Game Publisher: Nintendo

Year: 1985-1986

Type of game: Revolutionary Adventure Platformer

Players: 1-2 Alternating

Story:
     One day the kingdom of the peaceful mushroom people was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles famous for their black magic. The quiet, peace-loving Mushroom People were turned into mere stones, bricks and even field horse-hair plants, and the Mushroom Kingdom fell into ruin.

     The only one who can undo the magic spell on the Mushroom People and returnthem to their normal selves is the Princess Toadstool, the daughter of theMushroom King. Unfortunately, she is presently in the hands of the great Koopa turtle king.

     Mario, the hero of this story (maybe) hears about the Mushroom People's plight and sets out on a quest to free the Mushroom Princess from the evil Koopa and restore the fallen kingdom of the Mushroom People.

     You are Mario! It's up to you to save the Mushroom People from the black magic of the Koopa!

Story ripped from TSR's NES Archive Manual section. [Thanks |tsr]

     My take on the story; you play the franchise cash-cow "hero" Mario of the beginning of a lame long drawn out overused story of save the princess in a new fashion of telling it, ...I mean...you play Mario in the well thought out storyline by the master of video games Shigeru Miyamoto in the first of many in a revolutionary new series of video games known as the Super Mario Brothers series.

     It is also interesting to note that Nintendo Power had a Super Mario World type comic but its beginning storyline is based on Bowser turning the Princess's people into stone, maybe NP wanted this in it as a link or homage to the original.

     Now on to general commentary; this game was the first Miyamoto game to hit the NES, although he did make several titles before it, this is one of his first more popular known ones that made him famous, but the other games are not bad themselves, the first was Donkey Kong, then Mario Brothers, then Super Mario Bros. All of which deserved to be played at least once by any respectable player.

     From what I know the rarest form of this game is the single Mario one packed in with the Robot set, followed by the triple cart Super Mario Brothers/ Duck Hunt/ World Class Track Meet, and then the most common game in history would be Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt, it is rumored that at least forty Million were made.

Play Control: B+

     Hmm, probably the only flaw in the game, running and shooting is excellent, but the jumping needed tweaked, it is frustrating at a lot of areas and a lot more when you first start playing,[if it was the first NES game you've ever played though like me, it is only a extra challenge compared to other easier-to-control characters in other games]. Considering the fact that it is one of the first few NES games made, so this little problem is overlooked and better rated than usual.

Graphics: A-

     Yeah, now before you think I am off my rocker, consider the fact that I played this game for a hour last night just specifically to get a better look at this game. I went ahead and did a lot of comparing with other games, compared to other NES games like Ultimate Air Combat, [which has real good graphics and is 1989 I think], and The Legend of Zelda, [somewhat Pixelated but only can tell on certain objects], not too bad for one of the first NES game. Super Mario Brothers is surprisingly advanced and underrated in the Graphic category, now yes the picture on the game cart itself makes it look bad, but that thing is magnified twenty times, look at the real comparison on a 15 inch by 33 inch [or whatever mine is] and you may notice what I did, that the shoes are well rounded in the right areas and looks like shoes, that the hat looks like a hat, [although the sun visor looks a tad blocky, its still realistic], he has a well defined face, brick blocks look like brick blocks, the koopas are well detailed, from the face to the shell, [the shell even has a shine, did you notice that?], the goombas look like demented killer 'shrooms, most everything is well rounded off and rather touched up and well done. Personally, I think most reviewers look at the cover then try to remember in their mind what the game was like, hard to do that way too since you are comparing its lame looking graphics from the cart cover and your old school memory to games of the next generation, I've done it a time or two on my early reviews and know what's wrong.

Sound: B

     Somewhat simplistic, but they didn't have much to work with and you still get a large variety of noises depending on how you killed something, oddly enough, most platform games on the SNES and Genesis [with the exception of Mario World et el in the series] had usually one defined noise no matter how you killed something, not true with Super Mario Brothers, hit something below that was on top of a brick it died in a bloock, step on that same dude and he goes Bleep. Simple but still has variety.

Music: B+

Simplistic, but at the time highest tech ever was used for making it, so good and catchy I still remember it to this day, even before playing it last night I haven't played it in two years or so, darn good still to this day......

DO THE MARIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theme and Fun: A-

Platformers get tiresome after a while, call me biased, but no one cannot degrade the one that set the standard in this category.

Frustration: C+

Some jumps are hard if you play for the first time, or play after being absent for a long time. And some stages have way to many enemies, and the occasional freeze up with too many baddies cause some trouble, but the game still is addictive after all that.

Repetition: B

gets boring when played too much, so take my advice and play in moderation. [Like once every two years].

Challenge: A-

Pretty good setup up, if it is too easy the first you can play the harder second game, and the warp tunnels can help those novice players out a lot too.

Replay Value: B+

     Between the instructions of the above way of playing, all the hidden stuff in the game, [i.e. one-up mushrooms, hidden coin rooms], and the score and the long way to beat the game, you'll be busy for a long time.

Final Pluses:

     Excellent revolutionary, [at the time] playing style, classical feel, the game that started the Mario craze, easy to find and cheap to own.

Final Minuses:

     Some prices, [both the five dollar and the ten cent] seem insultingly high or low for this classic, the tedious jumping, some of the real large pits.

Changes:

     Except for the jumping, nothing left to improve much on.

Overall: A-

     If you are reading this review to decide whether or not to play it for a first time, go find the closest clay brick and slap yourself around until you go sane again.

Final Note: If you don't own this game, or ever played it, then I pity you.

get it NOW if you don't have it!!!!!!!

Value: about $5 complete, loose about $1.00

Related Games: [I decided to add this "related Games" so I can list games of that are similar to this one, so those that like this type can explore others of the same style.]

     Very Similar/Same Series; Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers 2, Super Mario Brothers 3, Super Mario World [SNES]. This list will be updated as I find more in the series that are the same or games that are not of the series that play the same.