Week 2 — Super Mario Level 1–1 Analysis

For Week2’s Creative Immersive World class, the assignment is to analyze the OG Super Mario Level 1–1. Super Mario is already 33 years old (same year as my cousin), yet it is still the classic of the whole game industry. In this story, I will break down the first level in the first world, and talk about it in art, sound, and the game level design three parts.

Game Level Design

First of all, the learning cost of Super Mario is low. By using the up, down, left, right, and the ‘a’, ‘b’ button, the player can control the Mario. The design of the nintendo game controller helps me jump and move at the same time. The easiness makes the game approach to wide ranges of people. As what I said in the game analysis of Doodle Jump, how easy to navigate to game is an important element that determines the success of a game. Similar to Doodle Jump, Super Mario has one goal: To reach to the end of a level. So when I played the game, I only have one mind to achieve the game. On the way to the destination of each level, the player need the avoid the obstacles and try not to fall into the hole. Not only the obstacles but also the equipments of Mario make the game more interesting. What I like the most are the mushroom, the star and the fire-flower. These items can make Mario more powerful, and make the game adventure more challenging. Additionally, there are so many hidden game experiences for the player to discover. Some of the bricks have multiple coins that Mario can get from. The star that makes Mario invincible is hidden in a brick somewhere near the end of the first level. Interestingly, from my observation, a lot of players want to jump to the top of the flag at the end for some reasons. When I did the research online, I also found out that some players jumped over the flag, however Mario can’t go to the next level if it jumped over. The player has to kill their time to end the life and start it over.

Art and Sound Design

The art design is generally super cohesive in Super Mario. What makes Super Mario different than the other game is that they paint the shade on the object, so that the object looks more dynamic. Moreover, the animation in Super Mario is simple but detailed. I think the game designer considered as much animation as he could. For example, when the small Mario touches the brick, the brick will only bounce back, instead of being broken. The monster will flip over when it passes by a brick and the Mario hits it. These details improve the gaming experience. Speaking of the game interface, I think the interface is designed super well since the status bar are on the top of screen, so it is not distracted when the player plays the game, yet people can check their time and score if they want to. When I researched the art style of Super Mario, there are a lot of fun facts about it that I want to share with you guys here.

The brick bounces back when the short Mario hits it

The monster flips around when Mario hits the brick

1. The reason why Mario wears a hat was that the hair would take a lot of pixels so the design used a hat to hide it. Similar with the hat, the moustache is used to hide the mouth because there is not enough space to draw the mouth.
2. The designer used the same shapes for the cloud and the grass, only the color and the position changed.
3. The items such as the flower and the star is symmetric, so that the hardware only needs to save half of the image and make it flip to the other side. Same as the animation, the animation of a walking monster just makes the image flip around.

The sound design of Super Mario has the typical 8-bit game aesthetic. When it starts, you know that it is the Mario. I am not familiar with the game sound design so I can analyze it from an expert’s experience. However, I do feel that the sound implements the game experience. I think the sound of the coins, the jumping, and attacking the monsters becomes a standard for the game that comes out later. If I have to give the sound design one advice, I want to add a sound when a monster approaches. Maybe it will help the player to prepare for that? Or maybe it will be too distracted.

It is really fun but also challenging to analyze only the first level of Super Mario. What I writes above are only my observation, and it is only a few of what people can talk about. I am surprised that they are so many things that we can say by only analyzing the first level. It definitely defines this kind of game (the Yoshi Island, even the Temple Run), and makes it as a good example for the game industry.