The original Super Mario Bros for the NES, what a magical experience.

[CapnNostalgia]

Aye Mateys, I know 'ye be knowing the feeling I'm talkin' about. That unmistakable feelin' of playing Super Mario Brothers on the NES for the first time and feeling that amazing rush of "awe" come over 'ye as 'ye explore the mushroom kingdom for the first time. I remember being a young skallywag back in the late 80's when I first experienced the game and I'll never forget the night I brought home me' booty from the toy store which consisted of an NES (with Mario/Duck Hunt) and Skate or Die. I played Mario for hours and hours before even touching the other two games and to this day the good captain still regard that special feeling as the single most important moment in me' entire video gaming life. I actually had the pleasure of playing Super Mario Brothers in the arcade back in the late 80's as well, which took me by surprise when I saw it at an ol' pizza shop back by the port where we kept the S.S Retro because I thought it was console only. Ah, the sweet innocence of being a child back before the days of the internet. If you get a chance than by all means check out my piratey-esq review of SMB HERE (http://capnnostalgia.blogspot.com/2015/05/capn-nostalgia-salutes-super-mario.html)

What kind of experiences do 'ye folks have with Super Mario Brothers on the NES? I'm sure many folks postin' here in the retro section of the forum be' around 30+, so many of you landlubbers should know these memories and feelin's in which Cap'n Nostalgia be talkin'. One thing the cap'n loves is how Nintendo has done a good job at keeping their classics games relevant in today's market with their virtual console on Wii, Wii-U, and 3DS, and how they find ways to bring these classics back time after time for new generations of treasure hunters to enjoy. And now they've brought back the Nintendo World Championships after 25 years or so with the NEX Remix release for the Wii-U and now gamers of all ages will be either discovering these classics for the first time or rekindling an ol' flame. The cap'n applauds the big "N" for their efforts.

Arrrgggh mateys, that be all from Cap'n Nostalgia fer now. Get back to work, the lot of ya!

[FieryReign]

The first time I played it was on one of those Playchoice arcade cabs at a Hills department store. Remember Hills? I was awful at it and thought I got pretty far when I made it to "the turtle". That game and Gumshoe were my first NES experiences until I finally got my R.O.B. set, which didn't come with SMB unfortunately. So I had to wait til my birthday to finally experience the full game. I could never get that 1-up trick to work for me. I probably still suck at it...

[Tanooki]

My mom however that worked out out west wrangled a test launch pre-feluxe system for christmas in 1985 along with also SMB and Hogan's Alley. Christmas was a mind blown experience since those were intentionally kept towards the back of the pile as the last things to find.

Details kept down everything got extreme use for that day and weeks to follow. I know I put hours a day into all of them, especially Super Mario Bros as it was fair, but also challenging and hard when you're like 8 and the only games you've messed with before are the occasional trips to the arcade with a few quarters. I never did recall ever seeing a game like it before, worlds that expanded and grew, changed as you moved along. Most the stuff to that point in the arcade were single or scrolling screen shooters, driving games, the usual Namco, Midway and Atari basics. It took quite awhile to take down Mario, and 8-3 sent me into fits considering how cheap those hammer bros were having no way to run under them like in the past stages. 8-4 was a panic when you'd hit the wrong level of platform or pipe to not get the BING and have to re-do the pattern over again too but it was fun. One would always wonder just how many stages there were and worlds to deal with having some nasty little mushroom snark you for not being the princess yet again as this was a decade before the internet really showed up in the home.

[retroman]

I can remember the first time I saw and played SMB. It was in the Arcade form at a local fleemarket or all places. I. like all of you, was floored by how awesome it was(still is). Then about a week later a friend of mine got a NES for his birthday and it came with SMB. I was floored again. How did they put a arcade game inside a home cartridge I thought. Well that was enough for me. I was sold. Saved up my money for months and went to Caldors(a store when I was a kid), and picked myself up a NES. One of my greatest memories as a kid. I played SMB all day and night with my brother. I finally had my dream video game system, and could put the old Intellivision to rest for awhile.

[Emperor Megas]

The first time I saw and played Super Mario Bros. it was a dedicated cabinet in a Time Savers in uptown New Orleans on Lowerline Street. It was sort of out of the way, as it was about a mile down from our regular hang out, which was another Time Savers closer to home that neighbored a Tastee donuts. Both had arcade machines with regularly rotated every few months.

