Super Mario Bros. (1985)

I never owned Super Mario Bros. In fact the family that did own Super Mario Bros. that we knew very well was my only access to this one and, more often than not, we were actually more interested in Duck Hunt (1984). To be honest, I was even more interested in a completely different game they had.

I would reset after the Spider-Man level because that was the only reason I played.

After Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto and Gundpei Yokoi decided making games was fun and profitable so they gave the carpenter (later deemed a plumber) in the game another game called simply Mario Bros. (1983) The game was a bit more simple: hit enemies from the blocks underneath them and, when flipped over, jump up to their level and kick them off screen for good measure. They allowed for head-to-head competition by bringing the plumber's palette-swap brother Luigi. And for a while it was cool.

Then the Shigeru decided that he wanted a game with a bit more depth and focus. He teamed up with Takashi Tezuka and they recycled the plumber brothers and the idea of navigating pipes by making a side scrolling game where the two guys would traverse the treacherous world of the Mushroom Kingdom to save a princess from the clutches of a...dragon-turtle monstrosity. The long trek would be filled with goombas, turtles, turtles with harder shells, hammer throwing jerks, and over sized bullets with faces amongst others.

The worst of them all being called "Disappointment."

Donkey Kong made this game look like Mario went from an everyman to some kind of special ops specialist going into a foreign nation with nothing but the knowledge of height-increasing hallucinogens and his steel toe boots. Power-ups mixed things up by allowing you to get hit once if necessary and smash blocks out of your way, shoot bouncing fireballs at unsuspecting enemies and give you an additional hit count, or made you temporarily invincible and able to just run straight into anything in your way. Even the more crafty gamers could try locating the secret warp zones that allowed you to jump into special pipes that let you skip worlds entirely.

Oh, and this brother could hook you up with an extra life. No charge.

My only problem with this game was how Mario's movements always dictated that he take an extra step when running or jumping forward; he could never stop on a time. This did add some realism amongst all the madness as you don't naturally come to complete stop and made you have to time things like jumps very carefully especially if you need a running start to make a particularly long one.

This game would bring some of the most iconic characters in gaming history to wider fame. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Toad, all the enemies, the power-ups, and even the simple 8-bit music clips are easily recognizable. Why? Because this game had everything you wanted: running, jumping, jumping on bad guys' heads, practical power-up advantages, etc. Hell, the theme music has stuck around as a staple for the character and he's been rocking it for over 25 years. Try and stop him now!

No, really, go for it. They've make him bigger than most buildings now.

Final Judgment: 8/10

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BONUS: Want to play as SNES Samus Aran in the classic Super Mario Bros. game? You can do that and other random combinations thanks to Jay Pavlina at Exploding Rabbit with his cool Super Mario Bros. Crossover. He's made many dreams come true with this one.