Super Mario Bros is one of the largest selling and most well known games of all time. it is the successor for the arcade game Mario Bros. It was released for the Nintendo Famicom in September 1985, and on the NES a few months later.

It is a side scrolling platform game, where Mario (and Luigi in two player mode) must run from left to right, in a quest to rescue Princess Toadstool, jumping on platforms, and on the heads of the various enemies walking around. Some will be knocked off the level, and others retreat into shells, which can then be kicked at other enemies.

The Bros can leap and hit their heads on blocks to release power ups, that make them larger, and to another character that can lob fireballs at the enemies. If Mario is hit while carrying a power up, he will return to his normal size. Other mushrooms will release extra lives, and there are also blocks that releaee stars that give temporary invincibility.

Coins are scattered throughout the levels, and can be collected, and if 100 are picked up an extra life is awarded.

There are eight worlds with four sublevels, and although the game is not large, there are many hidden sections to explore.

Pipes play an important part in the game, the player can descend to other 'bonus' areas to collect large amounts of coins or play simple mini games.

At the end of each stage Mario must pull on a flag, the nearer the top the better the score, and enter a castle to finish the level.

The game has been re released on many of the following consoles, and refreshed in later versions such as Super Mario Bros Wii, and Wii U, it has appeared on Game Boy as Super Mario Bros Deluxe.

The game spawned many clones on just about every computing platform, some like The Great Giana Sisters on home micros in 1988, which got too close and was banned by a court order.

There were two sequels on the Famicom/NES, another on the Super Nintendo, and Mario games have launched with most future consoles, excluding the Gamecube and Switch.

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