Super Mario Bros. | Review

Super Mario Bros. is a game that needs no introduction, it's perhaps the most recognisable video game of all time. It's a 2D platformer released on the NES in 1985 and it's among one of the games that popularised the platforming genre on home consoles.

Everyone knows who Mario is, everyone knows what he does, everyone knows the music and most people who are avid gamers know the first levels of this game inside out. Having said that, a lot of people (that aren't avid gamers or that simply don't play retro games) may not have actually played the original game and those that have may not have played it to completion. So this review is going to talk about the game as a complete entity and give an opinion on whether the game holds up today, or whether it's dated and should be left as naught but a pleasant memory.

Despite being very basic, this is also probably one of the most iconic game title screens of all time.

As with pretty much every platformer in existence, the story is very minimal. We follow the adventure of Mario (and if you're playing two player, Luigi) as he traverses the Mushroom Kingdom and tries to rescue Princess Toadstool from the clutches of the evil Bowser.

On his quest, Mario will keep entering Bowser's many castles hoping that Princess Toadstool is somewhere inside, but for the first seven castles Mario will instead find Mushroom Retainers who have also been kidnapped by Bowser.

But finally after rescuing all seven of the Mushroom Retainers and completing the eighth castle, you defeat Bowser once and for all and finally rescue Princess Toadstool.

The end of the game is quite sudden and after this screen it just suddenly goes back to the title screen which is a little anticlimactic, but hey, it's an NES platformer from 1985, you can't expect too much story-wise!

Not having much of a story means that Super Mario Bros. needs to stand out by having good gameplay and it not only has good gameplay, but varied, fun and rewarding gameplay too.

The basic structure of the game involves you simply getting from the left side of a level all the way to the right side where you'll find a flagpole and slide down it which moves you to the next level. But stopping you from getting to the flagpole are many obstacles.

The most deadly of these obstacles is simply falling down pits which will make you lose a 1-up. At the start of the game these pits are fairly easy to avoid, simply being small holes which you can jump over with minimal effort, however, later in the game they will be positioned in more awkward places, they'll be larger (requiring you to master running and jumping at the same time) and there will be more enemies around them.

Enemies? I hear you ask? Not only are the pits out to take away your precious 1-ups but also, a plethora of enemies are out to get you too and this is where Super Mario Bros. starts to become something more special than a standard platformer.

Enemies can be killed in multiple different ways, but the best attack in the game is the fireballs.

The enemies all look very different, respond differently to attacks and have different movement patterns. The Little Goombas are the most iconic and the easiest enemies in the game, they are little red mushrooms with angry faces that move left and right (and fall off ledges if they are positioned on one) and can be killed easily with a jump attack or a fireball. Koopa Troopas are the next step up, these are the main soldiers of the evil Turtle Empire. After being jumped on, rather than simply dying like a Little Goomba would, Koopa Troopas get into their shells and move in the direction you knock them in, the shells can be used to kill other enemies but the moving shell can also harm you, making it somewhat risky trying to kill them (a fireball will kill them just like a Little Goomba though).

The hardest enemy type in the game is the Hammer Brothers, these turtle enemies work in pairs most of the time and have the ability to jump and throw hammers at you, not only this but when they're holding hammers ready to throw them, you can't jump on their heads. This would be fine if there was a pattern to the way that they throw hammers and jump but it's completely random, you could try running under them as they jump or you could try to jump over them while they are standing still, but running under them is hard to do because you don't know when they're going to jump and jumping over them is a risk because they can throw their hammers at you. Luckily they go down easily if you hit them with a fireball.

I'm not going to go into detail about every enemy type because there are quite a lot, but each enemy will do something slightly different and require a different strategy to get past or defeat and it's this (along with how enemies are implemented into the level design) that keep the gameplay feeling fresh throughout.

