Monday, 09 July 2007

• The Mario Game Time Forgot

  There's little about the revered Mario Bros. franchise that hasn't been covered to death on the Internet and elsewhere. It seems like every conceivable facet of the series' history has been documented, catalogued, and recorded in everything from books and magazines to TV documentaries. Ask anyone under the age of thirty to sum up the story of Mario and friends and you'll likely hear the same response: a groundbreaking arcade game, a stupendously successful console debut, and a multitude of sequels, spinoffs and Saturday morning cartoons. And up until a short while ago, that was it.

  ...Until now. Lo and behold, the vast chasm of darkness and deceit that is the Internet has coughed up one of the most well-kept secrets in all of gaming. As it turns out, despite what you've been told since the tender age of five and contrary to Nintendo's steadfast claims to the contrary, the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 -- the game that would eventually appear on U.S. shores as "The Lost Levels" -- was not the first followup to Nintendo's legendary platformer. That honour, believe it or not, goes to an obscure Japanese PC-8801 game that has been lost to the winds of time these many years, excised from the official Mario cannon and forgotten by all but the most hardcore Nintendo loyalists. Prepare your eyes for a shocker, boys and girls. Here, exclusive to the Retro-Playback blog, is a tantalizing look at one of the gaming industry's long-lost stepchildren.

  

  Released in 1986 by veteran developers Hudson Soft, Super Mario Bros. Special was designed for the Japanese-only NEC PC-8801 computer and became the first officially licensed Super Mario Bros. game following the release of the original. That's right, before NES gamers the world over would guide Mario et al through levels ripped from Doki Doki Panic or take to the skies with myriad powerups in Super Mario Bros. 3, a few lucky Japanese gamers could be seen huddled in their living rooms, eyes no doubt glued to their fuzzy computer monitors, busily navigating the twists and turns of what has proven to be one of Mario's most bizarre adventures.

  

  You once again take the reigns as everyone's favourite portly plumber and guide him through a set series of levels, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. The levels have all been redesigned from scratch and, while the basic gameplay mechanics remain intact -- you still flatten enemies and break apart blocks by jumping, after all -- the pipes are placed differently, enemies pop up in unexpected locations, and even the coin blocks are seemingly strewn about the terrain with little resemblance to the original. To add to the bizarre nature of the game, the 2-player mode has been scrapped and the other Mario brother is nowhere to be found. (Poor Luigi...He wouldn't get his own game for another six years, and even then it would seriously suck balls.)

  Purists will be happy to hear that the series' trademark tunes are still present, though the music isn't nearly as catchy when it's played by a three-year-old with a Fisher Price "My First Piano." To that end, the graphics are also a step down from Special's NES predecessor, with a noticeably smaller colour palette and stiffer animation. The computer's limited capabilities also don't allow the game to "scroll" like SMB for the Nintendo Entertainment System did, so an endlessly annoying flip-screen system is used whenever Mario walks off screen (a gameplay mechanic that also has the unfortunate side-effect of causing Koopa shells to bounce back towards Mario for no goddamned reason.)

  

  Determined to **** around with the original game engine to the point of near ludicrousness, Hudson Soft has also thrown in several new enemies, items and powerups that'll have you doing double-takes. Wait, was that a flaming barrel from Donkey Kong I just saw? Yes it was. Whoa, did I just see a pair of Fighter Flies from the original arcade Mario Bros.? Yes you did. Holy shit, did I really just pick up a powerup shaped like a...Honeybee? Trippy, I know.

  The many in-game oddities, neat as they may be, do little to mask the ugly truth though: Super Mario Bros. Special looks and plays like garbage, and there's little doubt as to why it's never been re-released or even acknowledged by the Big N. It flat out sucks. Perhaps that's a bit harsh for a twenty-year-old Japanese computer game, but I call it the way I see it, folks. Even so, it's an interesting blip on the Nintendo radar, and there's just something fascinating about a followup to perhaps the most beloved and influential platform game of all time that completely eschews every bit of its predecessor's level design. What's the deal, Hudson Soft? The original SMB wasn't deserving of a quality port? Thought you could do a better job than Japanese Jesus himself, Shigeru Miyamoto? Tsk, tsk.

  

  In case you've got twenty minutes to blow and normal routines like walking the dog, gardening, and appreciating the beauty of nature's many wonders are lost on you, then you might want to check out this ready-to-play PC-8801 emulator. It comes bundled with your very own copy of the SMBS ROM and, fittingly enough, is just about the worse collection of junk code currently available for download. Still, it'll get the job done well enough, and being able to navigate Special's many obstacles is an experience everyone should appreciate at least once. And as an added bonus, after you're done, it'll make a nice addition to your Recycle Bin. Woot!

  • 5:17 PM
  • 165 Views
  • 4 eProps
  • 2 Comments