Super Mario Bros.

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?

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.

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..