Super Mario Bros.

""One Game To Shape Them All""

Super Mario Brothers- The game that started all games. If it weren’t for this game, video games might have ceased to exist for quite some time. This was the first game ever with a real concept, a real story line, real graphics, and the first video game ever that was actually fun. When Nintendo was released in the early 1980’s it was the first and only video game entertainment system. Nintendo needed to spruce things up so they could get a bigger, more interested audience in to this new crazy idea. The people at Nintendo Invented the Super Mario Brothers Game, this game I am reviewing. In it they put all that was ever fun in mission games, only this was digital, this was video; THIS, ladies and gentleman, was technology. You are able to in this game on a journey, unlike any game made before it. You normally go as Mario, a plumber, though the pipes and fight of creatures. This game started the saga known as the classic Nintendo cast, which brought apon games such as Super Mario two and three, super Mario 64, super smash brothers, and super Mario sunshine to be made. If you look at any game now, any gamecube, playstation, or X box role playing game, you can see how it all related back to the first role playing game ever created. Super Mario Brothers. The most classic game of all time.

Gameplay (10/10)- One of the funnest games I have ever played. It does not matter how old it is, it is still extremely fun, beyond the point of imagination for fun of a game this old. You are able to take on three forms in this game, unlike Super Mario brothers three where you have four. You can be normal Mario, un powered, who will die if they run into a gumba, so they must jump on them. You can be large Mario, which can shrink to small Mario if he runs into a gumba, or you can be spit fire Mario, who through projectile balls- like a gun of that era in gaming. You travel through pipes in underground levels and levels above ground, trying to get through all eight worlds. There are four levels in each worl, making thirty two levels in all. Each forth level is where you battle Bowser, who get stronger and stronger. Bower; the traditional Nintendo villain, the bad guy, the menace. You can get special items such as the star, which makes you invincible for about ten or twelve seconds. You also have mini challenges, like gathering coins in a set amount of time or jumping over an attacking Bowser to get to the other end of the bridge. Also, at the end of every level, you try and jump as high as you can on the flag pole, to get more pints. There are simple exchanges as well. You get one yellow or green mushroom, you gain a life. You get 100 coins, you gain a life. You get 100000 points, you gain a life. You just get to have fun running through levels, at times even dodging falling bombs, as you hop over gumbas and pipes to fight your way to the end. You’re also able to go to realms high in the sky, and jump from platform to platform while fighting flying koopas. You take Mario on an adventure through the lands of, well, “Mario”, to help save the world (well, not exactly).

Graphics (9/10): Oh Sweet Mother of Pearl. I can actually see my character! In an ACTUAL PLACE! UNBELIEVABLE! This game revolutionized graphics. At the time graphics were made with lines, but these graphics used lines and pixels, to make the squared shape Mario that the player controls or the bricks and tubes Mario runs past. There was more three dimensional reality in this than any other up to that date. There was also more color in this game than any game ever before it, making it interesting and more exciting to play. The game became something the gamer would actually imagine as a real world, something they could actually be in. A true journey, through an imaginary world. To quote Playstation “Live in your world. Play in Ours.” With true two dimensional graphics, Mario and his friends at Nintendo shaped the rest of video game history.

Story Line (10/10): You play as one of the Mario Brothers, Mario or Luigi. Mario is a plumber that has a crush on Peach, the princess, and is very courageous, and excellent at his jumping at moving. Luigi is better at agriculture, working with fly traps, but he assists Mario anyway on their journey. Luigi is slightly faster but with less of a personality. The story starts in a far away world, where Mario begins his journey. He is setting out on a quest to save the Princess Peach from Bowser, King of the Koopa’s, who had kidnapped her days before. He got many clone replica’s of himself to trick Mario, and put them in the first seven worlds. Mario tries to get through the worlds, but he keeps getting the disappointing message “the princess is in another palace”. Basically, it is a live story about a superhero plumber, Mario, setting out on an adventure to save his love Peach from an evil super villain.

Controls/Sound (10/10): How much more simple and comfortable can it get. The original Nintendo controller only has two buttons, making it extremely easy for the player, along with the single analog stick. You press A to jump, hold b to run. The only controls needed in this simple yet fun game. And the sound. You have to love it. Its cool, has a great beat, and above all is motivating to the player. When your in a dangerous situation there is suspenseful music. When you’re in a pretty field of flowers there is cheerful music. When you have just died, the music plays a sad song that fades away and send you back to the main screen. You also have control to allow two players to play, but not at the same time and not always on the same level. Player one, who is Mario, takes turns with player two, who is Luigi. First One to rescue the Princess wins (or the first one to die losses.) And, the music to be remembered is that classic “you are running out of time” music that Nintendo plays in Mario games, when you have under a minute to complete a level. The music plays faster and faster until you can hardly hear it in the last five seconds… and then, of course, you lose because time run out. When you jump on the flag if you do make it, there is victory music and fireworks to celebrate. Sound makes the motivation of a game.

Play Time/ Replay (8/10) Well, here is the only downfall of this game the game is long, which seems good- except for that little fact that you can not save. For the time you do play, you can make the choice to go through all eight exhilarating worlds, or try to warp with the lives you have to levels far away. As for the replay, the game is no so long you cannot play it again. It is fun to play all the levels over and over (with the exception of the first two levels in the first world). Mario never gets old because classics never die. You can try to get through the levels with as many points as you can, with as many lives, or even try to see how fast you can get through the levels, dodging the Venus Fly Traps and what not. It’s just a classic and that is what classics do; never get old. Only reason I give it eight out of ten is because you cannot save. Therein lays the challenge.

Overall (10/10): The game that shaped them all. The first RPG, the first adventure, the first craze that got so popular they started selling Mario Shampoo. This is the game that started them all.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 05/25/03, Updated 05/25/03