Super Mario Brothers

Today, Sunday, 18 October, 2015 (or Tuesday, 17 November, 2015), marks three decades (30 years, or 10,957.3 days) that an 8-bit two-dimensional space (bi-dimensional space, abbreviated as 2D) platform (or platformer) action-adventure side-scrolling video game (side-scrolling game, or side-scroller) titled Super Mario Brothers (officially titled as Super Mario Bros., sometimes abbreviated as SMB) was released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System (abbreviated as NES). The game was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development 4 (pronounced in the Hepburn Romanisation system as Nintendō Jōhō Kaihatsu Honbu?, literally Nintendo Information Development Division, or Nintendo EAD) division, erstwhile called Nintendo Research & Development 4 (or Nintendo R&D4) and was published by Nintendo; it was produced and directed by Shigeru Miyamoto (born on Monday, 16 November, 1952), who had also designed it along with Takashi Tezuka (born on Thursday, 17 November, 1960), and was programmed by both Toshihiko Nakago and Kazuaki Morita, and was composed by Koji Kondo (born on Sunday, 13 August, 1961).

Super Mario Brothers Cover Art.

It was the best-selling game of all time for a single platform for approximately three decades at over 40.24 million copies sold, until Wii Sports, also released by Nintendo for the Wii, took that title with 45.71 million copies sold—including bundled copies—which has increased to 82.54 million copies as of Monday, 31 March, 2014. Albeit Wii Sports took that title, Super Mario Bros. still remains the best selling NES game, having sold 40.24 million copies from a system and ports worldwide, and is the best-selling game of the Wii’s Virtual Console and also the most downloaded Wii Virtual Game ever.

It is considered by many video game journalists, critics, and publications as one of the best video games of all-time; it is also considered one of the best video games of all-time by video gamers, in the same sense that they, the video gamers, considered it one of the best videos games in the Mario video game series and one of the best for the NES and also one of the best for all of Nintendo consoles.

Imagines Games Network (abbreviated as IGN) listed Super Mario Bros. number one in their Top 100 gamming list titled “IGN’s Top 100 Games”, in the year 2005, and it had no problem holding onto the top spot in the same category for the second and currently last time, in the year 2007; it was listed at number one again on Wednesday, 24 September, 2014, but this time under another category titled “The Top 125 Nintendo Games of All Time”, and listed at number 3 on Friday, 16 October, 2009, under the category “Top 100 NES Games”.

The staff of Game Informer (abbreviated as GI), an American monthly video game magazine that features articles, associated consoles, news, reviews of video games, and strategy, listed Super Mario Bros. number 2, right behind “The Legend of Zelda”, in their August 2001 issue titled “Game Informer’s Top 100 Games Of All Time (Circa Issue 100)”, where they began explaining their reason on why they ranked it at number 2 by explaining that, “Video games were resurrected with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Mario was the voodoo high priest.“, and then finished it off with, “Everyone also knows that Super Mario Bros. is the crown jewel of platform games, and Mario is king.”

On Tuesday, 24 July, 2007, ScrewAttack Entertainment Limited Liability Company, (commonly known as ScrewAttack, sometimes as ScrewAttack LLC), a video game review and entertainment website and a production studio that creates video game entertainment, including original content, listed Super Mario Bros. number two in their web video titled “Top Ten Mario Games”, right behind Super Mario Bros. 3.

On Wednesday, 27 August, 2008, Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated as EGM), a monthly American video game magazine, included Super Mario Bros. in their list of “The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time”, whilst Nintendo Power, a news and strategy magazine, listed Super Mario Bros. as the fourth best Nintendo Entertainment System video game in their August 2008 issue titled “Nintendo Power – The 20th Anniversary Issue”; they continued with, “the game that started the modern era of video games as well as “Shigeru Miyamoto’s masterpiece.””.

On Monday, 16 April, 2012, GamesRadar, a video game website featuring video game related news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides listed Super Mario Bros. number 10 in their Top 50 gamming list titled “Best NES Games of All Time”.

On Wednesday, 27 June, 2012, Game for Television (the word “for” was commonly replaced with the number 4, often abbreviated as G4TV, erstwhile known as Four Generations of Video Games, or Four Generations of Video Gaming, often abbreviated as G4), a defunct 24-hour American digital cable and satellite television channel, included Super Mario Bros. in their list of “Top 100 Videogames of All-Time”, listing it at number 1, and citing that, “This game almost single-handedly saved the struggling video game industry, while simultaneously turning millions of kids into gamers for life.”

Super Mario Bros. was succeeded by Super Mario Bros. 2, which was released in North America on Sunday, 9 October, 1988.