The Very First Game I've Ever Played

Earlier this month, one of my favorite NES games recently turned 40. That game was Super Mario Bros. At the time of its release in 1985, funny enough, 40 million copies of the classic game were sold. These don't include ports and re-releases. I was born two years and a month after it came out. Yes, I'm showing my age here a bit. I was lucky and fortunate to be born in one of the best decades. Picture this: it's New Year's Eve 1989 and just for context, it was also my now estranged father's birthday. At the time, I was a two-year-old who discovered video games for the first time. Seeing my father's NES made me curious and popped Super Mario Bros. inside the game console. For the new generation, the NES games we played came in cartridges. To make sure the game worked properly, you would have to blow inside the cartridge a few times, pop it in the console, and hopefully it'll work.

Back to the game. Playing it for the first time was a great experience, even though I knew very little about the character we know today as Mario or the aspects of the game itself. Over the next three decades, I would play Super Mario Bros. any chance I got. When the NES Classic was released in November 2016, this was one of the 30 pre-installed games that were available to play. In case you weren't familiar with the NES Classic, it was a miniature version of the NES. So, what are my most like and disliked levels in Super Mario Bros.? I'll start with the ones I dislike the most first.

• World 5-4: At the beginning of this stage, there's a long fire bar and 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.

So, what is my overall favorite level in Super Mario Bros.? Out of all the levels, I would say World 5-1 (shown above), from an aesthetic standpoint. There's something about it that leaves me in awe. The color schemes are attractive and bold.

As you can see from the picture for this story, I bought a copy of Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt from eBay a couple of months ago. I just wanted to hold one for the first time in decades. I wanted to own a copy of it just because. So now you know how my love for retro gaming started.

Do you think Super Mario Bros. holds up and aged well in the four decades since its release? Also, what are some of your favorite and/or disliked levels? 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.