Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3798 in Video Games
• Brand: Nintendo
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: Nintendo NES
• Subtitled in: English

Features

• Two buttons control all the action
• A classic that introduced many players to video games
• Earn power-ups and shoot fireballs at your enemies
• Eight levels of Koopa-stomping fun

From the Manufacturer
Featuring some of the finest graphics and game play ever developed for a video game, Super Mario set a new standard for interactive entertainment when it was launched. Its vast worlds teem with daunting obstacle courses, hidden items, puzzles and plenty of enemies!

Mario must rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser, King of the Koopas, using moves including running, jumping, swimming, stomping and punching, and even performing a backward somersault. And when troublemakers swipe Mario's cap, he'll have to grab it back!

Customer Reviews

Super Mario Bros.
Sold as a 2 in 1 package or 3 in 1 package Super Mario Bros. easily out shinned the other games that it came with. The second in a long line of Mario games and the game that help make Nintendo what it is today. Super Mario Bros. had the first appearance of his arch nemesis Bowser and flying turtles, who can forget the flying turtles?

Replayability [10/10] Yes, replayability, the ability for you to play one game over and over and not become bored with it. Super Mario Bros. has been beaten myself well over 100 times, whether I just warp through the levels or just go through the whole game its been done. No matter how often I play it, it still brings back the days of spiking a controller into the ground when you fall into a pit or get hit by a hammer from a Hammer Brother. Super Mario Bros. is the game that got me into video games and I have never put it down since. One of the key reasons to it being so easy to pick back up is the size of the game. There are 8 worlds with 3 sub divisions in most of them. And even if you get bored of playing it at one time and would just like to finish it off, there is always a warp point only a few minutes away. No matter how many times you beat this game, it just never seems to get old enough to leave in the closet. If it were any better, it would have had a movie made after it…wait a minute.

Gameplay [09/10] Jumping on baddies head is an attack that nobody could ever withstand. Super Mario Bros. gameplay is superb to say the least. Since it is in fact a side scroller Mario is very easy to control, left or right? Although you can’t go back in levels you can go left to dodge a speeding turtle shell or snag that coin you just ran by which could lead to an extra life. Gaining an extra life is very simple as many of us know, collect 100 coins and you got one, hit 5 guys with one shell or hope on 5 in a row and you get another. Or there is the 99 Life trick where you continuously jump on one turtle shell until the crown appears. The only bad part of the gameplay is the repetitiveness of jumping or throwing fireballs over and over again, but at this point in time, there wasn’t much else you could do.

Graphics & Audio [09/10] For it’s time, both were spectacular. The graphics where superb and anyone who grew up with a system of this magnitude can easy tolerate the graphics today, as long as your Nintendo is still clean and useable of course. There is no lag in the game at all, even when switching worlds and such, since it is the old school cartridges and not CD's. Super Mario Brother’s audio tracks are classics, and have even been played by Orchestras in New York and San Francisco, not many other games have that on their stat line. It obvious that the music is classic because by now I’m sure you guys all have the tune bouncing around your head or have at some point. As for the other in-game sounds they are also quite classic themselves. The favorite sound obviously being the ringing when receiving a 1up.

Overall [14/15] Super Mario Bros. is probably as classic as you can get, hence why we chose it to be the first Cave review ever. After writing this much of the review I picked up my Nintendo to check out Super Mario once again, and using the warps it only took me about 15 minutes to beat. What a great game it is, and if I didn’t use a single warp it would have taken me probably an hour. Such a versitile game should be in ever gamers library and that’s why it has been ranked as a Cave Must Have.

Biggest selling video game of all time (over 40 million copies); The game that singlehandedly saved the videogaming industry
The game that singlehandedly saved the videogaming industry

Arguably the single most important videogame in history, SUPER MARIO BROTHERS, along with the Nintendo Entertainment System (hereafter referred to as the NES) singlehandedly resurrected the video game industry after the historic crash of 1983-1984. Rather than reviewing the game itself, which has been done many times, I think many people may find the history how of this revolutionary title came to the videogame industry's rescue very interesting; I know I do. I draw much of this information from various websites, one very good one in particular; unfortunately, I can't really plug them due to Amazon's policies. Email me if you want the websites.

By 1983, the gaming industry, in existence for a mere twelve years, had risen to an astonishing 3.2 billion dollar industry. Atari spearheaded the industry, which introduced its first console in 1977 (Atari Video Computer System), and since had grown to hold two thirds of the entire market. However, in 1984 all this would end with a thunderous crash. This concise overview will show you the history of the home consol crash and how SUPER MARIO BROTHERS came to the rescue.

In 1976, Warner Communications bought Atari for $28 million from the company's founder, Nolan Bushnell. Over the next two years, Atari, suffering major production problems and Bushnell's bizarre management, lost Warner millions. Bushnell and Warner's CEO fought, and in 1978 Bushnell was forced to leave. Warner totally revamped the working style, and in 1979-1980, produced twelve new titles. However, Atari was still dragging down Warner's stock. Struggling to gain the market share, Atari made the smartest move they possible could have; in 1980, they began licensing arcade games, the first being SPACE INVADERS. Over the next two years, Atari overtook the market, bringing in over half of Warner's overall profits.

