Alright, so this is the first time I’ve ever beaten the first Mario on the NES, and after playing a bunch of old games that came out before the first Super Mario Bros, it helped me come to appreciate it to a whole new level. It’s making me interested in doing some kind of analysis on home console games before Super Mario Bros. and after, because just looking through this “History of Famicom” catalog book I got that talks about EVERY game that was made for the Famicom EVER, it’s crazy to see how the first Mario completely turned the gaming world upside down on its head. I won’t go into too much detail for this review, but Super Mario Bros essentially put home consoles on equal playing level with arcades. Not in graphics obviously, but rather in public interest. What would you get a home console for before 1985? To play games from the arcade but at home instead! Sure, these consoles had their own unique games that you might not be able to find at arcades, but the point was to emulate the arcade experience, so the majority of games focused on exactly that. One screen, maybe several if you’re lucky, with usually the same goal: get the highest score!
The only game I feel I can closely compare Mario to from before it came out, is the arcade game Pac-Land. They’re both side-scrolling platformers that feature a silly little guy running to the end of each stage to move on to the next. But Mario took that formula and made it like… good. Really good in fact! Absolutely excellent! Pac-Land isn’t bad by any means, but having to move right and left with two big red buttons instead of a convenient joystick or D-pad is hard to adjust to, and after playing Mario, feels so awkward.
Super Mario Bros itself has aged wonderfully. The controls are great and the levels are short and easy to learn to master, with the final world really putting your skills to the test. The way you control your gameplay through power-ups and physically growing larger and gaining fire projectiles as rewards is insanely unique. The gameplay is enough to offer a challenge, while still being very player friendly. The warp tubes and the start + a for continues is very, very kind to players, while still being hidden enough to not ruin all the fun. My only personal complaint is that Mario does slide around a bit which can be annoying to get used to, but my bigger complaint is the random maze parts in the later castles. I’m such an idiot that I couldn’t figure out the first two, and was forced to look up the pattern I needed to follow, which took away some of the fun, but is really more of a personal issue than a real issue in the game.
Super Mario Bros as a game is just weird too, but in a fun way! We’re so used to seeing him everywhere involving video games that we don’t really think about it… Sure, the Mario character was used before Super Mario Bros, but he was used in environments that fit his character a bit more. Mario, or Jump Man, was always in scenarios with construction and sewers, and is probably why you’re playing an Italian New York man anyways. Donkey Kong is clearly based around King Kong, which takes place in New York, so Mario was branded accordingly. But with Super Mario Bros, you’re in some far off land with a kidnapped princess of mushroom people, fighting off a terrible dragon turtle man to save her… You’d expect some kind of warrior or stereotypical hero to come save the day, no? Well, here’s an Italian-American man in overalls that climbed straight out the Brooklyn sewers to come break some turtles’ backs! It’s so random, it’s so weird!! I guess Mario was randomly hopping on turtles even while in the sewers in the original Mario Bros. arcade game, so at least he's following a theme it seems, but I would honestly have understood a monkey coming to save the day more in Super Mario Bros. because that at least would have fit the Journey to the West inspiration they seemed to be going with! But I’m so glad they didn’t go that route, because now it’s so much more odd and memorable just having this random everyday-man fight in this mystical world. Can you imagine American players seeing it when the NES first came out over there? Here you go kids, some arcade-style games, some sport games, a few shooters, and this random game where you play as an Italian beating the shit out of turtles and helping talking mushrooms... of course! Well, if the game is fun, who cares what wacky cast it uses ⸜(ˊᗜˋ)⸝
Mario absolutely blew up the home console market, and made it so getting a Famicom or NES was a must have, not just to enjoy arcade favorites in the comfort of your own home, but to enjoy video games in general! Sure, you could argue there were more complex and advanced things already happening on home computers, like the PC-88 for example, but the Famicom, and in turn Mario, was insanely user-friendly in a way many had not seen before. It makes sense why the system was such a hit, with Mario really helping push the future of gaming into millions of households throughout the entire world.
4.5/5
The only game I feel I can closely compare Mario to from before it came out, is the arcade game Pac-Land. They’re both side-scrolling platformers that feature a silly little guy running to the end of each stage to move on to the next. But Mario took that formula and made it like… good. Really good in fact! Absolutely excellent! Pac-Land isn’t bad by any means, but having to move right and left with two big red buttons instead of a convenient joystick or D-pad is hard to adjust to, and after playing Mario, feels so awkward.
Super Mario Bros itself has aged wonderfully. The controls are great and the levels are short and easy to learn to master, with the final world really putting your skills to the test. The way you control your gameplay through power-ups and physically growing larger and gaining fire projectiles as rewards is insanely unique. The gameplay is enough to offer a challenge, while still being very player friendly. The warp tubes and the start + a for continues is very, very kind to players, while still being hidden enough to not ruin all the fun. My only personal complaint is that Mario does slide around a bit which can be annoying to get used to, but my bigger complaint is the random maze parts in the later castles. I’m such an idiot that I couldn’t figure out the first two, and was forced to look up the pattern I needed to follow, which took away some of the fun, but is really more of a personal issue than a real issue in the game.
Super Mario Bros as a game is just weird too, but in a fun way! We’re so used to seeing him everywhere involving video games that we don’t really think about it… Sure, the Mario character was used before Super Mario Bros, but he was used in environments that fit his character a bit more. Mario, or Jump Man, was always in scenarios with construction and sewers, and is probably why you’re playing an Italian New York man anyways. Donkey Kong is clearly based around King Kong, which takes place in New York, so Mario was branded accordingly. But with Super Mario Bros, you’re in some far off land with a kidnapped princess of mushroom people, fighting off a terrible dragon turtle man to save her… You’d expect some kind of warrior or stereotypical hero to come save the day, no? Well, here’s an Italian-American man in overalls that climbed straight out the Brooklyn sewers to come break some turtles’ backs! It’s so random, it’s so weird!! I guess Mario was randomly hopping on turtles even while in the sewers in the original Mario Bros. arcade game, so at least he's following a theme it seems, but I would honestly have understood a monkey coming to save the day more in Super Mario Bros. because that at least would have fit the Journey to the West inspiration they seemed to be going with! But I’m so glad they didn’t go that route, because now it’s so much more odd and memorable just having this random everyday-man fight in this mystical world. Can you imagine American players seeing it when the NES first came out over there? Here you go kids, some arcade-style games, some sport games, a few shooters, and this random game where you play as an Italian beating the shit out of turtles and helping talking mushrooms... of course! Well, if the game is fun, who cares what wacky cast it uses ⸜(ˊᗜˋ)⸝
Mario absolutely blew up the home console market, and made it so getting a Famicom or NES was a must have, not just to enjoy arcade favorites in the comfort of your own home, but to enjoy video games in general! Sure, you could argue there were more complex and advanced things already happening on home computers, like the PC-88 for example, but the Famicom, and in turn Mario, was insanely user-friendly in a way many had not seen before. It makes sense why the system was such a hit, with Mario really helping push the future of gaming into millions of households throughout the entire world.
4.5/5
3 Comments
Koopa troops are always on the lookout for my Continuous Destruction Method and Simultaneous Killing Method.
sick review!! really happy to see smb1 getting more appreciation these days, the broad cultural disposal of the value of NES classics over the past couple decades has been really sad
DeemonAndGames
3 months ago