About ten days prior to the 35th anniversary of Nintendo’s iconic Super Mario Bros. game that started it all, a special Mario Direct premiered showcasing new announcements and releases in honour of the franchise. One of the two limited-time titles announced was Super Mario Bros. 35, a battle-royale game where players would be pitted against each other and tested on their platforming fundamentals.
Alongside the more exciting announcements like Mario 3D All-Stars or Mariokart Live: Home Circuit, Super Mario Bros. 35 seemed to pale in comparison. But hey, it’s a free-to-play game if you’re a Nintendo Switch Online member! So, just how good is this fight to the last Mario standing?
It’s-A Me, Mario!
Taking on the look and feel of the original NES game, Super Mario Bros. 35 doesn’t exactly explain its plot; rather it doesn’t particularly have one.
Way back when the initial game was released in 1985, it was an era of video games coming with their narratives on the box, with a handful of pamphlets for magazines accompanied by a user manual. It was through this that the player would be informed about their goal, in this case, saving Princess Peach (known as Princess Toadstool at the time) from the clutches of the king of the Koopas, Bowser.
This has been the standard framework for each Super Mario Bros. title, and Super Mario Bros. 35 lacks that, which makes sense. As a battle-royale game, it doesn’t really need a storyline, but it would have been nice for the developers to try their hand at coming up with something for added flair. A bizarre take on alternate dimensions perhaps would have made for an interesting storyline, but I suppose when you’re frantically trying to avoid death instigated by a blooper and 34 other players, the plot tends to go out the window.
Here We Go
This isn’t Nintendo’s first rodeo with a battle-royale type game. Back in early 2019, they announced Tetris 99. Like many others, I thought it was completely unnecessary and it seemed like more of a meme with battle-royales being all the rage at that time, but it proved to be quite a bit of fun. Borrowing the structure of Tetris 99, the main player’s screen lies in the center of focus and is snugly surrounded by tiny windows of the remaining players’ screens. The right control stick allows you to control whom to aim at and eliminate. As with any battle-royale game, the last player standing is the winner.
Super Mario Bros. 35 implements the same levels from its original, right down to the layout of the enemies. The battle-royale feel kicks in when it comes down to the time ticking away and defeating enemies. Unlike the mainline games, the time isn’t exactly fixed, and can instead be increased with the number of enemies you kill. The ones you kill will go to the opponent you’re aiming at, and appear in a more grey-ish tone, making it more of a challenge to safely jump your way through
The reduced time makes it absolutely crucial that you don’t get beaten by the clock, as there aren’t any lives or respawn points from which you can jump back into the fray. Of course, there are the standard power-ups, and as a bonus, there’s an extra item box that can be accessed at all times provided you have 20 coins to spend.
These slight changes in gameplay from the original were welcoming, as personally I wasn’t accustomed to the simpler mechanics of the Super Mario Bros., a product of a time much before me. Comparing it to the more modern installments in the series, it certainly feels a bit dated, and while entertaining enough for short bursts of gaming, it can get stale after a while. Periodically, there are Special Battles, limited-time events for a few days that add an extra condition or two such as beginning with 100 coins. This adds a reason to open up the game and play around for a bit, but Tetris 99 does this in a much better manner by keeping a theme from another one of Nintendo’s franchises that can be unlocked for keeps.
The main playstyle for the game is a good fit for folks into speed-running, as the game requires you to be fast and familiar with the levels. There’s even a mode that allows you to practice and get acquainted with the levels, though strangely enough, while it’s a mode that doesn’t require any online play, it requires you to stay connected to the internet.
Mamma-mia!
As the game uses the old-school sprite work, it’s not exactly the prettiest looking game on the hybrid console. A more compelling route would have been reusing old assets from the more recent Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, and allow players to switch between modern and pixelated graphics, but it’s obvious Nintendo wouldn’t do that for a game that’s only going to be around for a few months.
There’s not a whole lot going on in the music department that hasn’t been heard of before. The sound soundtrack and effects are all a part of what has defined the franchise’s sound design today. Since the inceptive title was crammed onto a cartridge the size of 256 kilobits, there’s a lot of sound effects that had to be reused. What I found odd was the lack of any signature Mario music playing during the menu and loading screens, and more of an unrelated generic upbeat track present instead.
While by today’s standards, the look and sound of the game are nothing to write home about, you can’t deny that the introductory game is what set up the course for the rest of the series.
Real Talk
Super Mario Bros. 35 is far from a franchise-defining title, and more or less exists as a token of appreciation towards the past. It’s bound to give you a nostalgia-kick with its timely appearance and classic control scheme. For some, it may even propel their skills with the platformer in preparation for the next Super Mario entry. One thing for sure is that there’s no other Mario game that will have you compete against 34 other people, and it is worth a play for its sheer novelty!
