The Nintendo Entertainment System launched in America as I was nearing the end of elementary school; I was the perfect age to become completely obsessed with it, and just old enough to appreciate what a leap of sophistication it offered over its predecessors. Naturally, the game I played most in those early days was Super Mario Bros. I was no stranger to the medium by 1985, yet Super Mario was, in many respects, the game that taught me to be a gamer.
But then, I’m hardly unique in that regard. Millions upon millions of nascent video game fanatics cut their teeth in the Mushroom Kingdom, learning to run, jump, and fling fireballs with that cross-shaped directional pad; it was a worldwide shared experience set to a peppy calliope tune. Scores of designers learned to create games using the lessons taught by Mario, too. Though plenty of game makers simply imitated the form of Super Mario Bros., the best explored its substance. They looked at the way Mario moved, the arc of his jump and the slight yet consistent inertia of his running momentum; the variety of levels he explored; the gradual upward curve of the game’s difficulty; the thoughtful arrangement of pits and enemies, and how these elements were carefully paired with the controls to create challenges that were often tricky but never unreasonable or unfair. And they built on those things to create new works.
