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Mario Bros.
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Promotional flyer for the 1983 Arcade version of Mario Bros. |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1[1] |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo[1] |
| Designer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto[1] |
| Series | Mario, Arcade series (NES)[2] |
| Platform(s) | Arcade[3] Various other platforms |
| Release date(s) | 1983[3] |
| Genre(s) | Platform game[1] |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
| Input methods | 2-way joystick, 2 buttons |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| CPU | Zilog Z80 @ 3.072 MHz I8039 @ 0.73 MHz |
| Sound | DAC, Samples |
| Display | Horizontal orientation, raster, 256x224 resolution |
Mario Bros. (マリオブラザーズ Mario Burazāzu) is an arcade game published and developed by Nintendo in 1983.[3] It was developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Mario franchise.[1] It is a follow-up to Donkey Kong, which starred Jumpman, who was a carpenter at the time.[4] He was eventually renamed to Mario.[5] To date, Mario Bros. has been re-released more than 20 times across more than a dozen platforms.[6] It has been commonly featured as a mini-game in the Super Mario Advance series[7] and other titles as well.[8] Mario Bros. has been re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console service in Japan, North America, and some PAL regions.[9]
In this game, Mario is portrayed as a plumber[10] who, along with his brother Luigi, have to defeat creatures that have been coming from the sewers below New York.[11] The gameplay focuses on Mario having to exterminate pests in the sewers by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away.[12]
The original versions of Mario Bros., the arcade version and the Nintendo Entertainment System version, received positive reception.[13] In Japan, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Mario Bros. had sold more than 1.63 million copies.[14]
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Mario Bros. features two plumbers,[10] Mario and Luigi, having to investigate the sewers of New York after strange creatures have been appearing down there.[11] The objective of the game is to defeat all of the enemies in each phase.[15][16] Both sides of every phase feature a mechanism that allows the player to go off-screen to the left and appear on the right, and vice versa.[16]
Like many other arcade games at the time, Mario Bros. features a scoring system. Points may be earned in a number of ways, be it by collecting coins or defeating enemies. The player may get points by defeating multiple enemies one after the other, and the player may participate in a bonus round that gives him or her an opportunity to gather more points.[17] Enemies are defeated by hitting them from below the platform they are on to flip them onto their back, and then to them and kick them, ultimately defeating them. If the player allows the enemy to get up, the enemy will be angry, and have increased speed.[12] Each phase has a certain number of enemies, with a more powerful enemy indicating the final enemy in that phase. Enemies come in variants - for example, Sidesteppers, a type of crab, are usually red, but when they recover from being flipped or if they're the final enemy, they will turn blue and become faster than before. Each enemy has their own mechanics - the Shellcreeper, a type of turtle, can be made vulnerable by hitting them from below once, the Fighter Fly, a type of fly, jumps into the air every once in a while and must be hit from below when they are not in the air, and the Sidesteppers must be hit twice from below in that fashion to become vulnerable.[18] Another enemy is called a Freezie, which has the ability to melt down and freeze the platform it is on, making it more difficult for the player to control Mario or Luigi.[16]
Because of Mario's appearance in Donkey Kong, with overalls, a hat, and a thick moustache, Shigeru Miyamoto thought that he should be a plumber as opposed to a carpenter, and designed this game to reflect that.[19] Another contributing factor was the game's setting - it was a large network of giant pipes, so they felt a change in occupation was necessary.[11] A popular story of how Jumpman's name became Mario is that Nintendo's landlord, Mario Segale, had barged in on them to demand rent, and they decided to name Jumpman after him.[5] Miyamoto also felt that the best setting for this game was New York because of its "labyrinthine subterranean network of sewage pipes."[11] It is one of the first platform games ever created along with Donkey Kong.[19] Mario's brother, Luigi, was created for the multi-player mode by doing a palette swap of Mario.[19] Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to make Mario Bros. a two-player experience after viewing the simultaneous two-player mode of Joust.[20] The first movement from Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik is used to open each phase.[21] This song has been used in later video games, including Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix[21] and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.[22]
