Mario Bros. scores 9/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Mario Bros, it all began like this, down the pipe!
by Simon Larocca·January 22, 2026
La history of Video Games teaches us a beautiful and reassuring truth: whether it is the iconic PlayStation, the futuristic Xbox or the classic Commodore 64, characters like Nathan Drake, Lara Croft, Pac Man and the noble Prince of Persia will always be there waiting for us. Part of a large family of beloved icons, they mark the stages of a glorious journey with their artificial breaths, and the same can be said for the Mario brothers, mustached standard-bearers of Nintendo’s banner for several decades, heroes branded with the big N from the start, and yet there was a time when even they “looked around,” more precisely in 1983, when they also landed on Atari with the first title that featured them together, incidentally for Luigi it was literally his debut!
Well two years before the immortal success that consecrated them on NES.
Mario Bros was released for various systems, including the NES of course, yet the writer particularly loves the Atari 7800 conversion, a formidable machine that, despite having technical performance on paper similar to that of Nintendo’s more famous cousin, was in fact overtaken over the long haul. Nonetheless, after becoming a huge hit in arcades, this strictly fixed-screen platformer outlined many of the distinctive characteristics of the protagonists and their world, even though it “was born” as a spin-off of Donkey Kong, the very first game in which we meet the Italian plumber.
Lo schema di gioco è composto da tre file di piattaforme, separate da spazi vuoti per darci modo di balzare sopra le pedane e muoverci all’interno del livello. I quattro tubi disposti nei rispettivi angolo dello schermo vomiteranno fuori i nemici ed ecco la prima sorpresa: nientemeno che i Koopa, le tartarughe che insieme ai malvagi Goomba costituiranno la prima fila dell’esercito di Bowser nei giochi a venire della serie. Per poter avere ragione di loro, dovremo dapprima farle ribaltare colpendo la piattaforma sulla quale camminano, da sotto (e non saltando sul loro guscio come nei platform a scorrimento che seguiranno negli anni) per poi avvicinarle e prenderle a calci, questo ci permetterà di avere del tempo per collezionare le immancabili monetine che fuoriescono dalle bocche dei tubi come ricompensa per i nostri sforzi.
Because, as we know, in the sewers of the Mushroom Kingdom you can find anything, even hard cash! After all, we’re talking about two freelancers, and in some way Mario and Luigi also paid their dues: well, their career actually began right here.
Mario Bros stands out for the extreme simplicity of its gameplay, which, however, should not be misleading: as you advance through the levels, other types of enemies will make their appearance to ruin your workday, such as the red-shelled Koopa, much faster and deadlier, or the very annoying moths, not to mention the dangerous tongues of fire that move across the whole screen trying to burn your overalls! The title offers two game modes, in both the Atari version and the arcade cabinet, so we can play cooperatively with our brother (which I also did in real life, for the record) or challenge another human player in the role of Luigi, with the goal of scoring more points by collecting the highest number of coins, etc. Even if, let’s face it, the most fun thing to do is to push your game partner against the enemies to make him lose a life. Fraternal affection is something that cannot be explained.
Pure and wonderful old-school arcade, in plain words. Personally, thanks to the ergonomics of the joypads provided by the Atari 7800, I have always found this version quite easy to play, perhaps also for this reason it remains my favorite.
Mamma mia, what memories.
9
Pro
The term “classic” is often overused to describe games that are great but not so significant in the long run: in the case of Mario Bros, it is probably the only word suited to define it
A fixed-screen platform title, as fun as BombJack and with immediate gameplay, yet without even a minimal strategy, the workday will go down the drain very quickly.
In co-op or versus, the fun doubles exponentially! Luigi makes his entrance into the world of Mario, and for that reason alone, it’s essential to play it.
Contro
Like all fixed-screen arcade games from the Eighties and Nineties, its greatest enemy is just one: repetitiveness, which for old-school players was actually a plus, but today? Probably not
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
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