How Many Ports of Super Mario Bros. (1985) Exist? - Super Mario Bros. Release History

there are a few video games as revered as the original Super Mario Bros for many people it was the first video game they ever played it revolutionized the platforming genre and is often considered one of the most important games ever made spawning a highly successful franchise that's still around all these decades later over the years Super Mario Bros has received countless releases everything from cartridge variations ports emulated releases there are many versions of this game and today we'll be taking a look at them while the original Super Mario Bros is known inside and out by Kellis people there are many variants and versions of the game that are often forgotten and believe me some of them are very intriguing in this video we'll be taking a look at just how many releases of the original Super Mario Bros exist let's begin of course we'll be starting with the NES original Super Mario Bros was first released for the Nintendo Famicom on September 13th 1985 and dawned with beautiful box art at the original release of Super Mario Bros was near-perfect if the game was a smash hit and was a true launch pad for the Mario franchise given the game's historical significance it may come as a shock that no one actually knows the exact date of when it first came out in America it might have been released with the NES itself but it seems to have come out a little bit later regardless it was definitely released sometime later that same year in America however the game didn't see a release in Europe until May 1987 and Australia didn't get the game until July 1987 though this makes sense given the NES had a later release in those regions as for other regional releases and there are tons there is the Hong Kong NES release this Indian Samurai cart the Canadian release and different ones released all over Europe once the Famicom disk system was released a port of the game was released for it in Japan in February 1986 now being on a disc rather than a cartridge this release is pretty well known because the famous - world glitch is much more interesting in this version here's a weird one a Famicom box release of Super Mario Bros what's that the Famicom box was a specially designed Famicom made for use in Japanese hotels if you've ever been to a hotel with n64 game cube games available to be played in your room it's the same concept you'd pay a hundred yen or roughly one u.s. dollar in exchange for around ten to twenty minutes of playtime Super Mario Bros was one of the games that were available to be played on the system if they uniquely cartridge has a lockout chip that makes it impossible to play it on other systems besides the Famicom box there's also stuff to consider like label differences making it easy to distinguish between printings stuff like this may seem inconsequential but it makes a big difference to collectors I'm not sure if this one is official but here's one with a gold label name - Mario syndrome I want to thank much of this one but there is an official vinyl with the same name maybe it was a promo item the label does look pretty nice there are so many releases of Super Mario Bros on just the NES and Famicom alone there might even be more than the ones talked about here but there are many more releases of the game besides releases on the same system so let's move on if the same year the game saw its Famicom disk system release it also saw releases in the arcade following the success of the NES Nintendo began distributing the play choice 10 a series of arcade machines with boards consisting of 10 NES games each with console gaming making the rounds in the mid-1980s companies like Nintendo and Sega decided to repackage some of their games into arcade machines as arcades were still very popular at the time playchoice-10 cabinets included popular games like dr. Mario balloon fight Excitebike and of course Super Mario Bros there aren't that many changes between the original and this conversion but the most noticeable addition was a second screen playchoice-10 machines had a tiny monitor built right above the gameplay screen which was used to display additional information about whatever game was being played aside from that this is pretty much the same Super Mario Bros we all know and love but it wasn't the only version of the game to come out in arcades along with the play choice 10 machines Nintendo released another set of arcade machines under the verses series branding and these once again consisted of NES ports but they were heavily modified in terms of gameplay and difficulty versus Super Mario Bros was released in Japan in June of 1986 and in North America later that year this isn't just a straight port of the NES original to the arcades instead this release has been modified to include some very hard levels mostly taken from the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 power-ups and extra lives are also much harder to come by this was done to make the game harder to finish forcing players to pay more after losing all of their lives this was pretty ingenious as fans of the NES game would be alerted by thinking it's the same as the game they have at home only to find out it's much more challenging