What it was
Mario Bros. is a single-screen platformer set in the sewers of New York. You play Mario, or Luigi if a mate has the second controller, and your job is to clear each phase of pests: Shellcreepers, Sidestepper crabs, Fighter Flies and Slipice, which turn platforms to ice. There are pipes at the corners, a POW block in the middle, and the screen wraps, so walk off one edge and you're back on the other.
The twist is what you can't do. You can't squash an enemy by jumping on its head. You hit the platform from underneath to flip it, then walk over and kick it away before it recovers. The POW block flips everything touching the ground, but it only works three times. Touch an enemy that's still on its feet, a fireball or a fully formed icicle and you lose a life.
Where it sits in history
Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi made it, off the back of Donkey Kong. Yokoi suggested fighting enemies from below, because there were several floors. That turned out too easy, so they made you finish the job with a kick. Luigi was born here: a palette swap of Mario so there could be a two-player mode, which was inspired by Joust. Mario also became a plumber because of all those pipes.
The arcade game came first, in 1983. The Famicom version came out in Japan on 9 September 1983 and the NES version in North America in June 1986. It was the first game developed by Intelligent Systems. Sales were healthy: more than 1.63 million Famicom copies and 2.28 million NES cartridges worldwide. Computer and Video Games called the NES version incredibly good fun in 1989, especially with two players.
How it plays today
It's tight, quick and a bit mean. Every phase is a tiny puzzle in timing: flip the pest, kick it before it rights itself, grab the coin that pops out of the pipe, and don't stand on a platform that's about to freeze. Icicles join in later, and the screen gets busy fast.
Be warned that it's an arcade game on a home console, so it's short on frills. Critics who looked at the Virtual Console release called it an inferior arcade conversion, and fair enough. But it's the lineage that matters. Floating coins, turtles and Luigi all made it into Super Mario Bros., and the moment a mate joins you it gets properly good.
Compared with
- Super Mario Bros.: Same plumbers, but now you can stomp, and the screen scrolls.
- Donkey Kong: Where Mario started, and where Miyamoto and Yokoi worked together first.
- Joust: The two-player arcade game that inspired the co-op.
Why it matters
Goffman wrote about people sharing a focus, being engrossed in the same thing together. Mario Bros. forces it on you in a good way. Two players, one screen, one shared POW block, and a sewer that doesn't care whose turn it is. You're in each other's way, and you're each other's help, sometimes in the same second.
That's the bit that sticks. The tiniest rule set, and suddenly you're cheering, groaning and blaming your brother, which is the whole reason Luigi exists.
Read: The second controller →
- Goffman, E. (1961). Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction ('Fun in Games').
What you're levelling up
You have been training these without noticing. Here is how to do it on purpose, and where it pays off away from the couch. All the skills games teach →
Timing and rhythm
In the game. You flip a Shellcreeper from underneath, then have to kick it before it rights itself.
Do it on purpose. Count the gap between flip and recovery out loud, then kick on the beat.
Off the couch. Hitting reply while the conversation is warm, not three days later. Same goes for the text after a good first date.
Teamwork
In the game. In two-player mode, the POW block is shared and only works three times, so you have to decide who spends it.
Do it on purpose. Agree who takes the POW call before the phase starts.
Off the couch. On a work project, agree up front who gets to make the big call, so nobody spends the favour twice and nobody sulks.
Keeping your cool
In the game. Icicles form and Slipice freeze platforms in later rounds, so panic costs a life.
Do it on purpose. When it goes sideways, stop and breathe for one beat before moving.
Off the couch. A first date where the booking's lost and the place is packed. One breath, a laugh about it, and a walk to the pub next door beats a meltdown at the counter.
Verdict · 7/10
Simple, short and sharper than it looks. Best with a mate on the second controller.
