30 Years of Super Mario Bros.

To celebrate the 30^th birthday of Super Mario Bros. as well as the release of Super Mario Maker, I present a redrawn, modernized version of the artwork used for the Japanese and sometimes European box, depicting most characters, originally drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto himself seen here. www.mariowiki.com/images/f/fc/…

Super Mario Bros. is a video game released for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System on September 13^th 1985. It shifted the gameplay away from its single-screen arcade predecessor, Mario Bros., and instead featured side-scrolling platformer levels. While not the first game of the Mario series, Super Mario Bros. is the most iconic, and introduced various series staples, from power-ups, to classic enemies like Goombas, to the basic premise of rescuing Princess Toadstool from King Koopa. As well as kicking off an entire series of Super Mario platformer games

Story

 One day, a magical place known as the Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by the Koopa, a tribe of turtles capable of using powerful dark magic. Their magic was used to transform all the Mushroom People into inanimate objects such as rocks, bricks, and even horsetail plants, thus spelling the kingdom's downfall. Only the daughter of the Mushroom King, Princess Toadstool, can undo the spell and restore her people back to life, but she is being held captive by King Koopa himself. Mario hears of the princess's predicament, and sets out on a quest to topple the Turtle Tribe and save the once-peaceful kingdom.

Gameplay

The game is divided into eight worlds, each of them containing four levels. Mario (or, in the case of a second player, his brother Luigi) has to get to the end of the level by jumping over various gaps and avoiding the enemies on his way. Mario can use several platforms (some of them collapse when Mario lands on them), stairs in the level, as well as Jumping Boards. There are also pipes along the way, some of which Mario can enter to visit various secret coin rooms before returning to the level, a bit further ahead than when he left.

Enemies include Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Buzzy Beetles, Koopa Paratroopas, Bullet Bills, Hammer Brothers, and leaping Cheep Cheeps all of which can be defeated when Mario jumps on them. Koopa Troopas and Buzzy Beetles cower in their shell when jumped on, which Mario can kick to defeat other enemies with. Koopa Paratroopas lose their wings and fall to the ground when Mario jumps on them. Other enemies include Piranha Plants, and the Spiny-throwing Lakitus, and Mario has to either shoot fireballs at them or just avoid them. There are two levels which take place underwater. In the water, Mario can swim freely from the top to the bottom of the screen. The enemies in underwater levels are Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps. Mario can only defeat these creatures by shooting them with fireballs.

At the end of each level, a castle stands with a flagpole nearby. When Mario reaches the flagpole, he takes down the enemy flag and enters the castle, completing the level. The higher the spot that Mario hits the flagpole, the more points he receives. If there are two players playing the game, Luigi's turn comes whenever Mario loses a life. Luigi has no special abilities in the game that are different from Mario's.

The fourth level of each world plays inside a castle. They are usually filled with Bars and Podoboos. At the end of a castle level, Mario is confronted with a Bowser Impostor in Worlds 1 through 7 and the actual Bowser in World 8. Mario and Luigi ordinarily have no way to hurt the Bowser Impostors or the actual Bowser, and have to either use the axe to destroy the bridge, causing either the false or real one to fall into the lava, or pelt him with a number of fireballs, which produces the same result and reveals the true forms of the fakes.

After defeating an impostor, Mario frees one of the seven remaining Toads from the castle, at which point they say their iconic phrase: "Thank you, Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" At the end of the castle in World 8, Mario frees the grateful Princess Toadstool and completes his adventure, having the choice to continue playing in a "new quest."

Legacy

Since its initial release, Super Mario Bros. received critical acclaim and is considered one of the best games of all time. One of the most-praised aspects of the game is the precise controls, which allow players to control how far and high the characters jump and how fast they can run. The game popularized side-scrolling video games, and the game has since received several sequels and spin-offs, and many different ports and alternative versions. All characters, enemies, and items found throughout the game have returned for following Mario games and the plot of Bowser kidnapping the princess has returned throughout the series.

Not only did the game popularized the genre as a whole, helped revive the gaming industry after the 1983 video game crash, and was largely responsible for the initial success of the NES, with which it was bundled a launch title. Until it was eventually surpassed by Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. was the best selling video game of all time for nearly three decades, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide.

Super Mario Bros. © Nintendo

Original Art © Shigeru Miyamoto

Art © Me.