Switch Online Retros #01:
I played this whole game for the first time through the Switch Online Expansion Pass, I'm gonna try to be as fair as possible when talking about these retro titles because I have to balance how well they hold up alongside how they might have been at the time, kinda have to judge it for its day, that kind of thing. And after beating the whole thing in one sitting, I can honestly say that the original Super Mario Bros. definitely does hold up in a lot of aspects!
Granted, given it's a title from the 80's, there are a lot of things that will be undoubtedly dated now, like the level design and variety is definitely very primitive and I think playing the game now in the modern day, that's what holds it back the most? Like individually, the levels are soundly designed, but on playing the whole thing at once, you can definitely see the repetition in the visual design of these levels, so by the end, it kinda just feels like harder versions of the same levels, just shuffled around. And given the more limited control scheme (walk, run, jump) it means the levels themselves cannot be as intricately designed as future titles, resulting in a much simpler, yet honestly quite streamlined experience. In its more simple nature, Super Mario Bros. actually ends up being honestly really well rounded and consistent. It utilises everything it has to the full extent and even though it has that more 'arcade-y' kinda feel, it does make for a pretty enjoyable experience in the end.
I think it's quite interesting to look at retro games like this as relics of the past, to kinda analyse them and compare them to games of today's era, even see how a series has developed over such a long period of time. In a way, a game like this feels somewhat more pure, they brought the arcade to the home and even though they were yet to abandon the more outdated designs of arcade games (repetitive levels, short but hard campaign, etc.) it still ends up being quite enjoyable overall and I honestly felt pretty entertained all throughout my short playthrough of this game.
It wasn't as hard as I actually expected, granted that might be due to it being a pretty damn short game, with levels taking maybe 2 1/2 minutes at most and there only being 32 levels, it took 2 or 3 hours for me to beat tops, although I didn't count. The difficulty only really kicked in around the 6th world or so, I did actually notice a jump in difficulty at that point and the final world especially was actually a bit of a challenge. I do appreciate the attempts to have some creativity with the level designs, like with the 2D maze kinda thing where you have to pick the right path, I just wish there was more of an indicator that I took the wrong one because I honestly didn't notice for ages that I was continuously going the wrong way and then the timer ran out. I also found it interesting to note the way power-ups work in this game compared to how they work these days. There's basically only super mushrooms, fire flowers and invincibility stars and even if you have a super mushroom and a fire flower, if you get hit once, you go instantly to small Mario, compared to now where you can be hit twice if you have the second power-up. I'm assuming the fire flower acts as more of a replacement to the mushroom over something to go on top of it, I just though that was something interesting and of note. I also noticed the Lakitus are really simple in this first entry, as in really easy to avoid in comparison to the modern titles. These days, Lakitu is much more unpredictable with his movements, but in Super Mario Bros., you can avoid everything he throws by just continuously running forward, granted that's sometimes harder depending on what's around you, but I found it quite amusing how little of a threat he is in this game. I did find the lack of boss variety a little disappointing, the fact you fight Bowser 8 times only adds to this game's repetition, I get that it's to do with the limitations of the time, so I am cutting this game slack in these areas where you have to look at it as a product from the 80's, but I honestly find the difference in game design philosophies, even in the same series, from then until now, to be really interesting to look back on - and this game is honestly pretty perfect to compare with because even despite its limitations, it's actually a pretty good game, even for today's standards.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. actually ended up being a really enjoyable experience. Looking at it from today's perspective does highlight its more lacking areas for sure, but most of the time it didn't feel like a hindrance to the game's quality, just something interesting to note in how it differs from games in the present day. And for a game that does repeat itself a lot and does show its age through its more arcade-like design, Super Mario Bros. is actually a hell of a lot of fun and really enjoyable to just bang out over a number of hours. I could easily see myself replaying this one for fun, I think its length actually lends itself to replayability and I might actually enjoy finding more shortcuts and secrets. I have very few issues with this one, its honestly a really well rounded game; it never felt unfair in its design, it's very tightly made, its actually really enjoyable, and it's easy to see why it was such a big hit at the time, why it spawned one of the biggest game series ever, and why people still love going back to it to this day. It's a fun game to play and I'm willing to bet it's also a really fun one to master. This retro game holds up phenomenally well today.
