Super Mario Bros. Review (Virtual Console)

A Must Have For Every Nintendo Fan

Super Mario Bros. is a game that needs no introduction. It has been re-released numerous times over the past two and a half decades, and the number of copies sold, physical and digital, is staggering. Surprisingly, there are still some gamers who have never played it. If you are one of them, spend the 500 points and download it right now.

The story is a familiar one. The evil Bowser has invaded the Mushroom Kingdom, kidnapped the Princess, and is holding her hostage. Mario, the short, stocky, unlikely hero sets out to defeat Bowser and rescue the Princess. Not the most original plot, and yet it's all that is needed to set the stage for the awesomeness to follow.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward. You guide Mario to the right towards the flag pole which marks the end of each level, jumping from platform to platform, avoiding obstacles and defeating enemies. Movement is handled via the D-Pad, and the two face buttons are used to make Mario run and jump. Like most great games, anyone can pick up a controller and play.

They don't call it the Mushroom Kingdom for nothing.

Mario can pick up several different power ups to aid him on his quest, including the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Super Star. I really don't need to explain what they do. If you've ever played a 2D Mario game or watched someone else play one, you know exactly what they do.

Super Mario Bros. may have been intended primarily for young children, but it is not an easy game. While it can be completed in 10 minutes or less by experienced players, actually playing through all 32 levels without using the infinite lives trick, exploiting glitches, or using any of the Warp Zones is no easy task. Jumps require a level of precision that can only be acquired through hours of play, and the castles will put your skills to the test. Several of the castles in the game are maze-like in design, and if you don't know which path to take, you will only succeed through trial and error, provided you don't have someone guiding you. Take the wrong path, and you will find yourself running in circles until time runs out, costing you one of your precious lives.

Pretty good enemy variety for an early NES game.

The enemies you encounter don't display much intelligence and follow simple patterns of behavior, but their placement at certain parts of the game can make safe passage quite difficult. The dreaded Hammer Bros. are easily the most hated foes in the game, even more so than Bowser himself. The King of the Koopas is a pushover compared to the hammer throwing menaces you will face.

The graphics are what you'd expect from an early NES game. Very pixelated and blocky. And yet, as primitive as they are, they were fairly impressive at the time, and the sprites in this game are about as iconic as they come.

The Hammer Bros. will give you a work out.

One aspect of the game that is still amazing after all this time is the audio. The sound effects fit the title well, but the music is the stuff of legend. Koji Kondo did an outstanding job composing the soundtrack, and what he managed to do with the equipment he had to work with is nothing short of miraculous. The Super Mario Bros. theme is incredibly catchy, and the rest of the tunes are perfectly suited to the levels they play throughout.

The visuals might not be impressive by today's standards, and the audio pales in comparison to the realistic benchmarks of late, but the gameplay is still just as fun and addictive as it ever was. Nintendo's Wii is not state-of-the-art technology, and yet the console has dominated the sales charts like nothing else. Nintendo's philosophy of "gameplay over graphics" is the key to their success, and I can think of no other game that illustrates that better than Super Mario Bros. A timeless classic.

Bowser meets his match.

Score

9

© 2012 Wii U Only. All rights reserved.

Images courtesy of the Video Game Museum- vgmuseum.com