Action Video Game/System Review: Game & Watch Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. by Nintendo Research & Development 1 was the twenty-fourth Game & Watch console. It was actually the first game that included both Mario brothers, Mario and Luigi, as it was released before their eponymous arcade game.

It is a frame-by-frame game on a liquid crystal display. In the game, Mario and Luigi work in a factory packing bottles and loading them on a truck. In the unofficial sequel for the Commodore 64, as well as the officially released Game & Watch Gallery 3 for Game Boy Color, the brothers pack up cakes instead of bottles.

Mario is on the right and Luigi is on the left. Mario loads the base on a conveyor belt, it goes through a machine and comes out the other side. Mario and Luigi have to go up and down ladders in order to keep the packages from falling to the ground. When the fully packed items get all the way to the top, Luigi tosses them in a shipping truck. 

In the Game & Watch Gallery 3 remake, Wario also sometimes messes with the process, and Luigi has to pull a lever to the left in order to fix it. Also in the remake, the truck takes off and a new one comes back to start the process again.

Like all Game & Watch games, Mario Bros. is simple. However, despite its simplicity, the game works well on double screens of this version of the Game & Watch system. Game & Watch Gallery 3 is the best way to play it, whether it is on the Nintendo Game Boy Color, Nintendo 3DS, or Nintendo Switch. The addition of Wario throwing a spanner in the works adds more complexity, and the more advanced technology allows for color graphics as well as animation. This is much less remembered than the arcade game of the same name, which is a shame, as this is actually one of the most fun Game & Watch games.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Donkey Kong Jr. review

Mario Bros. Review

Arcade Shoot 'em Up Review: Donkey Kong 3

Donkey Kong 3 ditches Mario and platforming and pits Donkey Kong, and bugs, against Stanley the Bugman.

As with most games of the era, Donkey Kong 3 has a simple plot. Donkey Kong takes over a greenhouse. Stanley uses his bug spray to chase Donkey Kong away and to keep the bugs from ruining the flowers.

It plays like a static shooter. Stanley can run across the floor and jump up and down the platforms at will. Donkey Kong inches down the vines he is on, and Stanley needs to keep spraying him to chase him out of the greenhouse. Making this task harder is multiple bugs that get in the way of his spraying as well as try to steal his flowers. So, Stanley has to spray the bugs that try to take his plants and spray past the bugs crawling on the platforms to shoo Donkey Kong away. Stanley will lose a life if the bugs take all of his flowers. More lives can be earned by reaching 50,000 points.

Once Donkey Kong is chased away in one level and he returns again in the next. There are three levels that repeat with each progressive level getting harder than the last. 

Donkey Kong 3 is acceptable as a concept, but fans didn't take to the game, and it's easy to see why. It is weird that Nintendo followed up two popular arcade platformers with an arcade shooter. Stanley the Bugman was relegated to history, other than in a Game & Watch game, a Hudson Soft shooter, and minor appearances in the Super Smash Bros. games. Like other games in the Donkey Kong series, Donkey Kong 3 has been ported to many platforms. If you want to try it, the arcade version remains the best and, since it was finally released by Hamster for the Nintendo Switch in 2019, is the version to play.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Donkey Kong Junior review

Mario Kart 64 Review

Juggling Video Game/System Review: Game & Watch - Ball

Ball is an important entry in the history of video games as it was the first game in the popular Game & Watch series, Nintendo's first handheld console, and the game that popularized the trend of the LCD frame-by-frame style of game.

The Game & Watch series was conceptualized by Gunpei Yokoi, who is now remembered as the creator of the Game Boy. He got the idea for simple handheld games using a liquid crystal display after watching a man on a bullet train push buttons on an LCD calculator. 

Ball is a juggling game. The balls come toward the character that is now known as Mr. Game & Watch. He has to keep the balls from hitting the ground by hitting them up in the air when they come near his hand. As mentioned above, the game is a frame-by-frame style of game. Balls will move bit by bit on the screen, and the goal is to simply hit the left or right button at the right time to keep it moving. As the game moves on, more balls will have to be juggled, with the speed getting progressively faster.

Today, the original is an antiquated style of game, but it has been remade several times. The first was in the European-exclusive Game Boy Gallery for the original Game Boy. This version simply contained the original Game & Watch game, albeit with slightly improved graphics, such as giving the player character a face. 

