Super Mario Bros. Review | NES & Famicom 1985
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ก.ย. 2024
- Retro Odyssey ep.004:
Super Mario Bros. Review!
Review & Discussion of of the 1985 classic, Super Mario Bros. (スーパーマリオブラザーズ) for the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. Let me know what you think below.
SPECIAL THANK YOU TO 'kanna lost her jaw' for letting me use the song "Never Meant 64" in this video! Check out the full song here: • Never Meant 64
Next up: Sky Destroyer スカイデストロイヤー
#SuperMarioBros #NES #Famicom
I can’t believe you made me listen to never meant with mario instruments
I'm really enjoying this series so far. I especially appreciate that you go and engage with each game in its space and live with it for a good amount of time. Too many people seem to expect a game to come to where they are and grab them, and if it doesn't do that (sometimes in as little as 10 minutes) then the problem is clearly with the game and not the person's expectations and/or skill. Part of engaging with any media is figuring out what it's trying to be and meeting it halfway.
re: magic -- I suspect that the lack of a consistent twinkle is because of how the game is structured. It was such an early game that it spends an awful lot of time teaching the player about level design and enemy types as it goes, which I think is a great approach. The trade-off (especially if you've played a lot of later Mario games) is that very little in the first 3 or 4 worlds feels particularly novel -- twinkle-less, if you will. I would argue that starting your game in world 4 or 5 every time (especially once you get good at it) would leave you with a stronger experience. As it is, the process of farming lives while progressing through a dozen or so easy levels is not particularly exciting.
Glad to hear it! I really agree with your statement about people expecting a game to come to them where they are. Especially regarding Metroid criticism I think that comes into play. Part of the problem is due to the nature of how these games are played today, being primarily through the use of emulation. When you're presented with hundreds of games at once in a single space it encourages switching between them after a brief period. You're not going to get a true feel for these games or what they have to offer without playing them mindfully. You have to try and beat them -- and treat them like you would any other game you paid for. I appreciate your comment!
Thanks for the great review. I always was, and still am super proud of my mother. She passed away now, but when we got a NES in 1991 (I was 6 years old, she was 40) she played this game endlessly, and beat the game several times. I have seen her do it with ease, even though she wasn't handy with computers at all. It's only because of her I was able to beat it myself, because she discovered how to do the maze castles in the later levels (no Internet, and in my country we had no Nintendo magazine) . My father hated gaming ever since because he had none of that kind of talent haha. He had to wait until he was 68 to first try any game again playing train simulator.
I'm glad you managed to enjoy it! This being my first retro game video is a little rough, but the game itself is special. I may redo this video eventually. Episodes 1-6 kind of deserve a remake at some point.
I can see where younger players might miss out on some of the magic of this game. I'm old. When this first came out, I was a kid who had only played Atari 2600 games like Pitfall, Pac-Man, Asteroids, etc. Coming from that, Super Mario Bros. was a revelation. The amount of control over Mario and the power-ups, the secrets seemingly everywhere... it was such a massive change in scope for a home console game over anything that I'd played to that point. That sort of change carries with it a certain mystique that lends quite a bit of magic that lingers on in your head, and adds to what is already a very well-designed game.
I've now watched a bunch of your videos today, every one being awesome, and then suddenly I put this one on and a cover of American Football "Never Meant" made with 8-bit steel drum samples starts playing.
Holy shit.
I appreciate all the comments! I'm glad you've been enjoying them. They take me a little longer to get out these days, but I'm always working on the next one.
you've got a great point on how the warps can actually be more challenging. i would go further than just the first warp in the first game. i find it impossible to get thru world 8 of Mario 3 if i skip there from world 1 or 2. if i play thru the whole game, i can get a nice stockpile of max 99 lives no problem because it's really generous with bonuses.
One tip people don’t know about. If you die with no lives left, you receive a game over and have to start all over again. However, when you’re sent back to the start screen, If you hold the A button and press Start, you’ll respawn at the beginning of the world you died in. So if you die at like World 4 and get a game over, instead of starting at the first level, you’ll start at the first level of World 4.
When you realize ALL other games back then when Super Mario Brothers was released were single-screen games (Digdug, Donkey Kong, Pac-man, Popeye, Joust, Space Invaders, Galaxian/Galaga, etc), you'll appreciate how much of a GEM is the first truly functional side-scrolling game released on a console, on why it was a revolution, and how this game (nearly) single-handedly saved the video game market from the crash, you'll understand how much of a gem, a true revolutionary Jewel this game was back then.
I'm telling you this from the perspective of a 42 y/o guy who grew with Intellivision, Atari, and then a Nintendo NES, who grew tired of stale single-screen games which only offered increased difficulty upon completion.
Btw, this game has a (not so) secret continue. Just press A while pressing Start at the Game Over screen.
I did not realize it had a continue! That would have made it a lot easier for me lol.
Its was basically magic or fantastic in 80s everything was new, the controller, the platforming., the side-scrolling.
hi from 2024. I'm really enjoying your work, and found the part at the end of the video in which you were questioning whether or not og smb really had any magic to be really interesting from the perspective of someone who first played it at 6 years old after cutting my teeth on atari 2600 games. Smb, at that time, was so unlike anything else that existed, as far as I had experienced, and the sense of athleticism at play in the way mario controlled in combination with the sense of adventure the world presented, was revelatory. I think anyone who played it in it's time would remember where the magic was for them, but I can see why later games have easily managed to hide that for those that didn't. ( I realize that this sentiment might be littered elsewhere throughout the comments, but felt like saying it anyway ) Thanks for the great work all around.
What can I say? After ice climber now you are jumping with power, super Mario bros power.
