Week 2 | Super Mario Brothers 1–1
Super Mario Brothers features different worlds that each have a unique big end goal. In order to complete this end goal, the user must go through different stages (usually four). The user has three tries (or lives) to accomplish this.
Level 1–1 is the very first level the user will play. It is the first world, first stage. The user holds a controller that will allow him/her to move the Mario character. Mario starts out on the left-hand side of the screen, facing right. The game’s graphics are in pixels. The background has a painted feel, while almost everything else is pixel art. During gameplay, there are color changing items, graphics fading out, rapid blinking, and other effects that enhance the visual features of this game.
The controller has the cross-shaped directional pad on the left, Start and Select buttons in the middle, and A and B buttons on the right. The directional pad allows the user to move Mario left and right. The A and B buttons allow Mario to jump (and extended jump when the button is held down) and throw fireballs (when the upgrade is acquired), respectively. The controller does not feel too bulky in the user’s hands. It may actually feel a bit small to someone used to holding an Xbox controller (or the like).
The design of the game is challenging yet not too difficult. Mario moves forward as the user commands. Once Mario crosses a certain pixel line, the screen starts to scroll. Once something is off the screen, Mario cannot go back to get it. Mario cannot be “swallowed” by the moving screen, as the scrolling stops when he doesn’t move or is not past that pixel threshold. Very soon after making the first moves in 1–1, a Goomba appears. This is one of the game’s enemies. If the Goomba runs into Mario (or vice versa), Mario will lose a life. There are other interactive pieces to the game, as well. There are color changing blocks with question marks (?) on them which Mario can jump up to hit. These contain either coins or powerups. The powerups in 1–1 include a mushroom to turn Mario into Super Mario (a larger version of himself) or a pulsating flower that allows Super Mario to inherit fireball throwing abilities. Super Mario can throw fireballs with the B button to kill the Goombas. Mario must also face Koopa Troopas in 1–1. These can also be killed with the fireballs. The question mark boxes which include coins. These coins are tallied up throughout the stage and added to your score once you beat the stage.
Continuing with design, there is one pathway through the game. Mario must run straight to the right side of the screen until he reaches the castle with the flagpole. However, the designers allow users to vary their way of getting to the castle. Some never choose to collect coins, some never choose to collect powerups, some choose to jump over enemies instead of defeating them, etc. You can finish the stage as Mario, Super Mario, or Fireball Mario. Whichever you finish as will transfer to the next stage.
As mentioned, Mario must face Goombas and Koopa Troopas during the stage (and subsequent stages). There are a few ways to defeat them: 1) Jump and land on them. For Goombas, this squishes them and they fade away. For Koopa Troopas, this turns them into a turtle shell. This moves us into 2) Both Koopa Troopas and Goombas can be knocked off-screen by kicking a turtle shell at them. Mario can run into a Koopa turned turtle shell and the shell will move in that direction, knocking anything off in its path. 3) Mentioned above, Super Mario may kill both with the fireballs. This game allows the player to decide (in the small about of time he/she has) how to defeat the advancing enemies.
This game also includes the concept of lives. Mario has three lives; three tries to complete the game. For someone completely new to the controller and/or the game, these lives can be lost very early on in the stage, regardless of it being 1–1. There are no upfront instructions that teach the user to jump on the enemies, kick the shells, how to shoot fireballs, etc. Only by playing the game multiple times will the user figure these out by risk, curiosity, and the occasional happy accident. The concept of powerups is a semi-new one that presents itself in this game. The game, Super Mario Brothers, can be played without the power-ups, but then Mario would never transform into Super Mario (with the help of the mushroom). These items that the player can find in the game provide special abilities that make the game more fun and interesting. The mushroom not only makes Mario taller but when he collides with a Goomba or Koopa Troopa, he just shrinks back down to his normal size — death has been evaded. Similarly, with the fireball ability, he loses the ability and returns to Super Mario. So becoming the Fireball Mario means that the user can escape death a few times before actually dying. This does not include (Super) Mario falling into one of the pits the creators put in the ground. That is an automatic loss of life.
The powerups are also visually interesting in the game. Both will rise up out a question mark box that Mario has hit. The flower will sit there and wait for Super Mario to jump to it and collect it. The mushroom, however, moves. It rises out of the box then moves towards the right of the screen. It will fall off the box and continue its path. Mario must stand in its path or chase after it in order to collect it. Sometimes, if Mario hits the box with the mushroom, then hits a box to the right that contains a coin, the pop up of the coin will bump the mushroom making it go to the left. It is the powerup that turns Mario into the title character of Super Mario, therefore it is slightly harder to obtain. Going back to the flower, the flower pulsates while it waits for Super Mario to collect it. Both powerups visually transform Mario. With the mushroom, Mario grows larger. His whole body blinks like a car blinker while he grows about two sizes. The flower changes Mario’s outfit. Here too his whole body blinks a bit until his costume in changed. Neither takes a long time to complete, but it adds an extra visual part of the game not commonly seen before this.
Speaking of time, this game has a time counter. The player has 300 seconds to make it to 1–2. The timer starts at 300 and counts down. Any remaining time is added to the player’s score after completing the stage. Before Super Mario Brothers, games had “hidden” timers. With text-based games (like Zork I), if there was water rising, it would show a passage of time by telling the player “water is at your ankles” then “water is at your shins” and on and on after each move. Some games would count upwards from 1 to show the user how long it took them to play. Here we have a game where the timer counts down and the remaining time actually affects the end score.
Super Mario Brothers has a score counter at the top of the screen as well. Up here are the timer and coin counter, too. Each box hit, each powerup grabbed, each enemy defeated all drive the score up. Each stage complete adds 1000 points to the counter. This way, even if two player mode isn’t being used, players can compete with each other “offline” when bragging about their score. In some past games, points were given out but there was no visual or audial confirmation of it. Super Mario Brothers has both. When a coin in collect, the coin pops out of the box, a coin is seen, the point value (200) is seen above it, and a high pitched ding is heard. When Goombas or Koopa Troopas are killed, a number will appear over them which adds to the score. Even when acquiring the powerups, score numbers pop up. The numbers are subtle but seeable. Level 1–1 has its own background soundtrack (which changes when advancing to the next level). The audial confirmations from the game are layered over this background soundtrack, but nothing seems too overwhelming.
A great game that is challenging to start, but beatable with repetition.