than expected once they've realized this they'd keep trying until they mastered this version of the game a paying along the process I remember playing this one in an arcade a few years ago I didn't get very far but let me tell you playing Super Mario Bros and an arcade setting is so cool definitely don't skip this one if you find it in person however if you can't find this version you're in luck as finally in 2017 nearly three decades after its release it was released on the Nintendo switch eShop the first true home console release of Super Mario Bros we'll be going over is one of the most interesting by far it's likely you've heard of this one but might not know where it comes from everyone knows that what Americans first got a Super Mario Bros 2 was originally released in Japan izumiko Gio Doki Doki Panic a game made to promote the Fuji TV Yumiko jo 1987 event the game was developed by Nintendo in collaboration with Fuji TV one of the largest media companies in Japan well the story of doki doki panick is well known it wasn't the first game Nintendo made in collaboration with the Fuji company that title goes to the often forgotten promotional game all night Nippon Super Mario Bros all night Nippon is a late night Japanese radio talk show as that's been running on Japanese radios since October 1967 in the 1980s the twentieth anniversary of the show was coming up fast and Fuji wanted to celebrate the anniversary in an exciting and innovating way Fuji was seeing huge successes in the markets of television and radio but with video games on the rise it was in their best interest again to that industry as well they soon started partnering with Nintendo and hopes to strengthen their grasp on the video game scene if the first result of this collaboration occurred in 1985 that year all night Nippon launched a contest where viewers would submit custom lyrics to the Super Mario Bros theme the winner would have their lyrics used an official lyrical version of the famous song the winner was a song called go go Mario and it premiered live on own Amy Paulin following the contest the song was not only endorsed by Nintendo but was also released as a single by Pony Canyon [Music] Nintendo hasn't forgotten about this song either as a big-band rendition of the song was performed at the Mario and Zelda big band concert which was performed on September 14th 2003 in Tokyo Japan [Music] I find it really cool that several official renditions of this song that started out simply a contest winner exists it must have felt so amazing to be that winner but anyway the first collaboration between Nintendo and online epod was a success but that song contest was just the beginning in April of 1986 Pony Canyon released a VHS titled the great Mario adventure the VHS is pretty strange starring a very weird-looking Mario mascot costume who tells the viewers some tips and tricks for the original Super Mario Bros the VHS also contains a music video for gogo Mario well very weird to look at nowadays this song and the VHS are significant as they're some of if not the first important pieces of Super Mario Media considering how huge the franchise's today that's really cool the success of these promotions showed that Nintendo and Mario could work in more than just video games and could exist in other entertainment mediums all of these contests and promotions may Nintendo and Fuji TV very close if he's promoted all 90 pawn and Super Mario Bros in unprecedented ways it was beneficial for both companies to keep things going in October of 1986 19 years after the first broadcast of all 90 pawn the show's 20th anniversary campaign named all together now was announced the show announced they'd be doing several giveaways one of which being a limited edition version of Super Mario Bros for the Famicom disk system it was announced that in December of 1986 3,000 winners would receive a copy of a game called all night Nippon Super Mario Bros an official retooling of the original game with various show theme changes only 3,000 copies were produced for and given away through the contest but the demand was so high Nintendo eventually produced another limited run of the game to give those who missed down another chance to get a copy but even that additional run was very scarce and was sold at a premium price o'night meepo and super mario bros is essentially an officially licensed hack of the original game completely authorized by Nintendo the changes are pretty apparent the graphical upgrades seen in the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 have all been added to the original in this release so the mushrooms the ground the clouds everything looks more detailed also taking inspiration from Super Mario Bros 2 the two-player mode is removed and instead you can pick to play the game as either Mario or Luigi one of my favorite changes is that they made most of the stages set a night time given the show it's based on always runs late at night now that's all great but what really makes this game on my new pond themed Oh most of the enemies and characters have been replaced with character chairs of famous stars from the radio show it's likely almost all of these are lost on most players today but I'm sure for the time it was pretty cool various