Super Mario Bros. holds something of a zeitgeist over video games. To many people, it was their first experience with a video game, and the fact that this game opened up an unexplored media to a much wider audience indicates something about the accessibility of the game. This leads us to the question of how a video game can instruct people how to play it, how to access the “point” of playing a video game. As soon as the game starts, the player is given an incredible amount of information – score, lives, world, coins, time indicators, along with the player character and an enemy. There is no introduction to the controls, or the various mechanics of the game. Rather, the player must figure out what they have to do from the information that is given to them and also the lack of choice for the player. They have no option but to jump and move to the right (if they try to move to the left they run into an invisible wall) so they understand what the simple objective of the game is: go to the right. As soon as they run into an enemy, they die, and the player understands that enemies can’t be run into directly, leading them to discover jumping. In fact, the very first screen of this game does something exceptionally clever: by forcing you to jump over the first enemy, the player often inadvertently finds that jumping headfirst into bricks is positive. Throughout the game there are small details like this that allow the player to get a basic understanding of what the game asks of them. At certain sections, the game even prepares the player for what is to come by first giving them a low stakes version of a platforming challenge, and then presenting that same challenge with a hindrance to the player. Such as in world 1-1, the player must first jump over a gap between two staircase shaped blocks. Should the player miss, they will simply fall to the floor between them, and be able to move on. However, that exact setup is then repeated, except this time instead of the welcome solidity of a floor, there is a gap – the player must repeat what the game has taught them under pressure now (in some ways its almost like the Mario equivalent of a midterm). As the game continues, the player is presented with a level that is only accessible through a pipe, and enemies appear from the familiar pipes from the first level – now there is a new element; pipes can be friendly, pipes can have enemies, and pipes can still be nothing but decorations. Old enemies get new variations, there are flying turtles, there are platforms that move up and down, and I died a lot to all these puzzles. But each time I died, I walked away with a sense of knowledge, an understanding of what makes these variants unique, and what strategy to use to either avoid or get past the obstacles in my way. The game does all of its education through playing and forcing the player to use what they have at their disposal. This particular aspect of the game is additional relevant when considering the original gaming console that the game was played on. The NES system comprised a simple 4 arrows for movement, two buttons the player could press, along with a select and start button. This combined with the simplistic controls of the game allow the player to very quickly pick it up. I would also like to say that I played this game on my computer, which offered me a very different experience than the original NES game would have provided straight away. Specifically, on the computer, they felt the need to include what buttons do what. As more games are being ported to different consoles (such as Nintendo’s recent Nintendo Online package, that brings back a lot of their classic games) and how the different control scheme can create a different environment for the player. Super Mario Bros. highlights how lack of choice allows and, indeed, forces the player to make the correct moves, and they come to this conclusion very quickly. A simplistic control scheme, a plucky plumbing protagonist, and a game that welcomed established gamers and non-gamers alike, and you have a cultural icon that came to define video games for so many.
First off, love the header. Absolutely golden. I am writing the rest of this reply because the header captured me.
Secondly, I agree with a lot of the points you make about controls. I was struggling myself in the Legend of Zelda, as the controls weren’t what I was used to. I feel like I had an unfair advantage on those who had never experienced games before since I’ve played many in the past so I already knew what to expect. I often felt frustrated with how little information I was provided at the beginning of the game. I went in blind as to not spoil the experience but I didn’t expect to feel like such a beginner. It’s definitely a much harsher way of learning how to play a game than a simple tutorial. While I was playing Legend of Zelda it almost felt like a rogue-like in its own twisted way since you have to start back at the beginning if you hit game over. However I thoroughly enjoyed feeling new to a game again and having to learn with no prior knowledge. It definitely transported me back into a different time where there were essentially no expectations when it came to games!