We played on there for hours. It was so funny watching my dad try to explain to us why Mario was breaking laws of physics, and you couldn't change direction while you were already jumping, and my mom using her index finger and middle finger to push the A and B buttons instead of her thumb, and my grandmother coming over and schooling all of us at Duck Hunt. That sweet old lady could sure blast the daylights out of those ducks!
I have so many great memories with Mario and Luigi. So I'm going to change things up and make a list of the things I LOVE about Super Mario Brothers. Well specifically Super Mario 1 and 3. Let's just all admit Mario 2 was pretty terrible.
1. It didn't have zombies. I know there is a huge zombie craze going on right now, but I'm not into it, and I'm glad Mario didn't need to mess up his boots jumping on their heads.
2. There was no blood whatsoever. I don't mind seeing a small red patch where some monster used to be, but seriously I don't need to see blood spatters and guts flying everywhere. I'm not sure what these modern videos are trying to do. I'm not saying we should go back to 8-bit graphics but I sometimes think things are a little much.
3. I was playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 with my son the other day and I was doing pretty well, until the zombies started getting all wild and crazy. They had chickens, dynamite, pickaxes, and all sorts of other crazy things. I also needed to start moving plants on sliders, which was new. Every creature did something different and you had to fight each one in a unique way, while they all came at the same time. It had way too many moving parts. I liked when turtles all walked at the same pace, and they all traveled in groups of three, and I could kill them all the same way.
4. I hate 3D. The more I write the older I feel, but seriously, who came up with the idea of having 3D movies? I can't stand them, and I don't like 3D video games either. When Halo came out I was the guy standing around with my gun barrel pointed up in the air spinning around while the other people ranked up their score by shooting me. I think the only time I wasn't last place was when I accidentally killed someone. I also want to take this time to apologize to anyone who was ever on my team in Halo because I probably shot you.
5. I love Mario's story. Bowser kidnapped the princess, let's go get her. It doesn't need to be complicated. I don't know anyone who actually likes the long complicated stories from video games. In most cases the skip button is used and we don't even see it. Let's keep it simple.
6. I also like that when you got good at Mario you could beat the entire game start to finish in about thirty minutes. That was pretty fun. It was still a challenge, and still fun, but didn't take up the whole day. When we had other games, we would sometimes go back just to see how quickly we could get through the game. Fun times!
7. Setup was easy. When we started we clicked 1 or 2 players, then we played. Simple. I didn't need a profile with my own avatar and preferences. My preference was Mario, but as a younger sibling I usually got Luigi.
What fun memories I had with those Italian Plumbers. The tough part is whether I want to share it with my kids. If I do, I'm sure they'd love it and I'd get sick of it, and I'd have to write a top ten list about all the things I hate about Mario...
Image from: http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.