Super Mario Bros. Special (Sharp X1) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Hudson Soft's officially licensed 1986 Mario game for the Sharp X1 computer, Super Mario Bros. Special.

When I first played SMB Special years ago on the PC88, I absolutely loved it. Despite all its shortcomings, it felt like a true Mario game, just with some added flair thanks to Hudson's excellent level designs.

But as I later came to find out, the PC88 game wasn't the ideal way to play it. It was the Sharp X1 (predecessor to the mighty x68000) that hosted the premium experience.

The limitations that the platform places on the classic Mario formula are immediately obvious - the screen doesn't freely scroll as Mario moves, everything runs slower than on the NES, and the display is limited to just eight colors being used simultaneously.

Just like with the PC88 game, it would be easy it would be to pick this apart, but I can't deny that Hudson did a pretty fantastic job given the limitations of the 8-bit computer.

The stages are loaded with classic staples you'd expect from Mario: hidden coins, pipes to bonus areas, climbable vines, and hammer-tossing Bowsers are all here, as are a few unexpected surprises, like the Donkey Kong hammer and some enemies from the original Mario Bros. arcade game.

The screen transitions and the relatively stable speed the game runs at make the X1 version a much less frustrating experience than the PC88 was, and the added colors make this one far less dithered and yellow. Even though it's only using half the colors that the NES game did, I loved how the color scheme made the X1 game look. Everything is so vivid and heavily defined by the color contrast - the dark blue sky makes those bushes and clouds really pop out, just like the black sky makes those pink and green platforms just scream for attention. The sprites look great too. They flicker a bit when too many things show up on-screen at once, but they look exactly like their console counterparts.

SMB Special is a game that feels like, and is, a legit Super Mario game - a HARD Mario game. It lacks the polish that Nintendo own releases usually flaunted (watch out for the couple nasty bugs in stage 4-3!), but what Hudson accomplished here is nothing short of heroic for the hardware.

PC88 version:    • Super Mario Bros. Special (PC-8801) Playth...  
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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