Super Mario Bros. Special: 35th Anniversary Edition
released on Jul 28, 2021
A mod for Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. Special is a follow-up to Super Mario Bros, originally released in Japan in 1986 for the home computer market. The game features 32 all new levels, 5 new enemies and 5 new power-ups. Due to limitations of the PC hardware, the game engine was quite poor in comparison to the Famicom/NES original. Most notable was the lack of scrolling; the PC version would instead show each screen one at a time. This port brings the levels, new enemies and power-ups back to the Famicom/NES engine. Also included are most of the unique background changes and other features not possible with the original SMB engine. The end result is a much more playable game that feels like a legitimate sequel.
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Played for a little while using FCE Ultra GX on my modded Wii. From what I can tell so far, the hack author did an excellent job of porting Super Mario Bros. Special to the NES, so I'll see to it that I give the rest of the game a chance.
Really love this, I love the level design of Special and getting to play it on the NES with non garbage graphics is wonderful. Before this romhack existed I used to have to patch smb with a color palette hack and also a maps hack for special, this is the entire game ported including behaviors and its really cool. Highly recommend!
[played on the FCE Ultra GX emulator on the Wii]
I think it's safe to say that Super Mario Bros. Special is probably the most obscure 2D game in the series. Released on a few Japanese computers in 1986, it's not exactly the easiest game to get up and running these days. From what I've seen, there have been a few attempts at getting the game ported to the NES, but none seem to be as accurate as the 35th Anniversary Edition by Frantik, which is the version I've decided to play.
It'd probably be best to summarize my thoughts on SMB1 before I get into talking about this proper, so I'd like to say that even nearly 40 years later, it's still brilliant! Certainly simple by today's standards, but it's easy to see why it was so revolutionary. And as a game building on that foundation, SMB Special's really solid!
The levels aren't quite as good as what Miyamoto and co cooked up for the original, but the fact that Hudson Soft got so close is definitely something to be admired. They also play with your expectations a few times, like having sub-areas in the water levels and having the goal-post in one level be in an underground section. These levels are also fairly challenging, never to the degree of something like The Lost Levels but still fairly tough, especially towards the end.
There's also cute little references to some of Mario's past appearances, with the additions of obstacles/enemies from Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., as well as the hammer power-up from the former (which is incredibly broken here, as you can still jump with it activated). Honestly, the enemies from Mario Bros. fit in rather nicely, and their appearances here genuinely makes me want to see them incorporated in a future 2D Mario. My only real criticism with these references is that they just end up feeling like glorified easter eggs, since they're so infrequent and really could've added some variety if used more. There's also a totally unique power-up that lets you swim through the air, but I completely missed it on this run.
In terms of criticisms, the only one I can really think of is that there's occasional leaps of faith, but they didn't really affect me too much once I learnt that you can clear just about all of them with a running jump.
For what it is, I really enjoyed SMB Special! I have to give props to Hudson Soft for making Mario levels this good so early in the series' life, and props to Frantik for porting all of this to the NES in the first place (it almost definitely wasn't easy)! It feels like a proper successor to the original SMB, even moreso than the sequel the Famicom Disk System got.
If you love SMB1 or want to check out this weird piece of Mario history in some form, this is probably the best way to do it!
I think it's safe to say that Super Mario Bros. Special is probably the most obscure 2D game in the series. Released on a few Japanese computers in 1986, it's not exactly the easiest game to get up and running these days. From what I've seen, there have been a few attempts at getting the game ported to the NES, but none seem to be as accurate as the 35th Anniversary Edition by Frantik, which is the version I've decided to play.
It'd probably be best to summarize my thoughts on SMB1 before I get into talking about this proper, so I'd like to say that even nearly 40 years later, it's still brilliant! Certainly simple by today's standards, but it's easy to see why it was so revolutionary. And as a game building on that foundation, SMB Special's really solid!