Anyway, I wasn't floored the first time I played it, or really ever, honestly, though I did enjoy it, just not as much as shooters and action platformers which were my favorite genres at the time. The thing I remember being most amazed by was that you didn't die when you jumped on top of the 'Shell Creepers', which I stilled called them (since that's what they were called in the original Mario Bros.) until I got the NES version with a manual.

I enjoyed the game a lot more when I played it at home. I liked the NES controller better than the super clicky buttons and the short, 'slidey' joystick on the arcade cabinet.

I got an NES and a SMS the same Christmas, and I spent a LOT more time playing my Master system than my NES, so I didn't put the same time into SMB as everyone else. I honestly enjoyed Alex Kidd in Miracle World better. I don't think it's a better game at all, but I was just more a fan of it. I was in a unique situation where most of my closest friends owned a SEGA Master System, and only a few owned an NES. I didn't realize just how unusual that was until years later with the advent of the Internet. I suppose New Orleans was sort of like Brazil.

[Gentlegamer]

I'm a pirate, but Talk Like A Pirate Day isn't until September.

I think you can drop the character. Matey.

[The Adventurer]

My local greasy spoon dinner had a Super Mario Bros. Vs.* cabinet that I'm 99% sure I played before I got my NES Christmas 1989. It's hard to really nail down my first true impressions as I was 5 and I played Mario Bros a LOT during that time. It was definitly formative in terms of defining my overall gaming tastes going forward.

And the thrill of encountering new enemies and obstacles, and discovering new secrets, really captured my imagination.


* they also got a Castlevania Vs. cabinet at some point, which was also something that blew my 5/6 year old mind

[Tanooki]

It was a just a few years later I saw and played the arcade SMB game and I thought I'd enjoy it, but the NES tainted me. I had learned the game well enough I ended up just doing a lot of sloppy deaths and kills that it turned me off to it. I mean the game is fine and all, but I never liked it half as much as the NES game as it felt just cheap with the holes an enemy placement, clearly to nab up more quarters. I think that's why I've never bothered to MAME emulate it or get one of those warez carts retrozone made with the dipswitches. I did like the vs Castlevania game a good bit more.

[CapnNostalgia]

It was a just a few years later I saw and played the arcade SMB game and I thought I'd enjoy it, but the NES tainted me. I had learned the game well enough I ended up just doing a lot of sloppy deaths and kills that it turned me off to it. I mean the game is fine and all, but I never liked it half as much as the NES game as it felt just cheap with the holes an enemy placement, clearly to nab up more quarters. I think that's why I've never bothered to MAME emulate it or get one of those warez carts retrozone made with the dipswitches. I did like the vs Castlevania game a good bit more.

Aye, I've played the feared arcade version as well me' lad and shiver me timbers the game lashes out at 'ye somethin' fierce. It be yer gold she wants, nothin' more....nothin' less.

But she be fun regardless and playing it at the arcade was a fond memory, something Cap'n Nostalgia is sure he'll never experience again.

[wizardofwor1975]

I remember getting ZELDA II and SMB/Duck Hunt for Christmas in 1988. Prior to playing SMB I had extensively played The Great Giana Sisters on our C64. The Great Giana Sisters was released in '87 and was a virtual copy of SMB. In spite of their similarities I thoroughly enjoyed both games. Although, Zelda II completely eclipsed SMB in our household on Christmas morning back in '88 no doubt due to our prior extensive Great Giana Sisters experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMTdr026bZU

[sloan]

Got my Control Deck set with SMB for Christmas 1985. Felt like Bryan Adams, played it til my fingers bled, but it wasn't the summer of '69. While I had seen it on Playchoice 10 machines at Aladdin's Castle, I had never played it to that point. I made up for lost time.

[celerystalker]

I'm a pirate, but Talk Like A Pirate Day isn't until September.

I think you can drop the character. Matey.

Thank you. I like the idea here of sharing memories. Forum posts in character kinda turned me away at first.

I first played Super Mario Bros. and the NES on New Year's Eve, 1986. My parents had friends they'd get together with every New Year and play board games all night, and the host family had 2 sons. The oldest son had gotten an NES for Christmas, but was a teenager, so he had his own plans. He let my little brother and I play his NES that night while he was out. He had a few games: Kung Fu, Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (I can't remember if they were separate or the combo cart). We played all of the games, but I really gravitated to Super Mario, Kung Fu, and Ghosts 'n Goblins. I could get farther in Kung Fu, butI beat the first level oc Super Mario and of Ghosts 'n Goblins, while my brother was really into Excitebike.

