Super Mario Bros. (1985)

“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life.” ―Arnold Bennett

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It’s now 2018. I wanted to start off this solar cycle with a review of some important game, a significant title that has changed the course of interactive entertainment history. When I think about requisites like these, I remember that there’s really only one title that fits that description. Well, this one and a handful of other movers and shakers.

Super Mario Bros. is one of the most influential video games of all time, first released in 1985 on the NES. It inspired a billion pretenders, shifting the industry from shooters and sports to platformers, framed design in gaming for decades to come, cemented itself into popular culture, and almost single-handedly saved the gaming industry in North America after the market crash of ’83. It was the best-selling video game of all time for decades with over 40 million units sold until it was dethroned by 2006’s Wii Sports. Now, 33 years later, it remains one of gaming’s best-sellers, currently the fifth best-selling game in history and the second best-seller of all time for a single platform.

So how did this luminary come to be?

It began with Shigeru Miyamoto, an industry icon who changed the world with his inventions: Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda among them. Miyamoto was also the creator of the arcade game Mario Bros., and when that original adventure with Mario and his second-fiddle sibling Luigi battling turtles in the sewers showed some legs in terms of commercial success, Nintendo decided it was time to put the brothers in a new, simple game currently in development and call them “Super”.

The original prototype was vastly different than the final result; the prototype was not a side-scroller and would’ve involved shooting bullets instead of fireballs and pressing up on the d-pad to jump. What a mistake that would have been! Though the concept that would eventually become Super Mario Bros. didn’t originally involve the plumbers, Nintendo wanted to continue their traditional emphasis on athleticism in game design and the hero once known as Jumpman fit the bill perfectly.

Super Mario Bros. was a paradigm shift for the broken gaming industry: a bright and happy game not bothered with blasting bug aliens or engaging enemy soldiers but with bright colors and blue skies instead of perpetually black screens (excusing a few levels). Super Mario Bros. concerned itself with delightful music that immersed players rather than merely attracting them with bleep and bloop sound effects. It brandished a simple but direct goal to rescue the princess instead of merely earn high scores.

The North American industry had been decimated by the time Super Mario Bros. was ready. Shockingly, the market had faced a 97% drop in revenue between 1983 and ’85, resulting in widespread bankruptcies. That’s when Nintendo stepped in to remedy the “Atari shock”, as the crash was known in the Land of the Rising Sun, with a cheerful little man in overalls and quality game design. In 1985, Super Mario Bros. carried the sales of the Nintendo Entertainment System and with it the success gaming industry. Games were back into the good graces of consumers and into millions of homes everywhere. Miyamoto had scored one of the greatest revolutions of his career. He was just 33 years old at the time.

That Super Mario Bros. became one of the technology world’s biggest and best success stories is no secret, but the question must arise about how well the game holds up after all this time has passed. Upon its original release, there wasn’t much else as streamlined and perfected, but is it still a great game today?

Let us lay down a supposition for the rest of this examination: A video game can be great without aging well and without remaining as enjoyable as it once was. In other words, greatness can be measured not just by enduring accessibility but by historical significance and influence. A stage in the evolution of gaming, a piece of that great jigsaw or a thread of that great tapestry, is as important as the whole of gaming as we know it. Current gen games, especially those out of the West, may not even be here without Super Mario Bros.’s rejuvenating impact, though it was quickly outpaced.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.com/2018/01/09/super-mario-bros/

Pros:
-- Always good for a quick gaming "fix"
-- Surprisingly varied backgrounds and level design
-- If you enjoy the music, you get it on repeat

Cons:
-- Controls are a bit sticky until you get used to them
-- "2nd Quest" is a nice thought, but there just isn't enough to it to matter
-- If you don't enjoy the music, you get it on repeat

Check out my full review at TheKlotzNet

History:

I can't imagine anyone who HASN'T played this game. I mean, it's nearly impossible not to have! I will say that I didn't play this game as much as say, Super Mario Bros. 3 when I was a child, but it's really just an NES staple. Admittedly, I don't think I ever did beat it.

Expectations:

How the hell do you write a pseudo review for Super Mario Bros? That aside, I'm going to give beating this one a real shot. I already know I can make it to 8-1 in my sleep, but I think I've only made it inside Bowser's (King Koopa's?) castle all of one or two times.

Day 1:

If using warp pipes is wrong, I don't want to be right!

...Except that I missed the second set and would up in World 5. Couldn't quite make it the castle and got game over.

