Super Mario Bros is one of the most iconic games of all time. There have been multiple re-releases and remakes of the game over the years, but the core remains the same great platforming experience it has always been. With its 35th anniversary approaching, Nintendo has turned to Arika to do for Mario what they did for Tetris. When Tetris 99 came out, it was a massive boon to Nintendo for their online service. Tetris is an iconic series itself, with variety of incarnations and Nintendo and Arika showed that to great effect with Tetris 99, a Battle Royale take on the game that saw you play against 98 other players. But Mario is not a puzzle game, and playing a platformer as a battle Royale style game is odd to hear, but surprisingly the resulting game, Super Mario Bros. 35, was extremely worthwhile.
Tetris 99 launched at the height of the Battle Royale game craze, with many online even referring to the game as Tetris Battle Royale. But even outside of Battle Royale style gameplay, the competitive Tetris scene is a very intense one, with extremely passionate players facing off at times. Arika took what they learned from their expertise with Tetris and applied it to Mario in interesting ways. You can attack other players the same way, and can target them in a variety of ways, such as who has more coins, more time, etc. and send enemies and obstacles their way. The game is intense at first, but the more you play, the more it becomes a test of skill. This is Mario as an eSport and Arika pulled out all the stops for the game. The intensity is high, the adrenaline rush is real and the additions as well thought out.
That said, there are two main issues the issues has. First of all, the method for attaching other players worked great in Tetris 99, and were perfectly suited to a puzzle game, But Super Mario Bros. is a side scrolling platformer game, and the controls work differently there, It is not uncommon to hit the wrong control when trying to attack another player, and simply do an unintended movement instead. It is a case of muscle memory that can be overcome, but it is frustrating to deal with for a while. The other issue is that the game does not have enough of a variety of maps and the map rotation it does have, needs a lot of work as the maps tend to repeat far too often and more variety is needed. Separately to these issues, there is also the matter that the game is only going to be available until March and I cannot understand why. The one control issue aside, the game is amazing and should not be reduced to a limited time event. Hopefully Nintendo reconsiders and continues the release of the game and perhaps even new content like was done with Tetris 99.
Suffice is to say, Super Mario Bros. 35 is a great game, albeit with a couple of hiccups. I can easily recommend checking this out, because it is perhaps the most inventive way to play Super Mario Bros. yet. The addition of daily challenges and special battles makes this a complete package well worth enjoying,