Super Mario Bros.

aka: Mario 1, SMB, Super IrmĂŁos, Super Mario Brothers
Moby ID: 7298

[ All ] [ Arcade ] [ Game Boy Advance ] [ NES ] [ Nintendo 3DS ] [ Nintendo Switch ] [ Wii ] [ Wii U ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 90% (based on 38 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 343 ratings with 17 reviews)

the great-grandfather of all platform games, and still a blast to play today

The Good
--> Simple, colorful, but effective graphics

--> Great music and sound effects (yeah, I know it's the NES, but what true gamer doesn't find themselves humming the SMB theme now and again?)

--> Great level design

--> Simple, fun gameplay, entertaining even to the day in the fact that it is simple and challenging simultaneously

--> Was revolutionary when released, nobody had ever witnessed anything like it, helped put Nintendo on the map

The Bad
umm.....hmm....can't say there is anything I don't like, a classic even to this day. If you haven't played this game you must have lived under a rock for your entire life, everybody and their sister has beaten this title at least once it seems.

The Bottom Line
A simple to control platform game that remains entertaining today, and served as the predecessor to a certain high speed hedgehog, tie-wearing ape, and countless others.

NES · by Ryu (50) · 2003

Behold
the game that saved an industry!

The Good
The art direction on the first Super Mario Bros. (SMB) game was both memorable and adorable. Mushroom men, turtle troopers, fire flowers, breakable bricks, giant plumbing pipes
it all added up to something like a slightly industrial twist on “Alice in Wonderland.” And a twisted fairy tale is at the heart of this game, so that makes perfect sense. Mario was playing the role of animated anti-hero long before anyone even dreamed of Shrek!

Just as important as the art was the fabulous music. If you were to hum the overworld and underworld themes to SMB in public, the odds are good that somebody within earshot would recognize them. The sound effects were both realistic and satisfying. Smashing bricks really sounds like smashing bricks, and the happy-cool noises that accompany mushrooms, fire flowers, invincibility stars, and other goodies you find add to the simple joy of discovering them.

Of course, I would be remiss not to praise SMB for its elegant and incredibly innovative design. SMB was truly the harbinger of a new era in arcade games. Gone forever were the days of single-screen playing fields and their compressed, suffocating feel; from then on, arcade gamers would expect to scroll through an entire world of fun and fantasy. (Of course, big props must also go to David Crane’s landmark Pitfall games for pointing the industry in this direction.) Moreover, it showed that a video game world could benefit greatly by having destructible environments. Except for Asteroids and Lode Runner, I can’t think of any early action-arcade title that let you smash things up as much as SMB did.

While mostly linear, SMB still gave the player considerable freedom within that linear structure. Most levels featured hidden areas and alternate paths to victory, and “warp zone” pipes let you bypass entire worlds and advance much faster—the downside being that you couldn’t gain the extra lives and other rewards in the bypassed areas. But those warp paths were just the tip of the iceberg as far as secrets and “easter eggs” were concerned. Just when you thought you had uncovered SMB’s secrets, you’d play the game with somebody else and they’d show you something new. Magical stuff, and I can’t recall playing anything like it that preceded it.

Younger gamers might have difficulty grasping how revolutionary all of this stuff seemed back in the day, but take my word for it: video games felt vastly different after Super Mario, and this surely played a big part in reviving the industry after the great Atari bust of the early 1980s.

The Bad
No game is flawless. Even the great SMB is no exception to this rule. For one thing, it can get repetitive. That’s not uncommon for arcade games, and SMB holds up better than almost any other game of its era, but it’s still a problem. How many times did we really need to hear that our princess is in another castle? More seriously, it would have been nice if the action didn’t always have you running in the same direction. Even Link is a lefty, so how come Mario only gets to go right?

From the perspective of any mediocre platform gamer (that’s me!), SMB was a bit hard. The early levels were rather unchallenging, but from World 5 on things get significantly harder. I’ve beaten the game without cheating, but believe me, it did not come easily. For most games I’d probably say it wasn’t worth the effort. If you are struggling with this one, then I’d say that playing with a Game Genie might be a good idea. It would be sad for any dedicated retro gamer not to explore the later levels just because his reflexes aren’t quite up to the task.

