1990 Game of the Year

1990 marked the final noteworthy year of the NES. The Genesis had finally showed Nintendo up, and the Super Nintendo was their only rebuttal. But the NES still fought back with a few of the last great games of its time. When it came down to it, for me, it was a tie between either Mega Man 3 with it's fast paced platforming action, or Super Mario Bros. 3 with its sheer scope and size. But in the end, there was only one clear winner. ...I give you... Super Mario Brothers... THA-REEEE!



After the parlor room hypnotism of Super Mario Bros. and the just plain weirdness of Super Mario Bros. 2 (I harbor quite a bit of hate for that game, more on that later) there was no way to expect just what came next. Taking everything about Mario and making it better, this game is complete from start to finish. And how you get there is completely up to you. You could go alone, fighting through all 64+ stages. You could find the magic flute to warp all the way to any world you want. You could work together with a friend. Or you could be a douchebag and kill him on the special stage. Any way you slice it, the game gives new meaning to the term platforming.

What makes this game so amazing is just how the game takes everything you knew about Mario and made it harder... just not the real Super Mario Bros 2 hard. For instance, how did you react when you hit the second level only to find a flying goomba dropping its babies everywhere? How bout that world where everything was huge? At the time, you didn't see this sort of thing. And remember those power-ups? Yeah, I bet you miss those in games today. Of course, you had your standard mushrooms and fire flowers, but how about a raccoon tail that enables you to fly? Or the completely Japanese Tanooki suit, one of the few instances I can think of where a cultural boundary was not altered on its way to the states. In Japan, the concept of a raccoon dog changing to a statue made perfect since, but here in the US of A, we just thought it was a weird bear that turned to stone. But when it comes to Mario, who cares? And as long as we're on the topic of Power-Ups, here's to the best one in the game; Kuribo's Shoe. I have NO IDEA what this thing is, but all I know is that once you hop inside, you gain the ability to walk on spikes and kill anything in the game. Pure win.

If you have any way of playing this game, it MUST be in your library, no excuses. Get it for the NES, on Super Mario All-Stars, your GBA, or download it to your Wii via the Virtual Console for just $5. Think of it this way; would you rather have a fattening burger for 10 minutes or hours of entertainment for the same price? And if you already have it, good for you! Now take the game, plop in the cartridge and get to playing. The princess is waiting!

Thank you so much for to a-playing my game-a,
BPS John-Charles

(PS - Do you wanna explain to me where the Koopa Kids came from? And now that we know that, where did they go? Bring 'em back Nintendo! Nobody want's to see R.O.B. in another game, but we all want to see the Koopa Kids!)