PUBLISHED / DEVELOPED BY: Nintendo
PLATFORM: Nintendo Entertainment System
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1985
GENRE: Platformer
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 to 2
Ah, yes... In the game "Donkey Kong", Mario was introduced to the public; in "Mario Bros", Luigi was introduced and the Mario Brothers' occupations became plumbers (Mario was a carpenter in "Donkey Kong"; and, in "Super Mario Bros", the two Brothers were launched to the fame and would become the most popular videogame characters ever! Though it was released two decades ago, SMB keeps as relevant as ever, because it is one of the games that has been most plagiarized, hacked, modded, and so on. Read below:
STORY - 7
As in almost
every 80's game, the story is the damsel-in-distress scheme: in the magical
land of Mushroom Kingdom, its ruler, Princess Peach Toadstool, is kidnapped
by the reptilian Bowser Koopa, who wants to marry her against her wishes.
Bowser also scatters his minions, walking turtles named Koopa Troopas,
throughout the kingdom. The Mario Brothers, personal friends of the princess,
are then contacted to save her, and a series is born.
GAMEPLAY – 8.5
Well, most of
the Readers of this review know about Mario; they might have played, heard
about, or lived with him. But, to keep this Review acceptable to Lemmy,
I have bidding to do. The gameplay of SMB is simple, but at the same time,
deep. It inspired the gameplay of many other videogame series. Mario (or
Luigi) must walk through a level and, at its ending, pull a flag out of
a flagpole to win from 100 to 5,000 points for completing it. As this happens,
the Brothers can find many items, as:
"?" BLOCKS: As
the "?" says, those blocks can contain anything, from coins to Mushrooms,
Fire Flowers, Power Stars, and vines.
MUSHROOM: The
most famous items in the series, the Brothers must eat these to grow up
and get strong (literally). Eating the Mushroom causes the Brothers to
grow, and if they take damage from an enemy, they won't die (but they'll
shrink to their original size).
FIRE FLOWER:
This item only has effect if the brothers are under the effects of the
Mushroom. It lets them shoot fireballs.
POWER STAR: Makes
the Brothers get temporary invincibility.
COINS: Collecting
100 will earn the Brothers an extra life.
GREEN MUSHROOM:
Gives an extra life.
The vines are the best hidden item of all! They're very rare. If you have the luck of finding one, the Brothers can climb it to go to a secret part of the level in the sky, where you can collect a lot of coins.
Each of the 8 worlds in the game has 4 levels. The fourth level is always a battle with Bowser, where the Brothers must grab the axe on the other side to break up the bridge he's standing on, or keep throwing fireballs at him. In the first seven worlds, after Bowser's defeat, the Brothers are always going to find one of the Princess' lackeys, the Toads, who say "Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" In the final castle, the Brothers can finally save the princess, and there's how it goes.
GRAPHICS – 7.5
The graphics
are considerably good for a NES. They're quite colorful.
MUSIC – 9.5
I really loved
the music! In this game, the famous Mario theme appeared. The music is
so catchy that you can find yourself humming it after only one minute hearing
it. However, the music is repeated over and over through the levels...
But, in my opinion, this fact is overshadowed by the quality of it. Mario’s
theme rocks! (And, if you don't know, the theme would appear remixed over
and over through other games in the series.)
FUN FACTOR! -
6
Although the
game is nice, it's not very funny because some levels can make you eat
your limbs, they’re so hard. However, one of the things that should be
noticed is the classic "-1 world" glitch. It happens this way: in any cave
level, when you are at its ending (in the part where you enter the pipe),
jump at the wall and keep pressing the "Right" button. You are going to
stop in the level -1, a never-ending water level! Cool, huh?
FINAL NOTE – 8.5
Although the
game has many failures like in every 80's games, SMB was revolutionary.
Without Mario, many videogame series would never exist, like "Donkey Kong
Country", "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Crash Bandicoot", "Spyro the Dragon",
and others. As I said before, it is, alongside "Pac-Man" and "Donkey Kong",
the game that has been most plagiarized, copied, hacked, and modded. Always
remember how that Italian plumber changed the world, and never say, after
seeing this cartridge on sale, "That's so 80's junk!" Mario is a legacy.
Mario is a real videogame.
BE PREPARED FOR
MY NEXT REVIEW:
Super Mario Bros.
2 (AKA Super Mario USA)
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