Mario Bros.

"Uh... Yeah..."

Mario Bros. is the game where you control Mario. Mario has to clear all of the enemies out of a 1-screen room to complete the ''phase'', as it's called. He does this by hitting the enemy from below the floor it's walking on, then touching the enemy while it's down to do away with it. There are Shellcreepers (turtles), which crawl about slowly and take one hit from below to turn them over, Sidesteppers (crabs), which crawl faster than Shellcreepers, and get even faster when hit once from below; you need to hit it twice from below to turn it over, and Fighterflies, which hop about, making them harder to hit since they don't stay on the ground. Also, a rectangle at the bottom of the screen can be hit 3 times--each time you hit it, the enemies on the ground are turned over (or the Sidesteppers speed up). Each enemy you kill nets Mario a bonus coin (which only gives you points... no ''extra life'' for getting a set number of coins in this game).

If you remember playing this in the arcade, it was fun. The enemies looked simple, but cute-ish, the control was loose (purposefully, part of the point of the game), and the game started easy enough in phase 1, and got difficult rather quickly (notably difficult by phase 9).

Course, I'm not reviewing Mario Bros. the arcade game here. I'm reviewing Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600. What you're bound to notice is that this game is MUCH tougher than in the arcade, for several reasons. For one, fireballs start shooting out the sides of the screen RIGHT at the start of each level! Two, Sidestepper reverts back to normal if he goes into a pipe angry. Three, horrid controls.

Graphics (1/10)--I've seen much better graphics than this on the 2600. The Shellcreepers look like alien blob turtles here, the Sidesteppers look like alien blob aliens... heck, the enemy graphics are reminiscent of the aliens in Space Invaders for the 2600. Course, this is 5 YEARS LATER! Other 2600 games have improved graphics since Space Invaders, why not this game? The coins are RECTANGLES, for crying out loud! The POW block (which doesn't have the word ''POW'' on it now) doesn't shrink when Mario uses it--it just changes color! When Mario hits a floor above him, it doesn't ''bounce up''--granted, the 2600 isn't known much for animation, but they COULD have at least made the part of the floor ''disconnect'' to the rest of the floor, putting it a quarter-inch above it's usual height to ''animate'' the bumping of the floor. Too cheap Atari was.

Sound (1/10)--It makes a sound when Mario kills an enemy, bumps an enemy, gets a coin, uses the nameless POW block, or walks. Now, in the original arcade game, it does NOT make a sound effect for Mario just walking. Why did they add it for the 2600 version? That sound is AWFUL! And since you are walking for most of the game, you hear that sound CONSTANTLY! Make it stop!

Controls (2/10)--STIFF! It's difficult to get Mario to jump up onto any platform because he jumps straight up unless you get him accelerating in the direction for a while. You can't jump over enemies jumping straight up in this version of Mario Bros. like you can in the arcade, either. The controls are just so bad.

Fun (2/10)--Well, maybe it'll be a little fun with 2 players? Probably not, might be better off with a 2-player Surround battle than this.

Overall (2/10)--Well, do you really want this version of Mario Bros.? If so, might as well get it. Then you'll get to see it's awfulness.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/01, Updated 07/08/01