Retro Chat Weekly: Super Mario Bros.

[Shorty]

I had an idea to chat about an old Nintendo game, with a new thread every Friday morning. I'm going to take a game that came out a significant number of years ago close to this date, or something we were chatting about on N64-Europe/Cube-Europe etc.

Talk about your memories of the game, waiting for it to arrive, where or when you played it. How much you anticipated it, whether it lived up to your expectations, if you ever beat it, if you've ever been back to it since. Many of these games you may have replayed on Virtual Console or remakes, but try and stick to your first experience of it.

So where to start? Well I may be 12 days off a 32 year anniversary, but I couldn't think of anywhere more ideal than to go than back to the beginning with...

Super Mario Bros (1985).

It might not be Mario's first appearance (as Jumpman in Donkey Kong) or where he got his name (his next outing in Donkey Kong Junior). It's not even the first "Bros" game, which would be the arcade title that this is technically a sequel to. However, for me and probably many others, this was our first experience of Nintendo, and a game that changed everything for us and paved the way to where we are now as gamers.

Too young to play DK at the arcade, my first experience of Mario was at the house of one of my Mum's friends, down the street. Her son Jason had a NES. Up until this point, my only video game experience had been on an old Commodore 64, so I was blown away by how smooth and colourful it all seemed. By this point the game had been available for quite a long time, but at that age it was all a bit more transient, you didn't need or even know about the newest and best games, but what was new to you could change everything.

Although Sonic would come later and redefine speed, Super Mario Bros. employed an impressive running mechanic, which immediately put it streets ahead of anything I'd played to this point. Frankly, if you weren't holding B down all the time, you were doing it wrong. The tight NES controller was a million miles ahead of the clunky, clicky joystick I had been used to, and you could use it to sail through levels, bouncing with satisfying 8-bit sounds on a huge variety of fun enemies that behaved in many different ways. And the power ups! They didn't just appear, they tried to get away. Grabbing a mushroom gave you a second chance, grabbing a star made you feel like a super hero. Discovering all the secret routes and shortcuts could only be done with effort or word of mouth, as there was certainly no internet to aid me, and at this age video game magazines weren't even something I knew existed. At the time I wasn't one to appreciate a soundtrack, but that doesn't mean that the expertly crafted tunes haven't stuck with me nearly 30 years later.

It was probably another couple of years before I got my own NES, a second hand gift from a family friend who was upgrading to a Mega-Drive. When I did I would sit in front of this game for hours, restarting if I failed, flying through the warp zones and bouncing over every bullet bill and lakitu with muscle memory that my older self is now envious of. I would play with my Sister, it was the game we could play without having to swap at "levels or dying", because it had a built in mechanic for multiplayer (although one that would leave you hoping your sibling would plummet to their doom, as control only swapped when you failed). And she always thought she was winning being Mario, but I always secretly kinda liked Luigi's green duds, he looked super cool in white when he picked up a fire flower. I was guilty of "thumbing" the controller which meant to press the appropriate buttons on the second pad, even when I wasn't the one playing. But this was all part of perfecting your reaction times. On the other hand, my Mum was guilty of leaning half way out the door in order to aid making a particularly difficult jump.

Years later Shigeru Miyamoto would look back at comments from Mario players and worry that games were too easy. That you needed infinite lives or save points or magic golden feathers to get people through a level if they were stuck. This just breeds weak gamers. But Super Mario Bros made us strong. It was difficult, punishing, and if you got to World 8-3 and lost all your lives and continues well, you just didn't try hard enough, time to start again. But I wouldn't say it was brutal, but certainly unforgiving. Remember that one block ledge you had to land on? The first few times you did it, that was a slow precision jump. Then you realised that you were better letting instinct take over and leaping in two quick taps while never releasing B.

Super Mario Bros redefined gaming in a way that I wouldn't experience again until the same frontman entered 64 bits. From this point onward I was well and truly a gamer. I coveted nothing as much as the second and third titles, getting lucky and scrounging SMB2 from a car boot and begging Santa for SMB3. The latter of which may have taken the format to its perfect form in the NES era, but it was the original that set the standard for 2D gaming for years and years to come.