items have been replaced as well for example in VX used to defeat Bowser is replaced with the Fuji TV symbol which is also seen on the castle flags at the end of levels as for the levels themselves a majority of them are from the original game with only slight changes such as the placements of power-ups however after world 5 - two levels from Super Mario Bros 2 are used in place of some of the ones from the original given this was a contest prize it's likely all the winners had already played the original game so I assume this was done to keep the game feeling fresh if you wish to find a copy of it today remember it had a very limited release so it's not that easy to find though if you can locate a copy it's certainly worth it the videogame collaborations and aliens aren't too uncommon but something so in-depth like this will likely never happen again especially with Mario I mean this was Nintendo letting another company retool their flagship game truly this is one of the most interesting releases in Mario's line up so you could officially play Super Mario Bros on your NES in your Japanese hotel and in arcades but what about computers was there an official computer release of Super Mario Bros surely not right well actually there was once again released in 1986 Super Mario Bros special was released not on a Nintendo system but instead on the popular computers at the time in Japan it was also later released in South Korea as well Super Mario Bros special was devote by Hudson soft who would enter to deal with Nintendo to port their popular games to Japanese computers their previous efforts included Mario Bros special punch ball Mario Bros and an obscure PC pseudo sequel to Donkey Kong 3 this means Super Mario Bros special was the first ever Mario game not developed by Nintendo themselves this game is technically a PC conversion of the original Super Mario Bros but features heavily modified levels new power-ups and much more one of the most obvious changes is the lack of fluent screen scrolling with each screen being its own separate chunk of level while this was improved upon with later releases of the game the game was never able to achieve the side-scrolling affect perfected by the NES game other differences include changes to audio and graphics due to pcs being less powerful than the NES at the time the complete lack of Lois and the bizarre color palette it also introduced some really cool new power-ups these include a hammer which mimics how it acted in Donkey Kong along with wings which allowed Mario to effectively swim in air until the powerup were off well not technically the original game this one is just so interesting a PC version of Super Mario Bros released only a year after the original if that wasn't even made by Nintendo clearly they were a lot more flexible with the Mario brand back then this one is even less recognizable than special but the game was also released as a Game and Watch title in 1986 and definitely one of the coolest game and watch releases and it also seems like this inspired one of the most reoccurring games on bootleg LCD systems often known as Super Mary it's interesting to see how many variants of the original Super Mario Bros came out in such a short time it's no wonder the game became the phenomenon it is [Music] even early on Super Mario Bros saw many releases with various compilation cartridges being released for the NES itself is the most well known and the most common being the Super Mario Bros and duck hunt card which was released in 1988 that same year a more obscure cartridge containing Super Mario Bros Tetris a Nintendo World Cup was released in Europe a few years later in 1991 with Super Mario Bros a duck hunt and world class track meet was released this one's cool because it features artwork based off the sprite art scene the original black box release if there's also a variant where fire mario has more accurate colors famously Super Mario Bros was one of the three games played during the 1990 Nintendo World Championships with the others being rad racer and Tetris in the Super Mario Bros segments the players goal is to collect 50 coins as fast as possible once they've done that they move on to the next game all three games are included on the official Nintendo World Championships cartridges which was produced in both a grey these were the ones used at the actual event as well as an additional 26 gold cartridges which were given away to Nintendo Power readers through a contest well it doesn't include the full game this is undoubtedly the rarest release of Super Mario Bros by 1993 it had already been a long time since the release of Super Mario Bros and the NES had almost completely been phased out by the Super Nintendo Mario made his jump to the system with Super Mario World but Nintendo was not going to let the world forget how Mario got his start if they did this through what was actually a pretty novel concept at the time by remaking their older games in 1993 Nintendo released Super Mario all-stars known as Super Mario Collection in Japan for the Super Nintendo as the Japanese name implies this release collects the four core NES Mario games containing both versions of Super Mario Bros 2 actually I should probably mention the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 