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| North American Box Art of Super Mario Bros |
Super Mario Bros is the game that took the character Mario and implanted him into my head as I clicked away on a computer screen back at my home when I was just 7 years old. Originally a NES game released in 1985 by Nintendo, it is said to be the greatest and most influential game of all time. I can't imagine how platformers will look like in case this epic classic was never released.
Till this game was released, Mario was stuck in retro arcade machines through the title Mario Bros released in 1983. Super Mario Bros took Mario and introduced him to the new and emerging Home console users. The premise follows Mario (optionally his brother Luigi too in case you are playing in the 2 player mode) going through the mushroom kingdom to defeat King of Koopas (who we know as Bowser today). We side scroll through this world as we guide Mario up and over obstacles, defeating enemies and collecting power ups.
The game was originally released for the Famicom, the Japanese version of NES and later released for NES.
It is Top 10 in best selling games of all time, estimated to have sold 58 million copies worldwide. It made the side scrolling platformer style games popular and all other games in the genre followed in its footsteps. Today, Mario is a very distinguished video game character in popular culture with him appearing in several games, movies and shows.
As we load up the game, we see Mario in World 1-1. I don't know how many times I played through this specific level in Super Mario Bros from the first time I played it on my first computer I got as a kid or right now on my steam deck. If you wait on the game's main menu without pressing any buttons, you will be greeted with a small demo video of the gameplay on this level with Mario jumping across, smashing blocks, kicking enemies and collecting power ups. It is actually interesting because the World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros was created to be a tutorial level for the players.
The Motivation
The motivation for playing the epic classic right now in 2026 came as I sat with my brother in a train, travelling to visit our cousin. We were looking for something to play and suddenly I saw the title on my steam deck I had installed last month when I was setting up emudeck on it. So, me an my brother eagerly took turns playing it.
As I arrived back home from my trip, I realized that this game is a good excuse to bust out my good old R36S from its box. So I took it out and copied the rom over to it and started playing this there. So, the steam deck is gonna be replaced by my tiny handheld for some time till I am done with playing some of these retro classics.
I soon realize that I suck coming back to Super Mario Bros. The most I can clear is world 2-1. I was not able to get past after that till I learned that we can hold the A button to restart from the first world of a level.
After struggling several days, I discovered that we can restart from the start of the world I died in by holding down A button till pressing start on the new game screen. Armed with this, I was able to make it to 3-4, but was still going down during the Bowser battle of world 3.
Gameplay
Super Mario Bros is a platformer. Mario platform across mushroom kingdom to defeat Bowser and rescue Princess. In 2 player mode, Mario is joined by his brother Luigi. Player side scrolls from left to right to a flagpole at the end of the level.
On each level, there are coins and blocks. Hitting question mark blocks will give whatever is inside the block. There are also breakable blocks called bricks, some of which also may include secret items. From question mark blocks, we can also get power ups.
Super Mushroom
If we collect super mushroom from question mark blocks, Mario grows to twice his size. This allows him to break blocks. It also protects Mario from one enemy hit. Mario will downsize to his former size once hit in this state.
Lives
Player starts with 3 lives. It's game over once you run out. You can gain more lives by collecting 100 coins, finding secret dotted green hidden mushrooms, defeating many enemies in a row with a shell or bouncing on top of enemies multiple times without touching ground.
Death
Mario dies if he gets hit when small, falls of the screen or runs out of time. The game ends when you run out of lives. At this point, if you hold down A button, we can restart a new game from the first world of the level you died in.
Attacks
Jump
Mario's primary and only attack at the start is his jump. He can jump onto enemies to defeat them. Some enemies, however are different, like if you jump on a Koopa, it will retract to its shell instead, which can then be used as a projectile to defeat other enemies. Some kinds of enemies cannot be defeated like this at all. Enemies can also be defeated by jumping on to bricks that enemies are currently on.
Fire
Mario can obtain fire flower from some question mark blocks if he already have consumed a super mushroom. If he is yet to consume a super mushroom, these blocks will spawn super mushroom instead. Once collected, his outfit changes and he can then use fire to defeat enemies.
Starman
Some blocks may spawn a starman, collecting the star will give Mario temporary invincibility against enemies.
World
The game have 8 worlds and each of the worlds have 4 levels. There are overworld, underground and underwater stages. There are certain wrap pipes which can be accessed to skip certain sections and wrap directly to other places. At the end of all worlds, there is a Bowser fight. We can defeat Bowser by getting to the axe behind him by jumping over using the ledge above him or running under him when he is jumping. There is a higher difficulty mode you can play in if you complete the game at least once.
Plot
The game follows the events of the game Mario Bros. It is set in the fantasy world of Mushroom kingdom, where Mario and his brother Luigi arrived via a pipe from New York city.
Bowser and his minions turned all people of Mushroom kingdom into inanimate objects and plants and kidnapped the princess, who has the ability to reverse all the magic. Mario and Luigi traverses through Mushroom kingdom to defeat Bowser and rescue the princess to reverse the effect of magic on the Mushroom kingdom.
World 1-1
In the NES era, tutorials in games were very rare. Instead, gamers were supposed to figure out things on their own assisted by simpler level designs in the early part of the games. The first level of Super Mario Bros was designed to be such a tutorial level. Simple, but encompasses all its mechanics to give players the ability and freedom to tackle the upcoming levels and challenges.
Ports
Super Mario Bros has been ported and re-released several times. There are also remakes, ROM hacks, etc. This game is playable on several different platforms thanks to either Nintendo or the community. I myself played this game for the first time in my childhood through an unofficial PC version of the game. I am not sure if it was a emulator under the hood.
Remakes
The game was remade several times with better graphics by Nintendo. It or some version of it was playable on all Nintendo consoles from NES to Switch 2 except the N64.
Critical Reviews
The game was a critical as well as commercial success for Nintendo. Several reviewers at the time appreciated the simple graphics but the depth of gameplay. It was called one of the best games of its time several times by several outlets. The arcade version of the game received the award for Best Video Game of 1986.
Speedrun
Game is famous for having its own section in Guinness Book of World records for speedrun. The current record is 4:54.332. In theory, it is said that for a human, it is possible to beat it 67 milliseconds faster than the current speed.
Conclusion
As I wrap up my R36S after several attempts at this game, finally I was unable to make it past world 3. Looking back, maybe we are now too lazy from the comforts of modern gaming that we forgot an era of these simple platformers and the challenges it offered. Well, as I herd in awe that someone actually beat this thing in under 5 minutes while I took my sweet time hardly making it through the first few goombas and finally dying to a plant just befor the finish, it takes me back to a simpler time in gaming when games were just a few pictures on your screen, scrolling across left to right as we progressed.
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