I remember the first time I ever played the original Mario Bros. arcade game. I had grown up only knowing the likes of Super Mario Bros, Super Mario World, and Super Mario 64. Needless to say I had come to expect a certain formula: collect power ups, defeat Bowser, and save Princess Peach.
So when I played the original game, I remember playing for quite awhile and finding myself saying, “when the heck am I going to get to Bowsers castle?” Although I never got there I didn’t understand that that wasn’t the point of the original Mario Bros.
To start the year off, let’s talk about one of gaming’s biggest and most recognizable mascots. The mustachioed plumber himself, and his green lookalike brother, Mario and Luigi, the Mario Brothers. As most people know, Mario got his start appearing in another arcade classic, Donkey Kong. But in 1983 Nintendo developed and released Mario Bros, a similar platform jumper like Donkey Kong, but this time changing jumpman’s name to Mario, and introducing his brother Luigi.
Industry legends Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi worked to produce a follow up to the success of Donkey Kong. Yokoi suggested that instead of having Mario take damage from falling from high places like in Donkey Kong, he should be able to fall from any height.
Miyamoto was unsure but tried the idea anyway and decided it would not only work, but that it was a blast to play. Miyamoto later went on to release many more Mario games, as well as create some of the most recognizable franchises in gaming such as The Legend of Zelda series. Yokoi would also continue to succeed and was most famous for being the creator of the Nintendo Gameboy.
The game centers around Mario and Luigi clearing the New York sewers of turtles, crustaceans, and flies while dodging fireballs and collecting coins. Anyone who has played the game will tell of it’s addictive gameplay and competitive 2 player mode. The world record for Mario Bros. was set in 2015 by Steve Kleisath who reached 5,424,920 points.
Take a chance to revisit the place where the Mario brothers first began by coming in to Flynn’s Retrocade today. Play an hour for only $7 or play all day for $12!
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