Greetings ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Mario Month. This month, I'll be focusing on the classic Mario titles. (The American releases, so no Lost Levels, sorry...) It will end with a review of Super Mario World, but let's focus on this game first, shall we? First, a little back-story as to how this game came to save all of gaming. In 1983, an event known as the Video Game Crash occurred and continued on into 1984 and some of 1985. This crash in the industry was due to many factors, including terrible games like E.T. and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600, the fact that there were too many gaming consoles at the time, and all of the unofficial games for those systems. People were losing hope in gaming and thought it was a fad that was on the verge of dying. But in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. The console, in America, was designed to look like a VCR, as you had to insert the cartridges like VHS tapes. The reason for this is because the video game crash was so bad in the US, that Nintendo had to make sure their console looked less like a gaming console. Along with the NES came Super Mario Bros. The game that pulled the gaming industry out of the crash. It has become the second best-selling video game of all time, just under Wii Sports. (No, I'm not kidding) Now, let's take a look at Super Mario Bros.
Graphics
For an early NES game, these graphics aren't terrible, but to be honest, they've aged a little. Yeah, their simplicity has kept them looking decent enough to still hold up, and I'm not comparing them to today's graphical standards (because that would be really unfair), but they can be somewhat hard to look at, especially with the updated HUD in the next games. The animations aren't very fluid, but this is early NES we're talking about, so I'll let it slide. There's enough variety within the levels so you can tell what type of level you're in. One thing I should probably mention is that the cloud sprite and the bush sprite are the same, just colored differently.
Sound
The music in this game one of, if not THE most recognizable video game soundtrack ever. The track I'm sure everyone is familiar with is the Ground Theme, you know you've heard it, probably about A THOUSAND TIMES, at least that's how many times I've heard it, be it a remix, the original, or a fan-made version, you've heard it somewhere. The other tracks include the Underground theme and the Underwater theme. You've probably heard these as well, maybe just not as much. I must say though, these are probably the catchiest tunes I've ever heard, all 3 of them. It still sounds good even today, I'm listening to the Ground Theme as I type. All in all, an amazing soundtrack.
Addictiveness
This game can be very addicting, there are secrets in this game that will keep you coming back for more. I would go into detail, but that would spoil the fun. Anyway, the point is, depending on how interested you are in finding these secrets, you could be playing this game for many years to come.
Story
There isn't much to the story, so here it is. One day, Bowser, or King Koopa, decides to kidnap Princess Peach, or Toadstool as she was called at the time. Why does he do this? I don't know, maybe the manual explains it. A very simple story as most are in platforming games, especially those on the older consoles. It's short and simple and gives you enough motivation to play.
Depth
There are 8 Worlds with 3 levels and a castle level in each totaling up to 32 levels. There are also plenty of shortcuts, the most famous being the warp zones. There's apparently one somewhere near the beginning of the game that instantly takes you to World 8. I haven't used it yet, but I may try it out at some point. There are many other secrets of course, but I either don't know where they are or just want you to find them for yourself, trust me, it's more fun that way.
Controls/Gameplay
The controls are very simple, the d-pad moves, you hold the B button to run and press the A button to jump. One piece of advice, use the run ability as often as possible, it's a heck of a lot more fun. Mario handles pretty well and the controls still feel pretty good to this day. There's really not much to talk about here, just that the game is still fun to play to this day. There are some moments where I'll feel like I slid a little bit too much because I was holding the run button, but that rarely happens so I won't hold too much against this game for that.
All I have to say is this: If you haven't played this game yet, DO IT NOW! In my opinion, if you want to call yourself a true gamer, you have to play this game at least once. Why? Because it's this game that allows you to play all the games you get to play nowadays. Everything that exists in gaming today, be it Sonic, Call of Duty, Zelda, Halo, or any other game, it all exists because this game does. Heck, this website exists because of this game and for that, I truly owe my deepest thanks to the great men who made this game possible, Koji Kondo for composing the catchiest music known to man, and Shigeru Miyamoto for creating this masterpiece of a game. With good graphics, good control, and the catchiest songs ever, I give this game an 8 out of 10. I know this may seem a little low, but I think you'll see why when I get to the last two reviews of the month. Until then, PEACE! |
User Notice 
Itachi9695 is Offline
| ID: 798436 | 1002 Words
Itachi9695 is Offline
Pacman+Mariofan is Offline
| ID: 799654 | 35 Words
Pacman+Mariofan is Offline
supercool22 is Offline
| ID: 799852 | 30 Words
supercool22 is Offline