[Dcubed]

My first experience with this game was with All Stars on the SNES.  Though I actually prefer the NES version (which I didn't get to play properly until I got it on GBA), it absolutely captivated me as a kid, every bit as much as Super Mario World.

 

Like Shorty pointed out, the unforgiving difficulty of it was part of that as well.  Though I had already cut my teeth on SMW and other games by that point, SMB was pretty damn punishing as a kid and as such, it was a war of attrition to build up my skills and "git gud" enough to push myself forward from world to world and take the fight to the real King Koopa.

 

The music, the sights, the tough but fair difficulty and the pixel perfect controls all served to make me a lifelong fan! I can't even begin to imagine how utterly mindblowing it must've been to lay eyes on the original SMB back in 1985, coming off the likes of the Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64!

[Londragon]

This was the first game on the NES that I played.  My Dad being into tech. snapped one up early in those days.  He told me some bull about it literally falling of the back of a truck, nevertheless, I remember it being a good game, but I was never too enthralled, until I went to an older boys house and he showed me all the hidden warp pipes and other little tricks to maximise your fun.  I always preferred Super Mario Bros. 2, and am one of those funny people who prefer the 3D Mario's to the 2D cousins.  Duck Hunt got by far more of a showing in my house, with me and my two younger brothers.  It has its place in the pantheon of games that made me the gamer I am, but it wasn't until Super Mario World, that I truly fell in love with Mario platformers.  This was always a quick pick up and play for 15 minutes, and never anything that was played with longevity.

[dazzybee]

I finish this every year of my life, probably still in my top 10, ages amazingly; and yep, first NES game for me!

[Jimbob]

I had this game with the NES (along with Duck Hunt).  Technically, it was the family console as my Dad got it for us all to use (i primarily used it).  Had many, many great hours playing 2 player (i was always Luigi), couldn't do better than my Dad when we took it in turns, even though i could see the level as he was playing.  Even when i had a Mega Drive, i was still hooked on Super Mario Brothers.  It took me until just before i got an N64 to finally defeat Bowser, must have been 8 years or so of playing on/off to do so.  Learned many of the warp pipes.

Duck Hunt got a lot of play time, but i hold a place in my gaming heart for Super Mario Brothers.  Never played Super Mario Brothers 2 or 3 on the NES, didn't play either until the Wii VC.

[Shorty]

Did anyone else use the warp zones so often that you barely played half of the worlds?

Did anyone have a rare copy without Duck Hunt?

This is one of my fav videos to get you back in the mood, two speed runners racing through the game side by side

 

 

[Hero-of-Time]

Ah, the game that started my love for Nintendo games and systems.

Like Shorty, my main gaming as a kid was done on my C64. I didn't get to play on a NES until one of my friends from school was given the console as a birthday present. I remember a bunch of us always used to cram into his small bedroom in order to have a go of this new machine. We would play for hours on end just trying to make it to the end and take turns every time someone would lose a life. Over the course of many sessions across many months we did eventually beat it. 

I'm trying to remember just how in the heck we found out about the hidden warp pipes in the game. Obviously this was well before the internet so I assume it was through magazines. It was probably through some kid on the play ground but then where did he get the information from? I wanna say it was through something like this.

The level design of the game is something that I didn't appreciate until MUCH later in my life. The way the game teaches you how to play without using any text or guide character is just genius. By todays standards to might seem a little nuts to just let a player get on with it without telling them what is what, but the game is so well crafted that you don't need to be told what to do.

Here's a great video on explaining what I mean.

The game, as did many at the time, taught us to persevere with the challenges that it laid before us. You would get so far, die, lose all your lives and then start from scratch but each time you would see that you were learning from your mistakes and getting better and further each time. I think growing up with these types of games helped make me the type of gamer I am today. This is sometimes something that I miss about modern day gaming and why I think the likes of the Souls series/genre has carved out a market for itself.