Finally, a word on multiplayer. I don’t use multiplayer in most games, but I did use it quite a bit with SMB (my lucky cousins had this game long before I did). It was ok, but the sequential nature of it seemed a bit of a waste. You spent lots of time watching the other person play—especially if they were good—which could get boring fast. After the simultaneous multiplayer of Mario Bros., the IGO-HUGO of SMB seems like a bit of a step backwards. It probably wasn’t at all practical at the time, but a cooperative play mode could have been a blast.

The Bottom Line
If Super Mario Bros. had not been made, would another game have come along to save the home video game industry? Probably. Still, SMB is the game that actually DID save the industry. It still holds up well today, and so it deserves all of the accolades it gets—and more.

NES · by PCGamer77 (3158) · 2008

Number 1 reason to visit friends

The Good
The only game console our household ever had was a SEGA Master System. So I never got to play this gem at home. Luckily however some friends and acquaintances owned a NES and of course Super Mario Bros.!

I started playing Super Mario Bros. in the early nineties and it hadn't yet aged a single bit. And in fact if I play it now it still stands the test of time quite perfectly. Everything about the game is charming, the characters, the world, the sounds. And it all plays rather fluently. You can control Mario while in the air and he has to break when he has a lot of momentum. This makes Mario much more like a real character than some older games, where it felt much more as if you were just moving a sprite left and right. Mario has a great variety of moves which all have their uses in various puzzles and enemy encounters.

The graphics are quite amazing and very clear. Enemies have distinctive looks which allow you to quickly see what harm they might do and how to get rid of them. The sound is just as great with a tune worth remembering and the pleasant ping when you collect coins.

The Bad
The game can get rather frustrating. Especially when it comes to tricky jumps with low ceilings. It can be quite frustrating to die near the end of a level and have to do it all over again. Luckily there are quite some lives to be gathered so that you won't easily go game over.

Most of these bonus lives, however, are in secret areas or boxes however and finding those is kind of random. After a couple playthroughs you know how to find a lot of the secrets, but then you actually don't need it so much anymore. It was a great conversation topic in the 10 years after its release, though!

The Bottom Line
I doubt there are many gamers who've never player Super Mario Bros. or one of its sequels, so there is not much left to say.

By the time I first touched a console Super Mario Bros. 3 had already been released and that game always had my preference over the first. But that doesn't mean that it isn't one of the best games ever created. There is very little about this game that isn't absolutely amazing. This is one of those games that everybody, both young and old should have played at least once in his life, because it'll never get old.

NES · by vedder (70669) · 2008

The first jump heard around the world.

The Good
From the opening music and the first coin to the music that plays whenever you die, this game is a classic. A staple of nearly every friend of mine growing up, I played this game many different times without ever actually owning a Nintendo myself.

This was the game that everyone had. Go to a friend's house and check their collection, and odds are within minutes you will playing either this or trying to shoot that dang dog that pops up in Duck Hunt.

The Bad
This game is a classic in every sense of the word. And is a great example of what true gaming is like: simple and fun. The only complaint I have with it is that you can't save your game, so I never once had the time to beat it growing up.

The Bottom Line
Mario must go in search of the Princess. To do so, you will control Mario as he jumps Goombas and Turtles, while upgrading himself with mushroom and flowers. You can also collect coins to win extra lives to continue the game.

NES · by STU2 (52) · 2005

Your princess is in another castle

The Good
It is the father of them all, little younger than I, and the first videogame I played. If I had to explain its appeal, I would put it down to colourful and tangible-looking graphics, catchy music (who can't hum the music of at least the first two levels?), great sound effects, but above all incredibly fast-paced and addictive gameplay. Whether you are climbing stairs, jumping to moving Meccano-like platforms in the underground, or swimming almost unrestricted in the underwater level, you will enjoy yourself. The mushrooms that make you grow and flowers that give you the power to shoot fireballs are nice touches.

The monsters are quite remarkable. Goombas, turtles (some with wings!), carnivorous plants... no wonder this game captivated me.

The castle levels are a treat in themselves. Bowser is pretty terrifying, there is lava, and, well, "Your princess is in another castle" has to be one of the most seminal videogame lines. Of course, everything about "Super Mario Bros." is seminal.

The learning curve is very good: the first level is simple, but in later levels, abysses and similar features increase the danger. Regularly timed platforms and monsters mean that the player needs strategic thinking as well as quick reflexes.

After winning, the player gets the option to play again from the start with slightly improved monsters, which is an excellent idea.

And of course, for me at least, this game has the indescribable glamour of being the first ever.

