While the Nintendo Entertainment System may have been the console that bounced the video game industry back when it crashed in 1983, a console is nothing without its "killer app"; a game that people want so badly that they buy the system specifically to play it. Yes, the NES is a great system, but it would be nothing without Super Mario Bros. - The Game that Saved Video Games.
The Basics:
- Publisher/Developer: Nintendo
- Creator/Designer: Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka
- System: Nintendo Entertainment System
- Release Date: 1985
History of Super Mario Bros.:
After Mario, Miyamoto started work on his very first console title for the Nintendo Famicom (the Japanese version of the Nintendo Entertainment System), with a Pac-Man style maze game, Devil World (1984). On Devil World Miyamoto supervised a newbie, Takashi Tezuka, who would build out Miyamoto’s designs and concepts as well as design sections of the game himself. While Devil World was a maze game and not a platformer, it did lead to some Mario influences in monster and minion designs, plus it establish the collaborative game designs of Miyamoto and Tezuka who continue their work together today.
The Game:
Unlike the original Mario Bros. the two siblings cannot play simultaneously. Luigi, a green clone of his brother remains the second player character, but each level is played solo, with the brothers (and players) switching off between levels. The game itself consists of eight worlds, each broken into a series of levels, bonus rooms, and boss levels.
The overall goal of the game is for Mario to rescue Princess Toadstool who has been kidnapped by Bowser, the sorcerer King of the Koopas. His minions consist of both new and familiar enemies including...
- Koopa Troopas – Killer turtles
- Koopa Paratroopas - Flying killer turtles
- Little Goombas - Mushroom creatures
- Buzzy Beetle – A helmet-wearing ball of a critter.
- The Hammer Brothers – Twin Brothers with a turtle shell that look like Jr. Bowsers.
- Lakitu – A cloud-riding turtle who tosses his spiky pet at you.
- Spiny – Spiked shelled pet of Lakitu
- Piranha Plants – Man (or Mario) eating plants that pops up from pipes throughout the kingdom.
- Cheep-cheep – Killer fish
- Bullet Bill – A giant bullet with eyes
- Blooper – Jellyfish creature
- Podoboo – Jumping fireballs
To do battle against their enemies, Mario and Luigi depend on power ups that he snags by knocking or triggering the boxes and bricks that contain them.
- Magic Mushroom – An Alice in Wonderland reference that has Mario grow twice his size.
- Fire Flower – Gives Mario the power to shoot fireballs (that look like he is blowing them out of his nose)
- Starman – Gives the brothers limited immunity.
Other items include…
- 1 up Mushrooms – Gives the player who snags it an additional life
- Coins – Gathered to gain extra points and bonus lives.
