Super Mario Bros is 30.

[Lee]

The 13th September 1985, the Lee family were looking forward to their special little boy being born in two months but over in Japan something different was happening.

We'd already seen him in Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, his brother Luigi appeared in Mario Bros. plus we also got pinball and wrecking crew. Mario had existed before this date but Super Mario Bros. changed gaming landscapes forever.

Now don't forget that just 3 years earlier there had been a video game crash and it was thought gaming would be buried. The impact the game had on Nintendo (40.24 million sales) as well as countless developers being influenced by the game.

What was the first Mario game you played?

Super Mario Bros. 3. I remember going through the booklet in absolute awe at the things like frog suits and the Koopalings. Mario was quite a family time with my parents and younger sister getting involved too. Great game.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

The first time I remember knowing about SMB (I was 6, I hadn't clicked that Super Mario Bros 3 meant there was a 1 and 2!) was when I was talking about it to my uncle. He said "Yeah it's cool when you get the flag and sometimes fireworks go off." Stubborn 6 year old me was having none of it "There's no flags in Mario, you get cards!". So my Uncle loaned me his copy of SMB and the rest was history.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

It's hard to pinpoint. SMB3 is a game I'll be playing until I die, I love it so much. 64 really broke down barriers but really it's the two Galaxy games. Such wonder, great visuals, mix of gameplay and the Toad Brigade make their debut!

 

[justinsayne]

What was the first Mario game you played?

SMB, I'm not sure how old I was exactly at the time (probably 5 or 6) but my friend at a NES, I was going over to his house to play, & when we walked in his parents, uncle, & older brother were all huddled around the TV playing this game. I was content to just stand there & keep watching but my friend wanted to go somewhere else to play. About a month later I think I was able to go back over there & he let me have one turn at playing it. It was years later when I was finally able to save up enough money & my parents allowed me to buy my own NES. I played that game to death, to the point where the console broke down & we had to send it in & get it fixed.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

See above.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

SMB3 by far, in fact it's pretty much a constant on my top 5 games of all time. I still occasionally go back & replay it. I remember first seeing the game in the movie The Wizard, then one weekend when my parents were out of town & left us with the sitter, he took us to the video store, & they had a copy left so he rented it for us. He & I played the game pretty much non-stop, which naturally annoyed my sister as she wanted to watch TV, I'm pretty sure this is where her hatred of video games started, lol. It was again years later (about 5 yrs. I think) that I would finally get my own copy of the game for Christmas. I still play this game from time to time & always amazed with how well it still holds up.

 

[Барбоса]

What was the first Mario game you played?

The original Super Mario Brothers on the NES was the first I played. I had it and Duck Hunt.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

I remember being very pleased with myself when I first completed it and being scared of Hammer Bros.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

There are so many great games in the series. I have something of a soft spot for the maligned SMB2 and SMB3 was the first game I remember truly loving and needing to finish. More recent games like the Galaxies and 3D World have been a delight to play.

But if I had a true favourite though, it would be Super Mario World. I first played it briefly on my first trip to America and had to have it when it came out at home. Not only is it fun in the Mario sense, it also had hidden gems for the more accomplished gamer to seek out. And Yoshi of course.

It, along with LTTP, is the game I make room to play through once a year.

 

[Dagger Dias]

What was the first Mario game you played?

The first Mario game I ever played was Super Mario Bros 1 on the NES. Followed by Mario Bros 2, 3, and Super Mario World. All still hold many fond memories for me.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

One of my oldest memories came from back before I could talk. My parents were visiting friends of their's so my sister and I were brought up to the attic to play with that family's kids and they had a Nintendo. They started playing Mario then my sister handed me a controller saying "Here, I'll be Mario. YOU be Luigi". So I did. I played as Luigi in Super Mario Bros 1 that fateful day in 1987 and have never looked back.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

Super Mario World will always be my favorite game in the Super Mario series. That game was about as close to 2D platformer perfection as we will ever see. The graphics were very great looking considering it was about 25 years ago, the music is as catchy as ever and still fun to listen to today. The gameplay was excellent was well. You had less suits than in Super Mario Bros 3, but this made it easier for Super Mario World to be an entry title into the series for many in our generation. Then there's the addition of Yoshi and everything he brought to the table. Mixing things up with the Red/Yellow/Blue Yoshis was a ton of fun. Replay value by increasing the difficulty if you avoided clearing the four switch palace levels, seeking all the exits.... This game had it all and there's a reason it remained one of the most popular titles for the entire SNES era.

Super Mario Bros 3 is my runner up for the 2D platformers.

Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 tie for my favorite 3D title in the series, followed by Super Mario 3D World.

Cannot wait to see what the NEXT 30 years brings with Super Mario!

 

[Spidey Revivey]

What was the first Mario game you played?

SMB on the NES. The cartridge also had Duck Hunt on it. I was about 5 and at my grandmother's at the time.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

I could be wrong about the level, but around World 3 Stage 1 there was a Koopa going down the stairs and you had to hit it and repeatedly tap it to gain a lot of lives. I remember doing that when I was little and feeling like I was a pro gamer.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

Super Mario World 64. Probably the first game I ever completed in its entirety. Was genuinely terrified of the Water levels thanks to THAT EEL and Bertha and still am to a degree because of it, but I just love this game, and Dire Dire Docks had the most soothing music ever created.

 

[Phoenix]

What was the first Mario game you played?

SMB on the NES. I can't remember if we had any other games at the same time of owning it, but the collection got expanded over time.

