Super Mario Bros. is a 1985 platform game created by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Shigeru Miyamoto directed and produced the game, which followed the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and started the Super Mario series. Players control Mario or his brother Luigi in the multiplayer mode to travel through the Mushroom Kingdom and rescue Princess Toadstool from King Koopa (later called Bowser). The game features side-scrolling levels where players avoid dangers like enemies and pits while collecting items such as the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman.
Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka designed Super Mario Bros. based on the team’s experience with earlier games like Devil World, Excitebike, and Kung Fu. Miyamoto aimed to create a more colorful platform game with a scrolling screen and larger characters. The team designed the first level, World 1-1, to teach players how to play the game. Koji Kondo’s music became an important part of the game’s design.
Super Mario Bros. was first released in Japan in September 1985 for the Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES. After a test release in the United States, the game was adapted for international arcades on the Nintendo VS. System in early 1986. The NES version was released in North America in 1985 and in PAL regions in 1987. The game has been released again on most Nintendo systems.
Super Mario Bros. is often considered one of the greatest and most influential video games ever made. It is praised for its accurate controls and has sold more than 58 million copies worldwide. Alongside the NES, it helped revive the video game industry after the 1983 crash and popularized the side-scrolling platform genre. The game’s soundtrack is frequently listed among the best in video games. Mario became a well-known figure in popular culture, and Super Mario Bros. started a multimedia franchise that includes a long-running game series, an animated television show, a Japanese anime movie, a live-action movie, and an animated movie.
Gameplay
Super Mario Bros. is a video game where players control Mario, the main character, who must explore the Mushroom Kingdom to defeat Bowser and save Princess Toadstool. In multiplayer mode, a second player controls Mario’s brother, Luigi, who plays the same role and has the same abilities as Mario. The game uses a side-scrolling view where players move right to reach the flagpole at the end of each level.
The Mushroom Kingdom includes coins for Mario to collect and special bricks with question marks (?). When Mario jumps up from below these bricks, they may reveal more coins or special items. Some hidden bricks, which are not always visible, may also contain coins or rare items. If Mario collects a Super Mushroom, he grows larger and can break bricks above him. This item protects Mario from one instance of damage from enemies or hazards, but falling off the screen will always cause Mario to lose a life.
Players start with a set number of lives and can earn extra lives by collecting green spotted 1-Up Mushrooms hidden in bricks, gathering 100 coins, defeating multiple enemies in a row with a Koopa shell, or bouncing on enemies without touching the ground. Extra lives can also be found by collecting all coins in the third level of the previous world or by warping to that level. Mario loses a life if he is damaged while small, falls off the screen, or runs out of time. The game ends when all lives are lost, but players can restart from the first level of the world where they died by pressing the "A" button on the game over screen.
Mario’s main way to attack enemies is by jumping on them. Some enemies, like Goombas, are defeated when jumped on, while others, like Koopa Troopas, retreat into their shells, which Mario can use as weapons. These shells can be thrown at enemies or bounce back and hurt Mario. Other enemies, such as underwater foes or those with spiked tops, cannot be jumped on and will harm Mario instead. Mario can also defeat enemies above him by jumping to hit the brick they are standing on. If Mario collects a Fire Flower from a "?" block, he can throw fireballs and his outfit changes color. A rare item, the Starman, gives Mario temporary protection from all minor dangers.
The game has eight worlds, each with four sub-levels or stages. Underwater stages include enemies that live in water. Secret areas and bonuses may contain extra coins or warp pipes that let Mario skip to later worlds. The final stage of each world takes place in a fiery castle where Mario fights Bowser on a bridge above lava. The first seven Bowsers are actually fake, and the real Bowser appears in the eighth world. Bowser and his decoys can be defeated by jumping over them, running under them while they jump, reaching the axe at the end of the bridge, or using fireballs. After completing the game once, players can replay with increased difficulty, such as replacing Goombas with Buzzy Beetles, enemies that cannot be defeated with fireballs.
Plot
The game takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom, a fantasy land where Mario and Luigi arrive through a clay pipe from New York City. In the Mushroom Kingdom, a group of turtle-like Koopa Troopas attacks the kingdom. They use the magic of their leader, Bowser, to change the Mushroom People into lifeless objects, such as bricks, stones, and horsehair plants. Bowser and his army also kidnap Princess Toadstool, the only person who can undo Bowser's spell. When Mario and Luigi learn about the kidnapping, they begin their journey to rescue the princess and save the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser. They fight Bowser's army while traveling through the Mushroom Kingdom. Each time they defeat a fake version of Bowser, a Toad says, "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" Eventually, they reach Bowser's real castle. There, they defeat Bowser by throwing fireballs or by dropping him into lava. This action frees Princess Toadstool and saves the Mushroom Kingdom.
