Super Mario Bros.
93PurrfectSadkitty Score
93KitSuperintelligent review
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A plumber runs and jumps across eight worlds to rescue a princess from a turtle king. It defined the side-scrolling platformer and helped revive the whole home console industry after the 1983 crash.
Kit's verdict · 9.3/10
Forty years on, the run-and-jump physics still feel better than most of the games that copied them.Kit · Sadkitty Games
Loved
- Momentum-based controls that reward mastery
- Brilliant level design that teaches without words
- Iconic music that never gets old
Not so much
- No saving, so every run starts from scratch
- Later castles lean on trial-and-error mazes
Play it if anyone who wants to see where modern platformers came from, or who loves chasing a faster run.
Skip it if players who need checkpoints, saves and a story to stay motivated.
Cheats & codes
Every Super Mario Bros. cheat we know
Continue from the first level of the world you died in instead of restarting at 1-1.NES · Do it on the title screen right after a Game Over.
Pick any world to start from.NES · Only works after you have beaten the game once without powering off.
Single-player only. Cheats can turn off achievements and some saves; use them on a spare save.
Tips
Play it better
- Hold B to run almost all the time; jump height also grows with speed, so running jumps clear gaps walking jumps can't.
- In 1-2, ride the moving lift near the end and break through the ceiling to reach the Warp Zone pipes for Worlds 2, 3 and 4.
- A hidden vine in 4-2 leads to a Warp Zone with pipes to Worlds 6, 7 and 8.
- At the end of 3-1, stomp the Koopa coming down the staircase so its shell traps it against the step, then keep bouncing on it for a pile of extra lives.
- In maze castles like 4-4 and 7-4, the wrong route loops you back to a room you have already seen, so try a different height each time it repeats.
- Bowser can be beaten with fireballs, but it's often faster to run under him when he jumps and grab the axe.
- Hitting the flagpole when the timer ends in 1, 3 or 6 sets off fireworks for bonus points.
Secrets & unlockables
Hidden in plain sight
Tap a secret to reveal it.
Did you know?
Trivia
- It shipped as a pack-in with the NES and became one of the best-selling games of all time, at over 40 million copies.
- Koji Kondo's overworld theme is one of the most recognised pieces of music in gaming.
- The clouds and bushes use the same sprite with a different colour palette to save cartridge space.
- The whole game fits in 40 kilobytes.
Member reviews
What the Clowder thinks
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