For some reason when I was a kid I was always afraid of tackling Super Mario bros, or any NES game, completely by myself. I don't know if it was just the intimidation factor or just thinking that only my older brothers were cool enough to be able to do it. But now at 24 and many years of gaming under my belt I figure it's finally time to go back and show all these old games whose boss. 
 
     I decided to start with the first one that always seemed unbeatable to me. Super Mario Brothers for the NES. My brothers and I used to play this game like crazy. Normally it would always end up in me getting stuck after using the secret pipe room in the second level and going to far ahead. After a while the SNES came home and this was left behind. With the constant wave of new technologies and games coming back there was no desire to head back. 
 
     Recently I bought a pretty awesome little console called the Retro Duo, which is now letting me dive back into my library of old NES and SNES games. If you want to be able to play your old cartridges but don't have a working console, then I strongly suggest picking up one of these. They use a SNES controller and run great. 
 
    In order to  play through Super Mario Brothers, I decided to use the Super Mario All-Stars game. I know its not the same and not even 8-bit, but I want to be able to make us of the save function that I know it has. I also plan to ignore all the little "secrets" that I know. Mainly, no secret pipe rooms. I want to play through every level.
 
     After playing through the first two worlds the all the old instincts are coming back. Getting the timing of the jumps down, learning hoe to nail all the jumping turtles with the fireballs, it's all coming back. I will say that this game can make my hands sweat with nervousness just as much as any Xbox 360 game or any other Current-gen console game could. It gets intense after getting hit once and you have to try to make a series of quick tight jumps.
 
     Perhaps one of the more fun aspects of going back and playing this game now is seeing all the little weird things that were just accepted when I was 5. For example, who the hell are all these Bowsers I'm killing? Its never the right castle, but I'm still dropping a look-alike into a lava pit at the end of each world. Am I knocking off all his cousins or something? Thats going to be a short guest list at the next family reunion. Oh-well It's and awesome game and I can't nit-pik it to death. I'm having an awesome time!

     For some reason when I was a kid I was always afraid of tackling Super Mario bros, or any NES game, completely by myself. I don't know if it was just the intimidation factor or just thinking that only my older brothers were cool enough to be able to do it. But now at 24 and many years of gaming under my belt I figure it's finally time to go back and show all these old games whose boss. 
 
     I decided to start with the first one that always seemed unbeatable to me. Super Mario Brothers for the NES. My brothers and I used to play this game like crazy. Normally it would always end up in me getting stuck after using the secret pipe room in the second level and going to far ahead. After a while the SNES came home and this was left behind. With the constant wave of new technologies and games coming back there was no desire to head back. 
 
     Recently I bought a pretty awesome little console called the Retro Duo, which is now letting me dive back into my library of old NES and SNES games. If you want to be able to play your old cartridges but don't have a working console, then I strongly suggest picking up one of these. They use a SNES controller and run great. 
 
    In order to  play through Super Mario Brothers, I decided to use the Super Mario All-Stars game. I know its not the same and not even 8-bit, but I want to be able to make us of the save function that I know it has. I also plan to ignore all the little "secrets" that I know. Mainly, no secret pipe rooms. I want to play through every level.
 
     After playing through the first two worlds the all the old instincts are coming back. Getting the timing of the jumps down, learning hoe to nail all the jumping turtles with the fireballs, it's all coming back. I will say that this game can make my hands sweat with nervousness just as much as any Xbox 360 game or any other Current-gen console game could. It gets intense after getting hit once and you have to try to make a series of quick tight jumps.
 
     Perhaps one of the more fun aspects of going back and playing this game now is seeing all the little weird things that were just accepted when I was 5. For example, who the hell are all these Bowsers I'm killing? Its never the right castle, but I'm still dropping a look-alike into a lava pit at the end of each world. Am I knocking off all his cousins or something? Thats going to be a short guest list at the next family reunion. Oh-well It's and awesome game and I can't nit-pik it to death. I'm having an awesome time!