The Bad
Nothing is perfect, and the "Super Mario Bros." series had quite a few things to improve in subsequent issues. For example, the gameplay is very simple. The times when the player needs to think further than just "when is the right time to jump?" are thin on the ground.

The fact that you can't walk back is rather frustrating. Level design also gets a bit samey towards the end.

The Bottom Line
Chances are, if you started playing videogames in the late 1980s, you've played "Super Mario Bros." In that case, I don't need to convince you how good it is.

If you haven't, then what are you waiting for?

NES · by Christina Nordlander (24) · 2005

Surprisingly addictive, yet not without its flaws.

The Good
I just recently came into owning a Nintendo system. Of course, I wasn't a stranger to the likes of Mario and his endeavours in the Mushroom Kingdom, especially not his first. But playing the game now is definitely different from when I played it back at the age of 5. Maybe I just got worse at video games, because it all seemed much easier back then. Or at least, I had less difficulty with things like the Hammer Brother when I was a toddler. I was fully able to just stop, and carefully research their movement pattern, something I had to really torture myself to do now. Now I'm more prone to just run through the level, catching a couple of coins on the way and ending it in a splendid 5000 point flag jump. Unless, of course, I happened to graze my thigh on a Koopa Trooper, who happened to be in the way of my speed run. However, at a younger age I had much more difficulty with all the jumping. I kept falling into the bottomless pits and I almost never got the high flag at the end. So, in the games favour, it has definitely not lost any of its charm in the difficulty department.
And, with higher difficulty, comes the inevitable addiction. I set myself a goal when I got my Nintendo. I was going to finish Super Mario Bros., at least once, without using any of the Warp Pipes. And finish it, I did. But not before pulling out every last strand of hair on my head. I can't even count the number of times I had to start it all over again. And when I finally got to the last castle, and then lost all my lives, I decided it was time to start warping. I justified it with the fact that I'd seen every level the game had to offer. And that's probably more than some people can boast themselves about. The enemies, although simple, are all wonderfully designed. They're entirely witless, presenting you with easy targets most of the time, but each and everyone of them is bound to charm you, at least once. Take, for example, Bullet Bill's endless devotion to staying on track, for what seems like nothing, as he can actually follow you throughout the whole level. If you run slow enough. The music, unlike some of the Nintendo Entertainment System's music, never gets on your nerves. It doesn't have a lot of variety, but it doesn't hurt it either. You grow to love these wonderful tunes for their simplicity. Some of the level design is also pretty great, though not its strongest property. The last four levels, namely the eighth world, were nothing short of awesome.

The Bad
The fact that they reuse a lot of the first levels when you get to the sixth and seventh world really bothers me. There's really a lot of potential in a simple game like this, to make something new in each world. So, huge disappointment there, when I finally get to the seventh world, and I'm presented with an old level with slightly smaller moving platforms. And the level design also falters when they introduce the trick castles, where you have to manoeuvre through what seems to be a very simple level, but you have to take exactly the right route to actually advance in the level. It's neat in concept, but it gets really frustrating when the paths start getting more complex. Maybe someone liked this, but I don't really like trial-and-error that much. Maybe giving you a small hint, as to where you were supposed to go, would've helped. Lack of variety in bosses at the end of each castle was something that annoyed me somewhat, especially in the beginning. But they finally picked up on that in the sixth world, where Bowser, or one of his decoys, whatever, finally receives a hammer.

The Bottom Line
Definitely the same stallion it was years ago, and it's very clear why it spawned this seemingly unstoppable franchise. However, it must be said that it doesn't really offer a lot of variety through its eight worlds, in its levels. It delivers on the enemy front, with a new enemy in almost every world. But the levels start to really grain on you after a while. It's a great romp down memory lane, and a great reminded that complex gameplay isn't really that necessary.

NES · by BigJKO (64) · 2005

THE video game that defines the video game experience of people my age.

The Good
This game started it all for me. I was too young to really get into the Atari. By the time I was 3, this game was already all over the place. It was my first true video game experience. It's hard to explain what it meant to me and my development. Psychologists would say something to do with learning to deal with addiction for the first time. It was the most intuitive, most fun, most satisfying, and most popular game of its time. I grew up with Mario, and I can not imagine my life without him.

