Super Mario Bros. Deluxe

"A Classic Made Classic Again"

When people think about the classic Mario games, it is hard to recall them. There were many Mario games that came out in the beginning that intrigued the starting gamers of the gaming world, but they were not really classics. But in 1985, everything changed when Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released to the public. This game started a legacy of gaming for Nintendo that still continues to this day. It is the game where games come from. Pong may have been one of the first games out there, but Super Mario Bros. was the first of the classics. It was such a classic that when the Gameboy Color system came out, one of the greatest games ever to grace gaming history had to be revived again, and not only was it plainly revived, but it was revived in force. In my opinion, if a gamer has not tried Super Mario Bros., then he or she will never understand the true foundation of the modern gaming world.

Now while many people, including myself, were not even born when this legacy game was born, fate would have it fall into the hands that missed out on this promise of the game. Fortunately, I was already into portability when I started in the gaming world. I just did not like to sit in front of a television to play my games, and only liked playing games when I could do anything else, and that was when I was on the go. Sure a collection of Mario games was re-released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment system, but that was then again for the television. Though the graphics of television games are superior to those of the portable consoles, I still hold that portable and gaming are the way to go. I do not believe that gaming was meant for the television, but I do not mind playing computer games, because that makes logical sense.

Now I already had tried at my friends' houses the many awesome Mario games such as Super Mario Land and Super Mario 64, but I did not actually own any of these games. My parents finally bought me a Gameboy Color and I finally had the opportunity to play portable games, my first being Pokemon Blue. Though eventually Pokemon Blue got tiring and when I was walking past the gaming section that many years ago, I saw something that caught my eyes: Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. Now I did not know about the legacy of this game in the past, but all I saw was the nice display and the deluxe and the Mario and I just had to get it. And I can say, this one of the most favorite portable games I laid my hands on. Even after finishing the first eight levels, it still was not over and there was so much to take advantage of. The gameplay was unbelievable and it delivered such raw power that it is in my top three favorite Gameboy color games in with the Legend of Zelda: Oracle games. Yes it was a port, but it was more than a port. It was totally revamped and contained games and games to make it seem that even though it was over, it was only just the beginning.

And now let us get to the beginning of the review…

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Gameplay: 10/10
Let me begin with the fact that this Mario game has no flaws. It is a side-scrolling two-dimensional eight-bit action game and it delivers the same promise on the Gameboy Color port as it did on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Even though there are apparently more buttons available to a gamer on the Nintendo Entertainment System, they are un-needed of course, and the buttons available on the Gameboy Color are adequate to get everything that a game wants out of this game. Now since this is the deluxe edition of the Super Mario Brothers from the Nintendo Entertainment System, it just does not contain the gameplay from the original Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but also contains the never released game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario Brothers 2, in America until it was bunched into the Super Nintendo Entertainment package. Not only does it contain those two games to add joy, but it also contains an epic struggle between you and Boo the ghost, a Yoshi challenge, and multiplayer fun via a link cable. It even takes the Gameboy Color into its full extent by using the under-utilized infrared port to transfer and mix scores and information. This game takes the Gameboy Color to the maximum.

Now then, let us dwell into the gameplay components of the first game, Super Mario Brothers the original that first game out in the middle eighties of the twentieth century. Fifteen years later it re-debuted on the Gameboy Color and it was back in the black and ready to take some classic vengeance. Now it is a two-dimensional side-scrolling game, and when I person gives this game a test run on the Gameboy Color, he or she will find the controls very intuitive. For running, it is the b-button held well a person moves forward. For jumping, it is the a-button. To pause the game, it requires a person to press the start button, and if a person wants not to play as Mario, but instead as Luigi, he or she can press start before the beginning of the level and change Mario into Luigi and vice versa. This game is so intuitive that nobody has to refer to any guides or what not. Of course to unlock some of the secrets, those who lack the trait of prying into the secrets of a game may need to refer to some guides. Nonetheless even though I am pretty bad at finding secrets in most action games, even I found them, and that just tells you how simplistic and wonderful the gameplay engineering of this game can be.