Glad someone finally covered this hidden gem. But for real you've improved a lot since this video with you style and editing. Well done.
Thanks, man!
"I'm not given up of this game I'm going to beat this game". This was the mentality of every kid in the 80 and early 90 with almost every game with the exception of the really bad ones and the extremely hard ones like ninja gaiden. We didn't get too many games, so every game we could put our hands on we really dive in.
One thing that I think makes people nowadays to avoid difficult games is the amount of options and how there are many accessible games.
Some times when I'm playing on steam nowadays I catch myself changing games when I'm on a stressful part. Even if we had too many options available back them no kid would change a game before the game over. Most games didn't had saves or passwords, to change a game in the middle of a playthrough was the same as to waste an opportunity to get further.
I think to get the most out of these games you definitely have to put yourself in that headspace. You have to really sit down and treat it like it's your only game for a little while since some of them have parts that are really stressful. Since people usually use emulation these days they typically have access to 1000s of games and switching between them is all too easy -- but you miss out on the real experience if you do it that way. I'm glad you have been enjoying the series so much! Appreciate your comments.
This game is rad! The extra feeling of wonder and magic mostly came from playing it as the first game on the first owned console and being amazed at the variety the game offered if compared to most games we had played.
It still plays very well and has perfect controls, I like to fire it up on good ol' NES every now and then. Overall interesting point of view of a newer generation. Cheers.
I think someday I may re-review this game; but I'm glad you still got something out of it. This is possibly my least-edited video. As time goes on I find myself wanting to go back and play it again.
If you ever come back to it, don't forget to include the second quest and maybe you can give it a try.
I love watching your videos. Interestingly commercials and all people in the know in the 80's called it super mario brothers. It reminds me of my grandma or something saying super mario bros. Anyway your videos are excellent. Hope your well.
Yeah, I've had a few people mention that to me. In the 80s, apparently, most kids always called it "brothers" over "bros". For me, when I was growing up, we always just called it bros.
I agree, beating the game for the first time somehow makes beating it again a whole lot easier.
Just got to listen to never meant and a video game review and now my day couldn't be better
Let's goooo. World 1-1 so iconic.
SMB is a must play.
That’s like asking what Star Wars movie to watch first…. The OG trilogy of course 😂
Interesting that you suggested the opposite. I played it when it first came out when I was 10. So Nintendo is SMB and SMB is Nintendo.
If you hold the A Button after Game Over when you press Start again you start at the beginning of the world you had the game over in.
cool never meant version hahaha
Yeah these warp zones! Would love to ask Nintendo why they made those. I guess it's for beta testing, so the developers could reach 8-1 to 8-4 faster. And they probably felt that it's a great secret for normal gamers.
And I agree! You miss the true gaming experience when you use the warp zones! And as you said, you will get many 1UPs if you skip the warp zones.
Warp zones is for speed runners! :)
I like to view them as a way to get back to where you were without saving (since you couldn't save lol) but I think a lot of people still skip a good chunk of the game just trying to beat it. It is super hard though, so I get it.
I wrote my comment a bit too fast. So look at the warp zones...
1-2: 2-1, 3-1 and 4-1
4-2: I think it's 6-1, 7-1 and 8-1
No warp zone that can bring you to 5-1?
Anyways with these warp zones you can access almost all worlds/levels so fast. It got to have to do with beta testing.
I noticed in the video that you called the game "Mario Bros" but Mario Bros is actually another game that came out 2 years before Super Mario Bros. That game truly got both Mario and Luigi in 2p mode.
Not sure if I've ever beaten SMB1 without warp zones. Too hard to remember my childhood gaming 30+ years ago good enough in detail.
I got a Switch and I hope I can connect it to my TV soon and play the NES games on NSO. Or NES Classic Mini. Two great ways to play Super Mario Bros 1-3. Also got that Super Mario All Stars for Wii, but that's remasters of the games so it's not the same. I prefer the original 8-bit versions.
One thing that I wanna try is if I can reach those "minus worlds" in SMB1.
Another fun thing with SMB1 is the numbers of fireworks after reaching the flagpole. So 1, 3 or 6 fireworks depends on the last digit in the time counter for reaching the flag pole. So it's about if the last digit is 1, 3 or 6. Speedrunners wanna avoid that digit. And there's also challenges to get 6 fireworks after every flagpole :)
SMB1 is still standing pretty strong. I bought that Game & Watch Mario 35 of course :)
Its wild to say this about Super Mario Bros. but make a big video defending Metroid. Super Mario Bros. has aged much better
What was that funky song at the beginning ? Sounded like a bunch of mario 64 samples made into a new song
Never Meant 64 by Kanna - it’s a remake of an American Football track
@@HPRshredder good taste
Posting to say that though shorter and less of a deep dive than the videos you're doing now, these older reviews are pretty darn good. Also, Owls is the best Kinsella band.
You don't skip world 3. You do W3 to get all those extra lives off the Koopa on the stairs at the end of 3-1. Then you can basically keep grinding without getting a game over.
Someone who grew up in this gen:
I did not get this game at first. I was used to PacMan, Space Invaders, etc. I was like, wtf is that? Why are their weird ? blocks? What is that mushroom? Etc. I actually got into the US SMB2 before I went back and beat the pack in game and previous game lol. I learned to appreciated just what it did for gaming, and became a fan.
BTW, I think you made fun of this before, but it is *reaaaaally* irritating you keep saying "Bros." fr fr no cap, damn millenials arglebargle
Oh god, please stop saying "bros". It's an abbreviation for "brothers". None of us kids in the 80s ever said "bros". Okay, pet peeve handled, everything else is great.
This game is just a copy of Mario Kart 64. When's the original game Mario review coming out?