The levels aren't quite as good as what Miyamoto and co cooked up for the original, but the fact that Hudson Soft got so close is definitely something to be admired. They also play with your expectations a few times, like having sub-areas in the water levels and having the goal-post in one level be in an underground section. These levels are also fairly challenging, never to the degree of something like The Lost Levels but still fairly tough, especially towards the end.
There's also cute little references to some of Mario's past appearances, with the additions of obstacles/enemies from Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., as well as the hammer power-up from the former (which is incredibly broken here, as you can still jump with it activated). Honestly, the enemies from Mario Bros. fit in rather nicely, and their appearances here genuinely makes me want to see them incorporated in a future 2D Mario. My only real criticism with these references is that they just end up feeling like glorified easter eggs, since they're so infrequent and really could've added some variety if used more. There's also a totally unique power-up that lets you swim through the air, but I completely missed it on this run.
In terms of criticisms, the only one I can really think of is that there's occasional leaps of faith, but they didn't really affect me too much once I learnt that you can clear just about all of them with a running jump.
For what it is, I really enjoyed SMB Special! I have to give props to Hudson Soft for making Mario levels this good so early in the series' life, and props to Frantik for porting all of this to the NES in the first place (it almost definitely wasn't easy)! It feels like a proper successor to the original SMB, even moreso than the sequel the Famicom Disk System got.
If you love SMB1 or want to check out this weird piece of Mario history in some form, this is probably the best way to do it!
This is so much better than the normal version of the game, but the game itself is still pretty eh. It's a bit more fun than the OG Game (cause of cool powerups), but it is just Super Mario Bros.
Checked out this NES ROM hack that faithfully recreates a pretty obscure PC follow-up to the original Super Mario Bros. as a native NES game. I guess, technically speaking, this would be the third official sequel to Super Mario Bros. (after The Lost Levels / SMB2 in Japan). So, this is a review of the content of the game that's being ported; the port itself is amazing technically, no criticism there.
There's a lot of cool stuff here: the Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. enemies add a nice mix-up to the original enemy roster, and I kind of like the deeply saturated palette and new sprites + interesting usages of old sprites. It's also just nice to have, ya know, more official Super Mario Bros. content to experience. The original game remains a solid mainstay of retro gaming, and this builds off of it nicely.
But damn, this thing feels like an official ROM hack in the weirdest way: there's an item that basically lets you swim in the air for a few seconds which feels like a physics exploit, the DK hammer power-up is hilariously busted, and the level design is just straight wack sometimes with tons of leaps of faith onto off-screen platforms and clunky block placement. Hudson Soft just doesn't have that Miyamoto special sauce, unfortunately.
Overall, had a nice few hours with it and probably would recommend, but I nope'd out after getting frustrated with 8-2's awful Hammer Bros. overuse and 8-3's fire bar nonsense. Worth a look just to experience some forgotten Mario history, but consider playing on something with save states unless you're a seasoned SMB expert.
There's a lot of cool stuff here: the Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. enemies add a nice mix-up to the original enemy roster, and I kind of like the deeply saturated palette and new sprites + interesting usages of old sprites. It's also just nice to have, ya know, more official Super Mario Bros. content to experience. The original game remains a solid mainstay of retro gaming, and this builds off of it nicely.
But damn, this thing feels like an official ROM hack in the weirdest way: there's an item that basically lets you swim in the air for a few seconds which feels like a physics exploit, the DK hammer power-up is hilariously busted, and the level design is just straight wack sometimes with tons of leaps of faith onto off-screen platforms and clunky block placement. Hudson Soft just doesn't have that Miyamoto special sauce, unfortunately.
Overall, had a nice few hours with it and probably would recommend, but I nope'd out after getting frustrated with 8-2's awful Hammer Bros. overuse and 8-3's fire bar nonsense. Worth a look just to experience some forgotten Mario history, but consider playing on something with save states unless you're a seasoned SMB expert.