Now your jumping around in this wonderful world of Super Mario Brothers that was designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Any changes? Well, if you can ignore the say smaller screen and portability, then no. The gameplay controls are as tight as ever and with resolution that small, the controls feel the exact same as their counterparts. When Mario wants to jump, he will jump and when he jumps when he is running, he'll fly just as far, go up just as high, and slide just as much. The gameplay of this game is precise and if you are not skilled at such, then you will be in for some surprises. I enjoy this game for the fact that even though Mario can jump super high, it attempts to keep the physics system in tune with the rest of the world. Mario falls due to the wonderful force of gravity and his momentum pushes him a slight bit forward when he lands on a platform. If you miscalculate your jumps, which you are apt to do when first getting used to this style of gameplay, you are sure to fall off the ramps or miscalculate jumps and not even reach the platform. But what is so amazing is that once you get the knack of the jumps, the rest of the game becomes a synch. That is what the mastery of this game is about. The enemies are easy to predict and defend against and once you can jump with finesse, there is nothing from stopping from reaching your objectives and ultimate finale.

In the Super Mario Brothers game, we cannot get the satisfaction of epic gameplay if its just going to be merely about jumping up or down, avoiding enemies, or just jumping on top of them to crush them. And fortunately it is not merely this. With power-ups placed sparingly throughout the game, Mario can be the master in this world. Mario can enjoy the luscious mushroom, flower, and star, which have awesome powers stored within their little graphical natural emphasis. What is so awesome is that Mario is introduced to all these power-ups in the first world, and two of the three power-ups (not the star) in the first level of the entire game. So when somebody new tries this game, he or she can get used to this power-ups, and possibly even spoiled, because once they are lost, they are lost. Of course, there are many times throughout the game where people can power back up again, but it still requires a user to be skilled with the jumping abilities in order to hold onto the precious power ups. As it is seen in the game creators eyes, these power-ups are an added bonus to spice up the gameplay, especially if a person has mastered the basic foundations of jumping.

Now what does each of these power-ups do? The mushroom power-up allows Mario to grow to what appears to be three times in height and twice in girth, but his ability to jump is still the same. The flower power-up allows Mario to become flower power and turn a hue of pure red and light reds and shoot fireballs out of his mouth. This is very effective when running through a map and can even be used to defeat Bowser after about 5 hits with the fireballs I believe. Finally, my most favorite power-up in this game of all is the star of invisibility and for the fast 30 seconds of Mario gameplay during the game, a player will be able to destroy anything and not have to worry about enemies and the only thing that could stop him is if he fell off the map. The only thing to worry about the star is if you attempt to attack an enemy and run through him just as the power-up fades from you, and then oh ho, you are dead.

Now then, Mario is probably known for starting off the nice classic boss battles. And who could forget defeating Bowser. He was the tough enemy and when you finally got to him, you were already exhausted, but hey, we made it this far, so let us finish the job. Bowser was invincible to the standard Mario and even going up to touch his spiky hide would result in instant death, but hey, we can get an equalizer. If you happened to be lucky enough to maintain your flower power Mario status throughout the entire dungeon level, you could enjoy picking off Bowser in a couple hits, but make sure you avoid the fireballs coming out of his mouth, the innumerable hammers being tossed out of his hand, and the random lava balls issuing forth from the lava baths below. Of course, what better way to do in Bowser than to exploit his weakness. In this game he has a tendency to jump, and with all bosses, they have an exploitable weakness. Just run underneath him as he jumps up and slam the axe done to cut off the bridge and send Bowser to a flaming inferno. Sure there have been boss battles in the past and in the present, and there will still be more in the future, but everybody can relate to some nice epic gameplay from battling with the boss of them all – Bowser.