We played all night until probably 3AM, and all the way home and as I fell off to sleep, those games just burned into my mind. We had an Atari 2600, and the next day I went to it to try and recapture the feeling from the night before. The closest thing we had to Super Mario Bros. was Pitfall, which had been my favorite game to that point... but it just wasn't the same. What I wanted to do and see and feel wasn't possible without an NES. I started saving my allowance immediately, pooling it with my brother's.

A year later, we still didn't have enough, but we had $100 or so saved up... but we got an NES Action Set for Christmas! We were able to use our savings over the next months to buy three games: Hogan's Alley, Super Mario 2, and a bit later Zelda II.

That night is as clear to me now as it was then. It was fun with my brother, snacks, and video games in a whole new way, and it was the first time I truly craved playing a game afterward. Loved it, and still do.

[CapnNostalgia]

Aye these be some wonderful stories, lads! The good captain is glad that there is a community of people out there that still hold onto and cherish their retrogaming memories. These be the kind of things that bring a tear to me' eye. 'Ye bunch of cod-faced deck washers are makin' me proud and reading these stories are takin' me back to when I was knee high to a grasshopper. Now it's time for Cap'n Nostalgia to fire up some NES and Atari VCS, enjoy yer' night fellow brethren.

Thanks mateys!

[Gentlegamer]

Don't forget to copy your reply over to Nintendo Age where you're also advertising your blog.

[Tanooki]

Wow they'll really like him over there. I know you're a pirate so it's probably common sense, but watch your back and your mouth over there as there's more rules than the ones posted.

[CapnNostalgia]

Thank you. I like the idea here of sharing memories. Forum posts in character kinda turned me away at first.

I first played Super Mario Bros. and the NES on New Year's Eve, 1986. My parents had friends they'd get together with every New Year and play board games all night, and the host family had 2 sons. The oldest son had gotten an NES for Christmas, but was a teenager, so he had his own plans. He let my little brother and I play his NES that night while he was out. He had a few games: Kung Fu, Excitebike, Hogan's Alley, Ghosts 'n Goblins, and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt (I can't remember if they were separate or the combo cart). We played all of the games, but I really gravitated to Super Mario, Kung Fu, and Ghosts 'n Goblins. I could get farther in Kung Fu, butI beat the first level oc Super Mario and of Ghosts 'n Goblins, while my brother was really into Excitebike.

We played all night until probably 3AM, and all the way home and as I fell off to sleep, those games just burned into my mind. We had an Atari 2600, and the next day I went to it to try and recapture the feeling from the night before. The closest thing we had to Super Mario Bros. was Pitfall, which had been my favorite game to that point... but it just wasn't the same. What I wanted to do and see and feel wasn't possible without an NES. I started saving my allowance immediately, pooling it with my brother's.

A year later, we still didn't have enough, but we had $100 or so saved up... but we got an NES Action Set for Christmas! We were able to use our savings over the next months to buy three games: Hogan's Alley, Super Mario 2, and a bit later Zelda II.

That night is as clear to me now as it was then. It was fun with my brother, snacks, and video games in a whole new way, and it was the first time I truly craved playing a game afterward. Loved it, and still do.

Wow, that be one helluva good tale, matey! It's stories and moments in time such as this that bond us to our games and create memories that will last a lifetime and beyond. Great stuff 'ye ol' skallywag! I'm glad you got some time in with Zelda II back in the day, it still remains the Capn's all-time favorite NES game, and yes, I catch guff over that all the time. But those fish-cleaners end up walk in' the plank!

[celerystalker]

I really don't want to discourage posting at all, as this concept was a good conversation starter. Please just take this as a simple comment. The pirate thing isn't appropriate for a forum, especially when talking about personal memories. It's schtick, and it's inauthentic and will get annoying very quickly. By all means, post away, share your thoughts. Just... be yourself if you would. If your purpose is to be different to build a following, you're in the wrong place. If you want to have genuine conversation, by all means, tee off, it'd be great to have more active posters. Personally, though, I'm out on any more pirate-themed posts.

Always glad to meet another Zelda II fan, though. It's my favorite NES game as well.