However, very significant problems would totally destroy the infant industry. In 1981, Atari released PAC MAN on the VCS, and, because it was such a huge arcade hit, quickly became a bestseller. Unfortunately, the quality was very low. This was a major blow to the company's image, with fans and critics alike extremely disappointed.

Another major stumble was one of video games' most infamous games, ET. Warner bought the rights from Spielberg for twenty one million dollars. Atari, expecting the game to be as big a hit as the movie, which was the highest grossing film at that point, purportedly made more ET cartridges than there were consoles themselves. ET proved to be a huge flop, nearly breaking Atari.

By 1983, Atari was in serious trouble. Suing Activision (which was disgruntled Atari employees who broke off and formed their own company) and Imagic, the two leading third party developers, Atari tried to gain control over its software catalogue. Atari lost the suits. Third party developers began popping up overnight, and the industry becomes saturated with very low-quality products. (One of the most controversial is CUSTER'S REVENGE by Mystique, where the goal is to rape a Native American woman while avoiding being shot by arrows.) The third-party developers went bankrupt; these cartridges were heavily discounted, and the major companies couldn't compete. Another factor is the home computer market, that was just starting to come alive in 1984. With an increasing amount of computer games and low prices, people started buying these over the consoles.

All these factors lead to the crash of 1984. In 1983 alone, Atari lost $356 million ($2 million daily). Warner sold Atari to Jack Tramiel, former head of Commodore. The video game industry died, with no major American corporation coming anywhere near it. Enter Nintendo.

A little history here will be highly illuminating as well. What many people don't realise is Nintendo is a very old company, founded in 1889 (yes, you read that right) as a playing card company. It became Japan's largest playing card company, and was very successful. In the 1960s, they moved away from the cards and got into the game and toy markets. (A very interesting sidenote: during that same decade, Nintendo's president opened up a `special hotel' rented `by the hour.' Supposedly, the married president was one of the hotel's top customers). In the 1970s and early 1980s, the company scored significant points with big arcade hits and the Game and Watch product line. In 1983, Nintendo released the Famicom (Family Computer). It was a massive hit in Japan. In 1983, Nintendo went to Atari because they wanted to release the Famicon to the American market. Do to complications I won't go into, the deal fail through. In 1984 they were looking to broaden their market share.

1985, Nintendo announced the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. They release SUPER MARIO BROTHERS in Japan, scoring a huge hit. In 1986, the NES comes full throttle into the American market, quickly becoming the biggest selling console ever, largely because of this title. The NES owes much of its success to SUPER MARIO BROTHERS. Coming prepacked with the console, there are an estimated 40 million copies of SMB in existence, making it the highest selling video game ever.

Unparalleled, SMB blew open the doors to the videogaming world. With rich palettes of colour, eight four level worlds, spot-on play control, and expert level design, SMB was a much longer game than most of Atari's products and was a game unlike any other at that time. SMB also had the benefit of being very simple to grasp; run, jump, and fire. It was also the first side-sroller as we know it, though Atari's PITFALL set up the concept. Also, it's one of the best. Without SMB, NES wouldn't have been nearly as big a hit.

In the end, Nintendo came at the industry's key moment. With a powerful new console and a very well-designed game, Nintendo resurrected video gaming. With its phenomenal success of the NES and this game, the video game industry once again took off, becoming one of the world's most significant economical contributors.

And we very largely have this game to thank for it

The definition of the word "classic..."
Remember the old days where video games were all about fun and not about flashy graphics? Where action commands were limited to the simplistic method of "jump" and "hit?" Where you had to blow into your video game cartridge a few times to make it work? Where getting hit once by an enemy meant you died and had to start the level all over again? While it might sound dumb and frustrating to kids these days who's video game experiences started with the release of the PlayStation, it was non-stop hours of fun for us old school veterans.

"Super Mario Bros." is the most well-known, most played and highly regarded video game ever created. Everyone had it and, when first released, nobody could stop talking about it. I can hear the comments in my head now:

"There's an alternate world after you beat it?!"
"How do you beat the last castle?"
"Mario can run?!"
"I keep accidentally jumping on those spikey things."
"I keep getting hit by the hammer brothers!"

And of course, the classic line:

"God, I HATE this stupid game!" *throws controller into the wall out of frustration*

Ah, those were indeed the days. Of all the Nintendo games made, this one is currently the easiest one to find and can be purchased at a REAL bargain price. Some stores sell it for so cheap in fact that you'd be able to get it and a pack of gum for less than a dollar. That said, there's no excuse for you not to pick this game up if you see it... Unless of course you got rid of your Nintendo a long time ago or if you're one of those lucky son of a guns who has a copy of "Super Mario Bros." that still actually works.

Classic music, classic character, classic baddies, dated graphics, eight levels, homicidal frustration and hours of fun. What's not to love? In fact, after writing this review, I think I'll go upstairs, dust off the old Nintendo and stomp some Goombas.

Later.