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This blog will describe my journey that I will take through each of the Super Mario Brothers video games. I will play, and conquer, all of the games on each system. The only rules I set out for myself are I have to complete each game in the order in which they were released, and I cannot use warp zones. There are some Mario games that require you to collect stars to advance in the game, but I am not holding myself to collecting every star. The reasoning behind this is that I have a full time job, a girlfriend, a heroin type addiction to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, play on 2 hockey teams, a daily 2 hour commute back and forth to work, and I'm trying to catch up on Lost. I have to draw the line somewhere on this or it will never end.

Below is the list of games I will be playing. The list is in order of release date and includes what system it was released for. I also ranked the games on what I predict the level of difficulty it will be to complete the game. 1 is the easiest and 13 would be the hardest.

List of Mario Games
Super Mario Bros. (NES) 3
Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels (NES) 13
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES) 9
Super Mario Land (Gameboy) 2
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) 1
Super Mario World (SNES) 6
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Gameboy) 8
Super Mario 64 (N64) 7
Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube) 12
New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo DS) 4
Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii) 10
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo Wii) 5
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo Wii) 11

Now, you might say to yourself, this list isn't complete. He doesn't have Paper Mario or Super Smash Brothers on the list. Well, this is because those types of titles aren't true Mario titles. The game has to be a game in which Mario is the main player, or one of the main players, and his main goal is to defeat King Bowser or a similar type of boss. It can't be a role playing game either. It has to be somewhat true to the original Mario Brothers game.

You might also say, why are you even doing this? It's 2010, video games are much better today than they were in 1985. Well, ever since the release of the latest Mario game on the Wii, I have been reminded of the original series. At work, my coworkers and I would share our experiences playing Mario Brothers. So this gave me the idea that it would be cool to make my way through all the games and keep track of my journey on this blog. I am also curious to see if I can even beat all the games. I've beaten most of the games on the list, but there are some that I haven't even played. Also, the Lost Levels game was never released in America because Nintendo thought the American public would not be able to beat the game. So getting through that game will be very difficult.

I plan on posting to this blog after I get through a Mario Brothers game. I know some games will take longer to beat than others, so I will post updates on the Mario Brothers Project Twitter account (http://twitter.com/MarioBroProject). So now that the introduction post is up, I will now move onto the first game that started the whole Mario Brothers craze, Super Mario Brothers. Hopefully I am as good at this game as I once was. Either way, I can't wait to find out.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Super Mario Bros.

The original Super Mario Brother game is the video game that started it all. I love this game. Everyone loves this game. It doesn't matter if you are huge into video games or not, you have spent some time playing this game. It was interesting to play this game again. I can still remember where all the 1ups, stars, fire flowers and mushrooms are located. There was not one level that I didn't remember. I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing, but for the sake of this blog let’s just say it's a good thing.

I'm not going to go into great detail about what the game is like. I'm pretty sure if you are reading this blog you know exactly what goes on in this game. I will say that it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I honestly believed I would beat this game the first time I played it, but that's not how things played out. I made a ton of stupid mistakes where I just fell off a ledge, misjudged a jump, ran into an enemy. It basically was due to me not concentrating on the level and messing up. I think after getting frustrated by not beating the game the first few times it forced me to keep my concentration from level 1-1 to 8-4.

It wasn't just the lack of concentration that caused me to not complete the game the first few times, but also the controls were hard to get used to. There were times that I thought I would land the jump on a certain block, but fall to my death because of the controls. I know it sounds like I am making excuses for not beating the game, but it was a challenge to get used to old Nintendo controls when you are used to playing Playstation 3. Anyways, I made the necessary adjustments and was able to take down King Bowser. Below are some pics I took once I was able to defeat him.





It's kinda funny playing an old video game. There were a few crazy things about the game that kinda bugged me. First, the time on the levels went so fast, it was almost comical at how fast the time went. Also, the water levels are really hard if you don't have fireballs. The squids, fish and controls make it really hard to get through the level without swimming into an enemy. Another thing that is kinda weird is that there really is no introduction to the game. You just start the game without an introduction, and play these crazy levels where at the end of each world you find out that a princess isn't in it. I understand that this is 1985, and there probably was a story in the instruction manual, but it would be nice to see some explanation on screen. Finally, the boss levels that are "mazes" drive me crazy. How are you supposed to know that you have to follow a certain path to get past that point in the level? You can keep running in circles basically and have no idea on how to get out of it. Who came up with this crazy concept? How did people in 1985 figure this out? There was no internet or walkthrough guides to show you how to do it. Did this drive young gamers in the 80's crazy?

I realize that it isn't fair to criticize a game that is now 25 years old. Wow, that makes me feel real old typing that last sentence, but there still are some great qualities that this game posses. I love the songs and sounds from this game. It makes me feel like I am 8 years old again playing on my old 13 inch tv. I know I'm not the only one who fondly remembers this game. You can find a ton of people talking about this game or imitating it. Below are some of my favorite Super Mario Brothers links.

10 things you don't know about Super Mario Brothers



Now that I have beat the first game on the Mario Project list, I now get to move on to the Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels. This game is the sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. The only difference is that the levels are 10 times harder. This game will be the hardest game I play in the project. You might be asking how come you have never heard of this game before. Well, this game was never released in America because Nintendo thought it was too tough for Americans to play. That's right everyone, Japan is calling us out! Now, I have never even come close to beating this game, but it doesn't matter though. I am going to represent America and show everyone at Nintendo that Americans have the video game skills to beat whatever games they through at us! I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.
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