[JoshDragon]

Classic video game for certain. I believe it was the first video game that I owned. Got it as a hand-me down from my uncle in around 1994. I loved the game, although I got Mega Man 2 later that year which pretty much made me forget about SMB 1 for a while.

What's interesting about SMB 1 is that pretty much everyone, who ever owned an NES, has played that game.

[XYXZYZ]

I'm just going to copy and paste my post from the "hard won victories" thread I made a couple years ago.

The first time I played Super Mario Bros. was in a department store, Hills I think. (Remember when we had stores besides Walmart?) It must have been 1986 or 1987, the Nintendo NES was getting hype all over the place. I knew my parents weren't going to go for a $200.00 thing at Christmas, so I didn't bother getting excited about it. But I played Super Mario Bros. for a few minutes... I thought it was the greatest thing ever. The side scrolling jumping guy was so intuitive, I understood it in a way I never understood things like Dig Dug and Pacman. But there were a lot of other kids lined up, and I didn't get a very long chance to play. That Christmas, my cousin got an NES, primarily for Ghostbusters as he was a Ghostbusters fan. But I was excited to play Super Mario Bros. again, that game was just magic. I played that game whenever I could, on my cousin's NES, in department stores, sometimes my grandparents would rent an NES when I would visit. I played other games, but Super Mario Bros. was the one that called me like a siren song. When I finally got my NES, I think it was in 1988 or 1989, I only had one game, the Mario/Duck Hunt pack-in. But that was fine with me, because only one game mattered... I played the hell out of it... slowly progressing further and further... discovering the warp to World 8 was exciting, was I close? No! The challenge of World 8 was much too great for me. My progress was soooo slow... I just couldn't save that damn princess no matter what. I recall one summer when my family went on vacation all over the south, two weeks without my NES. I met some kids on vacation who had an NES, and I watched another guy save the princess. I was eager to try it myself but I had to leave and didn't have my trusty joystick with me. We finally got back around to my Aunt's house, where my cousin had a cool new game called Goonies II. I said "This is cool, but I have a job to do." I dug out Super Mario Bros. and he wondered why I was playing that old thing. I knew I could do it now. I dug into that game, and it was like a trainwreck. I was playing worse than usual! I did not save the princess that day.

Now mind you I was not a bad video game player; the first games I finished were Contra and Life Force with the 30 lives codes. Granted that's not hard, but a decent first achievement, like training wheels. But I had since finished Megaman 2, Castlevania II, Double Dragon, Legend of Zelda and Zelda II (Which were both great challenges with their own story) Super Mario Bros 2, and several other games... and eventually, I finished Super Mario Bros. 3. But it felt so wrong... The ending to SMB 3, where the princess made the "our princess is in another castle" joke, just reminded me about my greatest failure. I had still not saved the original Princess. I don't remember much about the gaming I was doing at the time, just that the Super Famicom was big news in the video game magazines, and the Super NES just announced. The first Super Mario Bros. 4 screenshots had surfaced. But to me, it was called "I still haven't saved the first Princess Bros. 4" At some point I had given up, I was starting to get tired of SMB, everyone else had stopped playing it a long time ago. Like I said, I don't remember what games I was playing at the time, but one morning at my grandparents' house, I just felt like playing a little Super Mario Bros. Now, at this point I could get all the way to 8-4, but I still couldn't get through it. Anyway, on that morning I somehow slipped under that last hammer brother, and I charged directly at Bowser, stopped, ran under him and grabbed that axe.


It was not a feeling of great victory, but... it's like I actually couldn't believe it. I just sat there staring at the screen, "PUSH BUTTON B TO SELECT A WORLD"... there was no feeling of satisfaction, it just wasn't enough. If Goliath was going to fall, he was going to fall hard; hard enough to make a believer out of me. I reached up and tapped start on my NES Advantage, beginning world 1-1 of the second quest, the Goombas were all Buzzy Beetles now. I went through every world without warping. I saved the princess, finished the second quest. Then, I did it again, this time selecting another world with the B button. Then I did it again, without warping. And again, and again.... that morning, I saved the princess seven times in one setting. Then I felt an intense feeling of satisfaction. I didn't just conquer my greatest challenge, I mastered it!

[Gentlegamer]

I really don't want to discourage posting at all, as this concept was a good conversation starter. Please just take this as a simple comment. The pirate thing isn't appropriate for a forum, especially when talking about personal memories. It's schtick, and it's inauthentic and will get annoying very quickly. By all means, post away, share your thoughts. Just... be yourself if you would. If your purpose is to be different to build a following, you're in the wrong place. If you want to have genuine conversation, by all means, tee off, it'd be great to have more active posters. Personally, though, I'm out on any more pirate-themed posts.