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Mario Bros. was only modestly successful in the arcades in Japan.[19] The arcade cabinets have since become mildly rare.[26] To date in Japan, the NES version of Mario Bros. has sold more than 1.63 million copies, and the Famicom Mini version has sold more than 90,000 copies.[14][27] Despite being released during the North American video game crash of 1983, the arcade game, as well as the industry, were not affected. Video game author Dave Ellis considers it one of the more memorable classic games.[13]
Opinion on the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Mario Bros. has been mostly mixed. In a review of the Virtual Console game, GameSpot criticized the NES version for being a poor port of the arcade version.[23] The Virtual Console version in particular was heavily criticized. GameSpot criticized it, saying that not only is it a port of an inferior version, but it retains all of the technical flaws found in this version. It also criticizes the Mario Bros. ports in general, saying that this is just one of many ports that have been made of it throughout Nintendo's history.[23] IGN complimented the Virtual Console version's gameplay, though it made no comparison between the arcade and NES versions.[24] IGN also agreed on the issue of the number of ports. They said that since most people have Mario Bros. on one of the Super Mario Advance games, this version is not worth 500 Wii Points.[24] The e-Reader version of Mario Bros. was slightly more well-received by IGN, who praised the gameplay, but criticized it for lack of multiplayer and for not being worth the purchase because of the Super Mario Advance versions.[25]
The Super Mario Advance releases all featured the same version of Mario Bros., as well as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The mode was first included in Super Mario Advance, and was praised for its simplicity and entertainment value.[28] IGN called this mode fun in its review of Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2, but complained that it would have been nice if the developers had come up with a new game to replace it.[29] Their review of Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 criticizes it more so than in the review of Super Mario Advance 2, because Nintendo chose to remove several mini-games found in the Super NES version of that game and replace them with an identical version of the Mario Bros. game found in previous versions.[30] GameSpot's review of Super Mario Bros. 3: Super Mario Advance 4 calls it a throwaway feature that could have simply been gutted.[31] Other reviewers were not as negative on the feature's use in later Super Mario Advance games. Despite its use being criticized in most Super Mario Advance titles, a GameSpy review called the version found in Super Mario Advance 2 a blast to play in multi-player because it only requires at least two Game Boy Advances, one copy of the game, and a link cable.[32]
Mario Bros. has been re-released many times by itself and as a sub-game in other games. It was also re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in North America, Australia, Europe, and Japan.[9] It is also remade on copies of games in the Game Boy Advance's Super Mario Advance games[31] as well as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga,[8] and it was included as a mini-game in Super Mario Bros. 3.[33] The NES version was included as a piece of furniture in Animal Crossing for the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube, along with many other NES games, though this one required the use of an e-Reader, a Game Boy Advance accessory, and an Animal Crossing e-Card.[34] This version was released in the second series of NES e-Cards as well,[35], and was also released in the Famicom Mini series, the Japanese variant of the Classic NES Series of games. It never came outside of Japan.[36] A remake was made called Mario Bros. Classic (known as Kaettekita Mario Bros. (かえってきたマリオブラザーズ Return of Mario Bros. or Mario Bros. Returns?) in Japan) featuring similar gameplay with added features and new revisions to the gameplay. It also featured cut-scenes and advertisements.[37]
Hudson Soft made two games based on Mario Bros.. The first was Mario Bros. Special, which was a re-imagining of the original Mario Bros. with new phases, mechanics, and gameplay. The second was Punch Ball Mario Bros., which featured a new gameplay mechanic involving punching small balls to stun enemies.[38] Both games have been described as being average for the most part, neither one of the best or one of the worst games in the series.[38]
Mario Clash is a sequel to Mario Bros. released for the Virtual Boy game produced by Nintendo in 1995.[39] It is the first 3D Mario title, and is heavily based on Mario Bros. The objective of the game is to knock all the enemies in a particular phase off ledges. Instead of hitting them from below like in this game, the player must hit enemies using Koopa shells.[40]
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