Like most kids who grew up with an NES, I've been in love with Mario games since the very first game. Although I was a bit too young when I first played the red plumber on NES to make any substantial progress, I had considerable amounts of time in the late single digit ages to get through the whole game on the Game Boy Color. With Super Mario Maker 2 on the horizon, my nostalgic anticipation is beginning to get the better of me, so I booted up the NES library of games on the Switch and gave the original another spin.
To be honest, I've always been far more partial to Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World than this one, but to my surprise I wasn't able to put Super Mario Bros. down in the couple of hours I spent with it. The original Mario has aged quite a bit better than the original Zelda, that's for sure. The first four worlds are a breeze, with the challenging levels ramping up from world 5 thru 8, but the difficulty wasn't just in the levels, but rather the run up to and through them. This is where the most antiquated part of Mario comes out, with the lives system and lack of a save. Granted, all NES games were built with short lengths but difficult ramp up on purpose. Kids weren't owning a lot of games back in the 80s, and so each one had to last them months at a time, and adding a save feature or taking out lives makes for a very short game. It is to Mario's credit that when I decided to use save states, which virtually get rid of these, it didn't diminish the game in the slightest.
Mario has far more moves than you probably realize in his (relatively) first outing. The obvious moves are running and jumping, and the powerups like the mushroom, fire flower, and star. But the thing that is going to kill you more than anything else is momentum. Momentum is a picky bitch in Super Mario Bros., sliding you off edges or into enemies when you aren't careful, and allowing you to fly over levels, skipping on the choice blocks along the way when you've found momentum's flow. Momentum is core to the Mario experience as much as his jump: it's the medium in which his jump interacts. When used properly, it can be the most important - or, at least, most fun - tool Mario has. Later levels like to abuse your over reliance on speed, positioning flying koopas to spawn at the edge of the screen or piranha plants popping out of pipes, or placing slightly misaligned pits in your path before you notice them there, requiring either some starting and stopping as you traverse, or otherwise memorizing the enemy placement and obstacles best you can.
My use of save states and general play had a few rules because I didn't want to take too much from the experience of replaying the game: 1) no saving in levels, only at the very beginning during the "World x-y" screen, and 2) no warp pipes. Warp pipes were something I most definitely over relied on as a child, and to keep myself from leaping over whole worlds and literally stealing parts of the game from myself, I forbid them. I found that this way of playing felt really good, but Mario was still susceptible to just being plain old. In particular, when falling I found it difficult to jump once landed if I wasn't falling specifically from a jump. I fell into many a lava pit this way, specifically 8-4, which starts you and a descending staircase of sorts right into a lava pit that required me to come to a dead stop on a step and take a running jump to make it over. just running left and hitting jump wouldn't work, as my jump wouldn't be registered until I came to that stop.
Otherwise, my experience was about what I expected, if more addictive. Platforming feels good when you get a feel for how floaty it can be, and enemies feel fair, challenges ramp up at the correct pace, and powerups feel far more scarce the farther you get, requiring more precise play. Unfortunately for the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 exists, and it surpasses it in just about every way. But even with that younger brother passing it in quality and fun, the original has more than enough here to give you that nostalgic tinge without hurting your patience, and feels the classic status it has earned.
10
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