GOTY 2020 - NUMBER EIGHT
Video version

How do you feel about Super Mario Bros.? The first one. See, I don’t think many folk in Europe really have much of a connection to it. We’ve all played it of course. Just checking it off the list, really, but the NES never had the kind of impact over here that it did in Japan or America. And even if you had Super Mario All-Stars, you probably didn’t spend much time with the original. Super Mario Bros. is a game that’s supposed to be attempted over and over again, for weeks on end, until you know the each trap and each dungeon route off by heart. It’s a difficult thing to get modern audiences on board with, but Super Mario Bros. 35 is the perfect solution.

It’s Tetris 99, but it’s Mario. Mario doesn’t lend itself to the format quite as well, but it gains massively from it. You’re not just trying to complete levels quickly, but killing baddies and sending them over to your 34 opponents. Surviving means balancing coins, power ups and baddies to stay in the race.

If you’re going to play, you’re going to have to accept it means playing some levels hundreds of times. Initially, it’s annoying. Eventually, it becomes routine and you’ll be able to play 1-1 with your eyes closed. The tricks and traps of the levels aren’t the main concern here. You have to strategically use levels to your advantage. Warp Zones now offer pipeways to random selections of levels, and knowing which ones are which can really help. When you’ve built up confidence on each stage, you can start playing them for their strategic potential. Maybe you want just to go back to 1-1 for some easy coins and power-ups, or maybe you’ve already stocked up and you want to send your opponents some really scary baddies from the dungeon levels. It’s a great way to learn the game, but the dynamics of the random level selection and playing against opponents who are actively making the stages tougher for you makes it much more fun to come back to than playing the exact same thing over and over again.

As an anniversary title, and a way to invite new audiences to appreciate the game, it’s a massive success. For those who already love it, it’s a great opportunity to show off what they can do against likeminded fans. A great time.

Taking this game down is one of the worst mistakes Nintendo has ever made. I am not kidding when I say that this game had some of the funniest and most enjoyable matches of any multiplayer game I've ever played. Mario is such an inherently fun game but that just gets taken to the extreme with the chaos that ensues in this one. Getting sent to an endgame level with a timer that's running out, no coins, and then seeing a legion of Lakitus spawn in, all chucking their ballistic missiles to lay waste to the ecosystem is genuinely one of the funniest experiences you could ever have playing a Mario game. And now you can't ever play it again. Thanks, Nintendo! I'll always miss the fun I had playing this game, and I seriously hope Nintendo brings it back (or more likely, a fan recreation) because the few weeks I played this game were truly special.