By Grant Braden
Super Mario Bros. has been one of the most influential and best-selling video games of all time. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the game’s release.
When it was released, Super Mario Bros. sold a record 40 million copies, 10 million more than the nearest competitor nearly two decades later.
Without Super Mario Bros., the Nintendo Entertainment system would probably not have been as popular as it once was. Today, the game is widely considered a classic.
Super Mario Bros. owes much of its success to the new ideas it brought to the table.
Nate Maher, freshman marketing major, is a skilled gamer of 11 years and huge fan of Nintendo.
“From a game-play standpoint, Super Mario Bros. did everything new,” Maher said. “Super Mario Bros. had an entire world, and it was the first game to do that.”
The idea of two plumbers simply being able to run, jump and shoot fireballs at opponents was innovative, not to mention the secret tunnels, hidden beanstalks in the sky and mushrooms that made the characters grow.
Everything about the game, from the music to the difficulty to the characters, was revolutionary at the time.
Brandon Swing, freshman music major, has been a gamer since kindergarten.
“People were always trying to match it and keep up with it,” Swing said, speaking of Super Mario Bros.
For many players, Super Mario Bros. brings people back to their childhood when it was the most popular game to play.
Wade Evans, junior secondary education major, said he remembers playing Super Mario Bros. with his dad.
“The thing with Super Mario Bros. is that something about it brings me back to when I was five or six,” Evans said.
Evans said he even prefers Mario to many current games.
“I have more fun playing those than the modern games,” he said.