known here as Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels as technically this game was more or less an expansion or modification of the original I did give Super Mario Bros special its own segment but Lost Levels is of course its own game if that'd be like saying Sonic 2 was a release of Sonic 1 as it's built off of it Super Mario all-stars features completed remakes of the original games all converted from 8-bit to 16-bit featuring updated graphics and sound giving the games a complete makeover if given the chance to play either the original or all-stars release of the games I bet most would pick the originals but this was such a great deal for the time and it's really nice to have them all on one cartridge to make the deal even sweeter a year later in December 1994 the collection was re-released in North America and Europe as Super Mario all-stars plus Super Mario World Mario World was now a fifth title in the collection in 1997 the all-stars version of Super Mario Bros was re-released in Japan through the Super Famicom so teleview peripheral vista television exclusive Lee in Japan that allowed players to download games view news articles and even stream satellite radio all from their Super Famicom PS Super Mario collection was available to be played in segments Super Mario Bros was playable from December 28th 1997 to January 3rd 1998 this wouldn't be the last time Super Mario all-stars would see a rerelease however the year was 2010 it was the 25th anniversary of the release of Super Mario Bros what was Nintendo going to do to celebrate this monumental occasion a few things including some stuff we'll get to later but their main release for the anniversary was this Super Mario all-stars a limited edition no way is this a remake of All Stars giving the four classics new Wii era remakes in a very nintendo move this is actually just the Super Nintendo ROM printed onto a Wii disc and sold physically I guess they thought a game containing for Mario Adventures was too much for a simple virtual console release instead of $8 as those normally were this release was $30 at launch now to purchase the original four games on the Wii Virtual Console separately it would have been around $21 so how do they justify the extra $9 well this wasn't treated as a standard release instead coming in a thicker box containing the game itself as well as an artbook and anniversary soundtrack I found the artbook to be extremely interesting but I'm sure most Mario fans who work send it for this release were disappointed it certainly makes for a nice novelty but $30 was a bit steep you'll also notice that this isn't the version of the game that includes Super Mario World this was because that was already released on the Wii Virtual Console and was eight dollars alone hmm one of the funniest things about this already pretty odd release is that despite being called limited Nintendo re-released the game under their blood Nintendo selects label in March of 2016 this release doesn't include any of the COEX jurors but it isn't so limited now is it here's something pretty cute to promote this release of the game Nintendo sent out in character letters from peach to various press outlets that's pretty neat can you believe this one release of Super Mario Bros has multiple rear releases itself it goes to show just how many times this game has been released we got a little ahead of ourselves there time to go back to the 90s if the game was ported to the Game Boy Color in 1999 in the form of Super Mario Bros deluxe this was a complete port of the game but with various new modes and extras it featured additions like a multiplayer versus mode if the option to switch between Mario or Luigi at any time during the main game it had a save feature and once you scored enough points in the original game you can unlock a modified version of the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 known here as Super Mario Bros 4 super players the game also featured various new challenges to be such as collecting red coins or finding hidden Yoshi eggs there were also some minigames included as well sort of like those in Mario 64 TS you can unlock symbols that you could actually print out with the Game Boy printer if there's even a calendar you can view there's so much stuff in this version of the game the only real downside is that since this was on a Game Boy Color if the screen is more zoomed in compared to the original besides that though you really can't go wrong with this one curiously this game was never released in Japan as a standard Game Boy Color cartridge instead only being available as a downloadable game through the short-lived Nintendo Power cartridge system this obscure service allowed players to download Super Famicom or Game Boy games onto a flash memory cartridge for cheaper than a retail price this was the only official way Japanese players can obtain Super Mario Bros deluxe which was released alongside the Game Boy service on March 1st 2000 if you haven't tried yet I highly recommend this version of the game animal crossing was released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 and one of the coolest features of the game is that you could obtain NES consoles which you could actually