Review Information
Game Reviewed Super Mario Bros. +, by SilentDream
Review Author Black Squirrel
Created Jan 22 2010, 7:32 PM

General Commentary and Game Overview
Last summer (that would be summer 2009 if you're living in THE FUTURE) there was a Sonic the Hedgehog fangame released at the Sonic Ameteur Games Expo (SAGE). Its name was Sonic Rebirth, and it was designed to be a remake of the first Sonic game, containing all the zones from the Mega Drive and Game Gear/Master System releases, bringing them up to speed with relatively modern hardware in mind. Engine troubles and artisic flaws meant that it wasn't the most precise of remakes to ever grace our computer screens, but the level similarities were plain to see and it was clear that all the inspiration came from Sega's legendary title.

When Super Mario Bros. +, offering a similar experience but with Mario, came along, it was (and still is) the subject of a lot of debate. People seem to consider this one "more illegal" than other fangames, on the basis that the levels are identical to the original Super Mario Bros. game. You're effectively getting the NES classic for free... even if it uses completely different code and graphics. But the truth is, Nintendo's marketing arm probably couldn't care less about the level structure - it's the fact that the game contains one of their intellectual properties that would set them off, and every game on this site has a Mario character in it.

But the real question is, is it better than giving Nintendo some wonga for the Virtual Console re-release, or has Ken Martin saved you some cash?
 
Pros -It's Super Mario Bros.... for free
-It's a nice engine
 
Cons -Unlike Ken's earlier work such as Mario Bros. Vs., it really is a carbon copy of the original game, without any funky additions
 
Impressions
Gameplay
8 / 10
There's little point in discussing the gameplay to any considerable length. It's virtually identical to the original NES game, and though it's not pixel perfect, it's pretty damn close. There's the occasional hiccup towards the end and it's not quite as solid as the original game, but generally it's very faithful to Nintendo's original offering.

However, though it retains the original features of the NES classic, it was coded in Game Maker, which is known for being singificantly slower and messier with memory than Nintendo's official products. If you're running it on a fairly oldish machine (as in, something bought before say... 2005 maybe) chances are it will lag in places, and because not all levels are the same length, the lag varies between levels. Not uncommon with Game Maker games, but this is probably the single-biggest reason for opting for an official copy instead.

Having said that though, this project was apparently due extra features similar to Mario Bros. Vs., but because of a lack of motivation these ideas were dropped. Can't blame a guy for losing interest in a game made for fun, though it's obviously bad news for the game itself.
 
Graphics
7 / 10
Graphics are nice, though not mind-bogglingly great. Most of the main sprites appear to be custom-made for this game, which of course is a plus, however half of them seem to be edited from official Nintendo games, which stops it from getting full marks. Some tiles are even identical to those found in the Super Mario All-Stars SNES remake.

There are a few nice special effects such as smooth rotations, but this is often seen as standard these days in the Mario fangaming scene so it's not overly impressive. Because not everything is original, I can't say that it looks better than the SNES version of the game, but it's still passable and it doesn't look BAD by any means.
 
Sound
5 / 10
The music is fairly standard. One of the main problems with the orignal Super Mario Bros. game is that it constantly repeats the same music throughout. This isn't fixed in Super Mario Bros. +, and furthermore some of these tracks have been ripped straight out of Nintendo's games.

In short, it's boring. And the sound effects are a bit boring too. I've heard these tracks time and time again and to be honest, some of them weren't too great to begin with.
 
Replay
5 / 10
Would I play this game again? Probably not. It's an 8MB Game Maker game that doesn't perform quite as well as the NES original... so I'd be much better off playing the original instead.

Furthermore I've played Super Mario Bros. tons of times, and this isn't offering anything new. Super Mario Bros. DX on the Game Boy Color offered more features anyway... and that game's portable.

But that's just me. If you've somehow not played a variation of Super Mario Bros. before this could potentially keep you as occupied as Nintendo's game can.
 
Final Words
7 / 10
The only addition I can see is Game Maker software bloat, but for those who don't care about that, it's still Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. is a very good game.

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