A game about jumping, in eight parts. In all reality, the game is probably best described as a rhythm of movement and reaction, and in many ways is a pure game. A knowable goal, a solvable game, yet with a difficult and satisfying physical exertion. Jumping in Super Mario Bros. might best be described as smoothly flowing poetry, each move and rebound cascades into a new line, a new point, a brief exhale, a rejoin. Super Mario Bros. is not without faults however, there is a strangeness to the initial feeling, perhaps a simple frustration with feeling the groove on proper point.
The reactions in the game do not feel stiff so much as wanting for redaction. There are often times where a jump feels misplaced, and an untimely death can quickly drop the experience, removing the flow from the series of interactions that joined before the misstep. Mario at this point becomes a challenge rather than movements that flow smoothly forth from a feeling of time and relational point mapping done autonomously in our brain. The dropping of a smooth series of interactions then is jarring because of the seeming reset, but the fact that the resets are themselves drops becomes a certain type of challenge unto itself.
Memorization is a natural occurrence as a result of each missed opportunity. The experience of each space becoming second-hand is satisfying in a certain way, but the frustration of the jarring reset means that reset points then become a necessary consideration of how you interact with the space. There are certain satisfactions to memorization, anticipation of a certain sort, but that level of knowing also means that there is a lack of discovery available, that the movement becomes rote and boring, waiting for a new moment to find a new flow, as the space of trouble is eventually passed.
Such smooth interaction is how Super Mario Bros. often feels, where levels are made for smoothly gliding through, rather than a forced passing. Each interaction can serve to further the flow of interactions, and there are moments where such seamless passing is utterly engrossing. In these moments, the levels themselves seem to fade away, with motion and coordination becoming prescient in one’s mind.
Super Mario Bros. is perhaps a game close to a jumping that feels both otherworldly and oddly natural. There is something so regular about its irregularity that as play time increases, there is almost an expectation that jumping never could have been anything else. At the same time, the jarring experience of finding oneself reset is problematic and has since been done in a smoother manner. Despite being problematic, it has also become a standard of the platforming experience in no small part due to this game’s influence.
Recommended: Yes