Development
Super Mario Bros. was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka from Nintendo’s Creative Department. Toshihiko Nakago of SRD, a company that later became fully owned by Nintendo, helped program the game. The original Mario Bros., released in 1983, was an arcade game played on a single screen with a black background. Miyamoto called platform games “athletic games.” For Super Mario Bros., Miyamoto wanted to make a more colorful “athletic game” with a scrolling screen and larger characters.
The development of Super Mario Bros. built on the team’s experience with earlier games like Devil World, Excitebike, and Kung Fu. The side-scrolling gameplay in Excitebike and the beat ’em up style of Kung Fu Master, which Miyamoto’s team adapted for the NES as Kung Fu, influenced the design of Super Mario Bros. Kung Fu Master was based on the Jackie Chan movie Wheels on Meals (1984). While working on these games, Miyamoto imagined a platformer where players could move sideways over long distances, explore aboveground and underground levels, and see colorful backgrounds instead of black ones. The game used a fast scrolling engine originally made for Excitebike, allowing Mario to smoothly accelerate from walking to running. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani said Miyamoto told him that an earlier scrolling game called Pac-Land influenced Super Mario Bros.
Miyamoto wanted Super Mario Bros. to be the final major game for the ROM cartridge format before the Famicom Disk System was released. Development began in the fall of 1984, at the same time as The Legend of Zelda, another Famicom game designed by Miyamoto. The two games shared some elements, like fire bars in Mario’s castle levels, which were first used in Zelda.
Nintendo aimed to release a new game for the end-of-year shopping season, so the team focused on simplicity. In December 1984, they made a prototype where the player moved a 16×32-pixel rectangle on a single screen. Tezuka suggested using Mario after seeing the success of Mario Bros. In February 1985, the team named the game Super Mario Bros. after adding the Super Mushroom power-up. The game originally had a concept where Mario or Luigi could fly a rocket ship, but this idea was not used. The final game’s sky-based bonus stages were inspired by this concept. The team decided that Mario should be able to jump on turtles, unlike in Mario Bros., where stomping on turtles hurt him. Miyamoto first imagined Bowser as an ox, but Tezuka thought he looked more like a turtle, and they created his final design together.
The development of Super Mario Bros. shows early specialization in the video game industry, made possible by the Famicom’s powerful hardware. Miyamoto designed the game world and led a team of seven programmers and artists who turned his ideas into code, graphics, music, and sound effects. Developers from earlier successful games joined the team in February 1985, bringing techniques like slopes, conveyor belts, and ladders from Donkey Kong, ropes and logs from Donkey Kong Jr., and enemy attacks from Mario Bros.
The team designed levels around a small Mario, planning to make him bigger later. Instead, they let players grow larger using the Super Mushroom power-up. Early levels taught players that mushrooms were helpful, so the first mushroom in World 1-1 was hard to avoid. The use of mushrooms was inspired by Japanese folktales where people eat magical mushrooms in forests, leading to the game’s name, the “Mushroom Kingdom.” The team made Mario start as small to make obtaining a mushroom more rewarding. Miyamoto said they added the small Mario idea to show players how big Mario could become. He denied rumors that small Mario was a result of a bug. The shell-kicking 1-up trick was tested but turned out to be easier for players than expected. Features like blocks with multiple coins came from programming glitches.
Super Mario Bros. was made for a cartridge with 32KiB of program code and 8KiB of graphics. To save space, the team reused sprites and used algorithms to generate background tiles. For example, clouds and bushes used the same sprite recolored. Development time was extended in July 1985 to fix memory issues. Sound effects were reused, like the sound when Mario is hurt, which matched the sound of entering a pipe. To save space, Goombas were made using a single image that flipped back and forth. After adding music, only 20 bytes of space remained, which Miyamoto used to add a crown sprite to the player’s life counter as a reward for earning 10 lives. The game was released in August 1985.
During the third generation of video game consoles, tutorials were rare. Instead, level design taught players how to play. The opening level of Super Mario Bros. was designed to let players learn game mechanics through exploration. The first level introduced hazards gradually, using repetition and escalation. Miyamoto said World 1-1 was created to help players “gradually and naturally understand what they’re doing,” so they could quickly learn how the game works. Once players understood the mechanics, they could play more freely, making the game “their game.”
