RoyalRanger's NES Site - Zippidee-doo-da. Zippidee-ite. My, oh my, what a wonderful site.

Super Mario Bros.
By Powell Angel Dude

How do you review a game that was as revolutionary and ground breaking as Super Mario Brothers. Not only was this the first Nintendo game, it is actually one of the greatest. Though the graphice weren't that great, but the gameplay was unbelievable for its time. (Refer to my article: Gameplay Over Graphics). So I'm going to treat this game as if it were just a regular old game and tell you how I feel about it. So here we go.

Well, I think I'll start with the story. This was original when it was first introduced, and it went on to be used in many, many games in the future. The princess has been captured by the evil King Koopa, and you, Mario, must go save her. Now, I know it doesn't sound like that great of a storyline, but that isn't exactly what makes this game great.

Let me start by telling you how the game is played. You can play one or two players, Player one as Mario and Player two as his brother, Luigi. There are 8 worlds each with 4 levels in each world. The levels consist of ground levels, water levels, and sky levels. Each level is side scrolling, which is pretty simple.

In each level you encouter numerous enemies. Most enemies are Goombas, which look like little walking mushrooms. Other enemies include Koopa-Troopas, which are just little ducks. Some of them walk, some of them fly, and some of them jump up and down. And Cheep-Cheep's are flying little fishies that are usually seen in sky levels. But the boss of all these guys is King Koopa, who you fight at the end of each world. Sometimes he just jumps up and dwon like an idiot, or sometimes he has a lot of fireballs jumping out of the lave beneath him and he throws hammers. No offense to Koopa, but anyway you fight him, he's pretty simple. All you have to do is get past him and hit the ax behind him. It's pretty simple. There are a lot more enemies in the game, but there are just too many to mention.

In these levels there are a lot of items to collect. Some of these items include:
Mushroom - Get this, and you can go from Small Mario to Super Mario.
Fire Flower - This can also make you Super Mario, but if you already are Super, then it allows you to shoot fire balls.
1-up - This gives you an extra life.
Coin - Collect 100 coins and you get a free life.

These items can be found scattered throughout each level and in different locations. All these items help you throughout the game and I insist that if you are going to play through this game, try to find where the hidden items are. This will help a lot.

For how early this game is, the technical stuff in this game is unbelievable. I think that it might actually be better than some late model NES games. The graphics aren't that great. Tthey are kinda blocky, but it is nothing that will draw your attention away from the fun factor. The control is excellent. The tight response is better than most games, and nothing could be expected less from an NES manufactured game. The music is some of the most memorable music from a video game of all time. The sound is great too, the *boing* you hear each time you jump or the *whomp* you hear when you squish a Goomba is some great memorable sound affects. Like I said, Nintendo really knows how to make a video game, and this is one effort where everything was done great.

So as I come to a close, let me just say that Super Mario Brothers is one of the best games the NES has to offer, actually, let me rephrase that. Super Mario Brothers is one of the best games that Video Games have to offer. If you haven't played this game I want to know if you have thumbs cause I think everybody has played this game. But seriously, if you haven't, just get a copy, trust me, it's worth it.

My Score: 8/10

RoyalRanger's NES Site
© 2001-2003 Stephen Maiorana (RoyalRanger)
This site is not authorized, sponsored, or endorsed by Nintendo of America, Inc.