Always glad to meet another Zelda II fan, though. It's my favorite NES game as well.

He's just advertising his blog, he posted the exact thread at Nintendo Age, signing up for both forums for this purpose.

http://beta.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=147611

[homerhomer]

I can remember playing it at a local bowing alley. They had a VS. cabinet with SMB on it. I thought at the time that the game was just okay for an arcade game. Nothing really exciting. But my opinion changed once saw the pictures of the new Nintendo console in the Sears magazine. I couldn't believe my eyes on how much it looked like the arcade. Not to much longer, my brother and I saved our paper route money and bought a NES. I was blown away how close the console game was to the arcade game. I felt like I had an arcade game at home. Needless to say I was pretty much addicted after that.

[Az]

I always made it a point to check out any arcade cabinets I came across no matter where they were at, and even if I didn't have any quarters I was perfectly content to watch others play or stare at the opening demos. The first time I ever saw a SMB cabinet was at a small pawn shop my uncle owned next to his body shop. One of the guys that worked for my uncle was showing me all about the game and explaining how to play it. After him telling me about all this and seeing him going in the pipe in 1-1 I came away with the impression he was some type of savant. It blew my mind that an arcade game would have all these hidden little things since they all seemed to be such straightforward affairs at the time.

It was strange that other than that first time I've never seen another SMB cab anywhere. I guess once it hit the NES it didn't exactly rake in the dough as an arcade game. Everyone had a NES and in turn had SMB so who would plonk quarters in a machine to play what they had at home?


I honestly enjoyed Alex Kidd in Miracle World better. I don't think it's a better game at all, but I was just more a fan of it.

I was in the same boat. I got my SMS at launch and didn't get an NES until around a year or two later and by then had spent plenty of time with Miracle World. I thoroughly enjoyed SMB and recognized that it was an amazingly designed game and a great conversion it quickly seemed very flat and simplistic when compared to Miracle World. By comparison the colors were muted, the stages weren't varied in composition at all, and really within the first world or so you've basically seen every audio/visual thing the game has to offer and experienced all the gameplay mechanics you're going to run into for the rest of the game. No dialogue, no new enemies or vistas to explore, and you're sure not going to start the next level in a speedboat or helicopter.

That's definitely not to say Miracle World is a better game, just one I had sank more time into prior to SMB.

[Tanooki]

I guess that would be no surprise if most people blew off the arcade SMB. They were fairly close even with the things changed I could see a lot just ignoring it when you have the experience at home. I've always been leery about arcade machine maintenance, but hell I stumbled into pinball of all things so I probably have little room to complain. I think if I came across a VS SMB machine I could see owning it because it is different, though I definitely wouldn't blow off a PC-10 cabinet either given you can store 10 games in that. :)


As far as Alex Kidd goes, objectively speaking I would find it very hard for someone to prefer it. I played the things side by side and Alex Kidd just has problems in design and gameplay mechanics. Slippery, one hit deaths, rock paper scissors bosses. Sure visually it was nicer, audio that would be a debate, but the mechanics are just lacking.

[Emperor Megas]

played the things side by side and Alex Kidd just has problems in design and gameplay mechanics. Slippery, one hit deaths, rock paper scissors bosses.You just described several of the things I prefer about Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I love sliding around in that game (especially under rocks), I loved the quirkiness of the Janken matches, and I enjoyed the music more in AKiMW, the special items, the environments, the vehicles, the money bags, characters you met along the way, the Moonlight Stone puzzle at the end...

I appreciate SMB as much as the next guy, but I was just more a fan of Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

[Tanooki]

Sliding was ok, I'm talking how the whole control setup felt like I was on an ice platform as he's just slippery. The janken matches would have been awesome as a bonus for a 1UP, not a way to unfairly kick your ass into a game over screen no matter how good you were doing up to that point which is why I hate them. Music though that's taste, they're good in that game no doubt, just prefer the Mario themes is all. I think the vehicles and the items were very nice in Alex Kidd, don't get me wrong, it's a good game, I just think it had some good flaws.

