Scoring Note: Each category is rated on a scale of 10 points, because I'm boring and uncreative, and a 10-point scale is just simple to use.

Graphics: 10

This is as good as it gets on the NES. Lots of the objects are animated, like the questions marks rotate in the blocks, the note in the jump blocks bounces about, and the coins spin around. The enemies look very nice; the Goombas look perfect (but no gray ones in the game- some red ones were a nice touch though), the Boos have an eerie white glow surrounding them, and the Koopalings look, mostly, how they should (except Ludwig has white hair for some reason). Even some small graphics touches are cute, like how one level has a solid white 1-Up, as opposed to the usual green-spotted ones.

The music is kind of hit-or-miss. The jazzed-up version of SMB1's underground theme is way cool, as well as the plains music above ground. The underwater music is a step down from the underwater theme from SMB1, though, as is the fortress music. Also, some levels, unexplainably, use the wrong music (namely, the hilly music gets used for plains levels sometimes, like the end of level 1-5).

Size: 10

Considering most games around this time had only about 6 to 10 levels, seeing a game with almost 100 was AMAZING! Of course, there were many ways to skip levels, so you didn't necessarily need to spend six hours to finish the game.

Levels: 10

There are enough different kinds of levels so that it doesn't get boring (i.e. Super Mario World), but not so few that they weren't able to take advantage of different aspects that could be used for each type of terrain (i.e. Super Mario 64). Basically, what we have here is a perfect combination.

Really, the game is, unfortunately, not particularly hard. An expert player can get through the game on a single life. It would have been nice to include some optional, super-difficult levels in the game.

Replay Value: 9

There are so many things you can do differently when playing the game. You can take a different route, you can try to get through the game without power-ups, you can try to find all the secrets in the game... there's enough to keep you occupied for a long time here.

Mario controls perfectly. The control is tight, but not stiff, like it was in SMB1, so it's easy to turn on a dime.  Jumping all depends on how long you hold the A button... no problem there. No problem with the controls at all- you won't be able to say "it's the control's fault I died" in this game.

Overall: 10

How can you hate the game that introduced the Koopalings? Quite simple- you don't. There's not much not to like about the game, only that it could stand to be a little harder later in the game. But I won't complain about that. This is definitely a ame you should get; if you like ANY platform games you'll enjoy it. Platformers simply do not get any better than this one!

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