Mario Bros. Quite the good game, and it introduced Luigi to the Mario franchise. Also, it gave Mario his name, which is quite an accomplishment. But how does the Atari port fare?
The graphics are decent enough for the Atari 2600, though a noticeable number of objects are just blocks. Mario looks quite close to how he should look, and the enemies look decent by Atari standards.
The sound isn't so good. Whenever you try to run across the floor, it makes an annoying noise that sounds like an old carriage on a brick road, though the round clear noise is still there, and the sound effects do their job properly.
The collision detection is fine, though it can be iffy at times...the controls make it that much harder to manage, since you can only jump in a direction while holding that direction, otherwise you'll just jump up into the air uselessly. Also, there's absolutely no midair control, which makes the game noticeably more difficult than it seems like it should be.
The different stages are there, just like the arcade version. There's the normal stages, which are just affairs of "kill all the enemies to advance to the next stage", and also the bonus stages, where you try to collect coins(though they look more like blue orbs) within a 15 second time limit.
The enemy designs from the arcade game are still here, just as good as in the arcade. The two types of fireballs are there, the shellcreepers(who seem quite similar to Koopas in design), which are flipped over with one hit to the underside, the crabs which take two hits to flip over, and move faster after the first hit, and fighter flies, which can only be hit while they're on the ground, as well as freezies, living icicles which slide along the ground and, if given enough time, freeze the floor. Just like the classic arcade game...or, at least as close as it can be for an Atari port.
There's a two-player mode, which is a nice bonus, and there's also limited amounts of strategy. You can work together, or you can fight each other. You can try to see who will survive the longest, or who gets the highest score. It's a pretty good two-player game, especially for Atari.
While the game is simplistic enough, there's multiple game modes as well, though they only toggle fireballs on or off. The fireballs make the game substantially more difficult, due to the fact that they can just appear, they're faster than Mario's running speed, and they always seem to get in the way just when you're about to destroy an enemy or get a coin that pops out of one of the pipes when you destroy an enemy. I had a bit more fun when fireballs were turned off, but it wasn't especially challenging, even after about 20 or so levels.
The storyline is basically that there's creatures coming out of the pipes, and Mario and Luigi, the famous Mario Bros., are sent to curb the creature problem.
Overall, this game's quite excellent, and a great port of the arcade game...
=Mediocre graphics
-Annoying walking sound
-Not very many difficulty options
-Stiff controls
+It's actually FUN!
+Two-player mode
+All other sound is good
+Basically every feature from the arcade version is here
Overall Rating:B(There are some problems that could be fixed, but they're relatively minor compared to all the positives) Mario Bros. Quite the good game, and it introduced Luigi to the Mario franchise. Also, it gave Mario his name, which is quite an accomplishment. But how does the Atari port fare?
The graphics are decent enough for the Atari 2600, though a noticeable number of objects are just blocks. Mario looks quite close to how he should look, and the enemies look decent by Atari standards.
The sound isn't so good. Whenever you try to run across the floor, it makes an annoying noise that sounds like an old carriage on a brick road, though the round clear noise is still there, and the sound effects do their job properly.
The collision detection is fine, though it can be iffy at times...the controls make it that much harder to manage, since you can only jump in a direction while holding that direction, otherwise you'll just jump up into the air uselessly. Also, there's absolutely no midair control, which makes the game noticeably more difficult than it seems like it should be.
The different stages are there, just like the arcade version. There's the normal stages, which are just affairs of "kill all the enemies to advance to the next stage", and also the bonus stages, where you try to collect coins(though they look more like blue orbs) within a 15 second time limit.
The enemy designs from the arcade game are still here, just as good as in the arcade. The two types of fireballs are there, the shellcreepers(who seem quite similar to Koopas in design), which are flipped over with one hit to the underside, the crabs which take two hits to flip over, and move faster after the first hit, and fighter flies, which can only be hit while they're on the ground, as well as freezies, living icicles which slide along the ground and, if given enough time, freeze the floor. Just like the classic arcade game...or, at least as close as it can be for an Atari port.
There's a two-player mode, which is a nice bonus, and there's also limited amounts of strategy. You can work together, or you can fight each other. You can try to see who will survive the longest, or who gets the highest score. It's a pretty good two-player game, especially for Atari.
While the game is simplistic enough, there's multiple game modes as well, though they only toggle fireballs on or off. The fireballs make the game substantially more difficult, due to the fact that they can just appear, they're faster than Mario's running speed, and they always seem to get in the way just when you're about to destroy an enemy or get a coin that pops out of one of the pipes when you destroy an enemy. I had a bit more fun when fireballs were turned off, but it wasn't especially challenging, even after about 20 or so levels.
The storyline is basically that there's creatures coming out of the pipes, and Mario and Luigi, the famous Mario Bros., are sent to curb the creature problem.
Overall, this game's quite excellent, and a great port of the arcade game...
=Mediocre graphics
-Annoying walking sound
-Not very many difficulty options
-Stiff controls
+It's actually FUN!
+Two-player mode
+All other sound is good
+Basically every feature from the arcade version is here
Overall Rating:B(There are some problems that could be fixed, but they're relatively minor compared to all the positives) |
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