Nintendo sound designer Koji Kondo contributed to the game’s music and sound effects.
Release
Super Mario Bros. was first released in Japan on September 13, 1985, for the Family Computer (Famicom). It was later released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) the same year. The exact North American release date is not agreed upon. Most sources say it was released in October 1985 as a launch game when the NES had a limited release in the United States. However, some sources suggest it was released between November 1985 and early 1986.
The arcade version of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo VS. System was first shown in London in January 1986 and released in other countries in February 1986. This was the first version of the game to be widely released internationally, and many people outside Japan first played the game through the arcade version. The NES version received a wide release in North America later that year, followed by Europe on May 15, 1987.
In 1988, Super Mario Bros. was re-released with the game Duck Hunt on a single ROM cartridge. This cartridge was included with the NES as part of the Action Set bundle. Millions of copies of this version were sold in the United States. In 1990, another cartridge containing Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, and World Class Track Meet was released in North America as part of the NES Power Set bundle. It was released in Europe on May 15, 1987, and in Australia the same year. In 1988, the game was re-released in Europe on a cartridge that included Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Nintendo World Cup. This version was sold alone or bundled with the updated NES.
Super Mario Bros. has been released on many different platforms over the years. A version for the Famicom Disk System, a special floppy disk drive, was released only in Japan on February 21, 1986.
VS. Super Mario Bros. is an arcade version of the 1985 game, released in 1986 for the Nintendo VS. System and the Nintendo VS. Unisystem. This version had harder levels with narrower platforms, more dangerous enemies, fewer hidden power-ups, and 200 coins needed for an extra life instead of 100. Some of the new levels were later used in the Japanese sequel, Super Mario Bros. 2.
The arcade version was not officially released in Japan. However, unauthorized versions made by placing a Famicom console inside an arcade cabinet appeared in Japanese arcades by January 1986. Nintendo warned that arcade operators who sold these versions could face legal consequences, such as fines or prison sentences. These illegal versions remained in Japanese arcades until 1987.
Outside Japan, VS. Super Mario Bros. was officially released in arcades in other countries in early 1986. It was first shown at the 1986 Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) in London and later released internationally in February 1986. In North America, the game was featured at the ACME convention in Chicago in March 1986 and became a popular attraction. It sold 20,000 arcade units within a few months, becoming the best-selling Nintendo VS. System release. Each unit earned an average of more than $200 per week. It ranked as the 13th highest-grossing arcade game in the United States in 1986. In Europe, it became a popular arcade game in 1986 and introduced many players to Super Mario Bros. who did not own an NES.
The arcade version was re-released on the Nintendo Switch in 2017 as part of Hamster Corporation’s Arcade Archives collection. A review by Chris Kohler of Kotaku called the game’s difficulty "The meanest trick Nintendo ever played."
A remake titled Super Mario Bros. Special was released in Japan in 1986 for the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 computers. It had similar controls and graphics but lacked screen scrolling due to hardware limits. It also had different level designs, new items, and enemies based on Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.
A handheld LCD version of the game was released as part of Nintendo’s Game & Watch line.
Several modified versions of the game have been created, many of which are based on the original NES game.
On November 11, 2010, a special red version of the Wii with a pre-downloaded copy of Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan and Australia to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary. Some graphical changes included "?" blocks with the number "25" on them.
All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros., a promotional version of the game, was released in Japan in December 1986 for the Famicom Disk System. It was given away by the radio show All Night Nippon and featured graphics based on the show, with enemies and characters resembling famous Japanese music idols and radio personalities. This version used slightly improved graphics and physics from Super Mario Bros. 2. It is now rare and sells for nearly $500 as of 2010 (equivalent to $738 in 2025).
Speed Mario Bros. is a version of the original game with faster gameplay and a changed title. It was released on Ultimate NES Remix for the Nintendo 3DS.
Super Luigi Bros. is a version of the game featured in NES Remix 2. It includes only Luigi, who jumps higher and has less friction than Mario. The game scrolls from right to left, like a mirrored version of the original.
Super Mario Bros. 35 was a 35-player battle royale version of the game released in 2020. It was available for a limited time to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers.
Super Mario All-Stars, a compilation game released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, includes a remade version of Super Mario Bros. along with remakes of other NES Super Mario games. The version of Super Mario Bros. in this compilation has improved graphics and sound to match the SNES’s 16-bit capabilities. It also includes minor changes to collision mechanics, the ability to save progress, and a multiplayer mode that swaps players after every level or when a player dies. This version was re-released for the Wii as a 25th-anniversary edition, including a 32-page art book and a compilation CD of Super Mario music.
