Mario Bros. scores 9/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Mario Bros, it all started like this, down the pipe!
by Simon Larocca·January 22, 2026
La storia of Videogame 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 fan favorites, they mark the stages of a glorious journey with their artificial breaths, and the same can be said for the Mario brothers, mustachioed standard-bearers of Nintendo’s banner for several decades, heroes branded by the big N from the very beginning, 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, and for Luigi it was literally his debut!
Two years before the immortal success that crowned them on NES.
Mario Bros was released for several systems, including the NES of course, yet the writer of these lines particularly loves the Atari 7800 conversion, a formidable machine that, despite on paper having technical performance similar to those of Nintendo’s more celebrated cousin, was in fact outclassed over the long run. Nevertheless, 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 everyone knows, in the sewers of the Mushroom Kingdom you can find anything, even hard cash! After all, we're talking about two freelancers, and in a way Mario and Luigi also paid their dues: well, their careers began հենց here.
Mario Bros stands out for the extreme simplicity of its gameplay, which should not be misleading: as you advance through the levels, other types of enemies will appear to ruin your workday, such as red-shelled Koopa Troopas, much faster and deadlier, or those annoying moths, not to mention the dangerous tongues of fire that move across the entire screen trying to burn your overalls! The game offers two modes of play, both in the Atari version and in 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 as 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 gaming partner into the enemies to make him lose a life. Brotherly affection is something that cannot be explained.
Pure, old-school arcade goodness, in a nutshell. Personally, thanks to the ergonomics of the joypads provided by the Atari 7800, I’ve 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 good but not so significant in the long run: in the case of Mario Bros, it is probably the only word suited to describe it
A fixed-screen platform title, as fun as BombJack and with immediate gameplay, yet without at least a minimal strategy your workday will go down the drain very quickly.
In co-op or versus, the fun doubles enormously! Luigi makes his entrance into Mario’s world, and for that reason alone it’s essential to play it
Contro
Like all fixed-screen arcade games from the Eighties and Nineties, its biggest enemy is just one: repetition, which for old-school players was actually a plus, but today? Probably not
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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