Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros is an NES platform title developed by Nintendo in 1985 as a sequel to the arcade game Mario Bros. The game was designed by the now legendary created Shigeru Miyamoto after his success with Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. It was eventually released as a pack in with the NES console and prior to 2009 was the best selling video game of all time.

Super Mario Bros was responsible for popularizing the side scrolling platforming genre, and was responsible for the early success of the NES and revitalizing the market after the video game crash of the early 80's. 

The plot for Mario revolves are the plumber brothers Mario and Luigi who enter the Mushroom Kingdom in order to save Princess Toadstool from King Bowser and his followers the Koopas. In a two player game, players would take turns between lives playing through the game, the second player controls Luigi.

The game involves the player getting through levels by avoiding enemies and pitfalls and reaching the end of stages. The player can defeat Koopas and Goombas by jumping on top of them. The levels were filled with breakable bricks and question mark blocks which contained coins and power-ups. 

Collecting 100 coins earned the player an extra life. Collecting a mushroom made the player grow large, and gave the ability to destroy bricks. Being large allows Mario to be hit once by an enemy, instead of dying he will lose his mushroom ability instead. A flower allows the player to shoot fireballs to destroy enemies, and also allowed Mario to be hit an extra time. A star power up makes the player invulnerable to enemies for a set time.

The game featured 8 worlds of 4 stages. Each world contained roughly the same make up with an intro stage, followed by a underground or underwater stage (in which the player must swim through the level) followed by level that focused heavily on platforming, and concluded by a castle in which the player has to pass Bowser by dodging his fireballs and jumping over or running under him.

The game was known for the amount of secrets within, some caused by glitches in the code. It's also well known for it's music which has become some of the most memorable gaming tunes of all time. 

The franchise continued with countless sequels, spin-offs, and remakes. New games in the series are still being released by Nintendo and Mario remains their mascot and flagship series. The next games in the series are Super Mario 2 Japan, only released in North America as a remake in Super Mario All-Stars, and Super Mario 2 (USA).

Super Mario Bros is available on the Wii Virtual Console.