I have really been on a roll this year with a lot of game reviews. I've gotten to review quite a lot of games that I've been wanting to review for well over a year now. I've also had the chance to go back and edit some of the reviews I've already made. I wasn't happy with the way some of my earlier ones turned out. I don't know how many more I'm going to be able to keep doing. There are still some more new and old games I want to review and re-review soon. Retro Mario Bros. is another new review for an interesting ROM hack I have been playing for some time.

Mostly, it is a hack of the first Super Mario Bros. game, but there are some other elements thrown in from other Mario games as well. About all of the sound effects come from Super Mario World. Also much of the music for Retro Mario Bros. was brought in from that game as well, but there are also many tracks from Yoshi's Island. The levels are exactly identical to those from Super Mario Bros. on NES, but they have really been made over graphically. However, this hack has a lot of flaws with the gameplay and difficulty that I plan on discussing in this review. 

Graphics 10/10: The graphics are defiantly one of the finer points to this game. The sprites and characters of Retro Mario Bros. look very 3-dimensional. The backgrounds and other objects are full of a lot more life and detail. They probably have even more detail and color to them than those in either Super Mario World or Yoshi's Island. Every stage has their own backgrounds that really make the levels shine. This gives the game way more variety than the version of Super Mario Bros. from 1985. Those levels looked so dull and lifeless compared to the backgrounds in this hack. You have: cloud levels, ice/snow levels, underwater levels, castle/fortress levels, etc. Retro Mario Bros. looks even better than the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 1.   

Music 10/10: As I already mentioned, most of the music has been brought in from Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island. Although, the songs from Yoshi's Island sound even better in Retro Mario Bros. I guess maybe they aren't as repetitive in this game, and they even included music from the more recent Mario games. The sound effects are from Super Mario World, but the music for every level is different. You don't know what song you are going to hear next! This is a hack with a lot of musical variety, and all of it is very catchy. There are so many different themes, but the effects aren't that original. Still, I have to say Retro Mario Bros. has an excellent soundtrack.

Gameplay 6/10: The levels of Retro Mario Bros. are the same levels from the first Super Mario Bros. but with a few changes. To start with, you have an overworld map of each of the 8 worlds of the game. As already stated, the music for the levels has been changed also which give them more life. The goal is still the same. You have to get to the end of the stage before time runs out. Although, once you get to the end, you have a goalpost with a tape sliding up and down just like in Super Mario World. Mario also controls just like he did in that game. He can accelerate better and also bounce off of enemies in order to get a higher jump.

The player can earn a good many extra lives, and you have the option to save and continue after beating a castle. The only problem is with castle 6 (I believe). Upon clearing this stage, the game doesn't give you the save option. This makes the game feel kind of broken, and there are also some other problems like this as well. Anyway, the hit system is the same one-hit system from the first game. The only power-ups are the Mushroom and Fire Flower. There are also no checkpoints in this game. If you die on a level, you have to go all the way back to the beginning of the stage.

The difficulty also becomes a problem in this ROM hack. The most well known problem is level 2-3. There is almost no way to avoid being hit by flying fish on this level. They seem to pop up out of nowhere and kill you! Then you have to go back to beginning of the stage. Luckily, you can re-enter levels in order to get power-ups, but that only helps so much on levels like these. There are other levels that have this problem also. I don't like the random difficulty of this hack, and this is a big issue to an otherwise great ROM hack.

Basically, Retro Mario Bros. is just a modification of SMB1. There are elements brought over from games like Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island. This hack does have some flaws with its difficulty which really becomes a problem, but the improved graphics and sound balance this out somewhat. Unlike the original, this game doesn't have a Hard Mode. When you beat the game, you just get the same ending from Super Mario World which doesn't make sense. There isn't much optional challenge to it either, but it's a pretty hard game as it is with some of the bad levels. When I take all this into account, I find the gameplay of this hack to be kind of a letdown when compared to the original SMB.

