Mario Brothers (1983) - Why Don't People Like It as Much as "Super Mario Brothers"?

[tom]

Lots of popular single screen games on Android and iOS nowadays

[Gamevet]

The C64 version was officially released in 1986 by UK company Ocean

It's unfortunate that the better version wasn't officially released. The Ocean version is pretty mediocre.

[goldenband]

I've never liked this game, not sure why. Much as I prefer the expansive, goal-driven gameplay of SMB, there are plenty of single-screen games I do enjoy (Asteroids, Frogger, Robotron, Qix, etc.), so it's not that.

I guess I just don't particularly enjoy the gameplay itself, for whatever reason.

[davidbrit2]

MB - Was not arcade perfect, SMB's graphics were, levels changed but who notices that?

Actually, the FC/NES version of SMB came first, and the "Vs." arcade version came later, as a sort of advertisement for the home version, so I'm told. The arcade version basically runs on NES hardware (with a modified color palette), and the modified stages were intended to add some variety for those who had played the home version.

[treismac]

Lots of popular single screen games on Android and iOS nowadays

This is, of course, due to the limitations of touch screen gaming and how simplistic, casual gaming, which is all the rage on these platforms, lends itself to single screen games. Also, these new games are quite different in many ways from the single screen Golden Age of Arcade games.

[wiggyx]

This is, of course, due to the limitations of touch screen gaming and how simplistic, casual gaming, which is all the rage on these platforms, lends itself to single screen games. Also, these new games are quite different in many ways from the single screen Golden Age of Arcade games.

Yes, this. Couldn't have said it better myself

Also, I was speaking in the context of the era in which MB and SMB were released. Everything is so different now. Side scrolling platformers are beyond passé as well at this point.

I strongly feel that SMB took advantage of the hardware and was a superior game as a result. The variety alone is enough to make me come back to it over and over. MB plays like so many one-screen games; beat level, number level changes, same shtick.

[ColecoFan1981]

Having now realized there is no official early Atari 800XL port of Mario Bros., I'm wondering if those so-called "early Atari computer" or "Atari 800" versions of MB are those burned from the 5200 cartridge ROM?

~Ben

[Moo Cow]

...Did anyone else like being a dick and flipping the monsters back over right before your best friend jumped on them, or was that just me?

[ColecoFan1981]

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/115...rio-bros-2007/

The 2007 fan hack of Mario Bros. for the XL computers combines the best of both worlds in regards to both the Atari 5200 and XEGS ports. The title screen is a hack of the 7800/XEGS ports, with the NES version's music. But beware, this does not totally make it look like the unreleased 1984 XL computer port.

~Ben

[treismac]

This baby just popped up on my facebook feed:



I couldn't ever see paying $60 for it, though.

[Kiddo]

There will always be exceptions. But generally speaking, single screen games had become passé.

IIRC the Famicom version of Bomberman wasn't single-screen anyway. Later games did that to streamline the multiplayer gameplay modes.

Bubble Bobble, meanwhile, had screens change at a rapid-pace compared to older arcade titles.

[BlastProcessing402]

I've played the C-64 version quite a bit. It must have been leaked, or someone got their facts wrong about that Atarisoft version. I think the C-64 version was the best, until it came out for the NES.

This game may be the reason why Mario and Luigi were called plumbers.

It is. Previously Mario/Jumpman had been considered a carpenter (why he had those hammers in Donkey Kong). Then in Mario Bros. his brother Luigi the plumber called him to help with the monsters coming out the pipes, and suddenly Mario was a plumber too.

[granz]

I did enjoy Mario Bros., but like many arcade games at the time, the content was pretty static. The only challenge came from increasingly faster and more aggressive enemies spawning in later rounds. It can be hard for games like this to keep my attention long enough for me to play all the way through. (assuming the game doesn't loop indefinitely)

SMB is likely more popular because of all the dynamic, side-scrolling worlds. Not only did you have to know how to defeat each of your enemies, but you had to surmount all sorts of environmental obstacles as well.

[Jorpho]

I seem to recall early screenshots of the Mario Brothers variant included with Super Mario Advance, in which multiple players were simultaneously fighting against Bowser. I was really intrigued that it looked like they were going to update the formula, but I guess it was not to be.

[offthechartsvideogames]

I can get down with some MB. Smashing turtles all day. When you think about it, the plot makes a little more sense. Turtles are clogging the pipes and Mario is a plumber. It's a little more realistic than some plumber saving the world and spitting fire.

[sloan]

I can get down with some MB. Smashing turtles all day. When you think about it, the plot makes a little more sense. Turtles are clogging the pipes and Mario is a plumber. It's a little more realistic than some plumber saving the world and spitting fire.

I did always wonder what illicit drugs the game programmers were on. Turtles coming out of pipes and plumbers spitting fire balls? Japanese have strange imaginations.

[ColecoFan1981]

I am wondering whether or not Yukio Kaneoka and Koji Kondo had ever admitted to using the Petula Clark tune for the title screen music?

Meaning, did they ever actually listen to "Downtown" before composing the music to this game? I wonder if the two ever had a copy of that song on a 45 or cassette, and sped it up for the game?

~Ben

[MetalFRO]

If this has been mentioned, I apologize, but I think the simplest answer is that Mario Bros. was continuing a trend of single-screen games, and Super Mario Bros. essentially blazed a trail for scrolling platform games. Had there been others previously? A few, but not to the degree that single-screen games had been in arcades and on home computers/consoles. Something early like Pitfall may have paved the way for the platformer formula that SMB employed, but it was really the first major release that took the scrolling aspect and made it a key element of the whole package. That, and the clever level design really helped it to stand on its own. Ultimately, comparing the 2 games is like comparing apples and watermelon, as they're from 2 different schools of design, so "better" is totally subjective. I do think Super Mario Bros. is the superior game, if only because there's much more to it and it's so well executed and original in its design and presentation that it eclipses the vision of the original by a wide margin. Much the same way that SMB3 eclipses SMB in terms of size, scope, presentation, and overall execution.