Mario Bros. (game)

Mario Bros. is an arcade game made by Nintendo and released in July 14, 1983. It was also released on the NES, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Atari 7800 as well as a large multitude of home computer systems. The game introduces the first appearance of Luigi in a game, and is the first installment in the Mario Bros. series. It was also released for the Virtual Console on the Wii for 500 Wii Points.

A port of Mario Bros. also appears on the Game & Watch, but without color, two screens and very different from the arcade original. The NES port is radically different from the Arcade original, despite the NES being roughly as powerful as the original arcade hardware. Almost all ports omit the tutorial present in the arcade version. Mario Bros. is also included as a separate minigame, playing like the original game with updated graphics in the Two-player mode of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES, and for the RPG game Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and all 4 games on the Super Mario Advance series on the Game Boy Advance. For these Game Boy Advance remake games, there is also an added two to four-player battle mode, meaning that other players can join the player's game through the use of a Game Boy Advance link cable. Also, in every remake for the Game Boy Advance, the Shellcreepers are replaced by Spinies. Mario Bros. is also ported to the e-Reader under the name, Mario Bros.-e. And in 1995 a sequel called Mario Clash was released on the short-lived Virtual Boy.

Story
The story of this game revolves around two plumbers, Mario and Luigi, who are working in the sewers. . The sewers are overrun by waves of enemies and the Mario Bros. have to defeat the enemies and get coins to receive their pay.

Gameplay
The game features a simple stage in which the player plays in an endless game. Enemies come from the pipes on the top and head downwards, where they may enter the pipes again to return to the top. The goal in each Phase is to defeat all enemies. This is done by jumping against the floor when enemies are walking on from below to knock them out, and then the player has to kick them away. The player could also use the POW Block to flip enemies, however it could be used only three times. When all enemies are defeated, the player gets to the next phase. In later levels, different types of enemies and harming fireballs appear. From time to time, there is a bonus level where the player has to collect all coins in order to get an extra 3000-5000 points. The POW Block regenerates after the second bonus level and every subsequent bonus level.

Playable

 * Mario
 * Luigi

Enemies
Target enemies must be defeated to clear the phase while other enemies should be defeated by the player's discretion. Each phase consists of one or two types of targets with a maximum of six targets. Shellcreepers and Sidesteppers appear together only in Phase 5 (6 in Japan). The last target enemy will always move at its fastest pace unless said enemy is a Fighter Fly.

Target enemies

 * Shellcreeper - The first enemies in the game, a possible relation to Koopas. They are replaced by Spinies in the Super Mario Advance games, but reappear in the Virtual Console version.
 * Sidestepper - Crab creatures that are harder to defeat and have appeared in various games. They first appear in Phase 4 (5 in Japan).
 * Fighter Fly - Flies that jump up and down. They first appear in Phase 6 (7 in Japan).

Other enemies

 * Slipice - Ice creatures that appear in a lot of games. They have been renamed Freezie, and first appear in Phase 9 (10 in Japan). When one self-destructs, it covers its platform in ice, hence the name.
 * Icicle - They first appear in phase 16 (17 in Japan) and attack by dropping from the ceiling.
 * Fireball - Red ones bounce diagonally around the stage while Green ones travel horizontally. They can be defeated by bashing them from underneath, just as they hit the ground. The player can also use a POW Block to defeat them as well. The sprites for green fireballs are swapped with Boos in the Super Mario All-Stars version's Battle Game but not for the in-game 2 player mode where both types appear red.

Remake exclusives

 * Koopa Troopa (Super Mario All-Stars version)
 * Spiny (Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Advance series and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga versions)
 * Boo (Super Mario All-Stars version)
 * Bowser (Super Mario Advance series and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga multiplayer Battle Mode)

Reception
The game has received mostly positive reviews. IGN rated the game 91st in their Top 100 NES Games list.

Remake
A remake of Mario Bros. is included on every Super Mario Advance game, plus Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga.

New features

 * Enhanced graphics
 * Voice clips
 * Backgrounds for every stage
 * Jumping onto platforms has been made easier (Mid-air turning is allowed, as opposed to the original where Mario or Luigi had to stay in one direction during jumping)
 * A second POW block has been added
 * Pow blocks reset every few stages
 * Each version has a different introduction and title screen
 * The bonus stages are noticeably easier
 * Spinies replace shellcreepers, making it more obvious not to jump on them
 * This also removes potential confusion between shellcreepers and koopas, the former of which cannot be jumped upon while the latter of which can, despite being almost identical
 * Different music for each stage

Mario Bros.-e
Mario Bros.-e is a game for the e-Reader, released on November 11, 2002 in the United States only. The game is a port of the NES version and the plot of the game is exactly same as the original game. The only difference from the NES version is that there are Green, Red, Yellow, and Blue Shellcreepers throughout the game, and there is no two-player support.

References in later games

 * Super Mario Bros. 3: The "Battle Mode" is very similar to Mario Bros.'s gameplay.
 * Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: A Mario Bros.-themed level appears in this game. A version of game itself (as in the Advance ports) is also included.
 * Mario Power Tennis: A court is named after the game, and features many elements from it, such as Shellcreepers, POW Blocks and even similar music.
 * Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix: The "Underground Mozart" music is based on the first "Stage Start" theme.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: There is a stage based on the first stages of the game, as well as a remixed version of the title's music.
 * Mario's Time Machine: The NES Version of the game features a stage similar to the sewers in the game also Koopa Troopas go in the pipes similar to the Shellcreepers
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: One of the underground coin battle areas resemble the Mario Bros. arena.
 * New Super Mario Bros. 2: Round 1 was remade as part of the Gold Classics Pack, a downloadable course pack.
 * New Super Mario Bros. U: The second Coin Battle stage overall resembles Mario Bros.'s arenas.

Trivia

 * Phase 2 was removed for non-Japanese versions of the game.
 * The music that plays when the player begins Phase 1 is Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, which is also featured in Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Like in Donkey Kong, Mario's clothes on the game cover are different in the game. This is the same with Luigi.