The Bad
Those hammer bros in world 8 - 3 always got on my nerves. And once you've beaten the game all the way through twice in a row, it becomes infinite. It never really lets you stop, no matter how good you are. Also, the NES version (as with a lot of NES games that were also arcade games) doesn't save your high score like at the arcades.

The Bottom Line
I think it is beyond my capacity to describe this game to people who haven't played it thousands of times - for it has had such an impact upon the very nature of my being, I have difficult theorizing what it must be like to have been introduced to video games in different circumstances.

NES · by Feem (30) · 2008

A plumber in a kingdom full of talking mushrooms

The Good
What can you say about this game that has not been already said. But i will review this game anyway because i love this game anyway.

The story is very very simple: You play as a plumber named Mario who is in a kingdom called the mushroom kingdom. In this kingdom he has to rescue princess Peach from the evil koopa king Bowser. That is it for the story. Everyone how it goes and every other mario game has the same story anyway so we can talk about the gameplay.

The gameplay is just perfect. the a button is for jumping. the d-pad is for the direction mario is walking. the b button is only there for running if you hold down or if you have the fireflower, you can shoot fireballs at enemies. The controls are simple and easy to understand. Jumping in this game is the most important thing. If you don't jump, you won't come very far. If you run, holding down the b button, you can jump higher and wider which is also very important if you want to jump over huge gaps. During your play, you are going to come across three power-ups . There is the power mushroom which turns mario in super mario. He can take one more hit than usual. Usually if he gets hit as normal mario, he dies. So it is a good thing this mushroom exists. There is also the fire flower. With this you can shoot fireballs at enemies which makes your progress much easier. Occasionally you come across a star in one of the question blocks. This star makes invincible for a short time. The enemies very simple to beat most of the time. The enemies you encounter are for example goombas, koopa troopas, hammer bros. and a few more. Some enemies are easy to beat but some can be annoying especially the hammer bros., which come in pairs sometimes and throwing hammers at you.

The graphics have aged surely but they hold up pretty well even over 30 years later. I really like the simple design and the level design is pretty good as well. My favourite level is still the very first level because is the perfect introduction for a game to get used to the controls.

The soundtrack is legendary. Koji Kondo, the composer for most of the mario games, composed a soundtrack which i will always remember and does not know the music that plays during this game. The overworld theme is probably the most well known video game theme of all time and the rest of these tracks memorable as well although this tracks are very short but the music does not annoy me in this.

The Bad
There are only small problems i have. The jumping is not responsive as it should be. If you are running and you want to jump, the jumping does not always respond and you can fall to death which is annoying but it is only occasionally. The other thing is that those bowser fights are always the same. in the first worlds spits fire at you and later he is throwing hammers at you. I really wished there would be a little more variety in those fights. But other than that i do not have any problems.

The Bottom Line
This game is a classic, i can stress this enough. If you know anything about video games than you have to play this game. It was released in 1985 on the NES and it was released on many other platforms so if you have time in your life, than play this game. You will probably can beat this game in one or two hours. Ho and play it now.

NES · by Lisa MĂŒller (28) · 2018

Really good game.

The Good
This game is very good for its age and is still fun to play alone or with friends(personally I liked Luigi better), and you have to save the princess, Peach. The game can get repetitive sometimes but if that happens you can always use the secret pipes or passage ways.The game is fun fighting and jumping on the enemies and the ability to run saved me a lot of times when I was running short on time. This game is good but nowhere near Super Mario Bros. 3 or Super Mario World.

The Bad
Now that I am older it really feels outdated.

The Bottom Line
Its good fun to play with friends or alone to bring back the good memories. This game changed gaming after E.T. for Atari almost killed it. I end this review with a tribute the lovable song of the first level, second, and boss levels and hum them aloud to salute Super Mario Bros.

NES · by Ryan Johnson (3) · 2005

One of the greatest games of all time!

The Good
Wow, where do I begin. Super Mario Brothers is definitely one of the greatest games of all time and it spawned an ever-growing collection of games. The original is always the best, as we all know, and there's no exception for this game. From World 1-1 to 8-4, you'll have fun all the way. Super Mario Bros. is an excellent game. The gameplay is rocking, the sound is rocking, the graphics are rocking (for it's time of course), everything is rocking! Of course it has its flaws but I'll get to that later. What game doesn't? Anyway, this game is an amazing game in which you play the role of, guess who, Mario! Who would've thought? You have to kill the mushrooms and turtles and collect as many coins as you can, and get to the end, all within the time limit. Face Bowser, Koopa, whatever, in countless battles over and over again. Beat the game and rescue the princess from doom! This game is truly amazing. And it even comes with Duck Hunt! Quack!

