THIS is the game that started it all!!!
Story: 9/10
- Brothers: Mario and Luigi, 2 good plumbers, seek to rescue Princess Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser, king of the Koopas. It is a pretty good "knight rescues the princess from the evil dragon" type of story.
Gameplay: 8/10
- The player takes on the role of the main protagonist of the series, Mario. The objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the main antagonist Bowser's forces and save Princess Toadstool. Players may gain one point of health for Mario if they pick up a mushroom, which allows them to take extra damage from most enemies and obstacles. Players are given a certain number of lives, which are lost from Mario incurring too much damage, falling in a pit, or running out of time; the game ends if all lives are lost. Mario's primary attack is jumping on top of enemies, though many enemies have differing responses to this. For example, a Goomba will flatten and be defeated, while a Koopa Troopa will temporarily retract into its shell, allowing Mario to use it as a projectile. These shells may be deflected off a wall to destroy other enemies, though they can also hurt Mario. An alternate way to damage enemies is with the Fire Flower, an item which allows players to shoot fireballs. A less common item is the Starman, which often appears from concealed or otherwise invisible blocks. This makes Mario temporarily invincible to most hazards. The game consists of eight worlds with four sub-levels in each world. What I hate is: that trying to jump to platform to platform is very tricky and can have you fall in pits. They should have fixed this flaw!
Graphics: 9/10
- The graphics are pretty good. The reason why it looks so simple is because this was like the first game on the Nintendo system.
Sound: 10/10
- All the sound effects of the game are memorable from: the jumping of Mario & Luigi to the sound effects of Mario & Luigi getting bigger from the mushrooms. The music is also very memorable! No other music from a video game is as memorable as the one from Super Mario Bros.
Overall, I give this game a 9 out of 10 because this was just the beginning of a rich series. I would have rated it higher if the jumping mechanics was not as tricky.