Introduction
Super Mario Bros. for the NES was many people’s first game, therefore the first level of it had to do two things, teach them how to play it and be fun. Level 1 – 1 manages this task perfectly. Now I know this level has already be analysed to death, but analysing World 1 – 1 is sort of a right of passage when it comes to being somebody that talks about video game design on the internet, and I think I have some new points to add on the topic so hopefully writing this won’t be pointless and you might learn some new information. I am also going to analyse the inner workings of Level 1 – 2, Level 1 – 3 and Level 1 -4 at a later date as I believe you don’t truly know how to play Mario till you’ve beaten the first world.
What The First Screen Of Super Mario Bros. Tells Us
OK so let’s pretend you have never played a video game in your life and you have just been thrown into Super Mario Bros. World 1 – 1 what would you do? Well, the first screen is simple it has nothing but a man who you will automatically recognise as the character you will be controlling (you won’t be controlling a cloud, hill or bush will you). The cloud, bush and hill keep this screen from being boring but don’t make it too complicated. Now as a designer you want the player to move Mario right, how do you do that? Well you start in front of the hill, OK where is your goal well there is only one other object on screen other than the cloud (which we know we can’t reach because we assume gravity still applies in this world just like in the real world as we’re just simple non-gamers at this point) and that object is the bush so we move towards it. We might not consciously decide this but it’s all about those sub-conscious thoughts that happen behind the scenes that make Mario World 1-1 so amazing. OK let’s say that doesn’t work (which it will), then the fact that Mario is on the left of the screen and there is a lot of empty space on the right will get the player moving Mario to the right as it’s the only place to go, theirs nothing to the left and if you try and go there you will be stopped. But how do you know how to walk there isn’t someone shouting it out like there is in other games? Well common sense, the NES controller has eight buttons and one of them literally points to the right so you will work that out, the right arrow takes you right and the left arrow takes you left and because there isn’t any danger you can work this out in your own time, the only danger is the timer but if you don’t work it out in 400 seconds there is no real point in you continuing playing games, to be honest.
Goomba Equals Bad Mushroom Equals Good
OK so the next thing you’ll notice is a glowing question mark box, that’s your next goal it’s flashing it’s yellow and it’s got a question mark on it so we associate it with mystery with excitement so we approach it, but then something approaches you, this is an enemy. But how do we know that? Well the fact that it’s approaching us gives it a threatening vibe and its eyebrows are angry. Subtle things like these make us recognise this thing as an enemy. OK so us being completely new to games will do one of four things and all four will teach us about the game.
Scenario One – We’ll try and run back to our safe screen that we were previously in, but then we’ll be blocked by the wall and die. This teaches us two important things about the game, number one, yep they are bad guys and two we can’t go back screens. OK so we’ll lose a life but we still have two left so no matter, we’ll then use this new space to try and jump as we know this screen is safe, we’ll mash the other buttons in an attempt to find a way to fight back or get around the enemy, we’ll quickly work out how to jump and know now that we can jump over the enemy to safety.
Scenario Two – We’ll have already worked out how to jump whilst on the first screen so we’ll jump over the enemy and that’s that done.
Scenario Three – You’ll run into the enemy and die leading to you learning about death and enemies, like in the first scenario the game will force you to learn how to jump as well if you wanna get past this threat.
Scenario Four – You’ll jump on the enemy either by accident or on purpose and work out how to kill enemies, although it’s more likely you’ll just jump over the enemy at the moment (remember you know nothing of games).
OK so now you know how to jump and walk, so after dealing with that enemy you’ll most likely jump and hit that question mark box, you want the mystery inside this box and it gives you a coin, yay a reward for your amazing enemy avoiding / potential killing skills. The next thing we see is two more question mark blocks so you’ll hit the first one because the other one gave you money, what magically thingy will this box give you? A mushroom. Well, it looks a lot like the enemy you just encountered so you’ll try and jump over it but fail due to the placement of the boxes above, but instead of dying you grow bigger. Now you know the most important things in Super Mario Bros, you can move, you can jump and you know the difference between enemies and power-ups. You might even know how to kill.
