Vimm's Lair: NES Reviews - Mario Bros.

Nintendo
Mario Bros.

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Overall:
8.97
8.98
8.95
8.97
Votes: 86
Reviews: 3


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Reviewer: Seth Koopa Date: Jan 5, 2006
This old arcade timer spawned the subject of Mario's personality that's been done to death ever since - him as a plumber. In this game, Mario and his brother Luigi are down in the sewers and must destroy lots of little monsters that crawl out of the pipes, from turtles (that are most definitely the inspiration for the Koopa troopas later on) to crabs to flies.

Graphics: 6
This was one of the Nintendo's earliest games and the graphics don't really need to be that spectacular. You can tell what every monster is, every pipe and such.

Sound: 6
The sound does its job. You are sure to have heard the tune when you start a game at some point before. The effects make me laugh just thinking about them - they're just so violently musical-sounding. Overall, fair.

Gameplay: 7
You won't believe it until you play it, but boy is this addictive! The same concept is repeated over and over - you must destroy certain monsters coming from two pipes at the top of the screen before they escape through the lower pipes. To do this, you must stun them by jumping under them (NO jumpihg ON them here!) and then taking them out. After a few levels, you get a bonus level where you must collect a set of coins under the time limit. The game gets tougher and tougher, because the number of enemies in a level increases, plus these cursed little fireballs appear very frequently. If you feel that things are slipping beyond your control, there is a power block you can activate to knock down every enemy on-screen. But bear in mind that you can only use this POW block once every few levels.

For its addictiveness, the gameplay earns an extra point in my book. The depth of the Super Mario bros. games is not present here, but it doesn't have to be, either, really.

Overall: 7
This is a classic game and much more entertaining than most games which fall under that category. Practically unbeatable (I'm still not sure if there is an ending or not), but you nonetheless keep coming back for more.

The first "Super Mario bros." game, released two years after this one, adopted the character of Mario as its main character. After all, he was Donkey Kong's nemesis, so why not Bowser's (no offence meant, Bowser)?

 

Reviewer: Atom Date: Apr 15, 2003
The the reviewer below and all who might read this. This is not actually the side scroller 'Super Mario Brothers' that came packaged with the NES. This was an arcade game in which there we two pipes at the top dumping monsters out, and you had to hit the floor beneath them to knock them on their backs. You then had to run into them to kill them. The logical thing to do, right?

This game is purely arcade. The only difference in levels is the difficulty of the enemy's, and the floors were occasionally different. Fun multi-player though.

(There was a version featured as a mini-game on Super Mario Brothers 3)

Graphics: 6
Really no that shabby considering the time period of release. But then again, it's not exactly bursting with versatility.

Sound: 4
Well..... it sure is sound. Not exactly an audio orgasm, but not bad enough to make you want to sharpen pencils in your ears.

Gameplay: 7
Repetition, maybe. Fun, YES! It was challenging as a one player game, but it's alot of fun as a 2 player. You work together with someone OR you can ruin them and take all the little points for yourself. It's fun, but it's not worth more than a 7 fun.

Overall: 7
Overall this gets a 7. Even though it's almost a blast, it's still just an arcade game. I'm pretty sure that it was originally on an arcade machine, and nintendo released it just to try to get a few more bucks out of the Mario fanatics. It was worth the money they were charging for it though.

Hey, if you liked mario, play this. Besides, it's always fun to go multiplayer and jump on luigi's head over and over and over. Or vis-a-versa for all you people who think the lesser man should get a shot in.

 

Reviewer: Dan Date: Oct 15, 2001
This is the standard by which all platformers are measured, and with good reason. It's accessable to everyone, from young kids who don't need to be overdosed on violence, to stoners who love the mushroom theme... umm, yeah... So let's get right to the goodies shall we?

Graphics.
Yes, that is only an 8 you see. It was early Nintendo, and for it's time the grachics were amazing, but they are still not perfect. The animation is limited, but it was like '88... that was all they could push out of that little box back then. The locations are distinct and very cool. The ones at night and in the outer castle of world 8 are particular favorites. The enemies are all well drawn and very cool. It still love the Hammer brothers and think that they looked their best in this game. The first time we saw Bowser we were all scared of him. Solid, but back then they could only do so much.

Sound.
From the squishing of a goomba, to the catchy theme, to the nifty sound it made when you get a shroom, the sounds are all dead on. They capture the mood and events so well I begin to wonder if the dev team actually came from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Gameplay.
Like i said, all platformers have to measure up to the standard set by this game. Who ever thought that just trying to get from one end of a map to the other could be so much fun. Of course their is all manner of enemy trying to stop you, and bottomless pits to avoid. Actually the only thing keeping from a perfecr ten is those castle mazes. I'm sorry, but those frustrated me to no end, running out of time just as I finally maade it through to Bowser was no fun at all. Everything else is stellar though.

Overall.
You just can't go wrong, if you haven't already played it, why are you waiting for? This is one of the best platforming games ever made. There really isn't much to say except that it's excellent, and you need to play it. Mmmm... shrooms...