Mario Bros.

The Good
Many kids who owned their first Nintendo console back in the day grew up playing Super Mario Bros., a platform game that was revolutionary in many ways, aptly named because it starred an Italian plumber named Mario and his sidekick brother Luigi. What they probably didn't know that the duo already featured in another game two years earlier. It was called Mario Bros., and it was right up there with the other games that had a simplistic plot released at the time.

You must get rid of creatures that emerge from the two pipes located at the top of the screen, and make their way down toward the bottom of the screen. This is done by bumping the platform they are on to flip them over, and then kicking them down to the bottom of the screen.

Shellcreepers, the first creature you deal with, are easiest to get rid of; but various enemies after that are either more difficult to kill or pose more of a threat if they are not dispose of quickly. Slipice, for instance, has the ability to turn platforms into ice which may cause Mario or Luigi to skid on them, possibly right into creatures that happen to be on the same platform as you.

As you progress through the game, the number of creatures increase and complications will arise. Perhaps you just flipped over a Shellcreeper and a Sidestepper on one of the left platforms and you want to knock then down into the sewer, but then you have to run away from the green whirly thing that suddenly appears and stops you from doing this. Once it's gone, the creatures flip over again before you have a chance to reach them.

That's where the blue POW block comes in. One hit of the block and creatures that are already on the screen flip over, and the other hazards disappear. Even better is the simultaneous two-player option, which was new to games at the time. One player controls Mario, while the other controls Luigi. Not only do the players help each other, but the POW block is not wasted and the level is finished quickly. Alternately, one player can make it hard for the other to succeed

There are some nice touches to the game. The blue splash of water that appears whenever a creature is knocked down to the bottom of the screen gives the impression that the game is set inside a New York sewer. I like how the player can distort the appearance of the platform just by bumping into them. I also like the simplistic controls where one button on the joypad does it all.

Mario Bros. can also be used as a “score attack” game, in that you see how much you can score in one game without running out of all your lives, then try to beat that previous score in the next game. I managed to get over 100,000 points, which is the highest score I got so far, and I got up to Phase 20 on top of it. It must have been all the popcorn I ate that night!

The Bad
After 20,000 points, you are awarded one extra life and that's it.

The Bottom Line
Some reviews compare this game to Joust and I can understand why. The layout is the same, as well as the feature where enemies are incapacitated if they are bumped, and you have to make contact with said enemies to kill them. I am not a big fan of the game, as you are required to hit the flap key as fast as you can to deal damage with the ostrich, resulting in RSI at times. Mario Bros. makes my job easier.

The Nintendo Entertainment System may have been bundled with Super Mario Bros. to introduce its owners to true platform gaming. But if they want pure simplicity, then they can just get this game.