The evolution of a plumber.

How does the original Super Mario Bros. stand up in a world of modern games?

On July 15, 1983 ,the gaming world was forever changed when a behemoth of the industry was born. Nintendo had just published Super Mario Bros. for the Family Computer System, or Famicom. the vast majority of readers will be more familiar with the European/American version of the console, the Nintendo Entertainment system, origially however the game was never published on the NES, only on the Japanese Famicom system. the game was a hit success in the Japanese market and was released to the rest of the world in 1985, just at the height of the mid eighties video game boom. Sales went through the roof and Nintendo became a household name almost overnight, but how does the ultimate in classic games stand the test of time?

Of course the gameplay is very well designed. its concise, simple and elegant, there are no annoying cutscenes or loading screens, and the player can go from turning on the console to squashing goombas in about 3 - 5 seconds flat.

The majority of downfalls faced by the game are simply limitations of the system, such as the player being unable to move backwards in the world, or the fact that due to a lack of memory space, the bushes and clouds are actually the same texture with different colours applied to them.

However the simplicity of the system is the core contributing factor in the sleek and elegant design of the gameplay. For example the player being unable to move backwards could in fact be described as a feature, designed to keep gameplay moving, and to keep the tempo upbeat.

The graphical style of the game has aged well and still conveys the same fun, upbeat feeling that it always did with a touch of cartoon like glee in every box that bounces back and forth as the plumbers skull impacts it. The repeating textures don't even seem to get old, but then again that's probably because this is a game that we play solely for its gameplay. I'm not there to sightsee I'm there to score points and save a princess.

So overall id say Super Mario Bros. has aged quite nicely, and with its re-release on the Wii-U via the Nintendo eShop, even today its my first choice if I just want to play in that most childlike way, without the drab serious undertones of modern games, that childlike sense of play might be the only thing the game does. But it does it VERY well.

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