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe was released for the Game Boy Color on May 10, 1999, in North America and Europe, and in 2000 in Japan through the Nintendo Power retail service. It is based on the original Super Mario Bros. and includes an overworld map, simultaneous multiplayer, a Challenge mode, and eight additional
Reception
Super Mario Bros. was very successful both in sales and in how people praised it. It helped make the side-scrolling platform game genre popular and was an important application for the NES. When it was released in Japan in September 1985, 1.2 million copies were sold that month. Within four months, about 3 million copies were sold in Japan, earning more than ¥12.2 billion (about $72 million at the time, or $216 million in 2025 after adjusting for inflation). The game’s success helped increase Famicom sales to 6.2 million units by January 1986. By 1987, 5 million copies of the game had been sold for the Famicom. Outside Japan, many people first played the game through the arcade version, which became the best-selling game for the Nintendo VS. System, with 20,000 arcade units sold in early 1986. In the United States, more than 1 million copies of the NES version were sold in 1986, over 4 million by 1988, 9.1 million by mid-1989, more than 18.7 million by early 1990, nearly 19 million by April 1990, and over 20 million by 1991. By 1994, more than 40 million copies of the original NES version had been sold worldwide, and 40.23 million by April 2000. At that time, it was awarded the Guinness World Record for the best-selling video game of all time.
Including all versions and re-releases, more than 58 million copies of the game had been sold worldwide. It was the best-selling game for over 20 years until its sales were surpassed by Wii Sports in 2006. The game’s release on the Wii Virtual Console was also successful, reaching number 1 by mid-2007. In 2009, about 660,000 copies were sold outside Japan and Korea for $3.2 million. In August 2021, an anonymous buyer paid $2 million for a never-opened copy of Super Mario Bros., according to collectibles site Rally, breaking the previous record set by Super Mario 64.
Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games gave the arcade version a positive review when it debuted at the ATEI 1986 show. She noted the graphics were simple compared to other games, but she was impressed by the depth of gameplay, including its length, hidden secrets, and the skill required to play. She predicted the game would be very popular. In 1986, Top Score newsletter reviewed Vs. Super Mario Bros. for arcades, calling it "one of the best games" of the year and saying it combined proven ideas with new twists. The arcade version won the "Best Video Game of 1986" award at the Amusement Players Association’s Players Choice Awards in January 1987.
The NES version was praised by Computer Entertainer magazine in June 1986 for its "cute and comical" graphics, lively music, and engaging gameplay. The review said it was a "must-have" NES game and worthy of a place in the "hall of fame" for addictive action games. By September 1986, teenage journalist Rawson Stovall called the game’s universe and plot elements "a special style that makes playing it a must." Top Score reviewed the NES version in early 1987, noting it was mostly the same as the arcade version and calling it "a near-perfect game" with simple mechanics, hidden surprises, and colorful graphics.
The Games Machine reviewed the NES version in Europe in 1987, calling it "a great and playable game" with simple controls, alternate routes for challenges, and "splendid" graphics and sound. In 1989, ACE called it the "undisputed king of cutesy platform-style arcade adventures," praising its secret levels, hidden treats, and addictive gameplay. They listed it as the best NES game in Europe. Computer and Video Games called it one of "the all-time classic video games" with "a multitude of hidden bonuses" and said its gameplay made it "one of the best games money can buy."