You'd think after all the Contra and Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania I'd be able to handle Super Mario with a bit more ease, but no. I forgot how crazy the platforming gets in World 8. Even if you master the precision single tile jumping, timing the piranha plants and avoiding the barrage of Bullet Bills, you still have the crazy RNG of the Hammer Bros! Never mind the bonkers castle waiting for you at the end!

I eventually found my stopping point for the day at 8-3 after nearly an hour of attempts from 8-1. At that point I decided to pass it off to the new guard...

Make me proud kid...

Day 2:

I started off my day with a good half hour on World 8 again. I could constantly get to 8-2, but that was about it. Before giving up on the game I decided to do something new. Something crazy. Something I've never done with this game in my entire life.

I was going to try to play the game without warps.

Before today, I could not have told you what 1-3 looked like, and it took all of my power to fight my instincts in 1-2 and not run to the warp pipes.

I realized that it had been a VERY long time before I'd been inside one of the castle levels in this game, and it was actually pretty cool. I jumped the boss easily enough and axed the bridge, freeing Toad from his burlap prison and it was off to the next stage.

Every level was a new experience, and before I knew it I was back at 4-1, where the warp pipe usually takes me. I ran through it like I always did and again fought the urge to take the warp to 8-1 from 4-2. Instead I carried on through the game. The levels where I'm running, screaming and praying across the bridges while flying fish try to kill me are by far my favorites.

I thought 6-3 in particular was really cool, as its monochrome color pallet was unique. I'm actually curious to see how this stage was done when it comes time to play Super Mario All-Stars. I'm sure it won't be anything special, but I'm excited none the less. 6-4 was the first castle, if I'm not mistaken, where the boss starts throwing hammers, so that was something.

I eventually made it to and past 7-4, and for the first time ever made it to World 8 properly. I felt really good about that! It made the final levels feel like they really meant something, and surely after all that Mario'ing I would have the skills necessary to finally beat this game!

...yeah not so much. After another 30 minutes or so of dying in 8-2 I decided it was time to call it. Sorry Toadstool, but frankly I always like Daisy better anyway...

Conclusion:

Super Mario Bros. This is even worse than trying to write a conclusion for Final Fantasy! It's a perfectly fine game on it's own merits, though almost every future iteration has improved upon it. Without it, the video game landscape we know today would be radically different. A lot of people owe a lot to this game, and even today it still makes for a good time.

The gameplay is precise and the jumping is nearly perfect. The level design is, for it's time, varied and fun. Everything about the game memorable from the goombas and turtles, to the power-ups to the music and sound effects. Having not really played this game for the first time in over a decade I was able to navigate its stages practically on muscle memory.

Still, while its importance can't possibly be overstated, you can't argue that given the choice between playing this or something like Super Mario 3, or Super Mario World, or New Super Mario Bros, or Super Mario 64... the former will seldom win. In the end, after all these years, I think the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES is a fine game.

Liked:

- Running through stages is still a blast.
- Music, sounds, monsters and other aspects of this game are timeless.
- Really though, the music. For such an early NES title the music is just so memorable.
- Learning and overcoming the more difficult stages was extremely rewarding.

Disliked:

- World 8 was several steps more difficult in terms of the rest of the game, and it was possibly overkill.
- Hammer Bros...

Personal Score:

Day 1:

If using warp pipes is wrong, I don't want to be right!

...Except that I missed the second set and would up in World 5. Couldn't quite make it the castle and got game over.

You'd think after all the Contra and Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania I'd be able to handle Super Mario with a bit more ease, but no. I forgot how crazy the platforming gets in World 8. Even if you master the precision single tile jumping, timing the piranha plants and avoiding the barrage of Bullet Bills, you still have the crazy RNG of the Hammer Bros! Never mind the bonkers castle waiting for you at the end!

I eventually found my stopping point for the day at 8-3 after nearly an hour of attempts from 8-1. At that point I decided to pass it off to the new guard...

Make me proud kid...

1001 Games - #97

Pros: immensely influential, solid level design, challenging without being unfair, hidden secrets add replay value

Cons: gameplay a bit shallow compared to sequels

Recommendation: a bonafide classic, I'm sure most people have played this at some point. I was never a huge fan of SMB when I was younger (I owned All-Stars and much preferred SMB3) but I've warmed up to it in recent years. If you find classic platformers too tough, newer versions allow saving in between worlds.