[Shorty]

I definitely found out from word of mouth, same way I skated over the top of World 1-2 or learned that you could hold "down" on a white block on SMB3. I guess it probably came from a magazine originally, but mostly spread among kids by word of mouth! Maybe an older brother read it. Kinda wish I had been a twenty-something gamer in the 8-bit years sometimes.

On another note, turns out Super Mario Kart was released in the USA 25 years ago today so maybe that should've been the pick of the week maybe next time.

[Zell]

I saw the thread title on the home page as "Retro Chat Weekly: Super M..." and jumped straight to the thread all excited thinking it was about Super Metroid. Am disappoint.

My first experience of SMB was the Super Mario All-Stars version, so it was overshadowed by 2, 3 and World. It's a great game that stands the test of time, unfortunately it doesn't evoke same the level of nostalgia with me compared to 90s era Nintendo. I regard it very highly from a historical perspective, to me its release is the epoch of modern video gaming. But whenever I need a dose of retro Mario goodness, I default to Super Mario World.

[Jonnas]

I'm late posting here, but this is a good idea for a thread. I should throw my two cents.

My first contact with this game was with my cousins in Venezuela, who had an NES. At the time, even as a toddler, I already had had contact with Game Boy and Mega Drive, so Super Mario Bros wasn't as revolutionary for me as it was for others (especially considering they also had Super Mario Bros 3). Nevertheless, I certainly found SMB (and Duck Hunt) memorable, as this was the game that I was allowed to play by myself. Completing the first level, then entering the pipe that takes you to the underground... gave you a nice sense of progression, like there was a world to be discovered. I do remember knowing about the pipe shortcut at that point, but I honestly do not recall whether I luckily stumbled into it or if it was them who showed it to me (likely the latter, but I also see myself jumping from the highest possible platform like an overzealous idiot and reaching the top of the stage by accident). I definitely had a taste of a mid-game world, one of those with a black sky.

That first experience aside, I'm sure I tried it again later on computers (either ROMs or cheap knockoff, but one of them had Ice Climber on it, so likely a ROM), but it wasn't until the Game Boy Colour and the release of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe that I actually played it again prim and proper with time in my hands, now with the required skill to reach beyond the first few levels. Unfortunately, I never had a copy of my own, playing on others' and they would often put me playing Lost Levels instead, which crossed my neurons on how the game was supposed to function. And even later on, fan-made Flash games that recreated the game, usually with a twist (like playing as Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden), but just as often they recreated the original. That's when I finally had the opportunity to actually beat the game, and appreciate the secrets, the unforgiving final stages, and how gradual that difficulty increase was (shortcuts aside).

Nowadays, after watching several videos and reading articles on the subject (like the Extra Credits video H-o-T posted), I appreciate it in a whole new way. Not just on how subtly and effectively it teaches the player, but also on how well-placed and cleverly hidden its secrets are (remember how you can lose access to that vine in World 5 by hitting the wrong block? ). Heck, the fact that there are secrets at all is admirable, most things this game does were new at the time: moving right, optional rooms, shortcuts and alternate paths, finite level progression, extra lives...Super Mario Bros. codified it all.

But none of that would have worked if it weren't for its greatest strength: the "physics engine", for the lack of a better term. Most of the platformers that came before controlled like arse, with awkward running, stilted jumps, weird hitboxes and stiff movement in general. Super Mario Bros. actually controlled fluidly, like an extension of yourself. Mario can both walk and run, and running had traction (which is why landing on a single block is so terrifying), his jumps' height could be controlled and had a natural feel to them (he rises slower than he falls, which feels intuitive) and you can even play with the environment, what with smashing blocks and turning enemies into turtle shells that you can then slide around and use as a weapon. In some ways, this was the closest anyone had ever gotten at producing a virtual sandbox (if I may be so bold) to play in.

Even if you died, even if you could never get far... the game was fun. Fun to play, fun to control. You'd have a good time regardless of your performance. That, I suppose, is why I still remember that first experience with it, even though it was supposedly outdated by the time I first tried it.

(Sorry if I went a tad off-topic, as my current opinion of the game worked its way into the text )