Super Mario Bros. Video Game

Super Mario Bros. (full name: Super Mario Brothers; abbreviated: SMB) is a side-scrolling platform game for the NES, developed and published by the Japanese company Nintendo in 1985. The player was commissioned by the computer game character Mario, already known from precursor Mario. Brittle., successfully passing through various obstacles and opponents, collecting points at the end and saving Princess Peach from the fictional kingdom. To achieve that, there had to be 32 levels in total successfully completed.

In Japan, where the NES console had been sold as a Family Computer for two years, Super Mario Bros appeared on September 13, 1985 and in Europe on May 15, 1987. Shigeru Miyamoto was responsible for the game, which, when it appeared to be the most comprehensive game belonged to his time because of the number and duration of the levels. The game principle from Mario Bros., an arcade game, was expanded by new elements. Super Mario Bros. With more than 40 million copies sold, of which 6.8 million in Japan, is one of the best-selling games of all time. One of the reasons for this is that it was sold as a bundle with the Nintendo Entertainment System. The appearance of this game ended theeconomic stagnation following the video game crash in 1983, when the American computer game industry collapsed and many companies had to close their doors.

The game became a milestone in computer game history. Moreover, a game series emerged, which still exists today.

Development

Nintendo published the Famicom in Japan in 1983, after which games were released. When the console also appeared in America, then president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, wanted to develop a new game to make the console better known. For this assignment he chose Shigeru Miyamoto, who was already responsible for the successful games Donkey Kong or Donkey Kong Jr., as leader of the newly established development department Research & Development.

Six people participated in the development of the game: Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, composer Koji Kondo and the three programmers Kazuaki Morita, Toshihiko Nakago and Yasunari Nishida, who now work for Nintendo and also worked on other Mario games.

Miyamoto was inspired by all sorts of stories in the development of the game. Warp zones - hidden pipes that allow the player to skip entire levels - have been borrowed from Star Trek. It is often claimed, including by Chris Kohler, that the idea of the mushrooms, which make the game figure bigger and stronger, comes from the novel Alice in Wonderland, but that is not the case. Miyamoto explains the mistake by saying in an interview about Alice in Wonderland that his statements were misinterpreted. In fact, he came up with the mushrooms, because "there has always been a relationship between mushrooms and magical worlds."

The development started with a black rectangle as placeholder. At this time it was still unknown what the game character should look like or what it should be called. Tezuka learned that the Mario Bros. game was sold well and therefore proposed to take over the main character Mario in the current project. The original idea was a dynamic game with a giant figure that could be controlled by land, sea and air.

Shortly thereafter, a background with a blue sky and white clouds was designed. At the time, the background of video games was mostly black, to which Miyamoto stated that "it was less stressful for the eyes of the player." After Tezuka and Miyamoto had drawn the levels on graph paper, each level element had to be programmed manually. After every working day, all data was put on a game cartridge by the team and tested. Afterwards, the levels were constantly changed to make the level easier for the starting player. This happened four times at the first level, which was only completed at the end.

Game principle

Super Mario Bros. is a two-dimensional platform game in which the player sees the protagonist from the side. The character must be maneuvered from left to right to the end while avoiding many obstacles. The so-called scrolling technique is used for this, which was used for the first time in the game Defender from 1980.

The obstacles include platforms, abysses, blocks, pipes and antagonists. The character can jump over the platforms, although it can also stand on it. The aim is for the character to jump over the abysses into the soil so that he does not fall into it. The blocks that can be destroyed by Super Mario float in the air and hide items (see Items and opponents heading). Sometimes green pipes come up that mainly serve as a platform. Piranha Plants come from some pipes, others are accessible for the character and lead to another part of the level.

If Mario is touched by an antagonist, he loses one of his three attempts. Super or Fire Mario can be touched by an antagonist without losing an attempt, he then becomes the normal Mario again.

Levels

The game consists of eight worlds of four levels each. The level of difficulty increases with every level. In the game there are six different themes, which distinguish themselves in optics and the game itself: upper world, underground, underwater, night (in which the background and elements are obscured) and winter (in which some elements are colored in grayish colors). The fourth and final level of every world has a castle theme and consists mainly of lava, which kills protagonists when they touch it. Three levels in the game (the castle levels in world 4, 7 and 8) have a so-called walk trough. A certain route must be walked in this to reach further in the level. If the route deviates, the level will constantly repeat. A sound is heard on the SNES as soon as the player walks the route in the right place.

Melodies

The game has five background melodies: upper world, underground, underwater, castle and when grabbing a star. Especially the upper world melody is loved. There are also a number of short melodies: one, after completing a level, and another, when the player is beaten, the time is nearly over and during the credits. The music was composed by Koji Kondo. Miyamoto had not told Kondo himself how he imagined background music. In the beginning Kondo saw a prototype of the game, in which only Mario, who ran and jumped in a large, black area, could be seen. In addition, Kondo composed on a small piano melody. During the development of the game, Kondo noticed that the melody did not fit anymore. Kondo adjusted the melody a little, which also increased the tempo of the game. He started working on the underwater melody.

Technically speaking, the acoustic background music consists of three channels: a bass channel, a drum channel and a melody channel. When a sound effect that is not part of the background melody is played, the melody channel is used for this. This technique was widely used with games from this time.