Mario became Super Mario. Today it has been 35 years since that little pixelated character with a mustache that had appeared in previous Nintendo games gobbled up a sliding mushroom that would make him grow instantly. On September 13, 1985, Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom console (known here as the Nintendo Entertainment System) arrived in Japanese stores, a title that would mark a before and after in the still young video game industry and that would make its protagonist in a world star.
Mario bros views on template
In the only 32 kB that this cartridge occupied, Japanese designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takasahi Tezuka shattered years of conventions in the world of electronic entertainment. The old arcade games’ black wallpaper gave way to a radiant blue sky, a pleasant movement sensation replaced the rigid control of the games of yesteryear and all his visual imaginary was insanely cool. Mushrooms, stars and carnivorous plants moved to the rhythm of a syncopated melody that is now part of popular culture.
“It’s not that it laid the foundations of the so-called platform games, it is that even today it is still the platform game par excellence.”
Entire books have been written about the first great adventure of Super Mario in the Mushroom Kingdom, and it is not for less, since it is one of the most important and influential games of all time. Despite not being the first horizontal scrolling platformer title, Super Mario Bros. was a whole new point in level design. So much so that, even today, its 32 phases are still being studied in detail by future video game creators.
The fascination that the design of Super Mario Bros
It is generated (and still generates today) and has a lot to do with something apparently as simple as its protagonist’s leap. It may seem like an exaggeration, but the trajectory of Mario’s jump on this cartridge allowed players to have control with precision and expressiveness rarely seen. It is not that it laid the foundations of the so-called platform games. It is that it is still the platform game par excellence.
The player’s concern in Super Mario Bros. was not getting the highest score, but moving forward, running non-stop to reach the last level and knowing what happened when saving the princess. All this with the indispensable accompaniment (and rhythm) of the immortal melodies of the composer Koji Kondo, which not only made its protagonist jump but everyone else.
That cartridge was the killer app that the Japanese corporation needed to sell its new console worldwide, and boy did it work. With 40 million units sold, Super Mario Bros. helped make the NES the best-selling console in history to Nintendo, the leading company in the industry. With Super Mario Bros., video games took a mushroom to become great.