Next Challenge Holding The Jump Button
Next challenge for the first time gamer in world 1-1 is holding down the jump button. As the pipe size increases, it becomes essential to learn that holding down the jump button leads to longer jumps. Without this knowledge, you will not be able to advance. Another little bit of knowledge one might learn from this is the whole killing enemy thingy if they missed it earlier. There are a few ways a player might learn this here, number 1 they accidentally fall on the Goomba. killing it and learning the capabilities of Mario’s crushing abilities. Secondly, they might experiment and end up jumping on a Goomba on purpose. Thirdly if they are stuck between two pipes and have little video game knowledge the presence of an enemy would likely scare them and they’d potentially want to get rid of it before trying to make the jump to the next pipe and may end up jumping on one of the Goombas. Fourthly… well there’s only really three scenarios that could happen here that would lead to a player learning about how to kill so there is no fourthly. The next section of the level serves three purposes.
Purpose 1 – To present players with the first challenge, basically the game saying “hey you dealt with one of those guys, well take two of them”.
Purpose 2 – When the player is standing on the top of the pipe it’s a perfect place to observe the behaviour of the most common enemy in the game and how they interact with each other.
Purpose 3 – This will only happen to some players but an accidental fall may lead to them falling onto one of the Goombas only to fall on the next one immediately afterwards. This teaches them that jumping on multiple enemies without hitting the ground will give them extra points.
Next is a jump over a pit, time to put those jumping skills to the test, There is also a hidden 1-up which players who aren’t gonna land the jump will likely collide with, this will teach the worst players about 1-ups at an earlier stage cause they are going to need the extra life and the knowledge that you can regain lives more than those who would have made the jump. It also teaches the worst players about hidden blocks.
Multiple Paths
Next lesson is that sometimes you’ll get a choice between multiple paths. The player gets two choices go straight forward or go the more risky route and go up. That’s not the only lesson learnt here, however.
Lesson 1 – You will learn that Goombas are affected by gravity as they fall down.
Lesson 2 – You will learn that hitting a block that an enemy is standing on will kill them. The question mark block is associated with positively in your mind so the second you see it you’ll jump hitting it and killing the Goomba at the same time, who is perfectly positioned to be on that block as you hit it, and hey if you somehow miss your chance a second Goomba will fall down giving you a second chance.
Lesson 3 – You will most likely learn about the fire flower at this point gaining a fire flower instead of a mushroom at this point as long as you are still big. You’ll notice a change and most players will experiment, and with only one button left you will likely press the B button and work out how to use the fire flower. If you don’t then no problem you’ll learn it at a later date as it’s not as essential as jumping. Experimenting with the B button will also lead you to find out that holding the B button whilst moving will result in you running.
More Lessons
The next screen will teach you about the star power-up. It’s positioned in a way that picking it up will likely lead to a collision with the Koopa, looks like you just learnt that the star power-up makes you invincible and the fast-paced music will either have no effect which doesn’t matter or make you rush through the level killing everything that is in your site. The timer will run out either way and you will realise that there is a timer on the star power-up.
The next section has four enemies’s for you to test your star powers on followed by two interesting obstacles. Firstly two staircases without a pit between them, a safe place to experiment. Secondly an almost identical set of staircases yet this time with a pit in between them, time to put those skills to the test. This is something that numerous games do, the game will present something in a safe environment for the player to play around with before presenting the same thing in a dangerous situation so that the player can put their knowledge to the test.
Final Lesson in World 1-1
Finally, there are a couple of Goombas as a little challenge and another staircase which leads you straight to the flagpole, you’ll jump from the staircase because why not and most likely land on the flagpole before finishing the level. If you don’t jump on the flagpole you will eventually because why wouldn’t you, you have been moving right this whole level. Level complete.
That is how World 1-1 teaches you everything you need to know about Super Mario Bros. If you enjoyed please share this site with your friends and check out some of our other articles. I will at some point check out the other levels of World 1 as I still believe that they teach you valuable information as well. I’m always improving my knowledge on video game design and other aspects of the industry as well as improving my writing skills so hopefully, my articles after this should only get better. Thanks for reading.
Mainstream404 