What are your memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

I always enjoyed the fun of discovering secrets within the levels, like the 1-UP Mushroom in 1-1, or the secret warp pipes in 1-2 and 4-2. It was a time where it was word of mouth and magazines that helped you through.

That and the Hammer Bros. being such dicks on level 8-3. I will admit this, to this day, I still haven't completed SMB because of that problem. I'd have about 6/7 lives going in that level, by the time I've reached 8-4, I'm down to 1 or 2.

Which game is your favourite in the series?

For NES/SNES era, it has to be SMB3 hands down. It changed up the formula in a very successful way, introducing new aspects and offering something for everyone.

For the N64 onwards, it's tough between Super Mario 64, or Galaxy. I probably will edge it to 64 because I have such nostalgia of trying to beat the levels and remembering the joy of overcoming Bowser in the final stage, and getting 120 stars. Galaxy is amazing, don't get me wrong, but in some ways it felt easier to beat in comparison to 64. I remember getting chills in Big Boo's Haunt and trying to get the cannons aimed right to get the star over the lone mushroom. But I never felt that danger as much with Galaxy, outside of one or two levels. As said, I love Galaxy, but I think that nostalgia of being in the generation of Mario 64 being out and having to work out the details for yourself, unless you got help from a friend or a magazine edges it out for me.

 

[Reflection]

The first Mario game I played...

The first Mario game I played was Super Mario Bros for the NES in 2004. It was on a multicart that came free with the duplicate Famicom available over here. The cartridge had a typical "9999999 in 1" title where the seven or so games kept repeating themselves. The other games in the cartridge were Duck Hunt, Clay Shooting, Road Fighter, Galaxian, a game with two characters and ladders, fruits, trampolines and stuff, "Fancy Mario" (a Mario hack where half the screen was crazy and you were dependant on your memory), "Moon Mario" (a Mario hack where Mario could jump above the screen and over a long distance), and "Long Live Mario" (another Mario hack where you became pretty much indestructible once you got the mushroom because you kept growing back up even after taking hits). I had played games like Double Dragon II, Super C, F1 Race and Excite Bike before on my friend and cousin's systems, but Mario was a first time for me.

Memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

I have memories of playing this game with many of my old friends with whom I have lost touch over the years... There was this friend (the one from the above paragraph) that claimed he had reached till World 10 but the game kept going on... It was only after I got an internet connection much later on that I realized what a lie it was! My biggest memory, or rather my biggest regret, is having not finished the game even once. I always reached World 8-1 without any trouble, using the warp zones on 1-2 and midway into 4-2, before starting to get my ass kicked. Some of these days I feel like using save states on my emulator to finish the game, but that's kind of unethical, so I hesitate and end up turning it off after losing a couple of lives. The farthest I've reached (without emulator and its benefits) was World 8-3 in 2005 or 06.

Favourite game in the series?

Unfortunately, the only Mario games available here (other than games like Donkey Kong, Tennis and Pinball) were Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros, so these are the only two that we had to contend ourselves with. So unsurprisingly, my favourite Mario game has to be SMB, simply for the lack of options, if not anything more. I played SMB 2 and SMB 3 in 2013, but I was already spoilt by PC gaming by then. We also had no Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Busby, Metroid or Zelda here... although we had plenty of Romhacks and some unusual ports of games like Street Fighter, Cricket 96, and a "WWF Smackdown" game with awesome graphics... which weren't supposed to work in the NES' small memory. Coming back to Mario, I didn't have a clue about Super Mario Bros resurrecting the video game industry 11 years before I was born, until about a couple of years ago, but I always knew that SMB was one of the main games that made me a video gamer, and I will remember the locations of the first two 1UPs till the day I die.

 

[Bernkastel]

The first Mario game I played?

That's a difficult question to answer. My first video game memories came when I was 4 and 5. Sonic for the Genesis was the first game I actually remember playing, but I'm sure I probably played Mario within the same year. An early childhood friend of mine had the original Mario Bros for NES, and I remember playing Mario Bros 3 with another childhood friend. But that was a few years later. I recall Super Mario World with Yoshi, as well as Yoshi Island with Baby Mario for SNES also a few years later. My cousins who by now are in their late 30's and 40's had an NES and I recall playing Mario Bros 2 on that. So by the time I was 5-7, I had become familiarized with most of the Mario games for NES. But pinpointing which one I played first is difficult. It was either Mario Bros or Mario Bros 2.

Memories of the original Super Mario Bros?

Many hours were spent at either childhood friends playing one of the first three Mario's, or ignoring my family whenever I went over to see my cousins out of state.

Favourite game in the series?

Mario 64. It's holds a soft spot in my heart because the 64 became my main system after I turned 10. And it's the one I have the most vivid memories of. I still play all of the Mario classics today, but Mario 64 is the only one that I play on original hardware. The others are through my Wii console. Mario 64 is also one of the few games that I'd really call myself an expert at. I've beaten the game for start to finish in a speed run in 19 minutes. With 9 stars. Using glitches. I've seen faster times, but for me that's pretty good. I also recently attempted the challenge of collecting all the coins in each level, which was much harder than I thought it would be. In the end I managed to do this on all the levels but two of them. The first I lacked only 2 coins and the second I was down about 15 before frustration kicked in.

Mario Galaxy I am just now playing for the first time, and Mario Galaxy 2 I will play next, so I am not sure how those compare to the 64 version yet. Mario Sunshine I did like, but for me it fell a little short. I also played Super Paper Mario recently and I enjoyed the hell out of that game as well.