Reviews
Game:
Super Mario Bros.
System: NES
Release Date: Winter 1985
Price: $44.95 (then)
You know, maybe the 80's
were just a simpler time. We didn't really have a lot of WOW factor back
then. Movie magic was made possible only by camera tricks and imagination,
there was no blue screen technology. Pac-Man was mystifying. Just watching
that sucker go off one side of the screen and reappear on the other was
enough to make people wonder how it was done (if they hadn't seen it 30
times already). The most graphic intensive game at the time (that I can
remember) was Double Dragon, and it'd be a long, long time before we'd ever
have something like that in the home, we knew.
So
I guess when Nintendo silently released the NES back in 1985, they secretly
knew we'd love it, despite the worries about the US console market (Atari
had just one year earlier crashed and burned). I still remember the first
time I saw the game. It was in a local Wal-Mart which had just opened barely
a year ago. I was walking with my mom when I saw this
guy...."playing" something. I thought it was an arcade machine at
first, but it was in the middle of the store, and the arcade machines were
out front. Well, I got closer and realized it wasn't an arcade machine, it
was better. It not only had arcade quality graphics; you could change the
games on it. I stood there for an hour waiting to play it, and when I
finally did, I died within five seconds. The first Goomba on 1-1 bit me.
Well I didn't let that
deter me, and after about an hour, I'd gotten to the underground. The game
was huge at the time. That first level was "Massive". Some time
went by and Christmas arrived. Man, did I beg for all I was worth for a
brand-new NES. I still remember the box. Shiny and black with
holographic-like images all over it. And it was BIG. Like, the size of a Hot
Wheels race track box. ROB the robot looked at you from the front, and the
words "Now You're Playing With Power" beamed bright. Inside,
sandwiched in Styrofoam, sat my NES, wrapped in plastic. The controllers
packaged the same way every new Nintendo comes, the cords fastened with
metal ties, control pads in plastic baggies.
Well, Santa brought me
that, which came packaged with Super Mario Bros. (Yes, systems came with
games back then), and I'd also gotten Mario Bros., the original before there
ever was a "Super". It was a very happy Christmas indeed, that
year. Time came to pass. The value of Super Mario Bros. became worthless. I
traded off my system, most of the games. It wasn't until several years later
that I actually realized how dumb I'd been, as I tried to track down all of
what I so willingly gave away so many years ago.
-NulShock
(In light of everyone
on the planet having played Super Mario Bros in some form, I chose to merely
reminisce, instead of write a review.)
