Super Mario Bros has been written about so many times that its hard to know what to say about it that hasn’t been said already. This is basically the prototypical platform game that started a franchise and helped Nintendo become the household name it is today. The sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros, and the third game to feature Mario (although he was known only as “Jumpman” in his Donkey Kong debut), Super Mario Bros follows the story of an Italian plumber (and his brother Luigi in two-player mode) attempting to rescue a Princess named Peach (or Toadstool, depending on where you lived) from the evil Bowser, king of the Koopas. This all takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom of course, where annoying Goombas, naughty turtles and cloud-riding gimps are all out to give the Mario Brothers a hard time.

While rescuing princesses was not a new theme for a videogame, I like the way Nintendo took a crazy story with fantasy creatures and worlds and left it to a plumber to sort out. As far as I can tell, Mario and Luigi bring no useful skills to this situation. While the landscape is littered with pipes, none of them seem to require fixing, and there are certainly no toilets or sinks to be installed anywhere. It would have been handy if Mario had brought along a wrench or spanner to batter some turtles with, but it seems he hasn’t bothered. Instead Mario and Luigi get through Bowser’s army by either a) jumping on them, or b) shooting fireballs at them. I’m not sure if anyone else could do these things, or if plumbers were the only guys capable, but I guess that’s a question that will never be answered…

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, let’s start from the beginning! Basically, this is the first brilliant 2D side scrolling platformer that I can remember. The controls are amazing for the time the game was released. I say this because they are simple and very responsive – factors that gamers tend to take for granted these days, but if you play other platformers from the mid 80’s you are unlikely to be able to control the height and direction of a character’s jump with such precision, or have your character stop on a dime with such ease. The graphics may look overly simple by today’s standards, but they are very well drawn and very colourful – perfect for this type of game, especially in an era when videogames were marketed mainly for children. The music and sound effects have since become legendary – any gamer who grew up in the 80’s will recognise the music, and probably the sounds of Mario collecting a gold coin, entering a pipe, eating a mushroom…

Super Mario Bros is a huge step up from Mario Bros, released two years earlier. That game was a platformer where each level was contained in one screen (like Donkey Kong). Mario had to use his jumping skills to knock enemies over, before kicking them off screen. The controls for that game aren’t very responsive and the game is very frustrating as a result. The gameplay also gets very repetitive after a while, as you have to do the same thing on each level, it just gets harder and harder… Super Mario Bros not only improved the graphics, controls and music, but introduced so many new aspects to the platform game that the genre was redefined after the game was released. Mario starts the game as mini-Mario, who will lose a life if hit by a baddie, but when he eats a mushroom he grows and becomes Super Mario. This gives the gamer an extra chance in his quest as any contact with an enemy will only bust him down to mini-Mario instead of killing him. Even better than this is the introduction of the fireflower, which allows Mario to shoot fire at his enemies. Even playing the game today I felt a surprising amount of authority wielding fire like a pixellated Italian god.

And that’s what’s so interesting about the game: it is still great fun to play. As a platform game it remains challenging (even with the Warp Zones), and very enjoyable due to the variety of levels and enemies it offers. There are flying enemies, walking enemies, bouncing enemies… even that guy who rides a cloud throwing those spiky enemies from the original Mario Bros at you will follow and harass you. Who would have thought he’d be helping you out by the time Super Mario Kart rolled around 7 years later?? The levels are brilliantly designed too, slowly increasing in difficulty as the stages progress. Mario will even swim in some levels, which provides a refreshing (if tricky) diversion from running and jumping.

This game helped sell Nintendo Entertainment Systems for many years. It helped the industry recover from the 1983 videogame crash. More importantly it helped my parents get the shopping done on a Saturday morning as they could just leave me in Dixons to play on it.

When I was a kid, you either liked Nintendo or Sega. Only the rich kids could afford both. I was firmly in the Nintendo camp, and it was all because of Super Mario Bros. Two of the things I’m least proud of in my life are related to this game, but demonstrate my level of commitment. 1) I was a member of Club Nintendo, and 2) when the theme music for Super Mario Bros was released as a dance single, I bought it. I was young and impressionable, and a massive Super Mario fan.

I don’t need to go into the sequels to this game… if you’re a gamer you know what they are. While each game developed the themes and characters from Super Mario Bros (although Super Mario Bros 2 veered off on an irritating weed-pulling tangent), the original adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom will remain my favourite due to its originality and playability. And that catchy-as-hell music of course!