Short Comparison of Mario Bros. Games
By: Jess
 
 
    You probably remember playing the NES for the first time, right? Chances are the first game that you played was one of the following, either Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, or Metroid. All of these are classics and I beleive that not many games will give you the same joy as these did the first time you played and beat one of these or another classic. Well, here in this article I'm going to compare the Super Mario Bros. series.

    I suppose the first game I should star with should be Super Mario Bros. because there have been many sequels on the NES and a few more on the SNES. The original SMB, (I'll call it this for short), was the first sidescrolling game and revolutionized the gaming industries with its over 40 million copies sold and probably a few more million if you include Mario All-Stars and SMB DX for the SNES and GB. So how good is it compared with SMB2, SMB3, and SMW(Super Mario World)? You battle through 8 Worlds with 3 levels and a castle level each, that's a total of 32 different levels.
 
    Super Mario Bros. 2 was the most diverse Mario game to date, with its Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic style. This of course was the American SMB2, the Japanese SMB2, and probably a more acurate and along-the-same-lines-as-the-original-SMB sequel was harder and was latter included in the Lost Levels of SM All-Stars for the SNES and SMB DX for GB. In this article I'm going to compare SMB with SMB2(jap) a.k.a. the Lost Levels. The Lost Levels had a feature not included in the original SMB game, a poisonous mushroom that would make big or fire Mario depower or even kill regular Mario. This mushroom was purple in the Lost Levels, but I am just guessing that that was the color of it in the original SMB2 game. Another thing about SMB2(jap), the NES one that is, is that the graphics were different. Aside from these things, the game was pretty much like the original, just with different levels and maybe different colored Koopa Troopas and Phiranha Plants(just speculation).
 
    Super Mario Bros. 3(SMB3), was probably the best of the series. Even though I first played SMB1, I loved SMB3 because I didn't have the game, my friend did, and he rarely brought it over with him and the farthest I had gotten on it back then was World 4. It was the first game that I bought for my new NES that I bought after giving the old one to my brother and my niece. There are many differences in this game. Mushroom houses give you power-ups from a loyal mushroom citizen, new power-ups were added like the Super Leaf which allowed you to fly witha raccon tail, a Tanooki suit that also let you fly but you could also turn into a statue and recieve no harm from enemies for a few seconds, a frog suit allowed you to swim better. There are 8 Worlds and I-Don't-Know-How-Many levels on this game. The graphics were better, the sounds were better, everyting was better! I couldn't believe this game. Still to this day, this remains on my top 3 NES list, which in no particular order is Silver Surfer, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Blue Marlin.
 
    Super Mario World. What more can I say? It was probably the best game on the SNES in the SNES's first year. I can remember my friend(same as the SMB3 one) getting not 1 but 2 SNES's for his birthday and a Genesis. I also remember saying, "Play the SNES first!" and he did. We all went up to his room and hooked it up and watched as Super Mario World came on the T.V. screen. We all saw Mario riding Yoshi and yelled out something like cool! or wow! or maybe cool and wow<G> but it was great. I went to his house many times and we played SMW most of the time. We pluged up the Sega about an hour later and he put in Sonic the Hedgehog. I thought it was cool, but not as cool as Super Mario World! Mario rides Yoshi of course, in a lot of levels, there are undergrounds, Koopaling castles, waterworlds and more. I have beaten it many times, but have never been through all of its 96 massive levels. I've only discovered around 86, but I know where more are, but I just can't get to them. But anyway SMW is a great game, and when I got my SNES it was the 2nd game that I got, just after SM All-Stars.
 
    All 4 of these games that I have said a little about have been both challenging and fun. No matter how much I play them they never seem to get boring. That doesn't mean I like Mario games the best, because I like many games about equally, such as Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon, but the first game you play is always going to be an experieance you'll remember for a long time to come. Thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto for his great games.