In Game & Watch Gallery 2 for the Game Boy Color, Ball is an unlockable game that is available in two versions. The first is the original Game & Watch game with Mr. Game & Watch. In the modern game, the graphics are improved and four playable characters can be unlocked, each with gameplay harder than the last. Yoshi juggles Yoshi eggs, Mario juggles various items from the Super Mario series, Wario juggles balls, and Bowser juggles his various minions. Sometimes bombs will come on screen, and these need to be avoided instead of juggled.

Nintendo released several accurate conversions of Game & Watch games for the DSi, including Ball.

The most recent remake is one of the three games in Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. This version is the original Game & Watch version with either Mario or Luigi with a cheat code. It has the stick figures of Mr. Game & Watch with the head of one of the Mario brothers.

Ball is entertaining in short bursts. The original Game & Watch version is an important game in the history of video games, but it has antiquated graphics and gameplay. The 2010 re-release adds the option to turn the bleep-bloop sound effects off, which is a much-needed addition. The version in Game & Watch Super Mario Bros. is the easiest to obtain as of the time this review was posted. However, despite the addition of Mario or Luigi heads, it still has the same antiquated graphics and gameplay. The best version, by far, is in Game & Watch Gallery 2. The modern mode adds gameplay changes like bombs that make the game a lot less tedious. It's also fun in this version to play through and unlock the characters, with the difficulty increasing as you go. 

The version in Game & Watch Gallery 2 is worthy of recommendation. It's available to pick up on the Virtual Console for 3DS owners, at least until the eShop closes on March 27, 2023.

Addendum, February 27, 2022: Game & Watch Gallery 2 was also released for the original Game Boy console, but only in Japan.

Final Verdict:

3½ out of 5

Platform Game Review: Mario Bros. Special

In the 1980s, Hudson Soft was a huge name in Japan for personal computers. They had ports of their arcade games, and original games, on every popular computer in Japan. In the mid-1980s, before the Nintendo Entertainment System made Nintendo a household name worldwide, Nintendo licensed their arcade games to outside companies to port them to video game consoles and computers. Hudson Soft did do conversions of games for computers, such as their excellent Excitebike port. However, most of their games with Nintendo licenses were far more interesting. Mario Bros. Special is one of those games.

Mario Bros. Special is a very different game from the arcade game with which it shares its name. It shares level music but, unlike Mario Bros., it has a time limit. It also takes the Donkey Kong approach by having a series of four stages that repeat after they are completed. The first of the four stages include moving girders which have to be climbed upon and switches that have to be hit twice to open the stage exit. The second has the familiar Mario Bros. shellcreepers, but they are knocked over by jumping on the trampoline with them on it rather than hitting them from above. The third has girders, but the shellcreepers are taken out in the same way as the trampolines. In the final stage, there are no enemies and the goal is simply to collect all the dollar symbols.

The various computer versions are each the same but differ in colors and sounds, due to hardware restrictions. It's weird that Luigi isn't included, but the fresh take on the Mario Bros. arcade game is a fun idea. The various tasks are all thought out well. However, due to problems with ground detection, Mario will sometimes go right through a platform when he should have been able to stand on it just fine. Due to this, the game is a lot less fun than it should have been.

Final Verdict:

2½ out of 5

Mario Bros. Review

Super Mario Bros. Review

Arcade Fixed-Screen Shoot 'em up Review: Space Invaders

In 1978, Taito released Space Invaders, the hit video game that established the shoot 'em up genre as a heavy hitter within the video game industry.

I first played Space Invaders in 2000 while working on my arcade emulator, LASER. Unlike Lupin III, I had actually heard of this game before because it was a big-name game. It was and still is being ported to, and getting remakes and clones for, just about every platform imaginable.

Like all games on Taito 8080 hardware, it is a relatively simple game. It is a black and white game, although some arcades placed a color plastic overlay over the monitor to give the allusion that there are red and green colors on certain parts of the screen. There are score and life counters, invading aliens, a ship, and bunkers that can be shot through by the player and enemies alike. Some Japanese versions of the game displayed the color parts of the screen with a rainbow plastic overlay.

