Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo Entertainment System) Review

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Genre: 2D Platformer

Release Date: Oct 18, 1985

Super Mario Bros. is all the things a platformer game should be.

Gezegond Score: 9.0

Pros: Well crafted, varied levels • The game never asks you do the same thing again • Easy to pick up, Hard to master • Superb gameplay ensures you’ll have a fun time playing the game

Cons: You can’t scroll from right to left • Levels have to be completed in specific time • Later levels are extremely difficult

Like any other platformer game, Super Mario Bros. is all about jumping from one platform to another while avoiding the baddies, but Super Mario Bros. is what started the kind of gameplay we now call “Platformer”. Mario started out his quest in 1981 in an arcade game called Donkey Kong as “Jumpman” (Yes! He jumps) and continued his journey in 1983 with “Mario Bros.”. Now he faces one of his biggest adventures yet in “Super Mario Bros.” as an NES launch title.

In this episode, the Mushroom Kingdom has been attacked by an evil turtle tribe called “Koopa”. Their leader “Bowser” has captured “Princess Toadstool” the only person who can undo all of Bowser’s evil deeds. Now for some reasons it's up to Mario - probably the most loved plumber in the whole world - to save the princess. But saving the princess is not going to be a walk in the park: In order to do that, Mario has to start a quest in mushroom kingdom, avoid deadly traps and enemies, and search for the princess from castle to castle while trying to survive Bowser’s fire breaths.

A red flying turtle between tiny high platforms isn’t something extraordinary in the mushroom kingdom

Luckily Mario is not any regular plumber, he can jump three or four times his height, and he's able to get rid of his foes by landing on them. Furthermore, he also grows even stronger by collecting Items. Items are scattered around the mushroom kingdom, hidden in question marked boxes. Magic mushrooms transform Mario into a double-sized “Super Mario”, letting him smash bricks and land on foes easier. They are also some kind of extra life: if you get hit when you’re big, you become small but you don’t die, and you’ll also become invincible for a few seconds which comes handy sometimes. Fire flowers are only available for super Mario; getting them will change Mario’s color and give him a brand new ability: throwing fireballs. Fireballs go faster than Mario, they’re infinite and they get rid of almost all of his foes. That means everything will become super easy when you become the “Fiery Mario”; if you be careful, there’s nothing to stop you, and you can overcome some enemies that are nearly impossible to defeat in normal form (like the hammer brothers). Starmans are some star shaped “things” that Make Mario Invincible for a few seconds. There are also some rare green mushrooms that will give Mario an extra life. They are hard to find, and even harder to get, because once out of the box, they start moving and usually fall into the abyss beneath the mushroom world. Coins are the basic collectibles in Super Mario Bros. Collecting 100 coins equals 1 life, and since you start off with three lives and lose them easily, they are extremely important. They are either floating in the air, hidden inside a brick-set or inside a question marked box. Brick-sets are some bricks piled up together to form a square, some of them are just floating in air but some form the mushroom underworld (which is accessed by going into a green pipe). Super Mario can crush these brick-sets by jumping and smashing his head into them, which is usually not a good idea because they let you have access to higher grounds, however there are some lucky brick-sets that Mario can get several coins out of them.

Question Marked boxes contain either a power-up or a coin

But no matter how strong Mario gets, Traveling in Mushroom Kingdom isn’t going to be easy. Since the Koopa invasion, the mushroom people have been turned into stones and their lands have been occupied by Koopas. So if Mario is going to save the princess, he has to face the traitor mushrooms called Goombas, flying Koopa soldiers called Koopa Paratroopa, and fire-spitting pirana plants. Mushroom Kingdom is divided into several worlds, each containing four areas. Each world has its own setting, but highly varied levels make sure that you won’t do the same thing you’ve done before over again. Mario will travel through vast green plains, dark underworlds, sea beds, and on top of tall mushrooms in order to find the princess. However once you got through these levels, you can’t go back and you also have to finish each level in a specific time. Since the levels are so varied and they’re full of secrets and bonuses, it’s a pity that you won’t get to explore the mushroom kingdom the way you want. The fourth area of each world is Bowser’s castle, where you have to face Bowser and rescue either the princess or one of her mushroom retainers. These levels can sometimes be really annoying because if you don’t know when a Podoboo (a fireball who is actually one of Bowser’s protectors) is going to jump out of the lava or how to escape from a fireball deathtrap, you lose most of your lives finding the right timing and when you finally know what to do, you barely have any lives left.

In addition to jumping, Mario can also breathe under water

Although the Mushroom Kingdom can be illustrated better even on NES, but since this is a launch title and no game before it was really this good, the graphics can be considered well done, they don’t show any particular vistas but you won’t have any problem navigating through Mushroom Kingdom. The audio isn’t anything special either but it gets along with the mushroom kingdom quite well and is certainly not annoying; and if you play the game too much there’s a good chance for the game’s music to stay in your mind forever.

NES games are famous for their high difficulty level, and Super Mario Bros. is no exception. It’s going to be hard for beginner to complete the first world, and even if you’re a pro, levels beyond the fourth world are extremely hard to pass. The game doesn’t have any save features at all so if you lose all of your lives in the 25th level, you have to start all over again from the very beginning, and it’s nearly impossible to finish the game in a go (However there’s a secret “warp zone” that lets you jump to forth world immediately). Another thing about Super Mario Bros. is that sometimes you find yourself stuck in a certain area, and before you realize what you have to do in order to pass that area, you lose all of your lives and (surprise!) you have to start from the first level again. These moments can be extremely frustrating, enough for you to completely stop playing the game.

But the overall gameplay is superbly enjoyable and fun, and you won’t run into these frustrations too often. Instead you’ll be jumping on some Koopa Troopa, Swimming inside a sea while trying to avoid some angry fish… and well, smashing bricks! It’s guaranteed that you will have a fun time playing Super Mario Bros. and you’re not going to get bored out of this game soon.

Rating Out of 10	Description
7.5	Story-Line Super Mario Bros. has a weird unique story that doesn’t affect the game much but it gives you a good reason to jump on some turtles.
8.0	Graphics Nothing special, but good for an NES launch title.
8.0	Sound Well done music and sound effects, Mario’s jump sound will never be forgotten.
9.5	Gameplay Fantastic. Except for the high difficulty level, there are no flaws in this part and it’s where Super Mario Bros. really shines.
7.5	Replay Value If you happen to complete the game, you can go through the game another time in a more difficult mode, with some changes in enemies (Buzzy beetles instead of Goombas) and some additions.
9.0 Superb	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

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