Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. was released by Atari in 1983 as a port of Nintendo's arcade game, in which two plumbers, Mario and his brother Luigi, move across a system of platforms in sewers crawling with monsters emerging from pipes. The goal is to take out enemies by hitting them from below through the platform they're standing on, then finish them off with a kick before they recover, turn around, and attack the player's character again, with speed and enemy aggression increasing as more rounds pass.

The game also offers a cooperative two-player mode, where players can split up the work of clearing floors or instead compete against each other for a higher score and faster clearing of the screen of enemies, which was a fairly unusual and well-regarded feature at the time of release. The Atari 2600 version had to limit the number of enemies on screen at once and simplify the sewer environment's graphics compared to the arcade original, yet it managed to preserve the core gameplay loop built on quick reflexive action and precisely timed jumps between sliding platforms crawling with moving crabs and turtles. Unlike later games in the series, Mario Bros. always takes place on a single static screen, giving it more the feel of a frantic arena than a gradual journey through a landscape.

Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600 helped spread the plumber character's popularity even before the release of the more famous Super Mario Bros. for the NES, and for many console owners it was their very first introduction to the series. Today it's interesting as a record of a transitional period, when Nintendo was still building its franchises through licensed ports on rival hardware, before the company decided to focus exclusively on its own gaming platforms and stopped licensing Mario and Luigi to third parties for other consoles - a decision that proved key to building the company's own gaming identity in the years that followed.

Why play it: For fans of Nintendo history, it's an interesting reminder of a time when the company still licensed Mario and Luigi to rival consoles, before deciding to build exclusively on its own hardware.