Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros., released by Nintendo for the Family Computer in Japan in 1985, is a side-scrolling platform game created by Nintendo's Research & Development 4 team. Shigeru Miyamoto served as director and designer, while Takashi Tezuka was assistant director and designer. The game arrived in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System later that year. Its premise sends Mario into the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from Bowser, leader of the Koopa Troop. Japanese materials identify the princess as Peach, the name Nintendo subsequently used worldwide. Bowser has used magic to transform the kingdom's inhabitants into inanimate objects. The adventure contains eight worlds, each divided into four stages, for a total of thirty-two courses. Mario runs, jumps, and breaks bricks or hits Question Blocks while moving toward each stage's goal pole. He collects coins, and one hundred coins award an extra life. A Super Mushroom makes him larger and lets him survive one hit; a Fire Flower gives him fireballs; and a Starman grants invincibility. Enemies include Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Piranha Plants, and Hammer Bros. Reaching a castle concludes each world, where Mario confronts Bowser or, in earlier castles, a disguised enemy. Princess Toadstool waits in the final castle. Mario can enter hidden Warp Zones that send him to later worlds. The game was built around clear visual teaching: World 1-1 introduces a Goomba and Question Blocks near its opening, letting players discover jumping and power-ups without written instruction. Its score was composed by Koji Kondo, whose main overworld theme became one of video gaming's best-known pieces of music. Mario's brother Luigi appears as the second player's character in the two-player alternating-turns mode. Unlike later multiplayer Mario games, both players do not occupy a course simultaneously. The game uses a time limit for stages, adding pressure to reaching the goal. It became a pack-in title for many NES consoles in North America, helping establish the system's identity. Nintendo has repeatedly reissued it, including through the 1993 Super NES compilation Super Mario All-Stars, which presented an enhanced version. The original game also inspired an animated adaptation of the game, the 1986 Japanese animated film Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! Its performance was enormous: Guinness World Records listed it as the best-selling video game of all time until Wii Sports surpassed it. By Nintendo reports that the game has sold more than fifty-eight million copies to date.