BattleCity / Super Mario Bros. retrospective: Tank you, Mario | NES Works Gaiden  

When I was a kid I thought Super Mario Bros was the first video game. A silly idea now but it really speaks to its significance and quality for how early it came around.

Battle City was one of my favorite games as a kid. I'm not kidding. It was only released in Japan but because it was a simple, tiny ROM, it was fit on those bootleg xxx-in-1 cartridges that poured out of Taiwan. Battle City is a simple game, easy to understand by any kid without any language barrier. It's strange it didn't get an NES version. Sure, the game was fun, but what really made it stand out to me was the construction mode. Me and my cousins would spend a considerable amount of time in the construction mode making levels, putting steel around the base, water so the enemy tanks couldn't cross, covered the whole map with forest, made almost every tile bricks. It was a lot of fun and I regret that kids who didn't have multicarts missed out on this amazing gem.

I will always have infinite respect for BattleCity because without it we wouldn't have gotten the tank minigame in Wii Play

Battle City, aka the game that's on every single bootleg multicart ever made

Still impressive how well SMB’s controls hold up after all this time.

One thing that is so great about Super Mario Bros is how players, even decades later can discover new things about it. Be it the accidental Minus world, or the behavior of hammer bros; they'll charge you if you wait too long. And of course, Lakitu's glitched behavior. It's fascinating what an absolute gamechanger Super Mario Bros is, and yet the fact is, it was built on the same exact tech that the system premièred with. As you had already said, the Magnum Opus for Mapper 0.

We finally reached Super Mario Bros! It only took.... 41 episodes.

Battle City? I played this game on a pirate multicart when I was a kid! But seriously, it was probably the most popular Famiclone game in Eastern Europe outside of Mario.

For me, video games started with SMB. It was the first game I really enjoyed and played at home. The first game I ever beat was Goonies 2 (which I consider to be the 'first metroidvania'). I played arcade games and Atari 2600 games, but I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as NES games. As soon as Dragon Warrior, Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star for the SMS became things, I got into RPG's and never really looked back. If I had known about BattleClity, though, I really think I would have loved it. Especially the level editor. Love this series! Thank you!

It still kind of blows my mind both that Super Mario brothers was at one point “just another game available for purchase”, both with the Japanese market and at that brief 1985-1986 local period in the US when the pack in games were gyromite and duck hunt. It’s such the defining “Nintendo” game, and is largely on its own responsible for rescuing the console video game market in the US. It’s really the textbook example top of why hardware is never the key alone- in that being built for a nearly 40 year old system and still just as fun today for a kid who only knows of it on a switch.

I've been keeping up with your channel for about a year now, and I just want to say that I love how consistently thorough you are, no matter what game you're talking about. Great work!

It says everything to me how natural and intuitive Super Mario Bros. was designed, that I was capable of quickly learning how to get through at least half of it when I was barely 2yrs. old- even if it took me a good few weeks to grasp combining running and jumping to get past certain pits.

And thus video games changed forever.

Random note: I first encountered SMB as “vs SMB” in an arcade (the local Putt-Putt if you need specifics.) For years I thought SMB in the NES was a port of the arcade game.

One notable thing about SMB I never see anyone comment on, the difficulty curve is very reasonable. It has alternating breather and tough sections instead of pummeling you every second like most games back then. Even the Vs. Arcade and SMB2J are still easier than something like Ghost 'n Goblins. This is another way SMB set the tone for console gaming.

it's really hard to sell just how mindblowing super mario bros. was at the time it was released. you just had to be there, it felt magical. the way it controlled, the way the screen scrolled, the way it all felt like one big cohesive adventure ... it was a true watershed moment for the medium.

Flash back to Christmas 1985 west coast I may have been, and despite the incorrectly documented wiki repeated garbage online, some were test marketed in the Los Angeles/Orange Co area of California, my mom went out of her way to buy one(luck?) and hid it for the 25th along with also Hogan's Alley and Super Mario Bros. Those 4 games with the (pre)Deluxe Set with Gyromite and Duck Hunt were what broke me in on home gaming and a lifetime of keeping up with the company. I never experienced anything like those games even in the arcade, but mostly nothing like Mario, you just didn't have a lot like that at the time, an era of largely single panel platforming, mazes, shooters that scrolled(or not) hi score runners. The era of when kids would put BUT, ASS, etc in to be funny with their initials, everyone out to knock off the next, no one really cared about the adventure, a story, it was points. Super Mario Bros was mind blowing, even to date as dated as it appears, it still stands tall, taller than many games of the genre for years or decades to come -- that says all it needs to right there in that one thought. While I continued for months, years to go back to those games, Mario by and far would continue to be played as others were forgotten or the tech aged them out.

Tank Force(arcade) was a great refinement on the BattleCity concept, with more colorful scenes, four players, and boss levels.

I was a Deluxe Set kid back when I got my NES, with Duck Hunt being the first game I saw and loved. I didn't see or play Super Mario Bros. until the local bowling alley got it in a VS cabinet with Excitebike.

I remember when I first got my NES in 1987 even back then I realized that SMB was a real demarcation for games on the NES and to a degree video games as a whole. Jeremy really hit the nail on the head with his thoughts on that in this video. SMB is the absolute peak of what the vanilla NES hardware can do. Everything that used any form of mapper chip afterwards is almost like an add-on upgrade to the console only we didn't have to buy that add-on (with the exception of the FDS in Japan) in order to upgrade the console as the upgrade was built into each cartridge.

