40 Years of 'Super Mario Bros.'

September will mark 40 years since we were introduced to Super Mario Bros. This platform game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is one I still enjoy to this day. It was produced and directed by the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto. Fun fact about him: More than 1 billion copies of games featuring franchises created by Miyamoto have been sold. These include franchises such as The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong. Overall, Super Mario Bros. has sold over 40 million copies of the original NES release, excluding ports and re-releases. This proves that this game hasn't lost its relevancy in the four decades since its release.

At the time of the release of Super Mario Bros., I wasn't born yet. I would come into this world approximately two years and a month later. My love for retro games started at the age of two. It was New Year's Eve 1989, and I was playing with my now estranged father's NES. The first game I played on there was none other than Super Mario Bros. 35 years later, I still love it. I've beaten this game at least a hundred times, with and without power ups.

Once I've reached towards the end of World 1-2, I would skip the other worlds and go to World 4 almost every time. Yes, you can do that. Everyone has done it. It was rare for me to go in order. There were good parts about this game and there were other parts that I heavily despised.

Most disliked parts in Super Mario Bros.

•The long fire bar at the beginning of World 5-4. There's a Question Block that has a power up in it, but you have to be very quick of obtaining it. It's because the fire bar goes really fast and if you don't get that power up, you'll either die or lose a power up that you had previously.

•World 7-4: Unlike other worlds in this game, there's a specific way to reach Bowser and it was a headache for me. It infuriated me so much that I had to look up online on how to accomplish this task. When I say that it was a headache, I kid you not. Here's how to do it: In order to move through the first puzzle, the player has to take the bottom path, followed by the middle path, and then the top path; taking any other path will bring the player back to the start of this puzzle. Once you reach Bowser, he will be armed with hammers. Defeat him and you've completed World 7-4. As a kid, it frustrated me and it was pure hell. Just remember this order: bottom, middle, top.

•World 8-3: Once you approach the first set of Hammer Bros. and if you have the Fire Flower, destroy them. If you only have the Mushroom, make sure you destroy them but proceed with caution. A while later, you'll run into another set of Hammer Bros. Repeat the process as you did the first time. Just to note that there's power ups when you are done destroying both sets of the Hammer Bros. Towards the end are more Hammer Bros. but you have to hurry, since there's little time to spare. The staircase near the end is one that made me nervous, fearing that I would fall. Once you get past that, you've completed World 8-3.

This game and franchise will forever be part of pop culture. Even if you weren't around back in 1985, there's no denying that Super Mario Bros. is still beloved by millions of fans today. Once you've played it once, you'll want to play it over and over again.

What did you think of Super Mario Bros.? What were some of your favorite and least favorite levels? Also, do you think that this game aged well after 40 years? Share your thoughts in the comments and subscribe to my page on here. Follow me on my socials. Finally, like this story and please leave a generous one-off tip. It'll be found at the end of this story. Big or small, your tips will support creators like me so we can keep publishing new stories and share them with everyone.