Mario isn't completely defenseless and can power himself up with the aid of several items, the most common of which being a Magic Mushroom which will increase Mario's size and make him able to get hit by an enemy without dying. Another benefit of the Magic Mushroom is that you will now be able to break certain blocks which enable you to take alternate paths through levels sometimes.

Power-ups can be found by jumping below blocks and hitting them, the power-up will then pop out of the top and move around (depending on which power-up it is) meaning even if you find one, it's not certain you'll be quick enough to grab it.

The Fire Flower is the most useful power up in the game, all Magic Mushrooms will turn into a Fire Flower if you have already collected a Magic Mushroom, basically meaning that there are three levels of power Mario can achieve, the first is normal Mario, then it's Super Mario (after he has collected a Magic Mushroom) and finally it's Fiery Mario which happens after collecting a Fire Flower. Being Fiery Mario means that he can take one hit from an enemy before turning back into normal Mario, but the advantage of the Fire Flower over the Magic Mushroom is that it also gives him a secondary attack; shooting fireballs. This is useful for killing almost every single enemy in the game (aside from Buzzy Beetles which are basically Koopa Troopas but just resistant to fire). You're going to want to keep this power up for as long as possible.

The final power-up is the Starman which will grant you temporary invincibility, you'll be able to run through enemies without a care in the world. But... While you're Invincible Mario you can still lose a 1-up from falling down a pit, so you still have to be somewhat careful while in this state.

You can also find 1-up Mushrooms and Coins, the 1-up Mushrooms are self explanatory, they give you an extra 1-up upon collecting them, and the Coins also give you an extra 1-up, but only after collecting one hundred of them. So if you're planning on actually finishing Super Mario Bros. you're going to need to collect as many as both of these as you can. The only problem with this being that the 1-up Mushrooms are extremely hard to find. Most of the time they'll be in blocks that are either invisible or that you would never think of touching and this is one of the main things that makes this game so difficult.

The amount of things you need to keep your eye on while timing jumps can make things get very hectic and because Mario can only handle at most two hits, it's important to not let anything touch you.

Yes, although Super Mario Bros. has a child friendly aesthetic and it's controls are as simple as can be, it's an extremely hard game to complete. Some sections require very precise platforming skills, you lose a 1-up if you get hit two times (even as Fiery Mario) and some of the enemies are extremely difficult to get past (I'm looking at you Hammer Brothers). This wasn't uncommon for this era of games, other classics such as Contra, Castlevania and Mega Man were also very tough to beat and the reason for this is because they are actually very short and made up for this by being difficult (to make it so you still get a lot of time out of it. This is the same reason scores existed in a lot of games back then, to make you play it more to beat your old scores). Personally, I like the difficulty of Super Mario Bros. and I imagine people who played the NES when it was new liked it too, sure it's frustrating, but when you finally get past that level you've been stuck on for hours, it gives you a sense of satisfaction which doesn't exist in most games today. However, even though I like the fact that this game is hard, I can see this as being something that would put some people off.

It isn't all about running and jumping to the end of each level either, some levels take place in underwater sections which not only changes the visual style and level theme which keeps things interesting but it also introduces a new control scheme and new enemies which makes these levels stand out a lot. The D-pad still functions in the same way it does on land, but Mario is now able to move up and down by tapping the jump button to float and not touching it to gradually sink. This adds some new challenges because even though you have more freedom of movement, you also need to plan ahead more, if there's a Blooper enemy near the bottom of the screen do you have time to get over it before it rises up and hits you? Or should you psych it out by moving above it and then quickly going underneath? These levels are similar enough to still feel like you're playing Super Mario Bros. but different enough to add a bit of variety.

The game's backgrounds are always either black or blue but because of the different things in the foreground it doesn't get too repetitive visually.

The game's structure is very simple and easy to understand. There are eight worlds each consisting of four levels and on the forth level of each world is a Bowser Castle which will test your platforming ability more than the previous levels did. At the end of the Bowser Castle you'll face off against an incarnation of Bowser and rescue a Mushroom Retainer (apart from in world eight where you rescue Princess Toadstool). There is no world map and no level select (until completing the game), upon ending a level it will transport you directly to the next level so you have to go through the whole game in one run.