Retrospective reviews of the game have been very positive, with many calling it one of the best video games of all time. Nintendo Power ranked it the fourth best NES game, calling it the start of the modern era of video games and "Shigeru Miyamoto’s masterpiece." Electronic Gaming Monthly placed it first on its list of the "Greatest 200 Games of Their Time." Official Nintendo Magazine named it the best Nintendo game of all time in 2009. IGN included it in its lists of the best 100 games in 2005 and 2007. In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly named the All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. the 37th best game of all time. In 2009, Game Informer ranked it the second greatest game of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda, saying it "remains a monument to brilliant design and fun gameplay." In 2012, G4 named it the best video game of all time, citing its role in helping recover the North American gaming industry from the 1983 video game crash. In 2014, IGN named it the best Nintendo game, saying it was "the most important Nintendo game ever made." In 2005, IGN named it the greatest video game of all time. In 2015, The Strong National Museum of Play inducted Super Mario Bros. into its World Video Game Hall of Fame. In 2017, Polygon ranked
Legacy
The success of Super Mario Bros. led to the creation of many more games in the Super Mario series, which became the main part of the larger Mario franchise. Two of these games, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3, were direct follow-ups to the original and were released for the NES. These games were also very successful commercially. Another version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1986. It was later released internationally as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels through Super Mario All-Stars on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The ideas and gameplay from Super Mario Bros. are found in almost every Super Mario game. The series has more than 15 games, and at least one Super Mario game has been released on nearly every Nintendo console. Super Mario 64 is often considered one of the greatest games ever made and is credited with changing the platforming genre by moving from 2D to 3D. The series is one of the best-selling, with over 310 million copies sold worldwide as of September 2015. In 2010, Nintendo released special red versions of the Wii and Nintendo DSi XL consoles in Mario-themed bundles to celebrate the game’s 25th anniversary. To mark the series’ 30th anniversary, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker for the Wii U, a game that lets players create custom levels using elements from Super Mario games.
The game’s success helped make Mario a famous cultural icon. A 1990 study in North America showed that more children in the U.S. recognized Mario than Mickey Mouse, another popular character. The music from the game, especially the "overworld" theme composed by Koji Kondo, became a well-known part of pop culture and appears in nearly every Super Mario game. Super Mario Bros. is often credited with helping revive the video game industry after the 1983 market crash. In the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation supported overturning a law that would have banned violent video games in California. The group cited research showing that games like Super Mario Bros. contain cartoon violence similar to that in children’s shows like Mighty Mouse and Road Runner, which were not widely criticized.
Because of its importance in the video game industry and its role as an early Nintendo game, mint condition copies of Super Mario Bros. are valuable to collectors. In 2019, a nearly mint, sealed box version of the game sold for over $100,000, drawing more interest in video game collecting. In July 2020, a similar sealed box copy sold for $114,000, the highest price ever for a single video game at that time.
Video game developer Yuji Naka said Super Mario Bros. inspired the idea for Sonic the Hedgehog, a successful 1991 game. Naka mentioned he was speedrunning World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. when he decided to create a game focused on fast movement.
Super Mario Bros. is important in speedrunning esports, with coverage beyond gaming and a version for Guinness World Records. At the game’s 25th anniversary celebration at the Nintendo World Store, speedrunner andrewg attempted a record run while Nintendo’s creator Miyamoto watched. In 2021, speedrunner Niftski set a milestone by completing the game in under four minutes and fifty-five seconds. The current world record is 4:54.415 seconds, which is 155 milliseconds longer than the theoretical best human time of 4:54.260.
Super Mario Bros. inspired several fan-made games. In 2009, SwingSwing released Tuper Tario Tros, which combines elements of Super Mario Bros. with Tetris. In 2010, a free browser-based game called Super Mario Bros. Crossover allowed players to control characters from other NES games, like Mega Man and Link from The Legend of Zelda. Mari0, released in 2012, added a portal gun from Portal (2007), while Full Screen Mario (2013) included a level editor. In 2015, game designer Josh Millard released Ennuigi, a fan game that comments on the original game’s lack of story and Luigi’s struggles with it.
In September 2025, an open-source fan remaster called Super Mario Bros. Remastered was released. It includes bonus content from other games, new music, assets, and a level editor. To avoid copyright issues, the remaster does not include the original game’s data and requires users to provide a ROM image of the original game.
The Minus World (also called Negative World or World Negative One) is an unbeatable glitch level in the original NES version. In World 1-2, a hidden warp zone allows players to jump to other worlds. If a player uses a trick to pass through bricks, they can reach an underwater stage labeled "World -1." This level loops endlessly, trapping players until they lose all lives. The level’s name appears as " -1" with a space, but it is actually World 36-1, with the tile for "36" shown as a blank.
In the Japanese Famicom Disk System version, the Minus World glitch creates multiple playable levels. "World -1" is an underwater version of World 1-3 with different colors and music. "World -2" is a copy of World 7-3, and "World -3" is an underground version of World 4-4. After completing these levels, the game returns to the title screen, and the levels can be replayed as a harder mode. Hundreds of other glitch levels exist, including 256 total worlds, which can be accessed through cheat codes or ROM hacking.
The Super Mario Bros. series has inspired many media products. In October 1985, Tokuma Shoten published the book Super Mario Bros: The Complete Strategy Guide, which reused content from Family Computer Magazine and added new material written by Naoto Yamamoto.