The Genius of 1-1 (Super Mario Bros.)
Super Mario Bros. Single handedly saved and revived the gaming industry and re-popularized the public’s interest in home consoles as well as video games as a whole.
Looking back as to why this was the case is quite simple, and can easily be traced back to what’s known as the “Console Market Crash”, one of the most significant moments in the history of video games. The console market crash happened due to the oversaturation and mass production of low effort console games with popular IP’s to its name in order to capitalise on its commercial success. A great example of this would be the disaster of the E.T game.
Because of this over saturation, the general public quickly lost interest in home console games, which gave way to the much more powerful Personal Computers which were set to dominate the gaming industry for the foreseeable future. However, one company firmly believed in home gaming consoles. Nintendo carefully studied how to regain the lost joy from home consoles to the general public, they were certain that their games would be able to make an impact on the industry as a whole. Despite their beliefs, investors weren’t content with the idea of the Famicon, and advised Nintendo to market their home console as a “System for Entertainment” in order to deviate from relating their product to video games.
“The first shipment of NES systems arrived in a neat stack that barely took up half of the trailer on which it was transported. The boxes were stored in the warehouse, and the team began the arduous task of trying to get retailers to accept Nintendo’s products. Most store owners did not want to look at video games, let alone waste floor space selling them. In fact, team members were cautioned not to use the term video game. The NES was to be sold as an “entertainment system.”- (Kent, S.L. (2021) The ultimate history of video games. volume 1, from pong to Pokémon and beyond–the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. New York: Crown)
As a way to regain the consumer’s trust, Nintendo created their own “Nintendo Seal of Quality” which would ensure that the game was of a certain standard. Nintendo’s new approach allowed it to act as a publisher as well as a tester for third-party companies to ensure that these produced quality games. Because of this, as well as the technological innovations of the time, that the standards, development costs as well as the quality of games drastically improved or heightened. Not to our surprise, the company who knew how to best take advantage of these innovations was Nintendo, Kent explained it best in his book The Ultimate History of Games “Super Mario Bros. took Mario out of his single-screen setting and placed him in a huge, vivid world. Instead of simply climbing ladders and moving around on platforms, players now controlled him as he ran through a seemingly endless, brightly colored countryside filled with caverns, castles, and giant mushrooms.”, which gives us a good insight as to how Nintendo was able to create a vivid world despite the limitations of the NES.
O’Donnell (2014) also states, “The release of the NES would change the video game industry forever. Not just the quality of the video games, but the way the video games were developed, sold, and marketed”, the NES, as well as the release of Super Mario Bros. shifted the gaming industry as a whole, and set up a new standard, as previously mentioned, which changed both developers and consumers approached games.
With a brief look at the history of this title, as well as how important this game’s launch was for the industry, we can now make a deep dive into what made Super Mario Bros. such an important and revolutionary title.
One of the biggest factors into the success of this game, was Mario’s design, which as Shaw describes in her book Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture, “in Nintendo’s famous Super Mario Bros. franchise, the title character, Mario, was not originally conceived of as an Italian American plumber. Rather, the particularities of his design arose out of an assemblage of factors. His pudgy features, colorful costume, large nose, and bushy mustache— characteristics subsequently read as signifying his Italianness— were all designed to make the most of the limited graphics of early arcade machines and Nintendo consoles” (Shaw, 2014, p.23).
Fig. 1, Image showing Super Mario’s design in Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo knew how to make a simple yet visually appealing character. His overalls, as well as his hat are excluded from Shaw’s description, but I believe its also important to mention since they add to the perspective of the Italian plumber. Additionally, adding a hat would remove the need of having to animate hair, which would’ve been a struggle to develop especially considering the limitations of the time. Because of this, Mario’s design was easy to develop and was a simple design that’s easy on the eye for all audiences.
Level 1-1 is the primary example of how to design a tutorial level without telling the player what to do. It started the trend of going to the right when you start a platforming level, which has become a staple across multiple 2D Platformers since the release of Super Mario Bros. The level starts off with Mario standing on a bricked ground with some bushes and mountains on the background which are coloured with different shades of green, and is accompanied by a nice blue sky, which’ll be a constant throughout the level. Just with this powerful first image, we can see how this game doesn’t use harsh or dark colours (yet) which would hinder how easy the objects on screen could be seen. This initial level is also visually pleasing for the younger audiences, allowing for them, as well as their parents, to easily get invested into this vast and magical world.