The Bad
There are a few things I don't like about this game, small and strange as they may be. I didn't really like the fact that you can't back-track to earlier sections of the course. Sometimes I'll jump to get something and then I can't go back to get it. Oh well. Also, this is just me, but I don't like the fact that it counts the seconds way to fast. I don't know, I guess I'm just weird. That's about it.

The Bottom Line
Super Mario Bros. is the game that started it all, one game to rule them all, one of the greatest games ever, the top dog, the lead man, the best, the head bull, the alpha-male, and all of those other stupid names. It's a great game where you play Mario and have to rescue the princess from sure doom. It's one of the most original games and overall, it's awesome. Three thumbs up and Six stars!

NES · by VortexS130 (73) · 2005

A great 2-D platformer game

The Good
It's addictive, you really want to beat it and it's the original Mario game. You get power-ups like the mushroom and fire flower and fight classic enemies. Each world had 4 levels, the fourth level being a castle. At the end of each castle you have to fight Bowser.

The Bad
Just one thing: When you get game over you must start back from level 1. I can see not starting on the level that you died on, that'd make it to easy, but at least at the beginning of the world you were on (say if you get game over at level 3-3 you go back to 3-1 or something) or as a minimum have a save point once after every 2 worlds!

The Bottom Line
Even though it;s the mother of all Mario games I wouldn't get it. It was a good game when it came out, but nothing compared to Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3. However, I would suggest getting Super Mario All-Stars for SNES because that way you get an upgraded version of this game, Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 and Super Mario the lost levels (which is similar to Super Mario Bros. 1 but with all new levels never before seen). For my rating I'm going to give this game a good rank since its probably the best game of it's time (mid-late 80's) but compared to even the games for SNES it's not very high quality.

NES · by darthsith19 (62) · 2006

The first game I played and beat.

The Good
I found this in my mother's closet while we were cleaning just 11 years ago. I had no idea what this was, but I asked if I could play it and she said yes. I spend an hour playing this, and I didn't want to stop. It was an amazing game, with great graphics, sound, and the music... The MUSIC!!! I loved everything about it, except one thing... But I'll give the game a score of: 89/100.

The Bad
With some YouTubers (like SomeCallMeJohnny)have complained about the controls, I can agree. When you run you bring a lot of momentum, and it takes Mario/Luigi a little while to stop, which can lead to a few deaths.

The Bottom Line
Besides the one complaint about the game, it truly is one of the greatest games ever made. If you're a new comer for video games, play Super Mario Bros. as your first game.

NES · by CaptainN (12) · 2015

Friday 18 October 1985: the Messiah of the console industry is born!

The Good
Where do I begin?

The game immediately hit with audiences, something impressive in 1985, with the video game crash of 1983-1984 still a raw wound for the business. The aforementioned crash was caused by an incredibly high rate of crappy games-- 90+% of games released in '83-'84 are EXTREMELY bad. This game's graphics, sounds and music are almost as good as contemporary Commodore 64 and other PC games. The game play is just awesome, the controls are very specific and friendly. B is jump, A fires weapons when tapped, if held, you can run, and the gameplay is simple but fun: You go from point A to point B on every stage, jump over koopas and goombas, hit coin boxes, and bash other obstacles that get in your way, and jump up the flag for points at the end. Quite often one of the coin boxes reveals a mushroom that allows you to grow to a big Mario, or a flower that makes you shoot fireballs. There are 8 worlds, each with four stages (the last stage has a boss on each world).

The music is just awesome and makes want to hum-along and keep you playing. Even the game-over music is amusing to hear. You won't feel any frustration or disappointments with this game.



The Bad
The level designs get a bit repetitive at times and gets incredibly hard towards the end, but other than that, I have no complaints.

The Bottom Line
Behold, this is the game that pulled the console video game industry out of life support in 1985 and eventually make an impressive recovery. No other game since the early Atari ones has made an enormous impact as this one!

One for your library, and is every cent's worth of your money!

NES · by Stsung (30) · 2008

Hmmmm.... Mushrooms!!

The Good
Looking at this legendary game decades away is somewhat of a futile exercise, as everything good and bad about it has already been penned by anyone from respected critics, to dummies with only a passing knowledge of the game that arguably made Nintendo what it is today... of course, since I have nothing better to do, why shouldn't I indulge in adding my two cents to the fray?

