Super Mario Bros is one of the leaders in not only its genre of platformers, but in video games in general, and has become a genuine phenomenon since its release in 1985 – yes the game is 33 years old this year!


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The game was released to critical and commercial acclaim and some say that it has never been bettered. Let’s take a look back at this legend of a game with some facts about it you may well not have been aware of…

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1. It was the first of its kind

It’s widely thought that Super Mario Bros and its sequels are the games that others aspire to be as good as, but did you realise that this was the first side-scrolling game of its kind ever released? An example of getting it right first time!
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2. Most future versions had glitches fixed

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When the game has been re-released in years since its original release (it’s had many releases on lots of different systems and formats!), the glitches in the game have usually been fixed, including the famous minus world glitch.

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3. There are a few exceptions

The only versions of the re-releases that did not have the glitches fixed were ones that were a direct emulation of the original NES game, a good example of this being the re-release on the Wii’s Virtual Console.

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4. It was not one character’s first appearance

Many think that Luigi’s first appearance came in Super Mario Bros, but he had actually appeared before in the original Mario Bros game.

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5. It sold more than a few copies

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Super Mario Bros has sold a lot of copies over the years. In fact it has sold 40.23 million units making it the best-selling video game of all time!

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6. The record stood until 2006

The record of best-selling game of all time stood until 2006 with the release of Wii Sports for the Nintendo Wii which has sold over 45 million copies!

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7. Yet the record still stands… kind of

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Many people still count Super Mario Bros as the best-selling game of all time, however, as its sales combine those of copies sold alone and also copies that were bundled with consoles, whereas Wii Sports was almost exclusively bundled with the Wii Console and that was the main reason for the high sales.

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8. It’s gone down in history

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Super Marios Bros was one of the first six video games that were inducted in to the National Museum of Play’s Video Game Hall of Fame, so it has been recognised as a piece of history!

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9. Toad isn’t Toad’s real name

According to Nintendo, in Super Mario Bros. Toad’s official name and title was actually “Royal Mushroom Retainer”. We think Toad definitely has a better ring to it!

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10. Mario had been in more than just one game before this

Many people think Mario’s first game was Mario Bros, the precursor to Super Mario Bros, but the plumber had actually appeared first in Donkey Kong as the hero in the game, though then he was a carpenter and went by the name of “Jump Man”!

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11. One idea couldn’t be added to the game

Legendary games designed, Shigeru Miyamoto, who created the Mario games wanted to include a dinosaur character for Mario to ride in the game, but the limitations of the NES system meant that this was unworkable and the idea had to be shelved.

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12. He got his way in the end

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With the release of Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System saw Mario’s now-famous sidekick Yoshi introduced, and Shigeru Miyamoto got his wish of a dinosaur for Mario to ride in the game!

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Are you a fan of Super Mario Bros? How many times have you completed the game, and have you done it without using the secret warps to cut out entire levels? Let us know all of your Mario-related thoughts in the comments as always!