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25 Years of Super Mario Bros.

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-let-him-get-into-the-birthday-beer dept.

harrymcc writes "On September 13th 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom (NES) in Japan. It went on to become the best-selling video game of all time, a title it only recently lost. Over at Technologizer, Benj Edwards is celebrating the anniversary with a look at some of the weirdest variations, spinoffs, and tributes the game has inspired over the years, from edibles to art projects." The Guardian's games blog adds a bunch of Mario-related trivia, and CVG attempts to explain the history of Mario games. Nintendo is capitalizing on the anniversary by announcing an upcoming collection of classic Mario games (Japanese site, English explanation) that have been ported to the Wii.

20 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Twenty-five years? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Twenty-five years? Really? Damn... I'm old.

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    1. Re:Twenty-five years? by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Informative

      You think that's old? It's been 33 years since I first laid hands on an Atari console (still one of my favorite machines) with its Commodore-produced 6502 CPU and TIA sound/graphics chip (with an amazing 30x20 resolution).

      The Famicom was released in 1983 so we're talking about 27 year old technology! Its contemporaries were the Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 5200 SuperSystem, Apple IIc/e, and C=64. (The Mac and Amiga didn't even exist yet.) Ancient, old, ancient technology. But hella fun.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    2. Re:Twenty-five years? by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's not as hard as you remember it. Anyone with a little aptitude and practice can beat SMB. Compared to other games on the NES (Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, etc) it's a walk in the park.

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    3. Re:Twenty-five years? by Sancho · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Interestingly, I think a lot of the old 8- and 16-bit games were difficult because of poor programming. Bad collision-detection and poor controls are high on the list of what made a lot of games hard. Super Mario Bros. head pretty bad controls--far from the worst on the NES, but probably the worst out of the entire series.

      Then you have bad design patterns that were repeated over and over throughout the industry--enemies that respawn if a particular tile goes offscreen, being knocked back uncontrollably by enemies (often into pits), enemies which simply can't be avoided or killed no matter what you try... It's really a combination of these three which made Ninja Gaiden (and many other games) super hard. Difficulty without frustration is hard to achieve, but modern games do better at it.

      Of course, death and repetition are what made games last any reasonable amount of time in the early NES days. Before you had passwords and saves, forcing you to master every level to get to the end was part of the experience. That's not universally true--some games like Metroid had an explorative element that extended playing time.

    4. Re:Twenty-five years? by theaveng · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The 2600 uses a 6507, not a 6502

      You are correct but it's the same difference really. Just as my 386SX laptop is still a 386, just minus some data lines. Or a 486SX4 is 486 but clocked three times faster. It's the same basic CPU, and yes Commodore owned the company (MOS) that made the 650x, 850x, and 65816. They basically got their PET, VIC20, C64, C128, Plus/4 and other computer CPUs for free (at cost).

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    5. Re:Twenty-five years? by teslar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      being knocked back uncontrollably by enemies (often into pits)

      What, as opposed to being knocked very uncontrollably onto a health pack? Why would an enemy want to do that? Surely knocking you into pits or at least making sure you lose control is pretty high up on the enemy's to-do list, so while I agree with the rest of what you say, this is a strange criticism.

      You should also add bad English to the list of things that make some games difficult. What were supposed to be helpful hints become mere cryptic messages. I'm looking at you, original Zelda.
      Then there were things that simply made no sense. Why could the blue candle only be lit once per screen, forcing you to exit and re-enter it until you've checked every damn bush (or several of them at once, but still) for something shiny? Things like that just made the game longer not by making it harder but simply by increasing the legwork you had to do. I think those were the things I hated most. Bad controls and so on, I could live with - eventually, you learned how to master them. You figured out what the actual collision detection was rather than what it should have been. You understood where a particular enemy would throw you and could use it to your advantage if the guy was really unavoidable. But spending 5 mins on burning bushes just cos the blue candle is rubbish? Please.

  2. Heads up on that Mario collection by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 3, Informative

    it's just a Wii port of Mario All Stars that came out in the US for SNES, same graphics and all.

    The booklet and the soundtrack seem interesting packins though.

    --
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    1. Re:Heads up on that Mario collection by bonch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. has inaccurate physics when jumping and breaking a brick, unfortunately. Mario keeps rising in altitude instead of immediately falling down, which sounds minor but affects you if you're used to running and hitting bricks without stopping like in the original.

      For years, I thought I was the only one who ever noticed this, but I see that it's mentioned at TMK.

    2. Re:Heads up on that Mario collection by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny

      The All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. has inaccurate physics when jumping and breaking a brick

      I think that *all* Mario games have inaccurate physics when jumping and breaking a brick. If they used accurate physics, Mario would fall to the ground unconscious immediately after whacking his head.

    3. Re:Heads up on that Mario collection by QuantumBeep · · Score: 3, Funny

      I want you to go back and read what you just said.

  3. And today is also... by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Quite a coincidence.

  4. The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    For anyone wondering, the "best-selling video game of all time" is Wii Sports.

    1. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If we're including pack-in games (which Wii Sports is in North America, but not in Japan), then wouldn't Solitaire be the best selling game of all time? It was "sold" with hundreds of millions of copies of Windows.

      --
      Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    2. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Monkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not counting console bundled games like #1 Wii Sports (41.65m) #2 SMB (40.24m),and #4 Tetris ( bundled with original Gameboy, 30.26m), #5 Duck Hunt (included in the NES bundle that came with the orange gun, 28.31m), you might be surprised to find out that Pokemon games are the top contenders with the #3 overall spot held by Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue (31.38m) and #6 Pokémon Gold and Silver (23.11m).

      Some other titles are #7 Nintendogs (21.60m), #8 Super Mario World (bundled with the SNES, 20.61m) and #9 Wii Play (20.30m).

    3. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Patch86 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Super Mario Bros. was bundled with the console originally too. Presumably we weren't disqualifying that.

      Mine was a SMB/Duck Hunt twin-pak, and was awesome I might add.

  5. Re:Who's #1 then by Pojut · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Super Mario Bros was also a pack in title, for quite a long time.

    How are so many people forgetting this?

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  6. Re:And yet... by DIplomatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...games released this year will be based on the same characters, plot devices and game mechanics as that title a quarter century ago. It's all summed up in Nintendo's motto: Why create when you can copy?

    And yet I would rather play 100 games that feature Mario unnecessarily than yet another greyish-brown FPS where the protagonist is some sort of grizzled space marine. Say what you will about Nintendo and Mario games, but by and large they are fun.

  7. I always preferred playing with my Willie... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...that of course being Miner Willie from the ZX Spectrum classics Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy.

    I'm not criticising anyone's love of the Mario franchise of games but having gamed for 30-odd years from the ZX Spectrum through the Commodore Amiga and now to PCs, I think I've only ever played one Mario game for a short period of time on a friend's NES.

    So my platform gaming heroes were Zool, Superfrog, Manic Miner and Wally Week (from Automania & Pyjamarama).

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  8. Re:One of Commodore's best sellers by theaveng · · Score: 3, Informative

    Commodore had nothing to do with the 6502

    MOS was owned by Commodore. i.e. Same company. In fact one reason Commodore VIC-20 and 64 was so much cheaper than the competition was because they charged Atari, Apple, et cetera thrice the price that Commodore charged itself, so they could sell computers at only $150 each. Atari/Apple couldn't even get close.

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    FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
  9. Re:And yet... by tehcyder · · Score: 3, Funny

    If you take things back far enough, all games are just variations on throwing a rock at a tree.

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