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Video Game: Mario Bros

Mario's feeling a little crabby today (arcade screenshot).

Something's gumming up the plumbing, poor Luigi's in a bind
Giant turtles out to get him, creepy crabs are right behind
Fighter flies, jeepers, yipes!
They're all comin' out the pipes!
Luigi: Mario, where are you?!

—The commercial for the Atari port of the game

Can you kick off all the pests?

For the page about the series as a whole, see Super Mario Bros Or were you looking specifically for the Super Mario Bros game?

Mario and Luigi, the Mario Brothers, must try to get rid of Shellcreepers (turtles), Sidesteppers (crabs, which need to be hit twice), and Fighterflies (flies, which can be defeated only while they touch the platform) that come pouring out of the waterworks. Hit the floor beneath them to flip them over, then kick them into the water. Collect coins for bonus.

Later, the Slipice (renamed Freezies in the NES version) will come out and freeze the platforms, making your traction very poor. As the game progresses, water drops hang below the platforms and freeze into deadly icicles, which fall soon after. ^note

Keep track of the green fireballs as they will appear more frequently. The red fireball can also be a menace. If need be, you can hit the fireballs from below when they touch the platform. Beware of hitting the red fireball. It rapidly reappears and moves much faster.

Hit the POW platform to knock over your enemies and destroy fireballs. Be wise, because you only get three, and it doesn't come back until after the bonus round. Each difficulty level begins with three POWs and a bonus wave in which 10 coins are available to be collected.

The game introduced many elements used in later Mario games, like turtles, pipes, collecting coins, and Mario's brother Luigi.

Tropes:

Bonus Level: One where the only goal was to collect all the coins before time ran out.
Brother Chuck: Alas, poor Shellcreeper. In all remakes of this game except for the Super Smash Bros Brawl level, Shellcreepers are replaced with Spinies. Justified; being turtles, Shellcreepers were the predecessors of the later Koopa Troopas, which they're nigh-identical to, and that would cause confusion.
"Why did that Koopa kill me even though I stepped on its head!?!"
Character Title
Early Installment Weirdness: No Goomba Stomp, and the turtles kill you when you try to jump on them.
Endless Game: As with most golden age games.
Flipping Helpless: Mario and Luigi could flip turtles (Shellcreepers) over by jumping up from directly below and hitting the level the turtle was walking on. If neither Mario nor Luigi ran into the turtle and knocked it off, it would eventually jump out of its shell, kick the shell over, get back in and continue walking. This could be done with crabs (Sidesteppers) as well, but required two hits.
Giant Enemy Crab: The Sidesteppers. You even have to flip them over, on their backs.
Hyper Destructive Bouncing Ball: Both fireballs, the red one especially if you stay in a level too long.
I Have Many Names: The Slipice and Sidesteppers were later renamed Freezies and Crabs.
- Shellcreepers were renamed Koopa Troopas. ^note
- Inverted with Fighterflies, who are called by that name in the Mario & Luigi Role Playing Games. They're even a variant called "Superflies".
Jump Physics: Partially averted in the original game since it lacked the ability to change direction in midair. The Japan-exclusive update Kaetta Kita Mario Bros introduced this in order to bring it in line with the SMB series, and every other Updated Rerelease has kept this as part of the game.
Milestone Celebration: Nintendo declared the year 2013 the "Year of Luigi" to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Luigi's debut in this game.
Multi Mook Melee
Public Domain Soundtrack: The game is famous for opening with Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
Scoring Points: This was the last game featuring whose goal was to score as many points as possible. Future games would follow the later "campaign" model from Super Mario Bros. onwards.
Shout Out: Inverted. In the original and Super NES versions of Super Mario Bros 3, if you enter the same space as the other player, you get to play a New Game Plus version of this game. You must kill five enemies, like in the original, and if you hit the other player from below, you get to steal their cards. So, if you have two Stars, and the other guy has one, you can steal that card, and you'll get five extra lives, just like in the main game! You won't get the fanfare, though. The players' status (Super, Fire, Raccoon, etc.) have no effect in this game; both players are small.
- There are also a couple of extra games that load every four battles.
  - The first game has five coins in the room, and whoever gets the most wins.
  - The second game has a single pipe in the center of an open room from which coins and fireballs spew out. Players aim to get best three out of five coins while avoiding the fireballs.
  - The third game has ? boxes on three floors with ladders at the center. Players must kick open the boxes with the run button and find best three out of five coins.
- The Super NES version also has a "battle mode" which consists exclusively of this game. However, the objective here is to get five coins, not kill five enemies. Both players start out in Super form (take two hits to kill), and Super Mushrooms are provided occasionally. Whoever wins five games wins. Curiously, Mercy Invincibility when hit once lasts forever if the player doesn't move (at least in the SNES version). Also, in this mode only, the fireballs are replaced with Boos, Koopa Troopas occasionally appear (and can be stomped on in order to use their shell like in other Mario games), and a new type of mushroom with a question mark on it will appear, either swapping the bros' places or inverting their powered-up states.
- And finally... There's no battle mode in the Super Mario Bros 3 portion of Super Mario Advance 4, but a remake of Mario Bros. is in, and the multiplayer mode brings back the SNES version's "best 5 out of 9" format.
Smart Bomb: The POW block.
Video Game Remake: Most of it is based on its Famicom game ''Kaette Kita Mario Bros.''. Most people mainly remember this game due for it being released on all Super Mario Advance games including Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga.
Wrap Around