Release Date: 2006-05-23
Developer/Publisher: Nintendo
Genres: Retro
Platforms: GAMEBOY
Almost 15 years old and still going strong. Super Mario Bros. is everything that's good about video gaming - easy to understand, hard to put down. Yes, it's side-scrolling platforming at its most basic. Sure, there are plenty of other GB games out there that offer more features. There aren't, however, any that can boast better level design and more intuitive playability. Everything about each stage makes perfect sense - well, at least as much sense as a place called "The Mushroom Kingdom" should - and there's a real sense of balance in the works. A particularly difficult section of one stage will typically become easier if the player spends a little time exploring the seemingly empty areas beforehand, or bashing the inconspicuous blocks to reveal power-ups. Exploration brings rewards, basically.
The control is similarly intuitive - you never feel as though Mario (or Luigi, if you press Select on the map screen) is at fault when he/you dies. While it's physically impossible to change direction while jumping several times your height, in Super Mario it feels perfectly natural, and it's the only way to get past certain sections.
However, one minor problem arises from the conversion method. When this project was initially announced, it was commonly thought that everything was going to be shrunk down or changed to fit into the lower-than-NES resolution screen. Not so. Every pixel has been retained, which is a good thing, as far as level design, but this can get aggravating sometimes for the player. There are plenty of times during each session when you won't be able to see where you're supposed to be jumping - a leap of faith, typically a Nintendo no-no. Standing on a platform and pressing Up or Down reveals the surrounding locations, but this is out of the question when you're in a tight situation. Annoying, but better than the alternative.
Almost 15 years old and still going strong. Super Mario Bros. is everything that's good about video gaming - easy to understand, hard to put down. Yes, it's side-scrolling platforming at its most basic. Sure, there are plenty of other GB games out there that offer more features. There aren't, however, any that can boast better level design and more intuitive playability. Everything about each stage makes perfect sense - well, at least as much sense as a place called "The Mushroom Kingdom" should - and there's a real sense of balance in the works. A particularly difficult section of one stage will typically become easier if the player spends a little time exploring the seemingly empty areas beforehand, or bashing the inconspicuous blocks to reveal power-ups. Exploration brings rewards, basically.
