Released in 1985 by Nintendo, this side-scrolling platformer redefined the genre and sold over 40 million copies worldwide. The simple controls, perfect physics, and unforgettable music made it a cultural milestone. You play a plucky character who runs, jumps, and stomps through eight progressively harder worlds to rescue a princess from an angry turtle.
The Mushroom Kingdom has been invaded. A mysterious villain has kidnapped the princess and turned the inhabitants into bricks and weeds. Only one plumber can save them. The story is told entirely through gameplay — there are no cutscenes, no dialogue, no exposition. You learn the world by jumping in it.
Eight worlds, four levels each, ending with a boss fight against the same antagonist in different disguises. The level design is a masterclass in teaching by playing — every screen subtly introduces a mechanic that gets harder a few screens later. Pipes, mushrooms, fire flowers, koopa shells, hidden 1-Ups: every detail rewards exploration.
Reviewers in 1985 called it "the best video game ever made". 40 years later, that opinion has not fundamentally changed. The game appears in every "greatest games of all time" list ever published. It single-handedly revived the home video game market after the 1983 crash.
Spawned the most successful video game franchise in history (over 800 million units across all titles). Defined the platformer genre for a generation. Every Mario game since traces its DNA back to this one. The first level (World 1-1) is taught in game design schools as the canonical example of introducing mechanics through play.
Tip: The first warp pipe in World 1-2 takes you to World 4. Don't tell anyone.
All controls can be remapped — press the KEYS button on the control bar. Gamepad (USB or Bluetooth) is auto-detected.
In World 1-2, jump on top of the pipes near the end and walk on the ceiling to find pipes leading to worlds 2, 3, and 4.
In World 3-1, find the staircase Koopa shell trick — jump on the shell as it bounces back and forth on the steps for unlimited extra lives.
If you have a Fire Flower and lose it, you go back to small — not Big. Keep the flower for the bosses.
In World 1-2, near the warp pipes, walk through the wall using a precise jump-and-duck combo. You'll end up in the infamous Minus World — an underwater loop.
Current world record: 4:54.798. To beat 5 minutes, master the wall-jump in 4-2 and the flagpole glitch in 8-4.
Hold A + Start at title
Continue from last world
↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
The Konami Code (works in many NES games — try it everywhere)
Press B 8x at World 1-1
Skip directly to World 8
That's smaller than this paragraph's worth of typed text in a Word document. Today's loading screens use more memory than the entire game.
Look closely — the clouds in the sky are identical to the bushes on the ground, just recolored white. A genius compression trick to save cartridge space.
Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka iterated on the first level for half a year. Every brick, every pipe, every Goomba position is intentional — taught through play.
Koji Kondo wrote the soundtrack only after the game was nearly finished. He played the prototype, found the rhythm of jumping, and composed music to match the gameplay tempo.
Held by "Niftski". The theoretical minimum based on TAS (tool-assisted speedrun) is 4:54.265 — humans are within half a second of perfection.
Returned $1.8 billion in lifetime revenue. ROI: 1,800x. Still one of the most profitable games per dollar invested.
5 slots per game. Sync across devices when logged in.
The minus world trick still works in this emulator! Anyone tried it on the SNES Allstars version too?
Anyone got a save right before the 8-4 boss? I can never get the timing right on the bridge.
Just shared one in the forum thread — search "SMB 8-4 save". The trick is to drop right before the second firebar.
Still wild that this fits in 40KB. Today's loading screens use more memory than the entire ROM.