REVIEW: Super Mario Bros.

Game: Super Mario Bros.
Original Launch: October 1985
Relaunch: November 2010
Rating: 10 stars


I can hardly imagine a reader audience that would need a basic description of Super Mario Bros. In the event that you are under the age of 8, I’ll tell you that this is a game in which Mario runs and jumps through dozens of levels to defeat Bowser and save the princess. This game is the quintessential archetype of the scrolling platform action genre. Super Mario Bros. is the mold from which thousands of subsequent games have been cast. It is impossible to overstate its importance when discussing modern video gaming.

Every sprite in this game is making $7 million a year in royalties.

Super Mario Bros. (SMB) created or popularized a huge number of video game characteristics. Background music played during game play, scrolling levels that extend beyond a single screen, the entire platform hopping mechanic, swimming levels with alternate control schemes and warp zones that allowed crafty players to skip levels were traits that were popularized by SMB. It also featured tight and responsive controls that allowed for influencing speed and direction in mid-jump and secret rewards designed to emphasize creativity and exploration while traversing levels. These elements may have been used previously, in other platform games such as Pitfall 2, Jungle Hunt or the original Mario Brothers, but SMB elevated them in such a way that it is nearly impossible to point to a NES game since that did not seek to emulate some or all of the elements laid out by SMB.

Total hotness

The music in SMB also deserves particular attention. The tune itself is enduring enough to be catchy to this day and has been rewritten, updated and integrated into dozens of Nintendo titles up to present day. While earlier games did not typically include music during game play, almost all games after had to have it as the bar had been raised. Even if removed from its historical context, the music is wonderful, catchy and thoroughly appropriate for the game.

Anyway, back to the review. Super Mario Bros. holds up remarkably well. The game is still fun and challenging without being old school hard. If you played it back in the day, your hands will still know what to do. If you have never seen it before, then you’ll still have a great time with it. The graphics, sound and control all outshine every other NES launch title by a long stretch. There can be no debate that SMB is king.

In the end, Mario didn’t just save

Seriously, this game needs to be played.

the princess. He saved video games. At the time of the video game crash of ‘84, most retailers thought video games were proven to be a burned-out fad. Interest in the game industry was at a huge low point, and if the NES didn’t take off, console gaming would be set back even further. PCs might be the only way to play games today if Mario hadn’t shown up. And for that, maybe the original Super Mario Bros. deserves another look.



Review in a Haiku
Thank you, Mario.
Twenty five years of castles
and no end in sight.