One of the features of the game that adds replayability is the score system which was popular in the NES era of games. For killing enemies, doing levels as quickly as possible and reaching high up on the top of the flagpole at the end of each level you'll be rewarded varying amounts of points, if you've mastered the game and can finish it effortlessly you can keep playing it to see what the highest score you can get is or you can compete with friends to see who can get the highest score. Despite being pointless in terms of actually affecting the gameplay in any way it's a nice thing to concentrate on as an extra. Something that perhaps could have been added is making it so when you get a certain score you get a 1-up.

Another thing which adds replayability is the inclusion of a new game plus mode. After rescuing Princess Toadstool you're presented with a new quest which changes some enemy types, changes the sizes of certain platforms and adds additional obstacles. Needless to say this makes the game much harder and it's already quite hard to finish to begin with so this mode is very good for challenging even experienced players and it's a good reward for finishing the game rather than just ending and nothing happening.

By going down certain pipes (and climbing hidden vines) you can enter bonus rooms, which skip some of the main level and give you lots of coins which you're going to need for the extra 1-ups.

The primary negative thing I have to say about Super Mario Bros. is the fact that the boss battles in the game are all almost identical to each other. For the first seven worlds you fight a Bowser Impostor then in world eight you fight the real Bowser and these fights get gradually harder as the game progresses which is good, but fundamentally they're exactly the same. You jump over or go under them (or alternatively throw fire balls at them) and cause the bridge to fall which kills them and that's it, they're dead and you move on to the next level. More obstacles appear on the screen and Bowser moves faster each time you face him but it would have been a lot better to face more than just Bowser. Big versions of all of the enemies you face in the normal levels would have been awesome and having Bowser as just the final fight would have made him more foreboding and threatening.

The two player option basically means that when player one loses a 1-up, player two will then get a turn to play the game from the start until they lose a 1-up and then player one will take over from where they first lost their 1-up. It's a nice feature to have, but the game would have been just as good without it. Simultaneous two player would have been great, but because of the speed you move at it probably wouldn't have worked very well. But just because it doesn't appeal much to me doesn't mean other people wouldn't appreciate it.

There's no save feature in the game which you'd think would make the game hard to complete because of the difficulty and the lack of 1-ups, but there's a code which allows you to continue from the world you died on (simply hold the A button as you press start on the main menu after getting a game over). Using this code still gives you a penalty for dying (because you may need to do the whole world again) but it's not as harsh as starting the whole game again. There are also warp pipes hidden in certain levels which can take you to later worlds which skips huge parts of the game (the most famous of which being in world 1-2). So even though it doesn't have a save feature, it is somewhat forgiving by not making you do the whole game again after getting a game over or turning the NES off.

The later boss levels require some extremely good timing and a lot of luck to get through without taking a hit. Bowser and the later Bowser Impostors basically turn into a harder version of the Hammer Brothers, as if Hammer Brothers needed to be harder.

Each level is on a timer which quite rapidly counts down from 400 and if you spend too long on a level and the timer runs out, you'll be instantly killed and have to start the level again. This seems annoying, but it hardly ever gets in the way, the levels are designed to be moved through quickly and exploration mostly consists of just checking to see if you can go down pipes or not. However I do think that it's slightly unnecessary because all it does it adds pressure when pressure isn't really needed. The timer concept is a lot worse in the newer Mario games because they have a much greater emphasis on exploration and it appears to only be there because it was in the original games and now 'has' to be there just because it was in the old games.

The controls are simple but this works extremely well for a game of this type. They don't need to be anything more complicated and it's easy to pick up and play even for a child. The D-pad moves Mario left and right, the A button makes him jump and the B button makes him dash and throw a fireball (if you have a Fire Flower).

