The first game to dare to ask the age old question that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time...
What is a-Mario?
Turns out the answer is a pretty good game.
To say this game is a cultural milestone would be complete understatement, its the landmark title of the NES ,and while it didn't end it itself or at least not alone, it represents the end of the videogame crash 1983.
While the NES launch line-up has a few other pretty good games and all served the purpuse of advertising the NES as something more akin to a toy than a console, in retrospect all of them have this, for a lack of a better word, kinda arcaic feeling, still retaining somewhat of an early 80's arcade feeling. Then Super Mario Bros. comes and slaughters the competition, which was not even competiton, is was the equivalent of an older sibling beating their younger brothers at Smash Bros., so one-sided that it wasn't even funny.
This was truly the first of the modern videogame console experience, the sheer quantity of levels, the secrets and the possibles skips clearly inteded to replayability; Mario moves in a slippery way that makes it hard to traverse the levels slowly, but it's an absoluty godsend to zooming across the screens, jumping and doging enemies like a madman, when this game hits its hardes, it's when it does something amazing for the time, or when it lets you have fun with its controls. It truly shows a ton of creativity, things that now we take for granted looking back are such a bizarre mix of elements and concepts that shouldn't work, but they really do. Truly a fantastic game....BUT...
It always pains me to do this with older games, 'cause it's almost inevitable, and in Super Mario Bros. case especially feels wrong but... yeah the games does have a lot of problems. My biggest complains don't even have to do with its age, the biggest thing that shows the passing of time is Mario's movement, but even I praised that 'cause it feels designed to master it. The level design however, in worlds 1 and 2 it feels actually pretty novel and fun, but from world 3 onwards, the cracks start to show.
Levels become a lot less different and start to blend with each other, at a certain point it feels that they just throw random enemies into the levels just to fill them (worlds 7 and 8 are a clear example) , the obstacles themselves start repeating; and by world 4 we have already seen everything and they don't do anything interesting with the ideas presented, and there's the MAZES, if there's an aspect in this game that feels ''arcadie'', it's the mazes, by far the worst part in the game and just here to pad out the time and make you lose both your lives AND your time. This game has a ton of fundemental design problems that I just couldn't ignore... as much as I couldn't ignore the fun I was having inspite of all of that.
Super Mario Bros. wears its age with a badge of honor, it's the stepping stone for evrything that released later and for every dumb mistake that it makes, there are one or two things that just make you awe and simply make you have fun.
This was not only the start of saga, but of an entire legacy, and for only that I'm thankful that I played it, t I had a really good time as much as a stressful one, but I wouldn't change anything about it from the slightiest.
Because the moment I started the game, that song started playing and I gave my first stepts in 1-1, Ieven after everything I've played, games leagues far better tha this one, I still had a smile on my face, 'cause it was him, a-Mario.
What is a-Mario?
Turns out the answer is a pretty good game.
To say this game is a cultural milestone would be complete understatement, its the landmark title of the NES ,and while it didn't end it itself or at least not alone, it represents the end of the videogame crash 1983.
While the NES launch line-up has a few other pretty good games and all served the purpuse of advertising the NES as something more akin to a toy than a console, in retrospect all of them have this, for a lack of a better word, kinda arcaic feeling, still retaining somewhat of an early 80's arcade feeling. Then Super Mario Bros. comes and slaughters the competition, which was not even competiton, is was the equivalent of an older sibling beating their younger brothers at Smash Bros., so one-sided that it wasn't even funny.
This was truly the first of the modern videogame console experience, the sheer quantity of levels, the secrets and the possibles skips clearly inteded to replayability; Mario moves in a slippery way that makes it hard to traverse the levels slowly, but it's an absoluty godsend to zooming across the screens, jumping and doging enemies like a madman, when this game hits its hardes, it's when it does something amazing for the time, or when it lets you have fun with its controls. It truly shows a ton of creativity, things that now we take for granted looking back are such a bizarre mix of elements and concepts that shouldn't work, but they really do. Truly a fantastic game....BUT...
It always pains me to do this with older games, 'cause it's almost inevitable, and in Super Mario Bros. case especially feels wrong but... yeah the games does have a lot of problems. My biggest complains don't even have to do with its age, the biggest thing that shows the passing of time is Mario's movement, but even I praised that 'cause it feels designed to master it. The level design however, in worlds 1 and 2 it feels actually pretty novel and fun, but from world 3 onwards, the cracks start to show.
Levels become a lot less different and start to blend with each other, at a certain point it feels that they just throw random enemies into the levels just to fill them (worlds 7 and 8 are a clear example) , the obstacles themselves start repeating; and by world 4 we have already seen everything and they don't do anything interesting with the ideas presented, and there's the MAZES, if there's an aspect in this game that feels ''arcadie'', it's the mazes, by far the worst part in the game and just here to pad out the time and make you lose both your lives AND your time. This game has a ton of fundemental design problems that I just couldn't ignore... as much as I couldn't ignore the fun I was having inspite of all of that.
Super Mario Bros. wears its age with a badge of honor, it's the stepping stone for evrything that released later and for every dumb mistake that it makes, there are one or two things that just make you awe and simply make you have fun.
This was not only the start of saga, but of an entire legacy, and for only that I'm thankful that I played it, t I had a really good time as much as a stressful one, but I wouldn't change anything about it from the slightiest.
Because the moment I started the game, that song started playing and I gave my first stepts in 1-1, Ieven after everything I've played, games leagues far better tha this one, I still had a smile on my face, 'cause it was him, a-Mario.