The object is simply to pilot a ship at the bottom of the screen, which can only move left and right, and to shoot the invading forces before they shoot you. When all the aliens are shot, the screen refreshes and another fleet of aliens need to be dealt with. With each new fleet, the game gets progressively faster. To paraphrase a quote from Lrrr in the animated television series Futurama, instead of shooting where the ships are you should shoot where they are going to be.

There is also very little sound. There is the whirring sound when a bonus ship floats by the top of the screen that can award extra points, the zap sound that occurs when you shoot, and a simple four-note progression that acts as the music. These simple sounds work very well, however, and even the four simple notes that are played throughout gameplay surprisingly work well and don't become annoying with extended play.

The whole game is incredibly simple, but it is far from being tedious. Like Pac-Man, it is one of the early arcade games that truly stands the test of time. I was not born when the game came out and I didn't get a chance to play this game until decades after its release. However, even decades after my first time playing, I will still play it whenever I get the chance. Anyone interested in video games should try it at least once. It is a true classic.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Platform Game Review: Donkey Kong Junior

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on December 19, 2018.

Donkey Kong Junior is the first game that pits Mario as an enemy to the player character. The latter is the titular Donkey Kong Jr., who must rescue his father from Mario, who has caged the gorilla due to his repeated attempts to steal Mario’s girlfriend in the previous game.

As this game stars a primate, there is a lot of climbing involved. Donkey Kong Jr. must climb up vines, ropes, and chains while avoiding the obstacles Mario sends after him such as crocodiles and electrical sparks. He will climb slowly when transcending a single vine, but if he climbs two at once, he will move faster.

The level design is quite well made in this game. It’s still a single screen, like its predecessor, but there are now much more varied obstacles than before, including trampolines and chains that raise and drop in height. Because of this level of variety, I recommend this game even more than the original.

Like the first game, Donkey Kong Junior was ported to many different systems, including the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 8-bit computers, Nintendo Entertainment System, BBC Micro, Commodore-64, VIC-20, Coleco Adam, Famicom Disk System, and Atari 7800.

Also like the first game, outside of the original arcade version, the NES version was the most accurate of the versions. This version was emulated on the Nintendo 64 (in Animal Forest), e-Reader, Game Boy Advance, GameCube (in Animal Crossing), Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Famicom Mini, and the NES Classic Edition.

The game is a classic that deserves to be played by everyone. The best version remains the original arcade release, which was finally officially emulated in its entirety by Hamster as part of its Arcade Archives line on the Nintendo Switch on December 21, 2018.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

Donkey Kong Junior

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Mario

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Mario Bros. Game & Watch Review

Arcade Platform Game Review: Donkey Kong

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on December 8, 2018. It was updated to include newer systems on which the game was included as well as to add links on June 9, 2025.

Donkey Kong was the first game designed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Nintendo of America had many unsold Radar Scope arcade games and asked for a new game that could be shipped as a conversion kit for those cabinets. The management at Nintendo asked designers for game ideas, and the idea by Miyamoto (who had previously designed the case for the Color TV-Game Block Breaker console) was chosen.

The original concept was to be based on Popeye, but Nintendo couldn’t acquire the rights at the time. So, the broad character types were given to new characters. Popeye the Sailor became a carpenter, Bluto became the carpenter’s pet gorilla, and Olive Oyl became the carpenter’s girlfriend.

The carpenter was originally named Ossan, a nickname for a middle-aged man. He was then named Mr. Video, as Shigeru Miyamoto intended him to be an everyman character to use in any game that he created. When Donkey Kong was released, he was labeled Jumpman on the cabinet of the Japanese release of Donkey Kong, and Mario for the North American release. This name, as well as Mario’s Italian-American heritage, came from a man named Mario Segale. He was the landlord of a warehouse which was rented at the time by Nintendo of America.

Mario’s pet gorilla was named Donkey Kong, chosen because the designers wanted to signify that he was a dimwitted creature. In 1984, lawyers for Universal sued Nintendo over the name, which it claimed infringed on its King Kong trademark, but Nintendo won the case. The Nintendo lawyer, and future chairman, Howard Lincoln, noted that Universal themselves proved that the plot of King Kong was in the public domain in a court case against RKO Pictures in 1976.