[celerystalker]

I played Alex Kidd in Miracle World exactly one year after I played Super Mario Bros. for the first time, and in the exact same place (well, the other son's bedroom). The family my parents played board games with had two sons, Matt and Mike, and the New Year tradition went on for more than a decade. The cool thing was, Matt would get Nintendo's newest system, but Mike would get something off the beaten path. In 1987, Mike had gotten a Master System with Alex Kidd and Safari Hunt.

I remember his room as such a 1980's cool place for a kid/teenager. It had wood paneling on the walls, a modest fish tank, a big radio/casette player, and a probably 19" color TV, the sort that had VHF and UHF knobs on the right side of the front panel, on which he played his Master system.

We didn't know he had it until he got home after midnight that night. We'd been playing Matt's NES, which was hooked up on the larger TV in the living room. We'd been playing their new games, Rygar and Baseball especially, all night. I still played a good chunk of Kung Fu as well, getting slaughtered by that jerk of a wizard in stage 4 over and over. Since we'd just gotten our NES, I wasn't as concerned with Mario, because he was waiting for me at home. I got as far as finding the grappling hook in Rygar before getting frustrated, but I played a ton of Baseball. Of all of the games I played during this fundamental time, that is the game that I put the most time into that is all but terrible now to play. Baseball Stars just annihilated it, but I digress.

Mike got home and went to his room while my brother was playing his turn, which was just more Excitebike, because he loved the crap out of that game, and we'd just figured out how to create tracks (which, let's be honest, were just using the ramps (letter H) to do a ton of jumps). Shortly after, Mike came out and invited us to see his new toy.

Alex Kidd was beautiful. I loved how bright and colorful the graphics were, and I loved that he could punch. I still think Mario is far superior, mind you, but I loved being able to fight back without powerups. The vertical scrolling in that first stage was especially novel as well to me, even if it caused me to die a ton trying to escape the stupid reaper. I only made it to the water at the bottom of level 1, but it was awesome.

Safari Hunt was killer. Having more variety to shoot at, different backgrounds, and getting to shoot endangered species was great, and the Light Phaser didn't make that obnoxious noise that would inevitably wake up your parents if you were trying to play early in the morning when you were supposed to be in bed, and the screen didn't flash every time I pulled the trigger. Awesome.

Those games, along with Rygar and Baseball, were what got in my head that night. They were awesome enough to let me borrow Baseball for a week, which I played the bejeesus out of... but I wouldn't own my own Master System for over a decade. My brother referred to it as "Sega Masters" for all those years, and still does as sort of homage to our childhood, I think. Either that or he still thinks that's what it should be called despite revisiting it often. I don't ask, because it makes me happy. You'd better believe that in my initial pickup, I made sure to get Alex Kidd (which was fortunately the built-in game on mine) and Safari Hunt immediately (actually, it came with nearly 30 games, but that's another story), I called my brother, and we met up and played all night.

[CapnNostalgia]

Ahoy Mateys, does anyone know if Super Mario Brothers made it into the Smithsonian, or is it still just Pac-Man? Cap'n Nostalgia really be thinkin' SMB deserves to be in there due to its historical significance and it's part in resurrecting a dead (or dying) industry.

[FieryReign]

Never knew about any other games besides Virtua Fighter at the Smithsonian. Which is silly.

[Az]

You just described several of the things I prefer about Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I love sliding around in that game (especially under rocks), I loved the quirkiness of the Janken matches [....]

A lot of people complain about the controls in the game, either about them being slippery or that they're reversed. Obviously I respect anyone's opinion but to be honest I find Miracle World to be among the most precise platforming control of the 8-bit era. The buttons may be reversed from the platforming norm, but rereleases of the game changed this. The game also came out in '86 and didn't have 30 years of SMB setting the de-facto standard of platformer controls. I honestly think a lot of complaints aren't because of the actual controls but because it doesn't work like SMB.

Personally I don't find the controls slippery at all. I find them to be the exact opposite, they're extremely precise. You just can't approach it with a SMB mindset where you're character is slow moving and you hold a button to run. Alex can be a quick little booger and is set up to move faster the longer he moves in one direction. Higher or longer jumps require a little inertia built up from running two or three blocks prior to the jump.

That could easily be chalked up to saying, "well, it sucks, they should have done it like SMB and the same game would have been better", which is something we will never find out. I personally adapted to the controls and found them satisfying.

Some also act as if the Janken matches are this game breaking Mensa-level mind games that are impossible. The enemies pick the same answers every time. You really can't get any simpler than that.

