super mario bros. - 8/10
the retro is taking my body over like a symbiote
please note: this is a game i have reviewed multiple times! the prior versions of this review will be included below. enjoy!
alright, i'm willing to throw my hands up; this game is far better on replays now that i'm familiarized with it's book of tricks. as much as i derided it in my earlier review (see below), i've grown some degree of fondness for this game. in fact, i'd go so far as to say that i should likely attribute that earlier review to some sort of episode, because i kind of disagree with most things i said in it.
firstly, whilst crude and certainly archaic, there is an undeniable charm to the ramshackle appeal of the graphics of this game. are they groundbreaking, earth-shattering, even the best of the NES? absolutely not, they're definitely very anchored in their time, and that's step one to what has led me to appreciate this game just that little bit more; i have re-approached it, grounding myself in the time period, or more appropriately, not holding it to lofty ambitions of later successors, both of the series and the genre itself.
the same applies to the game control that i had criticized. in a vacuum, it feels fine. pretty good at times, even. it feels awesome to learn how to flick at just the right time to not lose any momentum when you're jumping up the stairs at the end of a stage, or how to jump on the elevators so their height doesn't change. in fact, i had so much outright fun with the game this time that i took it upon myself to do three playthroughs; two initial playthroughs to shake a little rust off where i used warp zones, and then a third without warps, which also ended up being a deathless, hitless run as well, go figure. so i would say i've sufficiently gotten to grips with the game and can very much appreciate it's unique control method, especially considering the time of its release. to come to this after having experienced the swathes of shite that were being pumped out onto the atari 2600 and have it be this great must have been a damn revelation back then, and frankly, even now, it holds up really well, more than i gave it credit for.
i made a mistake with my original time with it, that being that these games are intended to be replayed consistently, constantly. you were likely getting this thing as a pack-in with your console, so you had just it for a damn while. and in that view, playing this game a few times over inside of an hour... yeah, honestly, i could go for fourths, really. it's just a nice game to tighten your gameplay at, to improve at and to allow your skill to flourish. perhaps it's true that it's not as creative as mario 3, or expansive as mario world, but as a foundational title? it's hard to say that there's a foot put wrong here.
hard, but not impossible.
see, despite my time with this game significantly improving this go around, i did still notice some things. nothing too egregious or anything, but definitely things that preclude it from being any higher than a 7 in my eyes.
firstly, i do think it becomes apparent that they were running a bit thin by around the world 6 mark. level concepts, or even just outright levels are copied and pasted with minimal, if any tweaks made; the most egregious example in my mind is 7-3 just being 2-3, but again. failing that, they're woefully short, such as 5-3, which feels as though it's over before it started, on top of it being another mountain/green top platform/elevator/whatever level. it's nothing too greatly detrimental to the playing experience in the moment, its just something that i very much took note of.
the second, and perhaps more pertinent point, those last two castles. i applaud them in some capacity for attempting to have some degree of differentiation from what came before, that much i can appreciate, however, the way of doing that should not have been to implement mazes. i'm still not even sure how you get through the 7-4 one, to be honest, i just sort of fumbled my way through and got to victory eventually. if these have to be implemented at all, i do definitely prefer the 8-4 approach, where each entrance is easily signposted with a pipe, and the exits tend to put you in positions where it's immediately visible whether or not you picked correctly. however, it's like having a preference on which way you're kicking me in the shins. i would prefer neither.
third, and this one sucks too - mario's jumping when you're just starting to run. i imagine it's some sort of odd interaction with the momentum, but it feels like such unbelievable ass to start running, jump, and have mario slide to a halt in the air because you hadn't ran for long enough yet. it feels so egregious in this game, and in their defense there are areas that are designed to compensate for this, for example there's a gap in 8-2 where there are two blocks placed, one to allow you to get your footing and begin to run, and the second from which you actually jump. i appreciate it being designed around, but simultaneously, that clearly shows that they knew that it existed as an oddity, so why does it function that way? it's very odd to me, it was somewhat unintuitive to get a proper handle on, even if i did eventually flummox my way through it through my past playthroughs and it didn't affect me in any fatal way during these runs.
overall, a replay of this game and a fresh perspective have landed it higher in my estimations than previously, but not to any degree where i'm now seeing the light and i'm the number one mario fan or anything. fuck no. it's a pretty good game with a tight enough control scheme that stands as a touchstone of the industry, both saving and rebirthing it, and for that, i came back, ruminated upon it, replayed it, and have subsequently been able to derive further enjoyment from it.
semi-unrelated post-script; it dawned on me this time that whilst sonic rewards exploration with ways to explore the level that you're in further and see more of it, mario rewards exploration by letting you entirely forego that level, and potentially many more after it. i don't know where else i would have mentioned this, so its going here
before i proceed, i will first clarify that i do see super mario bros. as an important moment in history; it did effectively save the american video game market in at least some capacity, kick-started the more prevalent popularization of platformers and laid the groundwork for their ability to fully side-scroll as opposed to being screen-by-screen, and for better or for worse, really put nintendo on the map.
i clarify that first because holy shit this game is unwashed ass.
you have two choices; either take the warp zones that you will know about because you're playing mario 1 in 2025 and immediately trivialize the game by basically only playing 1-1, 1-2, 4-1, a tiny sliver of 4-2 and then world 8, or alternatively play the whole game and very swiftly discover why you'll often find yourself best pleased taking option number one.
so much of this game just screams "transitional". what do i mean by that? well, in a lot of places, and i do truly mean a fucking lotttt of places, it feels like this game is supposed to be chomping quarters out of your pocket at an arcade, i.e. its unnecessarily unfair and just kind of outright awful at various points throughout if you have more experience with future mario games. you like the imagination behind mario 3's locales and set dressing? too bad you get overworld, underground, swimming, castle and sky that all use the EXACT same tileset with zero variety. you like the actually good controls of mario world? tough shit, you get mario who slips and slides around the fucking place but feels like a sack of bricks the second you hit A. you like how other mario games, generally speaking, tend to trend towards being Fun Video Games? well ain't that a kick in the fucking head.
i cannot possibly begin to tell you how much i tried to like this game. i gave it the classic sonic treatment; i gave it several playthroughs across the year to try and click with me, across multiple platforms. i've had it on my steam deck in i believe february, i had it as one of the first things i did on my switch 2 through the nes app, and now ive played it through retroarch on my pc. each time i have desperately tried to see anything in this game, truly anything at all that i can find even remotely enjoyable.
nary a fucking drop, frankly.
the platforming feels like ass, and even when mario behaves himself, its obviously simplistic, by virtue of its placement in mario and indeed video game history.
the graphics are iconic, sure, but they look completely terrible, from nonsensical palettes that didnt even fit with the art at that time to the bushes and the clouds being the same damn sprite, it is fuckin rough, man.
the only good thing is the music - and even then, i hasten to add that just about every subsequent mario game has done just about every single song from this game TO FUCKING DEATH to where it has absolutely long since stayed its welcome for me.
it utterly baffles me how this game can still be put on a pedestal to this day as some sort of great when... it's just not. truly, honestly, it just isn't. at least to me, this game is deeply flawed, and the only positive to be gleaned is that the only way was up. except for i guess it wasn't, because lost levels is even worse.
just a complete slog. not worth playing unless you are like super invested in either mario history or video game history. and if you are then you've played it already, the damn thing's been out for 40 fucking years.
