Mario Bros. - 1983 Arcade - 2 Player - 3 lives + 1 bonus life

Mario Bros - 1983 Arcade - 2 Player - 3 lives + 1 bonus life

Played on: 4 June 2023 (4/06/2023)

Mario Bros. is a 1983 arcade game developed and published for arcades by Nintendo. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate creatures emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game produced by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.

The arcade and Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System versions were received positively by critics. Elements introduced in Mario Bros. such as spinning bonus coins, turtles which can be flipped onto their backs, and Luigi were carried over to Super Mario Bros. (1985) and became staples of the series.

An updated version of Mario Bros. is included as a mini game in all of the Super Mario Advance series and numerous other games. Mario Bros. has been re-released through Nintendo's online stores for later systems.

Mario Bros. was ported by other companies to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family, Atari 7800, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. The Commodore 64 has two versions: an Atarisoft port which was not commercially released and a 1986 version by Ocean Software. The Atari 8-bit computer version by Sculptured Software is the only home port which includes the falling icicles. An Apple II version was never commercially released, but copies of it appear to exist.

A port by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in North America on June 23, 1986. A later NES port was released exclusively in Europe in 1993, called Mario Bros. (Classic Series).

Mario Bros. was ported via the Virtual Console service in North America, Australia, Europe and Japan for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U. On September 27, 2017, Mario Bros. was released for the Nintendo Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series. The NES version was a launch title for Nintendo Switch Online.

Nintendo included Mario Bros. as a bonus in a number of releases, including Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Game Boy Advance's Super Mario Advance series as well as Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, The NES version is included as a piece of furniture in Animal Crossing for the GameCube, along with many other NES games, though this one requires the use of a Nintendo e-Reader and a North America-exclusive Animal Crossing e-Card.

In 2004, Namco released an arcade cabinet containing Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Mario Bros. Mario Bros. was altered for the vertical screen used by the other games, with the visible play area cropped on the sides.