP and I spammed Fireballs at him :-p ) And wow did this feel faster than I remembered! Even without the warp pipes! Crazy they expected a similar format for no-saving/play-it-all-at-once for SMB3!

Attachment: 9/10 Despite its faults, it's still hard to put this one down! You just keep flying through the levels! Especially if you have Fire Mario and you're playing cautiously (tho again, the inability to go backwards sometimes rewards my usual mario technique of running like a maniac, over taking your time and walking slowly to discover you're quite screwed without the run momentum ha) . Ahhhh it was so hard to put it down when it was time for movie time. Truly an addicting and classic game, and it moves so fast I was already on World 7 and only accidentally used one Warp Pipe--otherwise I'd done it all

At last, finished the game! Addicting, fun, the right amount of challenge, a short enough length (with warp pipes to make the lack of save palatable)... good stuff!

It was simply impossible for me not to love the Mario movie. I've been a fan of the game since I was a toddler. This images and sounds are important to me and this was a fucking festival of it. Every frame was loaded with references and easter eggs. It was everything for someone like me, who has played everything from the original Donkey Kong to Bowser's Fury.

As a movie, it sucked. The plot was boringly basic, It had too many cringey jokes and no rhythm, things just happened. But honestly I couldn't care less for narrative quality here. I loved it. It had Cat Mario.

10/10, also 5/10. Numbers don't matter.

Finally played and completed Super Mario Bros for the first time. Although I respect retro games, the simplicity and cluncky feel has always put me off playing through many classic titles but I'm so glad I stuck with Super Mario Bros. Being a huge fan of super mario world on the SNES this game feels great and I love the music. The controls can be a bit frustrating when mario doesn't jump when you want him to but considering this is a game from the 1980s it's quite remarkable.

On to Super Mario Bros 2 next which I think is quite different

It’s simplicity is hard to fall in love with if you’ve never played it before but being familiar with it never gets old. It’s a good challenge too, to learn the game and plan your route with the very limited lives you start with, I’ll never forget the first time I sat down and decided I wanted to beat it.

Luckily, due to it’s short contents, it’s a really memorable game. If you find a secret 1-up somewhere, you’ll probably never forget where, and that’s really where the game’s charm is: it’s simplicity.

The most complicated thing about the game is Mario’s movement. It’s heavy and very deliberate. I’ve watched people struggle with it quite a bit but if you ever master it, it’s probably the most satisfying physics in the 2D series. Learn how to run through a couple full levels and you’ll see what I’m saying.

In short: it’s a personal favorite and one that can be comfortably revisited any time I have a half hour to spare. There’s really nothing else quite like it.

Super Mario Bros. is what truly started it all. Donkey Kong may be the debut of the character and Mario Bros. may have introduced the name. But Super Mario Bros. is what really solidified this franchise as a true juggernaut in the gaming industry.

Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. This game is one of the most important video games of all time. It revolutionized the 2D platformer, it made Mario the powerhouse he is, it put Nintendo on the map, it basically brought an end to the Video Game Crash of 1983. But has this game aged well?

The story of this game is a story we have since seen thousands of times. King Koopa has kidnapped Princess Toadstool and has changed the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom into bricks. Mario must travel the land and save her.

The gameplay is also pretty simple. There are 8 worlds with 4 levels each. You must make your way to the end of the level by stomping on enemies, jumping, and avoiding small death pits and enemies, and well... Not die. 3 Deaths and It's back to the beginning of the game. It's about mastery and memorization. You can also use power-ups. There's the 1-Up which increases your life counter by one, the Super Mushroom which makes Mario grow and take 2 hits to kill, the Fire Flower which allows you to shoot fireballs at enemies, and the Star which makes you invulnerable for a brief window of time.

The gameplay is extremely easy to understand and I never got confused with the controls. However, there is stuff that hasn't aged well. For starters, Mario is really stiff in this game. So dying is extremely easy. This makes the game extremely difficult toward the end and I can't tell if it's supposed to be as hard as it is.

Super Mario Bros. is an extremely important game. It has a simple story and controls. The game is fun and engaging throughout. Although there are moments in this game that hasn't aged well, it's still a fun time.

3/5

Would Recommend

To be considered one of the most important games in video game history is no small feat. Yet Super Mario Bros. seems to bear this achievement like it's no big deal. To many, this is the game that saved the video game industry post-crash, and it's easy to see why. Replayable level design, tight albeit slightly outdated controls. A memorable yet difficult experience that will be played for the next 100 years to come.

82/100

I played this often back in the 90s. It was the sort of thing I would run through over an hour or so every now and then. Maybe even on a weekly or monthly basis at times. I might have had it on gameboy too as I do vaguely remember that. I never played the SNES All Stars version before, so it was a novel experience to play with the updated sound and graphics. I think the original might be better but that could be nostalgia talking. I did not use any warps and don't think I used them as a kid. I also just keep moving and consider coins and powerups as more suggestions to get if it is convenient. After playing through the lost levels I went back to beat the more difficult quest. It was not nearly as hard as the lost levels but still fun. I did the 1st run at 50 frames per second and it felt a bit too fast, so I did the 2nd and lost levels at 40 frames per second. One of the best games of all time considering the time it came out. I especially like the more patient and methodical gameplay instead of a more go go rush style. 3 and World are better games but came much later.

9.5+/10

Pros

• Innovative level design: full of hidden items and levels
• Excellent player control

Cons

• Later levels (from 5-1) are too similar to the first half

I have been playing SMB since I have memory of playing video games. I finally beat the game after playing it for 20 years! Thanks to instant saving function of the NES app in Nintendo Switch.

I realized the SMB world I explored as a kid was limited to 1-1 to 2-4 and 4-1 to 4-2 (via Warp zone in 1-2) This game was too difficult to my younger self. I still don't think I can beat the game without cheating :(

So when I finally beat the game from 1-1 all the way to 8-4, I was disappointed. Many levels in the second half are duplicates of the first half with some minor modifications. The ending was too short. I was expecting some cut scenes of Princess Peach kissing Mario or something, but instead it was just a short text, almost the same as saving Toad in earlier castles.

Anyway, I am really glad that I finally beat this important game in my childhood and one of the most important game in video game history. My next goals are to beat the original SMB2 (the lost levels) and SMB3.