Review: Super Mario Bros.

For my first review, I will start off with a game almost everyone is familiar with...

Game: Super Mario Bros. (1985)
Genre: Platformer
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform(s): SNES

   While the main premise behind the game isn't immediately evident, you eventually learn that brothers Mario and Luigi are on a mission to rescue the captive Princess Toadstool from some dragon-like monster (later to be known as Bowser). The game has no dialogue or narration, so from playing this game for the first time, you would have no idea that the evil mushroom dudes were called Goombas, that the evil turtle dudes were called Koopas. that the boss of each level was named Bowser, King of the Koopas, or even that you were traversing the Mushroom Kingdom. It is not until later games that these things are described in greater detail.

   The goal of each level was rather simple, traverse each level by running, jumping, and dodging while collecting coins and power-ups and aiming for a high score. If you collected 100 coins, you would gain an extra life. If you collected a red mushroom, you would grow bigger (or the world would grow smaller, depending on which hallucinogenic mushroom you took). If you grabbed a fire flower, you could shoot balls of fire from your arse.. er.. hand. Obtain a flashing star and you would turn invincible for a brief time. Get hit while you were big and you would shrink. Get hit while shrunk and you'd die. Die, and you'd return to the start of the level and lose a life. Lose enough lives, and you'd have to start the game all over again. As far as I could tell, getting a high score had no apparent reward aside from a slight feeling of accomplishment. Each level also had secret bonuses, which would award you with extra coins or extra lives.

    The levels themselves didn't vary too much, with several aspects of each level being recycled in future levels. After completing three levels in each world, you would face off against Bowser. The goal of each fight was simple: grab the magic axe to cast the dragon into the lava (loony toon style). Each boss fight varied in the obstacles you had to dodge in order to reach the magic axe. As a side note, I would just like to point out that the magic axe never reappeared in any future Mario games... After completing all eight worlds, you'd finally rescue the seemingly ungrateful Princess Toadstool. (Seth MacFarlane's Mario Parody)

    To say the least, Super Mario's gameplay was, to sum it up in a single word, unforgiving. That is to say that your mistakes had severe consequences. A mistimed jump would send Mario diving into the void (or on the castle levels, the "spaghetti sauce of doom", aka lava), cause him to collide with an evil mushroom or turtle, or singeing his Italian buttocks with fire; resulting in a dramatic, yet comical death.

    Despite how frustrating the game can become (maybe because I suck at it), it is undeniably fun. At the time of its release, it was innovative, which made it an instant classic.

From a design perspective, I would have liked to see more narration or story telling during gameplay. If the game's setting was spelled out on its box, then I couldn't see it as I don't have the box. Without the  game's story being presented throughout the game, the immersion factor just wasn't there.