Super Mario Bros and its entire series doesn't just represent a video game series, it pretty much represents video games as a whole. When you say video game to a non gamer or casual gamer, they usually reply with, "Oh I play them sometimes, I like those Mario games." Why is this game and the rest of the series so important? Because, video games were not very complex to this point, and video games could've seen an end after the crash of 1983. But, Shigeru Miyamoto and the rest of Nintendo didn't give up, and released this game with the NES in 1985. All of a sudden, 40 million copies of this game were throughout America, and the game became part of culture. This game has quite a simple storyline, but at the time, this was one of the first games where there was all these large worlds. A plumber from the city named Mario and his brother Luigi are called upon to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser, the game's villian, in a common "damsel in distress" format. Mario and his brother must travel through 8 worlds with 4 levels a piece, and on the 4th level of each world, you fight an imposter Bowser (excluding World 8) and you save some Toads in every world except World 8, where you save Princess Toadstool from her prison like environment. This game was so different to others at the time, and really changed everything. Super Mario Bros. is a near perfect game, with great, addicting gameplay and with many hidden shortcuts. It's very impressive to play a game like this, and have just as much fun as some games are today. Besides the gameplay, Super Mario Bros has a great flow of difficulty, gradually getting a little harder as the game goes on. However, I did say "near-perfect," didn't I? Yes, I did, and there are some flaws, even considering the time period. If there was an award for most frustrating game ever, Super Mario Bros. would definetly be in the Top 5. There is one big problem with this game. You are given 3 lives at the beginning of the game and if you lose all of them, regardless of what world you are in, you go back to Level 1, World 1, which can be extremely frustrating to players who make it to World 5 and beyond. Another flaw, a minor one, is the graphical performance. Obviously, it's an 8-bit system and you can't expect great graphics, but the graphical capabilities of the NES are a little higher than what is shown on this game, as the still fire in the castles and general lack of any detail are very obvious, and the true capabilities are showcased in later NES games. Overall, Super Mario Bros, revived video games for good, and offers an extremely fun, addicting gameplay with a world bigger than any game that had been seen before this.
All in all, Super Mario Bros. changed and revived video games for good.
Rating: 4 and a half stars out of 5
Renegade
What to expect:
Music:
All other Green Day albums
All Third Eye Blind albums
Nevermind and In Utero by Nirvana
Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park
The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem
The College Dropout and Graduation by Kanye West
Elephunk by the Black Eyed Peas
Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt
Movies:
Avatar
The Green Mile
Billy Madison
Click
Saving Private Ryan
21
Schindler's List
Stepbrothers
The Hangover
Games:
All other Mario and Zelda games
Tales of Symphonia
Final Fantasy 7
All Super Smash Bros games
All old Spryo and Crash Bandicoot games
