Despite this game being arguably one of the most important ever made from a Western market perspective, I had never bothered to actually play through the game in its entirety until very recently. I always saw it as a neat iconic relic from the past and only ever played the first few levels. But, my interest in the early games of the Mario franchise did spark up a bit recently, which led to me playing through this fully.

The actual game is…ok! It’s the most fundamental Mario title, but also potentially the most basic. There’s nothing really super flawed or bad about this game; I think it’s actually probably as perfect as it could’ve been. It’s just nothing that crazy to begin with. And that’s fine for the first entry, but it makes this game all the worse in retrospect compared to its peers.

Regardless, the game is still enjoyable. If you have the will to actually try it, you’ll probably enjoy some kind of fun from its simplicity. You just need to actually get past the first few worlds for the game's addictive nature to set in.