How do you write a post about arguably the most popular game of all time? I mean, according to Wikipedia the original masterpiece Super Mario Bros is the second biggest selling game of all time only behind the Nintendo’s Wii Sports. And you have to imagine that Wii Sports will never enjoy that special place in our culture that is currently held by the likes of Super Mario. Why is that?
Super Mario Bros is Where it All Began
For so many of us gamers, Super Mario Bros is where our gaming lives started. ::Hmph. I don’t know that I ever thought of that until now.:: For me personally, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was the first console I had and thus Super Mario Bros was the first game I spent any intimate time with. Though I have to imagine that if I had owned an Atari or something, I would still be singing the same tune.
I mean, was there a game before this that had the players actually thinking or caring about the characters in it? Can’t say that anyone cared about the characters in Pac-Man or Centipede like they did with Super Mario Bros. Certainly by today’s standards, the characters were primitive at best but they did have discernible names, looks and they had motivations for doing what they were doing. And at THAT time (some 24 years ago in 1985), that was a big thing not really seen before.
Boy Meets Girl. Girl Gets Kidnapped.
When you get down to it, the story is as old as time. There’s a princess and she’s being held in a faraway castle by a menacing dragon and it’s up to the hero to save her. It’s so funny looking back at the games of this time because they were SO much fun to play and they were so unbelievably simple! I guess when all you have is 8bit graphics and sound to work with, you better damn well have a great playing game if you’re hoping to move units!
Well next post we’ll continue this conversation as we try to figure out what made Super Mario Bros SO special. (I wanted to cover all of this in the same post but obviously it’s a subject TOO BIG to contain in just one place!!!)
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[...] Part 1 of Super Mario Bros Remembered, we looked at what Super Mario Bros was all about and talked briefly about how it started something [...]
Comment by Super Mario Bros R | Super Mario Games World on May 27th, 2009 @ 8:19 am