Mario Bros. (series)

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This article is about the series of games based around the arcade Mario Bros. For the series based around Super Mario Bros., see Super Mario (series).
Mario Bros.
Mario Bros. North American logo
First installment Mario Bros. (1983)
Latest installment Mario Clash (1995)
Franchise Super Mario

The Mario Bros. series[1] is a video game series in the Super Mario franchise, deriving from the original 1983 arcade game of the same name.

List of games[edit]

Title
Cover, original release, and system Synopsis
Mario Bros.
Arcade flyer for Mario Bros.
Japan June 21, 1983[?]
Arcade machine
Mario Bros. is the second arcade game starring Mario as a protagonist, coming after Donkey Kong. The game's main attraction was featuring cooperative two-player functionality with Mario's recently introduced brother, Luigi. The two are in a sewer, battling various enemies leaking from the plumbing, hitting the floors underneath them to stun them before kicking them away. Many aspects from this game recur in later games of the Super Mario franchise, notably coins, pipes, POW Blocks, and enemy turtles. The game has been ported innumerable times to various systems.
Mario Bros. Special
The box art for Mario Bros. Special
Japan August 1984[?]
Home computer
Mario Bros. Special is a Japan-only computer game developed by Hudson Soft. It has altered gameplay with stages where Mario or Luigi must complete specific tasks, such as pressing switches or collecting $ symbols.
Punch Ball Mario Bros.
Punch Ball Mario Bros.'s Boxart.
Japan October 5, 1984[?]
Home computer
Punch Ball Mario Bros. is another Japanese computer-based sequel by Hudson Soft. It features stone "Punch Balls" that must be thrown at enemies to stun them.
Mario Clash
North American box art for Mario Clash
Japan September 28, 1995[?]
Virtual Boy
Mario Clash, unlike its predecessors, stars only Mario, but it otherwise keeps the same gameplay formula. It takes place in the Clash Tower, where Mario needs to defeat invading enemies in both the standard playing field and the background by using the Virtual Boy's depth and Koopa shells.

Remakes and compilations[edit]

Title
Cover, original release, and system Synopsis
Mario Bros. Returns
The title screen of Mario Bros. Returns
Japan November 30, 1988[?]
Family Computer Disk System
Mario Bros. Returns is a Japan-only game for the Family Computer Disk System, being mostly a more graphically accurate port of the original arcade game than the 1983 Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System port in the Arcade Classics Series. However, it also has new features, such as the ability to change direction mid-jump and a slot machine minigame.
Mario Bros. (Classic Serie)
German box for the 1993 Classic Serie edition of Mario Bros.
Germany April 13, 1993[2]
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Classic Series version of Mario Bros. is an NES port acting as an upgrade to the first NES poirt, using many of the graphical enhancements from Mario Bros. Returns. It was only released in Germany.
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Mario Bros.
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Mario Bros. upright cabinet
USA 2004[?]
Arcade machine
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior, Mario Bros. is an arcade system, only found in America, in which players could choose which of the three games they wanted to play.

Related games[edit]

Title
Cover, original release, and system Synopsis
Mario Bros. (Game & Watch)
Mario Bros. (Game & Watch)
March 14, 1983
Game & Watch
The Game & Watch game Mario Bros. was released before the arcade game (and, as such, is technically the first appearance of Luigi), though it also started development later. Gameplay-wise, the games have nothing in common, with the Game & Watch game featuring Mario and Luigi working in a bottling plant, with one of the brothers appearing on each of its two screens. It was ported to both Game & Watch Gallery 3 and Game & Watch Gallery 4, where the modern versions change the setting to a cake factory.
Mario Bros. (Super Mario Bros. 3)
Mario and Luigi in Battle Mode, with a blue Spiny
Japan October 23, 1988[?]
Family Computer/Nintendo Entertainment System
Mario Bros., or Classic Mario Bros., is an altered version of the original found in Super Mario Bros. 3 in 2-player mode, when one player engages with the other on the world map, with the winner getting to move next. It is the first rendition to replace Shellcreepers with Spinies, as well as the first to have Fighter Flies change color after flipping like the other target enemies, though each target enemy only has two colorations rather than three. Every five stages, there is a minigame. By attacking each other, players can steal cards collected in the main game from each other.
Battle Game (Super Mario All-Stars)
Battle Game from Super Mario All-Stars
Japan July 14, 1993[3]
Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Battle Game coexists with the above remake in the Super Mario All-Stars rendition of Super Mario Bros. 3, and is instead accessed from the Super Mario Bros. 3 title screen. It features Small and Super forms and Koopas which can be stomped and kicked in their shells alongside the standard enemies from the previous remake. Additionally, Boos replace Fireballs, and new items are added: the Super Mushroom acting like it does in other games, and the ? Kinoko to swap the players' positions.
Mario's Time Machine (Nintendo Entertainment System)
Box art of Mario's Time Machine (NES)
USA June 1994[4]
Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES version of Mario's Time Machine features Mario Bros.-style gameplay in the room with the Timulator, where a group of Koopas must be defeated in the original game's manner before each historical artifact can be collected and the Timulator used to travel to the proper time period.
Mario Bros. (Game Boy Advance)
The title screen of Mario Bros. on the Game Boy Advance.
Japan March 21, 2001[?]
Game Boy Advance
Another version of Mario Bros., found in every Super Mario Advance game as well as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, builds on the Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario All-Stars versions further, having both a normal mode and a battle mode. It can have up to four players (with the third and fourth dressed in yellow and blue, both with off-white overalls) and features some other new elements, such as garbage cans and Bowser. It restores target enemies having three different colors, including adding a third one for Fighter Flies.
Luigi Bros.
Screenshot of the title screen of Luigi Bros., a port of Mario Bros.
Japan November 21, 2013[?]
Wii U
Luigi Bros. appears as an alternate mode in Super Mario 3D World and its remake, being an edited port of the first NES version. It replaces Mario with Luigi's modern colors, keeping the original Luigi the same.

See also[edit]

  • Wrecking Crew, a series using a similar layout of stacked platforms.
  • Hotel Mario, a game that also uses a similar layout.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Sidestepper and Freezie's spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  2. ^ Mario Bros (Classic Series) PAL NES. MobyGames (American English). Retrieved August 7, 2025.[better source needed]
  3. ^ スーパーマリオコレクション. Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japanese). Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  4. ^ Nintendo. Complete List of Games (PDF). Retrieved March 21, 2016. (Archived May 1, 2005, 15:00:12 UTC via Wayback Machine.)