Super Mario Bros. was the first video game I ever played. It still lives on with me 20 years later.
I figured out how to run, stop, and jump on enemies, but I never quite could figure out how to simultaneously run and jump over a gap in the ground. I only played another 2 turns, doing the same thing, not getting passed the same gap, and I really didn't really play video games for a few more years.
When I was around 6 years old, we moved to a new house and we still had this game. My sisters and I stayed up late into the night playing.
The graphics were good for it's time, I don't know what to compare it to, there were games with better graphics on the Nintendo that came later, but Mario was more about the gameplay than the graphics. The game seemed so original, more so than Mega Man or Zelda. An Italian plumber that goes around jumping on mushroom, flying turtles and shooting fireballs out his ass.
The controls were fluid, unlike a lot of choppy controls in other games of the time. And the music were instant classics. You can ask anyone to hum you the tune of Super Mario Bros. This little game did everything right and had such a huge impact on society. It is truly deserves it's place in the history books of video game and digital culture.