[tom]

Ahoy Mateys, does anyone know if Super Mario Brothers made it into the Smithsonian, or is it still just Pac-Man? Cap'n Nostalgia really be thinkin' SMB deserves to be in there due to its historical significance and it's part in resurrecting a dead (or dying) industry.

It was a platform game, but just one of many out at the time.
Probably Pitfall would be a better choice, just check out David Crane talking at the GDC 2011, Pitfall was the more innovative game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBT1OK6VAIU


.

[CapnNostalgia]

It was a platform game, but just one of many out at the time.
Probably Pitfall would be a better choice, just check out David Crane talking at the GDC 2011, Pitfall was the more innovative game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBT1OK6VAIU


.

Aye, Pitfall was a great game, but it isn't as universally praised or respected as SMB. Also, it didn't help to repair a dying industry on the level SMB did. The historical significance of Super Mario Brothers is through the charts, matey.

[tom]

In the USA there was no dying industry, after the crash of 1984, people did computer gaming, the Apple 2 and the C64 were hugely successful, and the PC was gaining more momentum. Activision, ES, Origin, Microprose, Mindscape, Broderbund, Sirius, Datasoft plus many more companies had huge sellers on computer platforms.

The NES (not SMB) came along and revived the CONSOLE gaming industry (After a very difficult start, Nintendo's AVS failed twice).
SMB universally praised and respected, I'd say Pitfall was more so, the demographics were just smaller.

[Gentlegamer]

In the USA there was no dying industry, after the crash of 1984, people did computer gaming, the Apple 2 and the C64 were hugely successful, and the PC was gaining more momentum. Activision, ES, Origin, Microprose, Mindscape, Broderbund, Sirius, Datasoft plus many more companies had huge sellers on computer platforms.

The NES just came along and revived the CONSOLE gaming industry. SMB universally praised and respected, I'd say Pitfall was more so.

Home computers were very expensive and niche. Video games had become retail poison. It took herculean efforts of Nintendo to revive the video game industry that had all the appearance of a fad that had ended spectacularly.

[CastlevaniaDude]

This jagoff is back? This guy is nothing but a spammer.

He used to post here as "Retro Videogame Addict," pretending to start discussions but actually spamming.

Then, that failed, so he deleted all those accounts and became "BSlyTheGamerGuy," creating new blogs, spamming twitter and forums with that, and recycling the same poorly written articles that he wrote on that blog.

Eventually, people stopped giving a shit about that, so he changed his Twitter handle to this stupid pirate gimmick, created a new blog, and for at least the 4th time, reposted this SMB review and immediately went right back to the very forums that he was either banned from or laughed off of. The only difference is that he added some really corny pirate talk to his review.

He also creates alternate forum accounts (you can tell, because usually they incorporate the number 81 or the name Bill (his real name is Bill). He was retweeting all of his tweets with two alt accounts, one being GenericGamer81 (whose name was Bill) and one other account. Additionally, he makes fake, super generic comments on his blog posts to make it look like people care, while deleting any comments critical of his terrible writing.

Listen, OP, if you want to have a blog, that's great, but you are absolutely delusional thinking that you're important, branding your shitty Twitter account that retweets photoshopped pictures that you somehow believe are real objects (ie; the NES in a shoe or other mods that are obviously photoshopped) as "official," and getting views only from the forums that haven't yet banned you for spamming.

He's nothing more than a loser NEET with no job who tries to get famous by blogging and playing in shitty regional poker tournaments. You add nothing to any discussion and you are obviously only out to self promote your terribly written blog projects and your asinine fake fantasy pro wrestling title. If you truly loved games as much as you love yourself, you would do something constructive, rather than constantly trying to self promote your recycled 3 year old blog entries here, at AtariAge, and wherever else you go. It's so obvious and pathetic when you make fake accounts to try and make it seem like people are interested, up to and including saying shit such as "THIS GUYS GREAT, HE SHOULD DO YOUTUBE REVIEWS!" The pirate gimmick is the worst yet. Good god, man. Grow up. Go get a job. Get an education. Do something with your life. You're not a writer. You're never going to be a writer. I am a writer. I get paid to write words. Even if you went to school for journalism, you don't have a basic enough grasp of the English language and rudimentary storytelling ability to ever, ever, ever make a dime or become notable. The only thing you are known for is being a deluded spammer who recycles the same 3 or 4 articles over and over. I'm sure Hydlide and Rygar are next, because you've only ever "written" about four articles. You think that when you spam that people don't notice you're the same dude?