I do have some issues with the controls but these are only minor complaints because you can get used to them very easily. Mario is momentum based (meaning he doesn't go to his top speed straight away when running and needs to accelerate) and this can make the controls feel slippery at times because he also takes a slight amount of time to stop running which can result in some annoying deaths if you haven't played it before or can't remember what it feels like.

Some levels feature a spring object which Mario uses to bounce to massive heights and jumping on these properly is extremely awkward. Luckily there aren't too many in the game but even though I understand how they work I never quite trust that they are going to function properly. You have to press the jump button as the spring pushes Mario up but the timing is quite precise and I feel like this could have been made to feel a lot smoother.

You need to press the jump button right as the spring moves back up after jumping onto it, but sometimes it just seems to not work and you do a tiny jump and fall straight into a pit.

Despite being an early NES game I think the graphics are really good. While it's not the most detailed NES game, it still holds up today. Everything is vibrant, there's variety, everything is clear and the enemies are charming and unique. You never die because of not being able to see an enemy and you never lose track of where Mario is.

The level themes are varied, going from outdoors and sunny, to night time, to a cave, to underwater, to jumping on giant mushrooms and to castles. Although there's a lot going on theme-wise there is quite a major thing that I feel makes everything feel a bit dull in some levels...

What is this major problem I have you ask? Well, it's the music. Obviously the music in Super Mario Bros. is perhaps the most recognisable music in any video game that exists and probably always will be. Not only is it recognisable but it's also fantastic, it suits the style of the levels perfectly with the bouncy rhythm of the Overworld Theme matching the way Mario jumps across gaps and on enemies, the mysteriousness of the Underground Theme matching the dark atmosphere of the caves while retaining elements from the first track, the Underwater Theme sounding floaty which matches the way Mario can now move vertically. Every track is absolutely perfect and sticks in your head long after playing the game. So where's the problem?

Well there simply isn't that many tracks in the game, there's approximately ten overall but that's if you include the jingles which are extremely short, if you only count the songs which play continuously during actual gameplay there's only five, and five tracks for a game which has thirty-two levels isn't a lot. It just gets a little bit repetitive at times (though I have to say, this helps them to stick in your head).

Speaking of sticking in my head, the Hammer Brothers will forever stick in my head as some of the hardest platformer obstacles ever.

Most things in the game have a unique sound effect, if there wasn't any noises the game would feel very empty and each action would be unrewarding but luckily jumping, hitting blocks, the bouncing of a Koopa Troopa shell, entering a pipe and collecting items/power-ups all make an individual sound effect which is brilliant because it makes everything you do feel more satisfying and responsive.

So, does Super Mario Bros. hold up today? Of course it does, why do you think it's so popular? The fantastic characters, level designs, simple controls and interesting power-ups make this game stand out as a true classic and it's obvious as to why its so loved the world over and why it's a franchise that still stands strong today. It's uncomplicated, easy to pick up and play but also has that difficulty and depth to make you keep playing.

7/10

Pros

- Easy to grasp the basics but builds on those simple foundations and gets more challenging in the later levels.

- Variety of level themes is great for such a short game.

- The music is fantastic, memorable and matches the level design perfectly.

- Enemy designs are great and they 're all mechanically different too, adding challenge and variety to the gameplay and giving the game itself a lot of charm.

- Power-up system is great and more creative and rewarding than a simple health bar.

Cons

- Controls can feel slightly slippery and the spring item is awkward to use.

- Although the music is amazing, there isn't enough of it and this can make some levels feel a bit repetitive.

- Boss battles are all almost exactly the same, even though they get more challenging as the game progresses, the method you use to defeat them is identical in each fight. They're also visually identical.

- There aren't enough 1-ups (at least not obvious ones) which makes it slightly annoying when you die in later stages and have to either start the game again or start from the beginning of the world.

- The levels should have actual names as opposed to just 1-1, 1-2, etc.