As the franchise that established foundational game design as we know it, it goes without saying that the original Super Mario Bros is paramount in permanently shaping the gaming landscape. I’d go so far to say that it was the bridge that gapped the distance between arcade ventures and modern home consoles, ushering the start of the multi-billion dollar video games industry. More on that at a later date. For now let’s focus on the actual game itself. By now mostly everyone should be familiar with the iconic Mario blueprint. What many people might not realize is how much of the franchise was established in the first game. Enemy types that would become mainstays like the Goombas and Koopas, powerups like the Fire Flower and Starman, and long-time mechanics like using flagstaffs to end levels.

The original Super Mario Bros is naturally a very pick-up-and-play game, being split up into 8 different worlds with 4 stages each. Along the way to save the Mushroom Kingdom Princess from Bowser you have to platform across basic structures, avoid projectiles, fight enemies, and gain powerups to boost your abilities and health. The four primary level types are underground, castle, underwater, and aboveground levels. Add in some warp pipes that let you skip certain stages and that’s really all there is to it. Not just owing to its age, Super Mario Bros is the fundamental distillation of what a platformer is. Part of what makes it so successful is the ability for anyone to jump in, understand, and have some fun with the decently challenging game. And don’t be fooled, it can be quite challenging.

This leads us to my one real gripe with the game. The limited lives is fine, but It feels like Mario is walking on ice the entire time. It’s way too hard to control for precise jumps or while you’re in the air at all. If you can somehow overcome that, the game is actually pretty easy otherwise. But man, I lost way too many lives by Mario getting a mind of his own and walking off the map. In light of that I’d advise you to just take it a bit slower than you would normally. It’s not a long game after all, don’t sweat taking your time with certain platform sections. Past that not much more can be said. The original Mario often gets overshadowed by future titles, and probably rightfully so. It’s an OG classic that holds up fantastically compared to its age, but beyond nostalgic or historic value there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done better or more in-depth in later games.