Please get the hell off of this forum.

Examples:


Here's an example (http://nintendoage.com/auth/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=112778) of one of his thinly veiled spam posts on another forum from two years ago.

Here's a cached version (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:J0ycHdVJp0wJ:bslythegamerguy.tumblr .com/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) of his deleted BSlytheGamerGuy blog with the Mario Bros. review that he recycled from last year for his new stupid pirate blog.

Here's the same review (http://theretrovideogameaddict.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-retro-video-game-addict-reviews_10.html) from his original blog, dated July 2013.

Here he is (http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=107069) in his original persona spamming NA with what is almost exactly the same article, minus the pirate language.

In January 2014, he tried to spam NintendoLife (http://www.nintendolife.com/forums/retro/super_mario_for_the_nes_memories_legacy_and_more) with the same god damn article, but the mods removed the links and told him to self-promote in his signature.

Here is his most recent AtariAge spam (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/238775-giving-a-slute-to-the-original-super-mario-bros-for-the-nes/) for the same post which has existed for two years in various spammy forms. In that thread, he is "Retrogamer81081" who replies a bunch and suggests that Bill start doing YouTube reviews. I know this because "GenericGamer81" was Bill's generic Twitter account that he uses to retweet almost all of his posts. This account may have either been deleted recently after he was called out for it or deleted as a spam account. I know this for a fact, because literally the only thing it posted were retweets of Bill's tweets. Additionally, he used like "Manga4Life" or something as another spam account.

Can we please ban this idiot in all of his forms? He offers nothing.

[CastlevaniaDude]

Don't forget to copy your reply over to Nintendo Age where you're also advertising your blog.

This dude has spammed this forum under at least two personas. All he does is make a blog, watch it fail, spam it on Twitter, here, NintendoAge and AtariAge, create alt accounts to promote it, create alt Twitter accounts to retweet himself, eventually get banned or ignored, and then blows it up, creates a new blog, rebrands his Twitter, and copies and pasts his old reviews (he only has a handful) with minimal changes. In this instance, he's changed them to a pirate gimmick.

His old username here was RetroVideoGameAddict. Then he was BSlytheGamerGuy. He deletes all comments critical of him and writes fake comments on his blog, which is pathetic.

I called him out the other day for reposting, and he finally did go back and delete some of his old blogs that he spammed under different names.

Here's an example (http://nintendoage.com/auth/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=112778) of one of his thinly veiled spam posts on another forum from two years ago.

Here's a cached version (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:J0ycHdVJp0wJ:bslythegamerguy.tumblr .com/+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) of his deleted BSlytheGamerGuy blog with the Mario Bros. review that he recycled from last year for his new stupid pirate blog.

Here's the same review (http://theretrovideogameaddict.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-retro-video-game-addict-reviews_10.html) from his original blog, dated July 2013.

He should be banned.

[PizzaKat]

Am I one of very few people who got this game on its own and not with the Duck Hunt game? My sister and her husband had it but I never had duck hunt growing up.

[CastlevaniaDude]

Update: The delusional spammer has now dumped his pirate gimmick and moved his old twitter (https://twitter.com/CapnNostalgia) to the @Stylinggamer (https://twitter.com/stylinggamer) username, which is now a spam account for what will undoubtedly become his newest incarnation of his shitty blog, @EvilRetroAddict. (https://twitter.com/EvilRetroAddict)

Give it up, Bill. You're not even clever enough to hide your tracks, let alone the fact that you are a spammer who recycles 2 year old content over and over. You will never be a successful blogger.

Update 2: He has now deleted those names. Why even bother? I'm quite sure in 5 minutes I'll be back with another update with the NEW NEW NEW NEW NEW names.

Update 3: Now, he's @TheEvilRetroGuy (https://twitter.com/TheEvilRetroGuy) backed by spam accounts @MntDewGuzler (https://twitter.com/MntDewGuzleR), and @Gama4life123 (https://twitter.com/Gama4life123). This delusional wannabe never quits! And he is in no way, shape, or form even clever enough to cover his tracks. Come on, man. I won't end my crusade until he stops spamming or gets banned.

Update 4: Only MntDewGuzler is left, and he has taken to retweeting weird pics of sexed up cartoon teenagers and vampire chicks. Dude is disturbed.