Now then after you defeat Super Mario Brothers, you will be able to take part in the Super Mario Brothers II quest. This Super Mario Brothers is for All-Stars and it truly is. The difficulty of this game will truly check whether you are a master of Mario gameplay or whether you are just one of the many chumps in the deep blue sea. Now the game is uncomfortably hard from the start, but wait until you hit worlds seven and eight. To this day, I can say, that this was the most difficult Mario gameplay that I had ever encountered. It must have taken me over fifty tries on one level to get passed it, and once I thought I had gone through the gauntlet, the next level was even harder. I was really upset at first that they made Mario this difficult, but now I can see that such gameplay is truly classic, and to this day, there is no Mario gameplay that could even live close to the difficulty that I encountered in the Super Mario Brothers for All-Stars in the last two worlds of the game. What was even so amazing is that I can remember going through the final castle with Bowser in it. That castle was the greatest epic journey that I had gone through. Truly if you did not keep your eyes open and your ears cropped, there was no way you could have beaten Super Mario Brothers II. That game in my opinion separated the more-childish gamers from more hard-core ones, and this game was definitely hard-core. When platforms are only one cube across and you have to jump from one-cubed platforms to one-cubed platforms several times, it is a very touch and go situation. I have not played the game for several years now, but if I had to go through those scenarios again, I bet I would be in for some rough perils. Not only does a player have to worry about the stronger enemies and the stranger world setups, but even the power-ups. There is a power-up that will not strengthen you, but only hurt you, and if you are small Mario, then it kills you. Not many games have a power-down, so this adds even more to the gameplay experience.

So you have finally probed through the heart and mind of the Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers II for All-Stars game and you believe that you have finally done all that you could have done for this game. Well, look again, because there is even more gameplay content that will keep you satisfied for a very long time. Let me start with getting high-scores. After you get high-scores of 100,000 and 300,000, you will unlock features such as Yoshi's Challenge and You vs. Boo. Now, You vs. Boo is a very fun and new type of gameplay. Sure you can play multiplayer with a friend and try to race each other, but how about trying to beat Boo, the infamous ghost.

Now when you select the You vs. Boo challenge, you will be able to challenge Boo in a timed battle to see who can get to the end of the map the fastest. As you beat Boo, Boo will get angrier with himself and become darker and faster on the inside of his personality. You can race Boo on customized maps for the first two worlds, which are to the benefit of Boo much more than the design is benefit to you the player. The maps have obstacles to hinder your progression of which Boo can pass right through them since he is a ghost. Luckily throughout the map though, you can change the obstacles back, but Boo can also change the obstacles back to hinder you again with his special ghost powers. Do not forget as well that some of this obstacles can kill Mario, so to make matters worse with Boo already dead (since he is ghost), if you die, you lose the race. Luckily though, after a few times, you get the knack of the levels and can finally take on Boo. After you defeat him, he will change colors. From White, he will become Green, and then Red, and if you are fast enough, he will change into the infamous Black Boo. The color he changes depends on your final time when you win the level. It is possible to have a White Boo go immediately to Black Boo if your time clocks in at the time necessary to trigger a Black Boo transformation. Of course, a White Boo can also stay a White Boo if the time was not fast enough to transform into a Green Boo. Though once you have set a time that is faster than the default setting, you must be faster than that time to continue in your pursuit of defeating Boo. And yes, it is possible to defeat Black Boo. I was able to do it once, and of the eight levels, I have gotten to the Black Boo on three of them. Racing and Mario just continues to put the heart of players' skills with Mario to test. It is not enough to just beat a level, but to beat as fast as possible, now that is something.

In Yoshi's Challenge though, it is not necessarily about speed, but also trying to explore that map as much as possible, but as fast as possible. Yoshi's Challenge requires a player to find Yoshi's Egg, five red coins, and get the set high score in order to clear the map fully. This Challenge covers all the levels of the eight worlds so it can become quite arduous. Even I have never been able to complete Yoshi's Challenge, because for me, I guess I just did not feel like I would enjoy finding every nook and cranny in game that can get pretty expansive once you think about it.