8.4/10
I played this whole game for the first time through the Switch Online Expansion Pass, I'm gonna try to be as fair as possible when talking about these retro titles because I have to balance how well they hold up alongside how they might have been at the time, kinda have to judge it for its day, that kind of thing. And after beating the whole thing in one sitting, I can honestly say that the original Super Mario Bros. definitely does hold up in a lot of aspects!
Granted, given it's a title from the 80's, there are a lot of things that will be undoubtedly dated now, like the level design and variety is definitely very primitive and I think playing the game now in the modern day, that's what holds it back the most? Like individually, the levels are soundly designed, but on playing the whole thing at once, you can definitely see the repetition in the visual design of these levels, so by the end, it kinda just feels like harder versions of the same levels, just shuffled around. And given the more limited control scheme (walk, run, jump) it means the levels themselves cannot be as intricately designed as future titles, resulting in a much simpler, yet honestly quite streamlined experience. In its more simple nature, Super Mario Bros. actually ends up being honestly really well rounded and consistent. It utilises everything it has to the full extent and even though it has that more 'arcade-y' kinda feel, it does make for a pretty enjoyable experience in the end.
I think it's quite interesting to look at retro games like this as relics of the past, to kinda analyse them and compare them to games of today's era, even see how a series has developed over such a long period of time. In a way, a game like this feels somewhat more pure, they brought the arcade to the home and even though they were yet to abandon the more outdated designs of arcade games (repetitive levels, short but hard campaign, etc.) it still ends up being quite enjoyable overall and I honestly felt pretty entertained all throughout my short playthrough of this game.
It wasn't as hard as I actually expected, granted that might be due to it being a pretty damn short game, with levels taking maybe 2 1/2 minutes at most and there only being 32 levels, it took 2 or 3 hours for me to beat tops, although I didn't count. The difficulty only really kicked in around the 6th world or so, I did actually notice a jump in difficulty at that point and the final world especially was actually a bit of a challenge. I do appreciate the attempts to have some creativity with the level designs, like with the 2D maze kinda thing where you have to pick the right path, I just wish there was more of an indicator that I took the wrong one because I honestly didn't notice for ages that I was continuously going the wrong way and then the timer ran out. I also found it interesting to note the way power-ups work in this game compared to how they work these days. There's basically only super mushrooms, fire flowers and invincibility stars and even if you have a super mushroom and a fire flower, if you get hit once, you go instantly to small Mario, compared to now where you can be hit twice if you have the second power-up. I'm assuming the fire flower acts as more of a replacement to the mushroom over something to go on top of it, I just though that was something interesting and of note. I also noticed the Lakitus are really simple in this first entry, as in really easy to avoid in comparison to the modern titles. These days, Lakitu is much more unpredictable with his movements, but in Super Mario Bros., you can avoid everything he throws by just continuously running forward, granted that's sometimes harder depending on what's around you, but I found it quite amusing how little of a threat he is in this game. I did find the lack of boss variety a little disappointing, the fact you fight Bowser 8 times only adds to this game's repetition, I get that it's to do with the limitations of the time, so I am cutting this game slack in these areas where you have to look at it as a product from the 80's, but I honestly find the difference in game design philosophies, even in the same series, from then until now, to be really interesting to look back on - and this game is honestly pretty perfect to compare with because even despite its limitations, it's actually a pretty good game, even for today's standards.
Overall, Super Mario Bros. actually ended up being a really enjoyable experience. Looking at it from today's perspective does highlight its more lacking areas for sure, but most of the time it didn't feel like a hindrance to the game's quality, just something interesting to note in how it differs from games in the present day. And for a game that does repeat itself a lot and does show its age through its more arcade-like design, Super Mario Bros. is actually a hell of a lot of fun and really enjoyable to just bang out over a number of hours. I could easily see myself replaying this one for fun, I think its length actually lends itself to replayability and I might actually enjoy finding more shortcuts and secrets. I have very few issues with this one, its honestly a really well rounded game; it never felt unfair in its design, it's very tightly made, its actually really enjoyable, and it's easy to see why it was such a big hit at the time, why it spawned one of the biggest game series ever, and why people still love going back to it to this day. It's a fun game to play and I'm willing to bet it's also a really fun one to master. This retro game holds up phenomenally well today.
8.4/10