After the Mario Bros. Game & Watch (which I reviewed last week) Nintendo later released the Mario Bros. arcade game, which was then ported to numerous consoles. This is the game that most people think of when they think Mario Bros. and it’s one that was actually very popular.

As with many early games, it’s quite simple on the whole. The story goes that Mario and Luigi have gone down into the sewers to clear out some monsters that have appeared there and that’s about it. There are a set of platforms with pipes at the bottom and pipes at the top – enemies walk from the top to the bottom and you have to hit them from underneath the platform they’re on. This flips enemies upside down and you have to walk into them (and kick them off the screen) before they can flip back up. If they get to the bottom, they go through the pipes and come back out of the top.  There are four kinds of enemies: Shellcreepers (very similar to the Koopas in later games), Sidesteppers (a type of crab which have to be hit twice), Fighter Flies (which are harder to hit, because they keep jumping) and Freezie (ice creatures which can freeze platforms but which are much weaker and do not need to be defeated to win.) Every time you defeat all of the enemies, you go on to the next level, which will have a few more enemies and it just goes on forever.

It’s quite a fun game, particularly because you can have cooperative multiplayer, with one person as Mario and the other as Luigi – this is especially impressive considering when it was made. It’s also quite nice that this story kind of depicts the journey of Mario and Luigi from Earth to the Mushroom World. The main thing holding it back is that it’s controls aren’t really that great. Mario and Luigi both feel a little too slidey, This coupled with the fact that you don’t get much variety in gameplay means that I’m not enormously impressed with the game as a whole. It’s better than some other Nintendo arcade games though.

Rating: 6/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

When most people think of a game entitled “Mario Bros.” they probably think of the popular arcade game, but this Game & Watch was actually the first game to bare that title. Not only is this one of the Game & Watches which I had the most fun with, but it’s also the game that introduced us to Mario’s brother, Luigi. While at this point Luigi was nothing but an identical copy to Mario who wore green (and, in-game, that’s all black) he would in time grow to be one of the most loveable characters in the Super Mario franchise and it’s very interesting to look back at his origin. It’s also the first time that Mario really “spun off” from the Donkey Kong series, as there are no ties to those games other than Mario himself.

Anyway, the game itself has Mario and Luigi working in a factory where they must put boxes onto conveyor belts where things are added to them. The game takes place across two screens, but unlike other dual screened Game & Watches, this one is held so that the screens are side by side (rather than one on top of the other.) The left screen has Luigi on it and the right screen has Mario on it and you control each of them independently. Boxes appear at the bottom right, Mario has to catch them and put them onto the first conveyor belt, which brings them over to Luigi who has to pass them onto the second conveyor belt, which is above the first and then comes back to Mario. You pass them up through several conveyor belts until they get to the top and are tossed into a lorry. It’s very simple, but hugely addictive – it’s available with an easier and a harder difficulty level too. Also, like every Game & Watch, you can use it as a watch and an alarm.

This is one of my favourite Game & Watch titles and if you’re only going to try a small number of them, I strongly recommend that this be one of them! I find that some of the Game & Watches are too difficult to get really drawn into, but this one gets the difficulty just right and it’s really quite therapeutic to pass those boxes around for so long. A simple and elegant game.

Rating: 7.9/10

Buy it here.
Buy it here as part of Game & Watch Gallery 3.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)

I love the Super Mario series, but like a lot of people, I feel more strongly endeared to Mario’s brother Luigi than Mario himself and so I was delighted when I found out that one of the first games on the Gamecube (Luigi’s Mansion) would feature Luigi as its main character. But that’s not all! Luigi’s Mansion also has a slightly stronger story focus than the other games in the series and a somewhat darker tone – these are two things I’d always hoped to get from the Super Mario series.

The story goes that Luigi is notified that he has won a mansion through a contest which he doesn’t even remember entering. Mario goes ahead to check it out and Luigi follows shortly afterward. When he arrives in the mansion, Mario is nowhere to be found and the whole place is full of ghosts and very sinister. Luigi is soon cornered by a ghost and doesn’t know what to do, but he is then saved by Professor E. Gadd who defeats the ghost with his invention, the Poltergust 3000 which is a special kind of vacuum cleaner. E. Gadd explains that this mansion popped up overnight and is filled with ghosts who had escaped from paintings. Luigi is trained in the ways of the Poltergust and must recapture all of the ghosts and save Mario!

Unlike other games, you’re not running around and jumping on platforms and enemies to get through levels, instead you’re slowly exploring a massive mansion. You’ll find yourself in a lot of dark, atmospheric rooms where you have to figure out how to make the ghosts appear. Sometimes you’ll just have an onslaught of smaller ghosts attacking you, other times you’ll be targeting a specific ghost. For example, in one level you have to do things with the toys in the room in order to make a ghost baby appear. The fact that there is a ghost baby in the game at all shows how this is quite a bit darker than the series usually is. It’s a nice change of pace in every regard.

Overall, I’m very fond of this game. I like getting a bit of character development for Luigi. I like the introduction of Professor E. Gadd. I like the additions to the lore of the series. I like that lots of the ghosts are actual characters, rather than generic creatures. I like that soundtrack is nice and spooky, but also that there is sometimes nothing but background noises. I like the more puzzle-oriented style of gameplay and the fact the game world is one big mansion. I guess it is a bit short and it could do with a smidgen of variation, but overall it’s a very enjoyable experience. Perfect to play around Halloween time.

Rating: 8.9/10

Buy it here.

(Don’t miss today’s Finger Puppet Show!)