This 40-Year-Old Video Game Is Somehow More Fun Than Ever

There’s something about Mario Bros. When people mention Mario today, they usually have his “super” adventures in mind, courtesy of 1985’s Super Mario Bros. But before he started knocking around turtles and other nasties in a fantasy kingdom, he was doing those same things in a backroom as he dealt with an invasion from the sewers. And somehow, that 40-year-old game is more fun than ever today.

Nintendo first released Mario Bros. in arcades in July 1983. It finally gave a name to the character introduced in Donkey Kong, but more importantly, it gave him a sibling. That simple addition enabled the developers to provide two-player action, essentially doubling the money an arcade machine could collect from crowds. Luigi owes a great deal to capitalism.

Gameplay resembles a 1982 arcade classic, Joust. Mario and Luigi run and jump around platforms, which wouldn’t provide much reason for concern under normal circumstances. The characters are able to fall long distances, after all, especially compared to Mario’s previous outing. However, brushing against the critters that come out of the pipes costs either plumber a life, unless the enemy has first been bopped from beneath and is temporarily stunned.

Players start their journey through the levels by battling simple turtles. Those creatures move slowly. One hit from below flips them onto their backs. Later, Mario encounters crabs that require two hits. Flies, the third enemy type to appear, are flipped with a single hit. They take big, slow leaps the player must anticipate, since they are immune while in the air. Players who feel daring can run under flies while they are near the peak of one of those leaps.

Besides standard foes, stages contain fireballs that materialize along the edges of the screen and interfere with Mario’s attempts to dispatch foes and perhaps set up combos for more points. Some of them fly directly across the screen in a predictable path. Others follow a more random pattern, moving in diagonal lines and rebounding from platforms. A moving ice block provides an additional hazard. It sometimes pauses on platforms for a time. Unless it is quickly destroyed with a bop from beneath, it will turn a ledge icy, an unwelcome condition that lasts until the next stage.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Points are an important part of the game. They even generate an extra life in the early going. Players trying for a high score can have fun arranging enemies so that they are stunned near one another. Points then increase from a standard 800 points for the first enemy, to 1600 for the second one. As later stages move pretty quickly, there’s some risk-reward at play.

Between certain standard stages, bonus levels introduce floating coins. Players who collect all of them within a time limit will secure a lot of points all at once. After the first few bonus stages, this feat is most easily accomplished by two players, since the timing gets pretty strict. Coins also appear from the pipes in the standard stages, at a rate of one per enemy defeated. By the time they appear, players might be dealing with the enraged final enemy within a given level, which moves faster and will happily nab a player who is distracted by loot.

Following its arcade release, Nintendo let other developers port Mario Bros. to a wide variety of platforms ahead of the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Around that time, the game industry found itself in a state of some turmoil. Some ports were developed but never commercially released as publishing patterns changed. However, some of those versions reached consumers. My own first exposure to Mario came from playing Mario Bros. on an Apple IIe.

In 1986, a NES port of Mario Bros. finally made it to North America, with Intelligent Systems handling its development. For players of the era, it offered genuine value. Siblings and friends could enjoy the simple action at the same time, without waiting to take turns that might never come. Gameplay offered enough twists to stay interesting without turning overwhelming, though later levels provided ample challenge.

Nowadays, Mario Bros. is a pleasant experience once again because it is readily available on Nintendo Switch Online and offers simple gameplay that requires little explanation. Players can jump into a quick match without a preamble and immediately start having fun, without worrying about tutorials or rehashed storyboards they’ve already viewed. The arcade experience that translated perfectly to the NES now works just as well for bite-sized gaming sessions between more advanced games. It’s also a natural pick for young children who are getting comfortable with the medium, just as it was closer to launch.

Mario might have found a whole other career, but his time spent battling critters from sewers remains compelling to this day. If nothing else, it’s a perfect palate cleanser… minus the flies.