MARIO REVIEWED: Super Mario Bros. (NES)

In this series of posts that I'm doing because I literally cannot contain my excitement for Super Mario Galaxy 2, I'll be looking back at the games in the Mario franchise. I'm primarily going to be concentrating on games in the main series, but there might be a couple of detours along the way, too.

This is it. This is a defining moment in videogaming. Super Mario Bros. literally single-handedly saved the industry – after the great videogame crash of 1983, people were understandably wary of the quality and, indeed, the importance of videogaming. Without Super Mario Bros., my current passion wouldn't exist, or would at least be much diminished and not at all like what we have now.

Super Mario Bros. is a bona fide masterpiece, and an epochal signifier like no other. There are few moments in videogaming where you can describe the landscape in "before and after" terms. You can do it with 3D graphics ("there was before 3D graphics, and after 3D graphics"), with online play, with the advent of all sorts of technological innovations. Yet, very rarely are these defining moments described in terms of games.

In terms of pure videogaming, gameplay-based experiences, SMB still (still!) ranks as one of the finest. This is a straightforward, run from left to right, jumping platformer that holds up even today. The thing that struck me, playing it for the first time in quite awhile, is how much goddamn fun the game is. There are so many little touches that, putting yourself in the mindset of someone from 1985, completely blow my mind. This is a charmingly detailed game – the little touches like the way you can bop from the head of one enemy to another; the timing and precision needed to traverse the flying fish level; the really subtle things we take for granted like being able to defeat an enemy by hitting your head against the block that's right under their feet. This game could have taken the easy route, but instead chose the awesome route.

One thing that's been interesting to chart is Mario's progress in terms of player control. The Mario series absolutely has the best control in gaming, and it's no wonder – a recent Iwata Asks feature on Nintendo's website revealed that Shigeru Miyamoto and team generally spend about a year per game just on player control, and it shows. Super Mario Bros. just feels right. I marveled at the tightness of the controls especially during that aforementioned flying fish level. That level requires that you run at full speed, and the light presses of the buttons that have you hopping from platform to platform are both challenging and completely sublime. This was a level I always hated as a kid, but I can't imagine the game without it (watch from minute 3:00).

Still, Mario's more of a tank here than he has been in any other game (save for Mario Bros.). In terms of running and jumping, well, that's about all he can do. There's no ground pounds, no slides down inclines (no inclines either, for that matter), no Tanooki suits. Mario still hadn't gotten really athletic, but it's still an absolute blast to control him.

Mario's so taken for granted these days, but the game world he inhabits is so completely surreal, it's incredible that something so weird became so popular. Really, none of this makes any sense. And yet, playing this right after playing Mario Bros., I can see a bit of a narrative thread continuing through the series – Mario and Luigi as New York plumbers in the first game, stopping the tide of creatures that are infesting their sewers, but then inadvertently being sucked in those same pipes, and ending up in the homeworld of the beasts they just finished fighting. Of course, none of this is spelled out for you, and the focus has always been on the gameplay; let's face it, you don't play a Mario game for the story.

And perhaps the biggest element of Mario's enduring popularity, and I personally believe the key to his pop culture stardom, is that fucking amazing theme song from Koji Kondo. Admit it, you're humming it in your head right now. It, too, is hella weird when you think about it. It's a super busy melody and pretty unusual in terms of Western (or Japanese) music conventions. Kondo says that that theme is based on Latin music, and I can imagine it in that context for sure. Utilizing that weird syncopation to more or less match up to the pace of the running and jumping is so brilliant and subtle that most people won't realize it consciously, but it definitely plays into the feeling of the game. I don't know about you, but I instantly feel happier when I hear that song, or any of the other equally brilliant pieces of music in this game. While I'd argue that Super Mario Galaxy has the superior soundtrack, this is definitely the most memorable one in videogaming.

It's so easy to take Super Mario Bros. for granted. It's a great game on its own merits – one of the best ever, I'd say. This game may have been bettered by later games in the series, but its difficult to underplay its importance. This is a game that's been burned into my brain, and more importantly, my hands. Every subtle rhythm in the platforming, every hidden secret, every warp tube, every 1Up has become a part of me. That's not something I can say of many things, videogame or otherwise.