play you obtained these through nooks lottery finding them in the animal island minigame and some were even only available through special Animal Crossing eReader cards 15 different NES games were available to be obtained through official methods in-game but there were four more that were in the game that couldn't be obtained normally these games have become known as the forbidden for ice climber mario bros Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda ice climber and Mario Bros were eventually released through special ereader cards but the other two never had cards released for them it's possible they were intended to be released but were scrapped in Japan there was a time you can officially obtain Super Mario Bros through a food mutsu giveaway but unless you participated in that all those years ago you have to hack it into the game so despite its near impossibility to obtain the full game is there so technically accounts 2003 marked the 20th anniversary of the Famicom in Japan and 2005 marked the 20th anniversary of the NES in North America and it was a perfect time to release some NES games as such in 2004 Nintendo introduced the Famicom mini series in Japan and the classic NES series in America a collection of NES games on Gameboy Advance cartridges released for $20 each a little much for unaltered NES games but these sold on novelty alone one of the first games released in the series was of course Super Mario Bros which was released in Japan on February 14 2004 and in America on June 2nd 2004 this release of the game was a port with no additional features as it was made to be just like the NES cartridge despite this it was awesome to have a new way to play Super Mario Bros on the go and a near-perfect way along with that this series no doubt introduced these NES games to a ton of younger fans as well over in Japan Club Nintendo had a special offer where you could purchase all of the Famicom minigames in a set known as the Famicom mini collection box Super Mario Bros was one of the games included in the first volume these Game Boy Advance free releases were nice but this was just the start and then tend to re-release in their classic games on current hardware [Music] the Virtual Console service was launched alongside the Wii on November 19 2006 the service allows you to purchase classic games on the Wii Shop Channel surprisingly Super Mario Bros wasn't there at launch instead being released on Christmas Day 2006 which was probably a very smart move I wonder how many downloads they'd gone on launch day from families who had just gotten their weaves for Christmas in Japan if they got Super Mario Bros a bit earlier on December 2nd Europe in Australia got the game in 2007 and South Korea got it in 2008 for 500 Wii Points or roughly five US dollars you could purchase and download the game on tear we Super Smash Bros Brawl was released in 2008 and it features a masterpieces mode where players can go through short demos of games significant to characters in the roster Super Mario Bros is one of the games included in this mode now a Nintendo is no one to alter their classic games in fact it was basically a rule that any virtual console release of a game had to be the original release on the original system however there was one time Nintendo broke that rule with Super Mario Bros during the 25th anniversary Nintendo didn't just re-released Super Mario all-stars they also released this special red Wii as well the Japanese release of the system came with an exclusive modified virtual console release of Super Mario Bros pre downloaded to the system itself say hello to Super Mario Bros 25th anniversary edition the only change made was they replaced the question marks on the question mark blocks with the number 25 yeah it's not much but it's something it's pretty likely that Nintendo is never going to mention this version of the game ever again so to play it officially you'll need to get yourself a Japanese red Wii you're not missing much but it was interesting to see a Nintendo release what was essentially an official rom hack as a way to celebrate Mario's anniversary we're almost done here but there are a few more recent releases to still cover in August 2011 Nintendo launched the 3ds Ambassador Program the program offered ten free NES games and ten free Game Boy Advance games if that could be downloaded through the 3ds eShop Super Mario Bros was one of the games released through the program and later received a full 30 s virtual console release in 2012 if the game was also released for the Wii U Virtual Console service in 2012 in Japan and in 2013 for the rest of the world it was also one of the many games featured in nes remix as part of the year of luigi celebration in 2013 nes remix 2 features a version of the game called super Luigi Bros it's a retool of the game that features Luigi as the main character every level when the game is also mirrored giving old fans a new challenge ultimate nes remix for the 3ds also has a version of Super Mario Bros this one is called speed Mario Bros and as identical to the original only it runs at 2 times speed Super Smash Bros for the Wii U brought back the masterpieces mode from brawl and Super Mario Bros is once again one of the featured titles if the