Don't worry, I promise I'll be brief :)

With it's blend of trippy, fantasy levels, cutesy enemies, smooth scrolling and perfectly refined game mechanics (that remain the template for the genre to this day), Super Mario Bros. managed to bring a level of arcade gaming perfection previously unheard of in home-based videogame systems, and provided an original experience unrivaled anywhere. The story has been chronicled everywhere so there's no point in reiterating it, but the results are baffling: with a simple design evolved from the basic run'n jump games that preceeded it, the designers managed to hit that nail of game design that such games as Tetris or even Doom also got: simple, but detailed game mechanics, challenging arcade gameplay supported by a perfect control scheme, smooth graphics and sounds to complement the gameplay, and lots of imagination poured into unique creatures and levels, devious jumping puzzles, etc.

Interesting to note that a storyline is never a big consideration in any case, uh? I'll leave that for someone else to discuss. In any rate SMB manages to be one of the holy classics of gaming due to the sheer FUN it is to play, an enjoyable ride from start to finish as you embark on the rather silly but engaging quest to save the sterotypical maiden in distress as an excuse to sort out the many challenges laid for you on each level and longing for the challenges that awaited you on the next carefully designed level (not a trivial matter, as any game of that era can prove, when advancing levels the games merely recycled what had been done before, adjusting the difficulty or simply speeding up gameplay (see: PAC-MAN) Mario on the other hand offered unique challenges in different settings and with different moods (thanks to the excellent graphics and sounds of it's day, which allowed a full soundtrack whose main theme is nothing short of an anthem for a generation of gamers [myself included in a somewhat uncanny and frightening way, as I'm able to almost mystically recall the tune years away as if it were some type of racial memory!]).

All that plus a lot of strange underlying themes that have always to it's charm when viewed from the warped eyes of an adult mind (Eating a mushroom makes you "higher"? Yeah, like Peyote right? A "flower" that makes you shoot fireballs? Mushroom-People turned into blocks? (which you get to break!) Jumping plumbers?? To this day I wonder just what kind of fumes the developers of these types of games inhaled, either that or the designers where trying to tell us something all along... probably a pro-drugs message of some sort.

The Bad
Probably the only problem with Mario is that as the Mega-blockbuster title of it's day, it was copied and cloned to death, making it so that pretty much every console to this day has to have a cutesy mascot platformer with trippy locales and gameplay based on the same grounds as Mario's (run'n jump through many levels, facing a boss near the end, doing whatever makes him angry three times, and then repeating until you get to the princess or whatever it is you need to find).

The 2P mode was pretty crappy the way I see it, and I also disliked the fact that you had to beat the game in one sitting (reason numero uno for me to hate early console-based platformers) which coupled with the large number of levels made it more of a challenge than I was willing to handle at the time (I mean, C'mon!! You keep rescuing the princess and it's just a stupid retainer over and over again!! What the fuck?? Am I not good enough for her???).

...Oh yeah! And the movie!! BWAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!

The Bottom Line
Just a little game that spawned an entire genre, cemented the most well-known videogame mascot ever, and sold billions of copies worldwide. A pretty good achievement for a company that used to make cards and a game based on the acid trips of a couple of plumbers stoned out of their minds.

NES · by Zovni (10504) · 2005

The Best

The Good
How the Hell do you review Super Mario Bros.? How the Hell do you review the game that started it all? The game that single-handedly brought the gaming market out of a slump to deliver one of the single greatest gaming experiences of all time. Which without we would have never seen the glorious video games that we marvel upon today. Super Mario Bros. is a game deserving every word of praise that I give it here. This game has single-handedly changed so many things in the gaming industry that I don't even know where to begin,

This game has been reviewed so many times over, that writing a review just for the mere sake of recommendation would be pointless by adding my own review. Of course, mine will definitely not be the best, but I write this review out of sheer respect. This game holds a special place in my heart as the first video game I ever played, so I can only hope my words give you readers an idea of how this games transcends almost every other video game made.

Mario has it all. It has the addictive, smooth side-scrolling game play of the arcades and translates it directly to console. No matter how much you play, you can just never put it down. It has the simple yet utterly fun and hypnotic game play that games such as Doom and Tetris brought us. The unique challenge the game provides is so refreshing it makes the game replayable 20 years after its initial release. It's simple enough to learn, but has so much to do and play.

