The brothers must then face one of the Koopalings, who are not Bowser’s children by the way, and capture the magic wand to change each king back to normal. Each castle contains a king who has been transformed by some diabolical means, with Toad pleading with you to be the hero. They begin in a grass world, World-1, and advance through multiple stages, dungeons, bonus levels until they reach the castle at the end of each world. 3 presented an entire world for the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi must rescue Princess Toadstool and save the sovereigns of the Kingdom from the evil wiles of Bowser. Even people who weren’t gamers and never became gamers were influenced in some way by Super Mario Bros.

I’m sure nearly everyone my age on this side of the planet has somewhat similar memories of those golden afternoons spent in front of a tube tv, exploring what seemed then like an endless 8-bit world of simple magic. Adding a world map between stages, introducing bigger, complex stages filled with multiple exits and secrets, implementing a new item acquisition system, giving the protagonist the ability to fly… All of these additions add up and the sum is a game that defined the youth of my generation. These revolutionized the way these games were played. It combined previous platforming precision with new elements of gameplay. Being the third best-selling NES game ever further proves that point. In my view, it is the perfect video game and certainly the best in the entire Nintendo library. This is perhaps nowhere truer than with one of its purest champions, considered widely (and by this author) to be the greatest video game ever: Super Mario Bros. It also gave us a wealth, and I mean wealth, of iconic classics: games that have never and will never cease to be beloved. One that rebuilt a decimated industry, breathed new life into the corpse that gaming had become, and became the gold standard and platform for decades of gaming to come. One which controlled a hoard of quality games. The impact of Nintendo Switch remains to be seen, but if it ends up anything like the NES it will change the world. The NES is now the same age as me again (lucky NES), released in North America on October 18th 1985. This week, we got our first look at Nintendo Switch, coinciding with the Nintendo Entertainment System turning thirty-one. In terms of the art of video games, a classic is a game that has never finished saying what it has to say. “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”

Mario game 3 in 1