game was also made available through amiibo tap Nintendo's greatest bits in 2015 in the game players scan amiibo figures onto the Wii U game pad to unlock highlights of some classic Nintendo games including Super Mario Bros if the game was featured as one of the 30 NES games available to be played on the NES classic edition released in 2016 if the game was also one of the first to be playable through the Nintendo switch online service at this point Super Mario Bros is available to be played on nearly every single Nintendo console and I'm sure it'll keep being re-released as new hardware is introduced by now we've covered almost every official release of Super Mario Bros but when you open the floodgates and start looking at bootleg releases of the game well booth like Famicom's were everywhere in the 80s and 90s and with Super Mario Bros being the premiere game for the system it was undoubtedly one of the most faked it was included on a ton of multicarts as well as standalone releases not a ton of these are very interesting but some of them have some pretty crazy labels most pirates of the game simply change the art to remove any mention of Mario or Nintendo some are a bit more interesting but given this videos topic are there any leg ports of the game as it turns out yes introducing sonic jam a 6 a bootleg game made for the Sega Genesis or Mega Drive released in 1998 made by a bootleg development team name game tech this game is notable as it's essentially a reverse of Samari that game was a bootleg of Sonic 1 on the NES but you play as Mario this game is a bootleg of Super Mario Bros on the Sega Genesis but you play as Sonic it supported the all-stars version of the game and while there are a lot of weird inaccuracies it's not the worst thing ever the full game is here there's a proper powerup system you go from a red Sonic to a blue Sonic to a blue sonic who can shoot fireballs nothing out of the ordinary there even the water levels made it over the music has also been somewhat faithfully ported though it does sound weird coming out of the Sega Genesis at to the game you have your final face-off with Bowser who dies from one fireball for your amazing feat of beating a bootleg version of Super Mario Bros peach says thank you sonic the kingdom is saved now try again I think one of the highlights of the game are the weird blown-up sprites of Sonic like on the title screen or the level Start screen well Sonic gm6 alone is interesting enough it's not the whole story in another similar case to Samari this wasn't the only version of the game that the bootleggers made just like how there's a hack of Samari where you play a sonic there's a version of sonic jam 6 where you play as Mario this version of the game goes by names such as Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario Bros Nights 98 it's the same game and just with a more fitting Mario skin if they did forget to change the text at the end though so Sonic is still thanked it seems the sonic version came first as its cartridge ID is one unit before the Mario versions idea speaking of that these two games can be found in many different cases and cartridges here's what's believed to be the original release of sonic jam 6 with box art stole it from the book where's Sonic now it seems the official name of the game is really just Sonic 6 I assume Jam is in the game only because bootleggers decided to rip off that game's title screen here's a more recent release featuring sonic riders are definitely not telling of the game inside here's the original cartridge of huh super 1998 Mario 2 most releases of this game use art from either super mario 64 or it's Dias remake the world of bootleg Mario games even just the world of bootleg Mario games on the Genesis surely is an interesting one and there you have it a look at how many ports and releases of Super Mario Bros exist there are a lot of versions of this game and I'm sure we didn't even cover all of them for example there are many more Mario bootleg clones that sorta count but are outside the realm of this video I could also mention the countless fan ports of the game or just fan games in general Super Mario Bros crossover will always hold a special place in my heart with that said it's no surprise the game has been released so many times I mean it's Super Mario Bros one of the most revolutionary games of all time of course it's playable in so many different ways I think it's great that so many versions of this game exist it's fascinating to see the improvements or compromises each release made to fit its format not to mention each generation of Mario fans have a different version of the game they grew up with it's pretty cool to look at it all Super Mario Bros is one of those timeless games that will never get old and it's staying power is bolstered by the numerous ports retool xandrie releases it's gone in over the years through these releases if the impact and legacy of Super Mario Bros will never be forgotten [Music] you [Music]

Channel: PatMac

Views: 862,107

Keywords: Super Mario, Mario, Nintendo, Video Game, History, Evolution, The History of, NES, Retro, Ports, Rerelease, Video Game History, Super Mario Bros.

Id: AxrJXEcc8ag

Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020