Story 6/10: The story for Retro Mario Bros. is basically the same storyline from Super Mario Bros. on NES. Bowser has kidnapped the Princess, and it is up to Mario and Luigi to go venture through the Mushroom Kingdom and save her. This is nothing new, and I kind of find it to be unimportant in this game. What really makes it feel even more cheap is that you get the same ending from Super Mario World. Why? This is a hack of the first SMB! It's basically a modified version of that game not SMW. This isn't that big of an issue, but it really makes it feel like there wasn't much thought put into the plot of this hack.

Content 7/10: Retro Mario Bros. is made up of the same 8 worlds from SMB without the extra Hard Mode. Each one of them has their own theme for this hack, and this was another one of the ways in which Retro Mario Bros. was an improvement over the regular Super Mario Bros. World 1 is a grassy area, World 2 is a desert, World 3 takes place at night with a starry background and music from Yoshi's Island, World 4 is a forest world, World 5 is an ice world, World 6 takes place in some kind of valley with mountains in the background, World 7 seems to be a bridge area with the underwater level 7-2, and World 8 is Bowser's World.

Each of the 8 worlds from Super Mario Bros. have been given their own theme and overworld map this time. This is quite an upgrade from the plain, dull, boring levels in the NES version of SMB! However, upon completing this game there really isn't anything else. There is no Hard Mode this time, and even though the worlds are given new life, there aren't any more options for players who have completed the regular game. It only takes a little under an hour to finish if you cheat your way through the game and don't die. The amount of content to this hack is kind of underwhelming when compared to Super Mario Bros. even though the 8 worlds have been given more of an identity.      

Difficulty 10/10: The difficulty of Retro Mario Bros. is a big problem! It is full of a lot of glitches, mostly missing platforms. I find myself having to save state and backtrack through levels in order to get them to re-spawn. The enemy patterns are different, and they seem to all want to kill you a lot faster than they did in SMB. This is a game that is difficult for the wrong reasons. Then there is the infamous 2-3 level. A stage that has flying fish come out of nowhere and kill you making you have to re-start from the beginning. Why? Can I ask why there are no checkpoints in this game? You can go back to levels and power back up and get extra lives, but that doesn't seem to help on badly designed levels like these!

Level 2-3 and 7-3 both have this problem. The fish seem to come out of nowhere and hit you when you least suspect it. Their pattern is almost impossible to predict, and you don't know when one is going to hit you! You do get quite a lot of extra lives from the SMW bonus games at the end of the stages after grabbing 100 bonus stars. Players also get to save and continue after finishing one of the castles (except castle 6!). Although, for these two stages, this doesn't help much at all. These two stages could have been improved, and this is what makes this hack almost impossible to finish without save states!

The two bridge levels slow the game down a lot, and I have only been able to finish them with a lot of trial/error or by cheating my way through them. The rest of the levels aren't that hard, but some of the them aren't that easy either with the new way in which the enemies attack you. Beating Retro Mario Bros. is just plain hard! You really have to dedicate yourself to this game in order to beat it. I've rage quit on 2-3 more times than I can count! There are no checkpoints, and you can still only take one hit. That's what makes levels like these even harder. This is just a hard game, and the difficulty really affects the gameplay.    

Overall 7.8/10: This was a pretty hard review to make. Retro Mario Bros. is a graphical overhaul of the original NES Mario game. The music is also better and unlike nothing else in any other Mario hack. This is a hard game to play, but it can be done. It feels impossibly difficult even after a lot of trial/error and memorization. The story/plot could have been better too, and I feel like there wasn't much effort put into that either. Retro Mario Bros. also doesn't have quite as much content as the original SMB, but I liked how every world was given its own theme. There are a lot of strong points and weak points to this game as a whole, but I guess the good does weigh out the bad. After all, when compared to a lot of other SMB1 hacks, this is one of the better ones.