Super mario bros.
- Publisher: Nintendo
- Developer: Nintendo
- Genre: 2D platformer
- Release date: September 13 1985
- Console: Nintendo entertainment system (also avalible on nintendo virtual console)
Introduction
Super mario bros is the best selling video game of all time, hows that for an introduction! Altogether super mario bros sold
40.24 million units worldwide making it the most successful video game ever. Mario bros moved the video game industry on to a different level, setting a benchmark for all platform genre based games.
Story
The story in super mario bros is very basic but many video games use a similar storyline. The story goes that a princess (known as princess toadstool aka peach in later years) is the ruler of a bright and colourful world called the mushroom kingdom, where everything is pretty peaceful and overall a nice kingdom to live. But of course the peace can't last (it never does I mean how many adventures has mario actually had!!) anyway a evil king by the name of Bowser (or koopa in japan) kidnaps the princess and once she's been kidnapped bowser's minions appear all over the mushroom kingdom disrupting the peace; things look pretty grim for the little kingdom until an unlikely hero appears dressed in red overalls. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO IT'S....... a plumber?? by the name of SUPER MARIO!!
Gameplay
The gameplay in super mario bros is also basic. All mario could do was run and jump, and thats how mario defeated most of his enemies by jumping on their heads. But at the time of the game's release it felt like you had a lot of control over mario, how high he jumped depended how hard you pressed the jump button. Mario also could run not only was this a useful action when you needed to complete a level quickly, you could also jump higher and furthur if you pressed the jump button down whilst running.
Super mario bros is split into 8 worlds each with 4 sub-levels in each world. Each level is one of five different scenes it could be these 5 scenes : basic mushroom kingdom overworld (the first level you come across) a underground scene, a high cliff top type scene (set somewhere in the mushroom kingdom hills) a underwater scene and the last type of scene which is always the last level the castle scene, which at the end of each castle level you would have to face bowser.
Most levels in super mario bros play the same, again its quite a simply method get from the start of the level avoid getting attacked by bowsers minions and to avoid pits and obstacles to get to the end of the level. You also have a set time to get to the end
of the level, if the timer ran out whilst you were playing the level you would instantaly die and lose a life even if you had a super mushroom, fire flower or a starman The only level which differs from the others, is the underwater level where you can obviously swim and avoid the enemies comming at you normally on the other levels you can jump on your enemies to defeat them (well most enemies) in the underwater level you can't jump on your enemies so your forced to avoid them (unless you have the fireflower which i will explain now)In super mario bros mario would start off as normal mario where if you were got hit by a minion you would "die" and lose a life (mario would start off with three lives) To make mario's life easier he could obtain certain power-ups most power-ups were hidden in ? blocks. There 3 altogether they were: The super mushroom which when obtained would turn mario into super mario, this mushroom made mario bigger and stronger he could smash brick blocks and he would be able to take another hit and not die but once he was hit as super mario he would turn back into normal mario. The fireflower: which would able mario to turn into fire mario. Fire mario would have all the skills super mario had, but could also throw fireballs which would defeat most enemies with a single hit some enemies were immune to the fireball but not many. Last but not least is the rarest of power-ups which is the starman, the starman would make mario invincible for a short period of time instantaly defeating any enemies that mario would touch. The only other item mario could obtain was a 1up mushroom, which when mario touched gave him an extra life and made a nice little jingle just to make sure you knew you earned an extra life! You could also collect coins in each level when you collected a hundred of them would earn you an extra life as well.
You could also play a two player mode on super mario bros, where the first player is mario and the second player is his twin brother LUIGI!! (im a bit of fan of luigi) But anyway luigi plays just like his brother mario (eg. he jumps just as high as mario and runs just as fast) The way the system works is mario goes first and he keeps going until he dies, then luigi has his turn and then when he pops his clogs its mario turn again.
How it played then
As I said in the introduction super mario bros really did change the way video games were portrayed and (especially platformers) created, it proved that games could be huge and many, many people bought super mario bros because it was such a fresh idea and this game really did create the platforming genre thats why men, women, girls boys, dogs, hamsters!! at the time everyone tried to buy it (.......okay not dogs and hamsters but alot bought it) The best thing about super mario bros was the simplicity of the gameplay, meaning nearly everyone could pick up and play from game veterans to someone who doesn't know what a computer game is. It was also a very addictive game again in terms of its gameplay being so simple to the feel and control of mario he felt so smooth to control, if you died it was simply your fault not the bad control system that other games tended to have.
Another great thing about super mario bros was the music, most retro game music was just a series of bleeps which were annoying for most games. But super mario bros was more than just bleeps, take the main theme played in the first level that theme is about as famous as mario himself! this was a good thing for games because instead of thinking im playing on a retro game the music is gonna sound like my pc booting up time to mute the tv. In games where the music is good like super mario bros, it makes the game experience more enjoyable and because of how popular the music was in super mario bros, it got other game developers to concentrate more on the music to make the time playing the game more enjoyable, and thats why back then super mario bros was the best game......in the world!
How it plays now
Super mario bros still plays fantastic now you won't find another 2D platforming game that is more addictive or a more "pick up and play" game. This is why super mario bros is such a great game because it still plays so well today as 8 bit platforming games go it is feels like, the best 8 bit platforming game to control even today it can hold its own. The graphics may be very basic and the music (although it has a nice jingle) can still get on people's nerves because it can get repetitive. Taking in the bad points and the good, super mario bros is still a fun game to play which is why many people agree that it's there favourite game even today and no other game will ever beat it!
Overall score
Overall super mario bros is a fantastic game, with its simple gameplay, lush bright addictive levels and classic characters which make this game one of the best games ever made and taking all the good points into account, super mario bros is a master peice of a game and people will still be playing it 20 years from now.
9/10
HAVE YOUR SAY!
HAVE YOUR SAY!