Mario’s girlfriend was named Lady on the cabinet of the Japanese release of Donkey Kong, and Pauline for the North American release. This name came is said to come from a woman named Polly James, who was the wife of Don James, the warehouse manager at Nintendo of America.

Mario’s trademark hat, overalls, and mustache were designed to overcome the limitations of the hardware of the time. This design made it easy to distinguish his arm and leg movement, as well as his face. It also gave the game a unique aesthetic compared to the other games of the time period.

The object of the game is to have Mario climb platforms in order to rescue Pauline from Donkey Kong. Mario must dodge the barrels thrown by Donkey Kong, as well as other obstacles in the way. Once Mario completes a stage, Donkey Kong will carry Pauline off to the next stage. Each stage is presented in meters, with the game asking Mario how high he’ll be able to get. The four stages are named by height: 25m, 50m, 75m, and 100m. Once 100m is completed, Mario will reunite with Pauline, only for Donkey Kong to kidnap her again and the game will repeat the four levels again. Like other arcade games of the time, the game gets harder as it goes on and the object is to get the highest score.

The game was ported to many systems, including the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 8-bit computers, Nintendo Entertainment System, TI-99/4a, PC Booter, Commodore 64, VIC-20, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Coleco Adam, Famicom Disk System, and Atari 7800.

Outside of the original arcade version, the NES version was the most accurate of the versions, except for the missing 50m, or factory stage. This version was emulated on the Nintendo 64 (in Animal Forest), Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Advance e-Reader, GameCube (in Animal Crossing), iQue Player (in Animal Forest), Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Famicom Mini, and the NES Classic Edition.

A more arcade-accurate version for the NES called “Donkey Kong: Original Edition” was released in 2010 for Wii in Europe pre-installed on red Mario 25th anniversary Wii consoles. It was later released on 3DS in 2012. The NES version was released via emulation on the Nintendo Switch for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers in 2018. It was included via the GameCube version of Animal Crossing via emulation on Nintendo Switch 2 for Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass subscribers in 2025.

The game remains a classic and is worth playing even today. The best version remains the original arcade release, which was finally emulated in its entirety by Hamster as part of its Arcade Archives line on the Nintendo Switch on August 16, 2018.

Final Verdict:
4 out of 5

Donkey Kong Junior review

Arcade Platform Game Review: Mario Bros.

This review was originally posted on the McMurray Internet Channel website on December 15, 2018.

Mario Bros. was the first game to feature Mario's brother Luigi and the first to feature the titular duo as the first and second player.

The game sees Mario shed his carpenter profession and join his brother Luigi in life as a plumber, heading into the sewers of New York City to eliminate all creatures that come through the pipes. The game has two-player cooperative play as both brothers try to take out the creatures together. Unlike the later Super Mario Bros. games, the creatures have to be knocked from below, which will flip them over.  Trying to step on them while they aren't flipped over will result in the loss of one life. The flipped-over enemies have to be knocked off the playfield into the water below by kicking them before they flip back over.

The creatures start off easy, with the shellcreeper turtles, which require only one hit to flip them. The game gets progressively harder, as enemies that require multiple hits, enemies that fly, obstacles that cause ice to form on the ground making things slippery, and many more enemies and obstacles, try to stop the brothers from performing their task.

To ease things a little bit, there is also a POW block in the middle of the stage, which will automatically cause one hit to every enemy that is touching the ground. However, this POW block can only be used three times during a game before it is used up forever.

Like Donkey Kong before it, the game has been released on many different platforms, including Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Apple II, Commodore-64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo Entertainment System, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers.

The NES version was emulated on the Nintendo 64 (in Animal Forest), e-Reader for Game Boy Advance, GameCube (in Animal Crossing), Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, Famicom Mini, NES Classic Edition, and the Nintendo Switch legacy games online service. The gameplay was also included as a mini-game in Super Mario Bros. 3, and a Super Mario All-Stars-style remake was released with the Super Mario Advance games for the Game Boy Advance.

The arcade original is the best version of Mario Bros., and it was finally emulated in its entirety by Hamster as part of its Arcade Archives line on the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2019. Hamster's Switch version is the way to go as it also includes online multiplayer co-op gameplay.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Mario Bros. Game & Watch Review

Mario Bros. Special Review