At it heart it is only run and jump, but comes out to be so much more than that. Running through the mushroom kingdom as the mustached plumber just feels natural and utterly satisfying. The controls are tight and refined to make it feel like you're really controlling Mario in the 2D mushroom kingdom. The possibilities of the game are endless, and with its open ended platformer gameplay, there are countless ways you can beat the game with secret passages and shortcuts. You can use items and enemies to defeat the colorful and unique and varied array of foes that stand against you, You have the quick and fast-paced game play that is enticing yet difficult to the very end. The beauty of this is that almost anybody can play the game, whether it's 7 year old boy or the 40-something year old soccer mom looking for something to pass the time.

Players had the abiltiy to traverse the 30 something levels of run and jump fun, that kept getting faster and more challenging as you go. Of course, this was utterly unheard of back then. The open yet random level design allows you to play the level any way you want to, and there are tons of secret passages everywhere, from the simple vine to the clouds above, to the secret warp pipes past the end of every underground level. Every level seems unique because it seems completely random, and this is also where the game gets some of its charm, just the feeling of having to work around the terrain that seems to have no purpose. In modern Mario games it seems like every level is designed so that every thing has a purpose, but the randomness of the level design of this game adds a charm of its own. Plus, you can't ask for more varied levels. It has everything to keep the game changing. Courses such as the underwater levels, the mushroom-top levels, the flying fish levels, and the bullet bill worlds. And of course Bowser's ever addicting castle puzzles.

The game wasn't the first to use the plot which today can be referred to as a bit hackneyed, but this game has the greatest charm with its "damsel-in-distress: scenario, not only by creating levels like castles, but it had the weird, exotic enemies like spikey turtles, flying fish, fire balls, and giant lizards. The crisp graphics were new back in the day when games could only create the thick, blocky graphics that were trademark of the era before this game. The delightful tunes of course continue to enchant us even today, even becoming icons of the video gaming genre itself.

We cannot ignore the sheer magnitude of this game. It takes the smooth, simple, and addictive game play of the arcades and translates it into a game that is essentially considered the best game of all time. Refined and polished to the very end, Super Mario Bros. is not only one of the funnest games of all time but also ceremoniously ushered in a new era of gaming.

The Bad
Hey, there's a reason the title of this review is "the best". I cannot find anything wrong with this game, its just that good. Play the game and you will understand.

The Bottom Line
Super Mario Bros. marks a turn in the history of video games. Setting a new standard for video games, Super Mario Bros. ushered in an era of games with smooth game play, fast and quick challenges, and simple controls, that combines to create an amazingly rich and detailed experience. What is essentially the greatest game of all time, Super Mario Bros. remains playable even to this very date. You are not a gamer until you have played the phenomenon that is Super Mario Bros..

NES · by Matt Neuteboom (976) · 2006

The #1 game NES owners should play

The Good
I remember seeing Super Mario Bros. in a display store, and was amazed on how great it looked. When the game was released in 1985, the game sold 40,000 copies, making it the best selling game of all time. I knew that I couldn’t buy a copy myself since it was exclusive to the NES and I had a Commodore 64. Later on, I was able to buy a copy off someone carrying the same title, and I bragged about my finding in a grade five Show and Tell session, where one of my classmates debated me on the legitimacy of my purchase. Indeed, it was a carbon copy of The Great Giana Sisters with a Mario skin attached to it.

The story goes something like this: the Kingdom of the Mushroom People was invaded by the Koopa tribe led by Bowser who ordered that the people be turned into mere stones, bricks, and even field horse-hair plants, and soon after the Kingdom fell into ruin. Realizing that Princess Toadstool, the daughter of the Mushroom King, is the only one who can lift the curse, she is locked up inside one of Bowser’s fortresses, and it is up to Mario (or Luigi, if the game is set to two-player mode) to rescue her so that the Kingdom is restored to its former glory.

In Super Mario Bros., the object of each level is to run through all 32 levels in a limited amount of time, defeating Koopa’s henchman, while being careful not to fall down the screen. There are boxes with question marks on them, and hitting these boxes will award you with a coin. Collect 100 of these and you’ll receive an extra life. There are pipes you can go down that will lead to a bonus room, filled with coins that will help you reach that magic number. Touching a flagpole at the end of the level allows you to enter the next one.

