Super Mario Bros. is a hugely influential game as well as the game that made the Nintendo Entertainment System a worldwide sensation. The graphics are no longer a technological marvel, but the gameplay remains as easy to pick up and enjoy as ever.
The story is very simple. The one presented in the game is simply that Mario travels through various worlds to save the princess from the Koopa King. The manual provides more context. Bowser, King of the Koopa, invades the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnaps Peach, Princess Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom. King Koopa unleashes his minions upon the kingdom and magically turns its inhabitants into objects such as blocks.
An Italian plumber named Mario, and optionally, his brother Luigi, travel from Brooklyn to the Mushroom Kingdom. There, they travel across eight different worlds within the kingdom and collect power-ups to defeat enemies standing in their way, on their quest to rescue the princess.
The side-scrolling platforming gameplay feels very responsive and the jumping is neither floaty nor abrupt. The layout of the game's eight worlds and twenty-four levels are excellent. The game starts with an easy-to-complete ground level, which gives Mario each of the power-ups available in the game, a mushroom that will make Mario grow in height, a fire flower that allows Mario to shoot fireballs, a Starman which makes Mario temporarily invisible, and a 1-UP mushroom that gives Mario an extra life. Extra lives can also be earned by collecting one hundred coins which can be found on the ground, in the air, or inside blocks.
The tutorial level is followed by levels incrementally increasing in difficulty, including an underground level, a level set on platforms high above the ground, and a castle level with a boss to defeat, followed by an underwater level to start the second world. It's a very excellent set of levels to start with, as it gives the player an overview of all the types of worlds in the game before the difficulty level raises too much.
The worlds have a varying amount of the level types above, but the fourth, and last, level of each world contains a castle with a lava and fire motif. In order to get to the final boss, the player must travel on the correct path. Which path is traveled is indicated with a sound effect. The correct path earns a chime while the incorrect path is indicated with a buzzer. In the first seven castle levels, various minions disguised themselves as their boss, Bowser, King of the Koopa. The false Bowsers can be defeated either by using fireballs with the fire flower powerup or by hitting a switch behind the false Bowser. The latter will take the bridge out under the false Bowser's feet, causing him to fall into the lava below.
There are also warp pipes hidden in the game, which can be accessed to skip levels and warp right to a level at a further point in the game.
At the end of each of the seven castles is a dungeon, where Mario discovers one of the many Mushroom Retainers that inhabit the Mushroom Kingdom. Each tells Mario the words that have since become a meme - "Thank you Mario. But our Princess is in another castle".
The fourth level of the eighth world, which is the last level in the game, has Mario fighting against the real Bowser, who is defeated in the same way as the false Bowsers. After this, Mario rescues Princess Toadstool. She then gives Mario the option to try a new quest, wherein she is kidnapped again, but Mario must defeat tougher enemies to rescue her.
The game received enhanced remakes by Nintendo several times. These remakes are faithful to the original game but have been adjusted with the capabilities and limitations of the system on which it was ported. The first remake was in Super Mario All-Stars for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which enhanced the graphics and music to be consistent with the other Super Mario games available on that system. The second was Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. This was a faithful port of the original NES game, complete with the same graphics and sound. The difference was that the Game Boy Color screen was a smaller resolution than that of the NES. Thus, the screen follows Mario. The fact that the top and bottom of the screen may not be visible at any given time makes this version slightly more difficult than the original. It also had a partial remake for the Japan-only Sattelaview online gaming platform for the Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the SNES) that was released weekly and included the level map from Super Mario Bros. 3 onward. Since it was only available for a limited time in Japan, and, as of this writing, not all of the weeks have been found and restored, this version of the game is not a viable option.
Super Mario Bros. is a seminal video game that was hugely influential to the entire video game industry. It deserves every accolade it gets. The gameplay is timeless, as anyone can pick it up and play, even today. For those who prefer SNES-style graphics, which are still popular with indie game developers to this day, the Super Mario All-Stars version might be worth playing instead. The level design is fantastic, and the jumping controls are tight, but not too much so. I highly recommend this game to anyone, as it's a fantastic game and is a great game to play for both beginners at platform games as well as experts.
Addendum January 28, 2023: There is also an arcade version for the PlayChoice-10. This version is identical to the NES version, except there is a time limit in place where the game will quit when time runs out.
Final verdict:
5 out of 5
| Mario Bros. Special Review | VS. Super Mario Bros. Review |
No comments:
Post a Comment