A video game review by: Lee Sonogan

(1985) Action, adventure, family

The game that made Mario famous. It was originally released on the NES console and was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto. Has sold over 40.23 million units making it the best-selling video game of all time. As a result, it held the Guinness World Record as the greatest selling video game ever, until 2006, when the game Wii Sports broke its record. A classic game that I am sure most people have played or played a variation off.

Shigeru Miyamoto had originally wanted to give Mario a dinosaur to ride on for the game, unfortunately the hardware limitations of the NES wouldn’t allow for it. He was able to finally fulfill his wish in Super Mario World, which ran on the far more powerful Super NES, and named the dinosaur Yoshi.

The game has been reissued countless times over the years: Original NES issue, NES Issue with Duck Hunt, NES Issue with Duck Hunt and World Class Track Meet, Super Mario All-Stars reissue, Deluxe version for Game Boy Color (1999), Classic NES Reissue for Game Boy Advance (2004) and, most recently, the Wii Virtual Console reissue (2006).

Some fun facts about this game are:

• Mario was originally going to ride a rocket and carry guns.
• The Mario sprite on the game’s box art is actually from Donkey Kong.
• Goombas were the last enemies added to the game.
• If you wait long enough, the Hammer Bros. will chase you.
  
• The sound of getting hit and going down a pipe are also the same.
• If you grab a mushroom in mid-air and hold down the A button, Mario will perform a full height double jump after he increases in size.
• So much more.

Overall, the first video game to introduce side-scrolling to platform games. Was one of the first six video games to be inducted into the National Museum of Play’s Video Game Hall of Fame. The game is so popular speedrunners have managed to beat the game in under five minutes by making copious use of glitches. There is also heaps of secrets in the game that helps you get further into the game. Google them if interested. I recommend this game to everybody as it is pretty simple to learn and master. I have a t-shirt of this games video game cover.

7.2/10