MEET IT IN 30 SECONDS
スーパーマリオブラザーズ
Nintendo’s 1985 Super Mario Bros. is a side-scrolling action game. Players use running, controllable jumps, and power-ups to explore the Mushroom Kingdom, find hidden routes, and seek Princess Peach across eight worlds.
Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom in Japan on 13 September 1985. Players guide Mario through rightward-scrolling courses using running, jumping, and power-ups. It is the first game in the Super Mario series.
The original manual’s story has Bowser’s clan invade the Mushroom Kingdom, transform its inhabitants by magic, and capture Princess Peach, who can undo the spell. Mario’s journey through the worlds leads toward rescuing her.
Nintendo’s chronology identifies eight worlds and thirty-two courses, with settings including land, underground passages, water, and clouds. The manual divides each world into four areas, the fourth a castle. These environments change movement, hazards, and goals.
Single-player mode uses controller I. In two-player mode, Mario and Luigi take turns using controllers I and II respectively. A lost life passes play to the other player, with each keeping separate progress through the courses.
On the original Famicom, left and right move Mario, A jumps, and holding B accelerates his run. Super Mario can crouch with down. Start begins or pauses play; Select chooses the player mode on the title screen.
The duration of an A press changes jump height, and direction can still be adjusted in the air. A running approach with B allows a higher jump. Control continues from takeoff through the airborne movement.
Underwater, each A press moves Mario upward, making vertical positioning part of swimming. The manual also warns that underwater enemies cannot be handled by stomping. The same controls thus produce a different movement pattern from land courses.
Ordinary course endings have a flagpole that awards more points for a higher grab; the fourth area of each world is a castle. A time limit runs during play. Remaining time becomes points after ordinary areas, while castle areas have no such bonus.
An enemy hit costs small Mario a life; Super or Fire Mario shrinks to small Mario and gains brief protection from further hits. Falling into a pit or running out of time also costs a life. The manual describes partway restarts, while castle areas restart from their entrances.
Castle endings replace the ordinary flagpole. Bowser stands on a bridge with an axe beyond him; reaching the axe drops the bridge and sends him into the lava. Fire Mario can instead defeat him with fireballs. Chris Kohler’s original-game analysis in Power-Up compares the two methods with images of 8-4: attack the enemy, or move past him to trigger a change in the setting.
At a 2026 press conference, Miyamoto recalled difficulty designing a boss battle, then finding a solution in the game’s continuing movement to the right: get past Bowser and reach the far side. This relates the castle goal to the running and jumping used throughout the game, rather than requiring every obstacle to be fought first.
The original manual describes a right-scrolling adventure. The visible screen is part of a longer course; progress reveals terrain that was previously outside the view. It also warns that enemies exist outside the screen, although shell attacks do not apply to those enemies. Being out of sight is not simply the same as being absent.
Mario can move left or right within the current view, but the camera’s progress follows a different rule. Hiroshi Yoshida’s 2007 study compares successive views of the original World 1-1: the screen generally stays still while Mario does, but once it has advanced rightward, his retreat to the left edge does not scroll it back. An item already passed beyond that edge cannot be recovered simply by walking left. A dedicated passage such as a vine changes the route through a separate mechanism.
A kicked shell provides a specific feedback example. Even outside the visible screen, it can strike a pipe and return. The manual advises preparing to jump when the rebound is heard. Sound supplements the visible field, so the player must respond to the consequences of an earlier action as well as the enemies currently in view.
A Super Mushroom changes small Mario into Super Mario, providing an extra hit before losing a life and the ability to break bricks. Size affects both contact with the surroundings and the available interactions.
Super Mario becomes Fire Mario by collecting a Fire Flower, enabling him to throw fireballs with B, two in quick succession. Some enemies resist fireballs, keeping stomping, avoidance, and ranged attacks useful in different encounters.
A Star makes Mario flash temporarily and defeat enemies by contact. This timed effect differs from the size and attack changes of mushrooms and flowers. Terrain still matters.
The manual awards 200 points per coin and another life for every hundred coins. A 1-Up Mushroom also adds a life. Successive stomps or a shell striking several enemies produce increasing rewards.
Ground enemies such as Goombas can be stomped. A Koopa Troopa retreats into its shell, which can be kicked into other enemies but also rebound from obstacles. Spinies cannot be stomped from above, and underwater encounters follow different rules.