What sets Super Mario Bros. apart is the way the central character can take three forms. You seem, you start the game as Little Mario, who is vulnerable and isn't able to do much damage apart from jumping on enemy's heads to kill them. Not every box you see has a coin hidden inside, since there is a chance that you will find a mushroom. Getting this mushroom will transform into Big Mario. As Big Mario, you are given another chance if you are hit by an enemy. Assuming you are still Big Mario, you can find a flower that will turn you into Fire Mario, where you are given the ability to launch fireballs at enemies. This sets a precedence in Super Mario Bros. 3, where Mario can take many forms.

The settings for most of the levels varies. In the early levels, for instance, you climb up mountains. Later on, you go underground, and eventually, you get to swim underwater where you get to deal with underwater-based enemies, one of them the Super Mario Bros. equivalent of an octopus. In these underwater levels, having Fire Mario swim up to the surface and bounce a fireball onto an enemy on the other side of a wall is a stroke of genius. There is even a chance that some pipes scattered around each level lead you to another level with a different setting, and these are even worth going down if you are sick of the same setting.

The “real life” physics in the game are amazing. Run right for a long time and don’t expect to stop immediately. I have lost count on the number of times where I noticed the end of a platform while I was running. I slowed myself down, but I fell off anyway. In addition to this, if you want to perform a high jump, expect to get a running start first.

There are three soundtracks in the game, one for each setting. Of these, I enjoyed the underwater music as it is more relaxing than those you hear as you explore the mountains or venture underground, and the underwater music forms the basis for the theme in the US version of Super Mario Bros. 2. Regardless of the setting, each soundtrack increases in speed as you are running out of time.

One thing that I admired was the fact that there are alternate ways you can get through the game. Don't want to risk getting killed by Bowser? Simple, just hurl a fireball at him. Don't want to go to the castle at all? Enter warp pipes that take you to a different world. Happen to be running out of lives? Just bump into those “?” blocks along the way 100 times, or, better still, find a bonus room that has coins galore. It is alright for anyone to avoid these shortcuts if they are playing the game for the first time.

Super Mario Bros. is more than just a platform game, and I say this because there are a little bit of thinking involved in working out how to complete the later levels. Case in point: the final two worlds where you need to make sure you step on the right platforms or go down specific pipes so that the level doesn’t loop. It is worth memorizing this path so that you don't have trouble if you decide to play the game later.

The Bad
I agree with other reviewers here. There is no password system, so Nintendo expects you to complete the game in one sitting

The Bottom Line
Super Mario Bros. served as a pack-in title for the NES, a smart move by Nintendo which contributed to its success. Pack-in titles are not possible today due to the high cost of putting machines together, and if companies included these pack-ins anyway, the machine would cost more than it should.

The game itself revolutionized platform gaming due to its crisp graphics, multiple paths, real-life physics, and support for two players. I agree that the game can be difficult since the player being forced to determine the correct path to take, especially in the later levels. So in conclusion, Super Mario Bros. is the game that NES owners should play, as it spawned a great series.

NES · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚č (43092) · 2019

This game is changing my life

The Good
It's gameplay is fantastic, you can really enjoy it even now, I am playing SMB once per week and I know one thing, it's diamond of games. The simple idea make a real great gameplay experience that is really near to some highest level of purest gaming ever, this game don't have a graphics that will blind you, the mechanics of game are not big and fascinating but playing this game make you feel like playing REAL gaming masterpiece. When you are playing Metal Gear Solid you are enormously excited by it's storyline but Super Mario Bros make you feel that the game itself don't have to have even storyline (cause you can't say that Super Mario Bros have REALLY storyline) or fascinating graphics to be ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES EVER.

The Bad
Maybe graphics are not 100% of NES, maybe there is not many sound effects (but music is really good) but I can't say that I didn't like it in this game because it's not making any difference, the gameplay is so perfect that all this things are marginal.

The Bottom Line
As I said in the title, the game that's changing my life, every time I play it I feel the same, great amount of pure gameplay.

NES · by Mejs (8) · 2007

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Ryan DiGiorgi, RhYnoECfnW, Patrick Bregger, chirinea, Alaka, beetle120, Alsy, Flu, Big John WV, Gianluca Santilio, Jiri Olejnicek, â˜șâ˜șâ˜șâ˜șâ˜ș, coenak, VGManiac101, Tim Janssen, SlyDante, Riemann80, vedder, jumpropeman.