Finally besides all the gameplay experience in the game, you also have a toy box in which to play in to make gameplay even more fun and to share this fun with your friends. There is fortune teller that informs you of your luck, and if you are lucky enough to get Princess Peach, you get an extra five lives in the Mario world. Not only do you have the fortune teller, but you also have a picture album book in which you can flip through and view all the pictures that you have unlocked through your various adventures in the Mario world. Then there is a Yoshi hint that can tell you the general area where you can find Yoshi's egg for the Yoshi's Challenge. The toy box even contains a calendar in which you can write notes in and if you really want to, you can make random text and images to be save so they can appear at the start-up of the game. There are many unique elements found in this toy box that seem to have been ripped and improved upon in the Nintendo DS's interface. Finally, if many people have forgotten about the infrared port on the Gameboy Color, it can be used in Super Mario Bros. Deluxe to mix scores. Quite pointless, but nonetheless utilizes all the components of the Gameboy Color.

And if you happen to be near a friend that also shares this game and has a link cable, well then, you can enjoy multiplayer battles similar to those of Boo and enjoy many experiences that hardly many games can muster. This game's gameplay is enormous and still to this day, not many games, especially portable games can even gather this much gameplay. Okay, okay, sure the role-playing games also have epic gameplay content, but in terms of Mario games, especially the still dulling side-scrolling one of the Nintendo DS, they lack the essence that this game has put together. This game is classic.

Story: 7/10
Okay, this game's story is no Legend of Zelda-like, but it still gets the job done. I mean really, it is an old game, it is an action-game, and it is a side-scrolling two-dimensional one at that. Not many Mario fans are known for actually paying close detail to the storyline, except in the basic fact that Bowser stole away Princess Peach and it is up to Mario to save the day and rescue her from Bowser's evil maulers. That is basically all this story is about. Besides saving Princess Peach though, as he defeats the other castles' imitation Bowsers, he also rescues Toads. Not as rewarding as Princess Peach, but drives the story along. That is basically it in terms of story. I guess I will add this fact. Not only can Mario save the day, but by pressing the Select button, you can change Mario to Luigi before the start of a level and save the day with Luigi. If you have some vibe against Mario, don't like red, or prefer green, then Luigi is up for the task of saving as well. Not only do you have to save Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. the original, but also in Super Mario Bros. for All-Star Players (Super Mario Bros. II as they call it in Japan). If you feel like making Boo turn all black inside as well, I guess you can play along with his story as well. And finally, if you have some urge to help out poor Yoshi and make his painstaking attempts at setting up a challenge just for you worthwhile, I suggest you try out some of this levels and make him slightly happy. It's action, not much story, just like most movies are today, but for the movies, it is more at the negative end of the scope. Mario's storyline gets the job done.

Graphics: 9/10
Now I thought the graphics of the Super Mario Bros. game for the Gameboy Color were the best until I laid my eyes upon the graphical nature of the oracle games in the Legend of Zelda series for the Gameboy Color. Despite this though, this game does well in every aspect of what a side-scrolling two-dimensional game delivers. I had no problem navigating throughout the many maps, and I enjoyed the bland eight-bit graphical power that my Gameboy Color could put out in this game, because it was portable and it was fun. I am not sure how this game could have improved in its graphical nature, but maybe had the game put more emphasis into some detailed cinematic cutscenes where the princess is captured and rescued by the Mario, then maybe that could have beefed it up. Though despite this, I enjoyed the graphics, and they were clear, precise, and did justice for the game. When I swam around in the blue water, I knew I was in water, and when I was on land I knew I was on land. Oh ya, that was a little funny, Princess Peach's sprite kind of looked a little messed up. But ya, I think I can recall a little cutscene ending at the end of the game after Mario or Luigi rescues Princess Peach and that does add some very intrinsic value to this game.