Nintendo’s interviews bring together design by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, programming involving SRD’s Toshihiko Nakago, and Koji Kondo’s music. Miyamoto recalled in 2016 that they aimed to combine earlier experience with large characters and scrolling into a Famicom cartridge game.
Miyamoto recalled in 2016 that a discussion about seeing farther ahead led to the use of a smaller character and the idea of Super Mario shrinking after damage. This made more of the course visible and gave the powered-up character a margin of one hit.
The equipment illustrates development roles; it does not reconstruct the 1985 workspace or hardware.
Nakago and Tezuka recall courses being drawn on large graph paper and manually entered by SRD. Revised data went into ROM for testing, with feedback becoming the next day’s changes. Spacing and obstacle placement emerged through repeated play and revision.
The developers say they built later worlds first and placed gentler designs earlier, making and revising World 1-1 last. The first mushroom’s rebound from a pipe is their example of a second chance for a player who missed the first opportunity to collect it.
Kondo recalls that a relaxed tune inspired by blue skies and fields did not suit Mario’s movement. He reworked the Ground Theme around the rhythm of running and jumping, while making the land, water, underground, and castle music distinct.
The developers recall working with a limited set of graphic parts. Clouds and bushes shared shapes with different colours, while mushrooms, flowers, and stars used mirrored halves. Goombas were added late in development, with a flipped image creating the impression of walking.
Nintendo’s 2016 interview identifies two earlier projects behind the technical accumulation. Devil World had achieved characters twice the usual size, while Excitebike developed scrolling techniques. Miyamoto recalls fitting these capabilities together like a puzzle in a Famicom cartridge, producing the play of a large character running and jumping through long scrolling courses.
With the Disk System approaching, he wanted this to be a culmination of cartridge development. Large-character movement and scrolling were combined into longer routes for continuous running and jumping. How a large character could see farther ahead, and how damage could reduce him to a smaller form, became further design decisions.
Nintendo’s Famicom chronology credits the original game with worldwide sales exceeding forty million, the platform’s highest-selling title. The Strong National Museum of Play inducted it into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2015 and identifies it as an important part of Nintendo’s revival of the American home video game market.
VS. Super Mario Bros. adapted the game for Nintendo’s VS. arcade system, changing enemies, pits, and courses to raise the difficulty. Its World 4-2 Warp Zone, for example, leads only to World 6. HAMSTER’s Arcade Archives series brought this version to Switch in 2017.
Japan’s 1986 Super Mario Bros. 2, released for the Famicom Disk System, developed the original game’s play into a sequel. The American Super Mario Bros. 2 was instead adapted from Doki Doki Panic and reached Japan’s Famicom in 1992 as Super Mario USA.
The 1993 Super Famicom collection brought together the original, 2, 3, and USA. Nintendo’s 2010 announcement rereleased the collection for Wii with a historical booklet and soundtrack CD, placing the earlier games within an anniversary package.
The 3DS version was distributed in Japan from 5 January 2012 as a reproduction of the Famicom cartridge game. The 2020 anniversary Game & Watch added an infinite-lives mode and selection among reached worlds, making repeated attempts and later-world starts easier.
Koji Kondo’s Ground Theme for the 1985 game entered the Library of Congress National Recording Registry in 2023. The Library identifies it as the first video-game sound or song selected for the registry; this recognition concerns the musical recording.
Eight worlds with four areas each, for thirty-two courses.
A jumps or swims upward underwater. B accelerates movement and throws fireballs once Super Mario has collected a Fire Flower.
No. Mario and Luigi take turns; the original is not simultaneous cooperative play.
According to their recollection, it gives a beginner another opportunity to collect the mushroom after missing it.
No. Nintendo’s 2020 announcement explicitly identifies it as an added feature.
Getting past Bowser to the axe drops the bridge and sends him into lava. Fireballs provide another method, distinguishing a positional trigger from direct attack.
No. Mario can move within the current view, but retreating to its left edge does not scroll the camera back. An off-screen shell can still rebound from a pipe, and the manual advises preparing to jump at the sound. Camera limits and audible feedback both affect the next move.
Large-character work in Devil World and scrolling experience in Excitebike were combined into running and jumping through long courses, with size-change rules developed further.