Accompanied by an upbeat music, the player quickly realises how there’s a mushroom shaped enemy walking towards them. If the player walks directly to them, they will lose a life, meaning that they’ll have to avoid this enemy by jumping over them, or jumping on them in order to defeat them. As the player progresses, they will see two different blocks, one shining with yellow with a question mark, and another standard brown block.
Fig 2, Mario jumping on Goomba and showing the blocks for the first time.
Fig 3, Mario jumping to hit the blocks revealing a power up mushroom that makes him bigger.
As seen on Figure 3, when Mario jumps on these blocks various different things happen. The first question mark block reveals to have a coin hidden in it, and the second one reveals a mushroom (different to the one we just jumped on) to the player. Which, upon interacting, will allow us to power up by making Mario bigger. This Power-Up allows Mario to move quicker, as well as jump further and higher. This also widens his hit-box however, which means that he’s more likely to get hit by enemies. When Mario has powered-up, the player can afford to get hit once without losing a life, which if they did they would have to restart the level from the beginning.
Figure 4, Super Mario Bros. teaching the player the maximum jump.
After this, the game teaches you the maximum height jump Mario can do, by cleverly spacing out some pipes so that Mario can jump from one all the way to the other, as shown in Figure 4. The game also puts enemies on the floor between the pipes so the player knows what’s at risk if they mess up the jump. The game immediately tells the player it’s most important mechanic, “jump”, which is a neat call-back to Mario’s origin in “Donkey Kong” where he was known simply as “Jump-Man”.
Figure 5, Video showing Mario using Fire Flower power up as well as the Super Star power up.
There’s also various power-ups scattered throughout the map of 1-1, for example the “Fire Flower” allows for Mario to launch projectiles in front of him that will bounce off and hit enemies. This allows for Mario to have other options apart from jumping on top of enemies as a means to defeating them.
There’s also another power-up, known as the “Super Star”, which allows for Mario’s sprite to blink and become invincible for a set period of time. This power-up changes the background music to a much more energetic and upbeat one, which immediately transmits to the player “run and go as fast as you can”, whilst being able to immediately defeat enemies, the “Super Star” really makes the player feel empowered for the short period of time they have it activated for.
As you can see in Figure 5, both power ups above can be stacked and be used together. Which allows for players who are reluctant to run into enemies to maintain the projectiles as well as the speed the Super Star gives you.
The level design of Super Mario Bros. is at a whole different level, especially given that it was the first side-scrolling platformer. This game was advanced for its time and is a perfect way of telling players how to play the game exclusively with gameplay and not by explicitly telling them with an in-game tutorial that holds the player’s hands until they’ve completed said tutorial. As Loguidice said in his book Vintage Games. “The gameplay was superb, which is why the formula continues to be popular today, as demonstrated by the release of 2006’s New Super Mario Bros on the Nintendo DS. The controls in Super Mario Bros are straightforward and intuitive.”, which is a statement that to this day still holds up. Super Mario Bros. is a simple, yet effective game that’s easy to pick up, and thanks to various re-releases as well as the game being on the Nintendo Switch Online’s NES catalogue of games means that its easily accessible by gamers around the globe to enjoy.
It’s understandable to make a deep dive into the first level and ask yourself “why?”, why would people make such a big commotion on the first level of a game that came out in the 1990’s?, as explained earlier, the console market crash arose out of the distrust of the consumers towards home console games, and “Super Mario Bros, played a decisive role not only in the revival of the console market, but in the expansion of the videogame industry as a whole.” (Loguidice, B. 2009. Vintage Games. Boston. Focal Press.) .The genius level design that went into each level so that the progression and adventure felt like you were actually traversing a world is what made Super Mario Bros. stand out and revolutionize the gaming industry for the foreseeable future, creating a cultural impact that has only been made possible because of the success of this game.
References and Sources:
Kent, S.L. (2021) The ultimate history of video games. volume 1, from pong to pokémon and beyond–the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world. New York: Crown.
Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture
Loguidice, B. 2009. Vintage Games. Boston. Focal Press.
O’Donnell, 2014
*All videos used in this post have been taken by me on the Nintendo Switch Online’ NES service. This allows for a faithful emulation of the original NES release of the game on modern hardware, the only differences are the UI of the Nintendo Switch Online’s NES service appearing. However this does not hinder the experience nor the overall gameplay of Super Mario Bros. as this is merely used as a demonstration of the game.