Sound: 9/10
Well, you cannot complain about classic Mario music. Even to this day you can find people humming it or making parodies about it – classic as always. There is not much game creators can do about the horribly synthesized music, because we are dealing with relatively low technology in terms of speaker quality for the Gameboy Color. My only problem with the game is that the same music repeats through every world that I go through. I believe the game in total had about three tunes that would play at different times based on whether the map a person played was underwater, in the open green expanses, or underground. There was probably some dungeon music also probably for the bosses. Ya, sure, it got the job done, and I was quite pleased with it, because it was quality. But I would not have minded a little bit more variety to spice up the moment.

Replayability: 10/10
Well, this is basically a no-brainer. With gameplay that is still not rivaled in the portable Mario ports for the new systems such as Nintendo DS (besides Super Mario DS), this game has epic replay value. Of course, jumping around for hours on end can get boring, but no fear. Just pick up another game, play it for a few hours, and after you get tired with it, put it down, and have another go at a few more hours of unbelievable gameplay and replayability in Super Mario Brothers Deluxe. Not only does it have just one game, but you could possibly say this game has four games in one with some added bonus content such as the toy box. After defeating the original Super Mario Bros., players who think they are up for the challenge can have a go at the extremely challenging Super Mario Bros. for All-Star Players (Super Mario Bros. II as it is known in Japan). Now after defeating those two monster games, a player can pry into playing You vs. Boo, which can get quite fun, especially when a player begins to memorize the level, time the jumps precisely, and enjoy a rivalry between Boo and Mario. Then of course, there is the Yoshi Challenge. Yoshi never appeared in the Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Bros. for All-Star Players, but he has decided to make Mario's time in the Super Mario Bros. game even more worthwhile, by slapping together some interesting gameplay where exploration is the key to gameplay. You will be bamboozled in your attempt to find the Yoshi egg by randomly jumping up in mid air and hoping that you are lucky enough to find the egg. After you find the egg though, some nice hints from Yoshi will prove better. Not only getting the egg, but getting all five red coins can be a challenge especially on the final levels of the worlds when Bowsers spitting fireballs and throwing hammers at you. Then of course there is the high score to deal with. I probably spent more time trying to look for stuff in Yoshi's Challenge that playing through both Super Mario Brothers game. The replay lasts and lasts, and once you have finally kicked the bucket on this game and zapped all the content you have, you will have found that you spent your money quite well. I cannot stress it enough, this game and Super Mario 64 are in their own dimension for epic Mario replayability content – just stellar.

CONCLUSION
Using my rating system for action games:
35% Gameplay, 12.5% Story, 25% Graphics, 10% Sound, 17.5% Replayability

Overall Game Rating: 9.275

OVERALL RATING: 9/10 – Definitive Classic
Suggested Action: It is old, but if you can get your hands on it, try it.

Final Comments: Mario truly started a legacy that continued for several years. With this game, the Super Mario Worlds, and Super Mario 64, it looked as though Mario would continue to deliver the classics even to the portable world. Though such did not turn out to be the case, let us hope that Super Mario Galaxy will restart the legacy. This game was classic when it appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and when it appeared again on the Gameboy Color with a bountiful amount of additional content, it was truly bliss. For a person big into portability and owned a Gameboy Color, this was one of the games that was necessary in his or her arsenal. Not only is it one game, Super Mario Bros., but additional three games: Super Mario Brothers for All-Star Players (Super Mario Bros. II as it is known in Japan), You vs. Boo, and Yoshi's Challenge. I guess that is why they call it Deluxe. I remember when I defeated the game and thought, well that was a good game, and now it's done, but then when I saw another Super Mario Brothers game at my fingertips, that it was harder, extremely harder, and had a totally different setup in terms of scenario, I just could not have believed that I had possibly one of the greatest games to ever grace the Gameboy Color and the portable world. The good old saying keeps sounding that “they do not make them like they used to.” Well it is true in one sense, but of course, classics still keep coming and they will still keep going. I That is what Mario games are – classics. Sadly though, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for the Gameboy Color is not on the market anymore of course, but if you happen to find the game and an old potable system from a friend, it is a very worthwhile game to try. It is Mario and it is him in classic form.

Fin

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/30/07