Game Review: Super Mario Bros

Game: Super Mario Bros.
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 13th September 1985

Listen to the game OST as you read

Perhaps the best known game ever, Super Mario Bros is widely considered a classic, if not the most classic video game in existence. For anyone who isn't aware, its a platformer where you play as an Italian plumber who powers up when he eats mushrooms and flowers, and stomps enemies into extinction. The plot of the game is fairly simple, rescue the princess, who is in a different castle to the one you just beat 87.5% of the time.

I think the best way to review such a classic game is to compare it to other games, to see its influence and what made it better than other games of the time. The plot is simple, but that's not so big of an issue in platform games, or even games from the 1980s, as unless you're playing an RPG, you can expect a minimal level of greater understanding of events outside the game. The fact you have a set aim is all that really needs to be taken from the plot.

The powerups are a large part of the game, mushrooms, starmen and fireflowers giving the player a better chance of advancing to later stages. These powerups although few in number are effective and improve the variety in gameplay. The stages also give variety to the game, with underground, underwater, castle and overground levels to explore over the 8 worlds. At 32 stages in total, it beats a lot of platformers of the era, many Master System games having 5-8 stages total.

The enemies in game are varied, as are the ways you have to deal with them, and neutralizing all of the Goombas, Koopa Troopers and other opposition will take some memory and skill. The difficulty curve of the game is good also, its fairly easy overall, especially with repetition or the right powerups. The enemies also play well into the level design, with players facing parts which need good timing and planning to progress. 

New challenges are introduced at regular intervals in the game, and this helps to combat the levels feeling too similar to one another. The musical soundtrack is limited by cartridge specifications to a few themes for overground, underground, underwater and castle levels in addition to the sound effects. The music is a good accompaniment and never really feels out of place, and although there could be more level themes, there's never really a feeling that the game is short on music. 

Graphically the game keeps it simple, partly due to being on the NES of course, but there are other platform games with much more cluttered background and foregrounds. The simple dynamic works well though as the player can clearly see where Mario needs to go, and how to get there. The levels feature some different backgrounds, sometimes as simple as a black sky instead of blue, however overall it gets the job done, and the screen is never too crowded with objects to make a path through to the end.

One of the best platformers in its day, the game still has appeal in the current generation, if only for the fun of seeing how different things were graphically. Pointers any game can take from Super Mario Bros would include gameplay that is easy to pick up, with simple controls and objectives, good level design so that players can find their own way of beating levels and lots of hidden secrets to keep experienced gamers coming back for more playthroughs.

On the whole, although Super Mario Bros now has a lot of competition for the title of best platforming game, it was (one of) the first to have a lot of the elements that make the genre fun. The beginning of an amazingly popular series of games, it doesn't fail to live up to its name, 28 years after release and that has to stand for something. 

Rating: 83/100

Grade: B