Nintendo is not going to go down in history for celebrating the best anniversaries. If you want someone to plan your birthday, don’t call Kyoto. If for the 35th anniversary of Super Mario they gave us three ROMs on a cartridge for Switch for a limited time, for the 40th anniversary it seems that with the trailer for their new movie, the port of two Wii games, and a new Yoshi game should be enough. This makes us wonder if they really understand the purpose of celebrating an anniversary: to honor the person being celebrated. In this case, the Super Mario Bros. franchise.
But since Nintendo is not very good at celebrating anniversaries, it’s better not to talk about Luigi; it seems that the fans have kept that in mind. That’s why a group of dedicated fans has decided to align the release of their remaster of Super Mario Bros. with the birthday of the planet’s favorite plumber.
A remaster like the one we would expect from Nintendo
Super Mario Bros Remastered is a native PC port that allows you to play the original Super Mario Bros. on your computer completely legally and for free. For that, you just need to download the files they offer on their website and have a Super Mario Bros. ROM extracted from your original NES cartridge. Once you do that, you will be able to play the game they have created: a recreation made entirely from scratch that does not reuse any elements from the original game, with new sprites, levels, and audio, featuring an almost perfect recreation of the original game’s physics and mechanics.
Being able to play Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2 (better known in the West as Lost Levels), a selection of new levels created for the occasion, and also levels created by the community, the content offered by this remaster is practically infinite. Especially because it includes an editor with which new levels can be created, allowing anyone to create new content for the game, just like in Super Mario Maker.
Additionally, like in the best remasters, it allows us to customize our experience down to the smallest detail. Being able to choose element by element of the game whether we want the classic or modernized experience, we can choose a mix of modern or old elements, allowing us to create a remaster to our liking from the options menu. This includes support for modern controllers, a 16:9 screen, and a new soundtrack inspired by the Super Mario All Stars version of SNES.
Cada juego tiene sus pequeños problemas
All of this sounds ideal, but it has its disadvantages. Although you probably won’t notice them unless you’re a true fan of Super Mario Bros. And we don’t mean that you just played it when you were a child.
The behavior of enemy AI and traps has changed, resulting in unusual behaviors, or making them pose no challenge in some cases, especially when playing in 16:9 due to their behavior. When we collide with an enemy, we lose only one upgrade, not all the upgrades we have, which is a substantial decrease in difficulty compared to the original game. And some physics have been slightly altered, both due to the change in object behavior and FPS in 16:9, as well as the arrangement of objects in general, making some jumps and the control of fire shooting and movement when we have the flower less fluid than it should be.
Estos son problemas que el 99% de los jugadores ni siquiera notará, pero están ahí y son detalles que cambian el comportamiento de una manera más o menos sustancial en algunos casos. Por eso no se puede afirmar que sea la mejor o más fiel manera de jugar los juegos originales, aunque sea una excelente manera de jugarlos para aquellos que no los han jugado antes, o para aquellos que no tienen un problema con esa fidelidad extrema a la idea original de sus creadores.
Because I mention these details, Super Mario Bros. Remastered is exactly the kind of project one would expect for an anniversary. A demonstration of the love and affection felt for the honoree. Something that Nintendo has not shown, but that its fans have undoubtedly managed to convey with this remaster.