Super Mario Bros, the greatest game franchise in the history

This two-for-one classic started the red plumber's empire, and it's the go-to game pack whenever you think "Nintendo Entertainment System." The original Super Mario Bros. remains one of the most iconic games through its design, music, world-building, and more—all done in only eight bits! And it was combined with another game that couldn't have been more different. While it may seem outdated now, Duck Hunt was one of the most responsive, at-home light-gun shooters, compared to competition like Mad Dog McCree that didn't work nearly as well. While games are up to ridiculous play times now, Super Mario Bros. was infinitely replayable, with tons of different paths, environments, and one clear goal. Together, these titles made a stellar package that showed off the capabilities of the NES—and the promise of Nintendo as a whole.
Super Mario Bros. is frequently cited as one of the greatest video games of all time, with praise on its precise controls. It is one of the bestselling games of all time, with more than 40 million physical copies. It is credited alongside the NES as one of the key factors in reviving the video game industry after the 1983 crash, and helped popularize the side-scrolling platform game genre. Koji Kondo's soundtrack is one of the earliest and most popular in video games, making music into a centerpiece of game design. The game inspired an expansive franchise including a long-running game series, an animated television series, and a feature film. Re-releases and cameos of the game are on most of Nintendo's following systems. Alongside Mario himself, Super Mario Bros. has become prominent in popular culture.

Ports and Remakes

Super Mario Bros. has been ported several times since its release.

On February 21, 1986, a port of the game was released there for the Family Computer Disk System, Nintendo's proprietary floppy disk drive for the Family Computer.

Super Mario Bros. Special
A version of the game titled Super Mario Bros. Special developed by Hudson Soft was released in Japan in 1986 for the NEC PC-8801 and Sharp X1 personal computers. 

Game & Watch
A handheld LCD game under the same name was released as a part of Nintendo's Game & Watch line of LCD games.

Vs. Super Mario Bros.
Vs. Super Mario Bros. is a 1986 arcade adaptation of Super Mario Bros (1985), released on the Nintendo VS. System and the Nintendo Vs. Unisystem (and its variant, Nintendo Vs. Dual system). 

An emulated version of the game was released for the Nintendo Switch via the Arcade Archives collection on December 22, 2017. 

Super Mario All-Stars
Super Mario All-Stars, a compilation game released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, featured a remade version of Super Mario Bros. 

Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, sometimes referred to as Super Mario Bros. DX, was released on the Game Boy Color on May 10, 1999 in North America and Europe and in 2000 in Japan.

7 Glitches and counting

1. As long as Mario is descending when he hits an enemy from "below," he will bounce off the enemy rather than taking a hit.
2. In a two-player game, only the first controller can pause the game. This means the player using Mario can pause the game even while player two is controlling Luigi. This bit of trolling was fixed in Super Mario All-Stars.
3. While many people assume the turtle-hopping trick to get unlimited 1-ups was a glitch, Miyamoto has said it was put in the game intentionally.
4. If you get more than 128 lives in the game using the infinite-lives trick, you'll get an automatic "Game Over" the next time you die, thanks to a buffer overflow error.
5. Super Mario Bros.' famous "Minus World" appears as "world -1," on-screen, but in internal memory Mario it's actually referenced as "World 36-1." When the game tries to display the 36th entry in the character table, it just happens to be a blank space.
6. The Famicom Disk System version of Super Mario Bros. actually has a different version of the Minus World. In that game, you play through three levels and then get a Game Over, rather than staying in an infinite underwater loop.
7. YouTube user GamesHaya seems obsessed with using glitches to achieve infinite 1-ups on just about every level of Super Mario Bros. (and the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2). Some of his methods are truly incredible, including one that requires killing off a second player to create a glitched vine for the first.

7 Secrets in the Game

1. The Super Mario Bros. cartridge includes code for an unused "brown ball" object that Mario can climb like a vine.
2. To save memory, the game recolors the same sprite for the bushes and clouds in the background of most levels.
3. If you grab a mushroom in mid-air and hold down the A button, Mario will perform a full height double jump after he increases in size.
4. If you hesitate in place long enough, the Hammer Bros. will leave their post and chase you down.
5. Collecting all the coins in the third level of a world will activate a hidden 1-up mushroom in the first level of the next world.
6. When you hop off the top of a vine to the clouds, jump off, and hold up on the d-pad, Mario will do a little dance in place.
7. That kid in the schoolyard was right: you can jump over the flagpole. It's possible in World 3-3, if you time your jump just right or on other levels using glitches. Your reward? An endless void where you walk aimlessly to the right until time runs out.

Reception

Super Mario Bros. was immensely successful and helped popularize side-scrolling platform games. Altogether, excluding ports and rereleases, the original NES version of the game has sold 40.24 million copies, making it the bestselling video game in the Mario series and one of the bestselling video games of all time, with 29 million copies sold in North America. The game was the all-time bestselling game for over 20 years until its lifetime sales were ultimately surpassed by Wii Sports. The game's Wii Virtual Console release was also successful, becoming the #1 selling game out of the service's lineup of games by mid-2007.

World Record of Speedrunning

The current world record is 4m 55s 646ms by US player Kosmic.

Game Gear Sponsored - Play Super Mario Bros. NOW

12 Fun Facts of Mario

1. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games.
2. The first Super Mario Bros game has sold 40.24 million copies, although that figure is skewed by the fact that it was bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System console. It was until recently, however, considered the best-selling game of all time. It has been pushed into second place by Wii Sports on 41.65 million units.
3. The Super Mario bros series is in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful gaming franchise of all time. It now boasts global sales of over 240 million units.
4. Mario was originally known as Jumpman. However, when Nintendo's US office was trying to think of a better name in time for the American release of the game, they were interrupted by their landlord Mario Segale, after whom they christened the character.
5. Mario was originally a carpenter, not a plumber. He's also appeared as a doctor in the 1990 puzzle title Dr. Mario and its sequels.
6. The look of Mario is all about the graphical limitations of the hardware at the time. He has a hat because realistic hair was difficult to portray, a mustache to accentuate his nose, and dungarees to make his arm movements more noticeable. In Super Mario Bros, he wears a brown shirt below his overalls – a look that was swiftly abandoned.
7. Mario got Wario and Luigi's voice! Since 1995, the voice of Mario has been provided by American voice actor Charles Martinet. He also voices Wario and Luigi. Here is an interview for him:
8. A Q Score survey in the early nineties revealed that Mario was more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse.
9. Nintendo composer Koji Kondo provided the iconic soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. The main theme, known as 'Ground Theme', is one of the most recognizable pieces of game music ever recorded. The tune remained in the Billboard ringtone charts for 125 weeks and has been performed in concert by live orchestras. 
10. Bowser was originally sketched as an ox by Miyamoto, but his drawings were misinterpreted by animator Yoichi Kotabe as a turtle. The duo worked together on the latter idea and the Bowser we know today was born. He's definitely a turtle, though, and not a dragon as some assume. 
11. The naughty version of Mario – Wario – first appeared as a nemesis in the Game Boy title, Super Mario Land 2. He was designed by Hiroji Kiyotake, who also created Samus Aran, the heroine of the Metroid series. Wario's name blends Mario with the Japanese adjective 'warui' meaning evil.
12. Mario and his younger brother Luigi are known as the "Mario Brothers." This means that Mario's last name is also Mario, so his full name is Mario Mario.