Here in India, there were some TVs in mid 00s with inbuilt bootleg NES emulator and games, which also had Battle Tank in it. Used to play a lot at my friend's place.

We finally made it. And gaming changes so much past this point, doesn’t it? I had no idea of SMB1’s limitations on Famicom. I just never really knew the Famicom was less powerful than the NES! So that’s some important context, and context is a big part of why I love this series.

I've heard good things about Battle City! That it's similar to the Tanks game on Wii Play. And with Mario; it really is a miracle what they managed to accomplish on that cart. Without knowledge that later chips in cartridges would greatly expand the limits of what was possible, I get that it can be harder to appreciate; but on it's own it's still a really good time. It can be harder to enjoy some of the other earlier Famicom releases. 8:42 - 6-3 is my favorite stage!

Super Mario Bros. is such a quantum leap forward for gaming that its impact and influence can still be felt in so many games. It really feels like the first modern game, with so much of what came before being either simple, repetitive arcade experiences or niche, complex computer games. On top of that, as you note, it's also extremely well-designed. Not just for the play experience, which is elegant in and of itself, but also the use of the harsh limits on the storage. Using the cloud graphics as bushes was a stroke of genius. There are many old games that I think are great that aren't as accessible now due to changes in how people play games. (Zelda's obscure riddles now being seen as a nuisance instead of an asset comes to mind) But even with those changes, the original Super Mario Bros. is still a fun game. Plus, with "retro" aesthetics being so prominent now, the graphics aren't even as much of a deterrent for kids now like they were 10-20 years ago.

Aside from being pretty slippery is SMB still a lot of fun today, intuitive and challenging :D

The first time I broke a block, releasing a beanstalk that took me up into the clouds my mind was blown. Then when I broke through the ceiling, jumped up there, and ran up there skipping all the hazards below and (eventually) finding a secret warp zone… clearly video games had significantly evolved to the next level. With the possible exception of Doom, the most paradigm changing game ever.

Battle City also reminds me of Atari's Warlords in that you have to defend a fortress with destructible walls. According to what I've read online Tank Battalion and Warlords were both released in arcades in 1980.

My first memory of video games were on Atari 2600 and Colecovision. The games on those systems were entertaining but ultimately things we played in passing. You tried to beat your top score and you moved on to play with your toys or board games, watch a movie etc. Super Mario Bros, for me, was the first time video games became all engrossing adventure. It seems so quaint now but I think it created a generation of gamers chasing that dopamine hit.

Crazy how good SMB is! Great video, really enjoy this series!

I replayed SMB last month! Still fun and responsive and rewarding.

I love Battle City. Great little arcade game.

Wow…such a genius! Best Nintendo site online. Please keep them coming. You really know your stuff and always look forward to your next videos. I can tell you actually play AND care about what you are reviewing.

I remember battlecity being surprisingly hard to put down. I don't remember where or on what I played it as a kid but the game definitely stuck in my head

I'm old enough to have owned an Atari 2600 and a Coleco Adam before I got an NES, and I agree that Super Mario Bros. was a huge advance in home video games at the time. It was a relatively lengthy adventure with a variety of enemies, power-ups, and levels and an actual ending that gave players a sense of accomplishment. One of the things that made Super Mario Bros. great is that it suited different styles of play. A player could aim for a high score, or try to complete it in the fastest time, or try to find all the hidden secrets. It makes the game replayable to this day.

The tank game in Combat is based on a series of earlier Atari arcade games, Tank, Tank II and Ultra Tank, as well as the awesome Tank 8, which was sold as a gigantic table-format machine with two control stations on each side. Info on Tank 8 has long been a kind of holy grail for me. I think someone should revive it today. Battle City reminds me a bit more of the tank game in Tron, it doesn't have destructible terrain (notably, Tank 8 does!) but does have that kind of player-vs-computer shooting game aspect in a maze.

I'll never forget when I first saw Super Mario Bros. on the NES... shortly after its launch at a Sears. We had an Atari 800 (first XE, then regular 800) first, so seeing this was a very big surprise. Question: Are there any differences, however minor, between the NES and Famicom release for Super Mario Bros?

Battle City and especially it's glorious hack - Tank 1990 (the one with the gun and battleship powerups) became super popular in Russia. Very addictive gameplay and what also helped this game (Battle City, not Tank 1990 which was a bit more rare) was almost always included on "XXX in 1" cartridges which were sold as a default cartridge with many famiclones including Dendy.

I watch the new video every week really just enjoy the good quality and original spin on it all

Battle City is a very good game. Also, if you get the star icon, your tank is upgrade. And there’s more than one level for that. In the final stage, you can destroy even the white blocks. And is permanently, until you die.

it’s a story about battle, it’s a story about brotherhood

Haven't checked out Battle City yet- may end up being on my agenda tomorrow (yay time off!) Looks fun.

That's crazy they didn't hype super mario on the nes launch

I was always amused by the awkward way the guy held the controller @10:23 - It wasn't until I was an adult that I figured they wanted to show the look of the NES controller, and if it was held properly it would block the shot. The design of the NES controller was just one more way Nintendo was saying "See, we're not like Atari"

Battle City should have been released in the USA in the first place. 😀👍🎮

All those early Black box games still made the NES very very worthy to play.

SMB Is still one of the best games ever made... Mario 35 was a Little masterpiece!

Wonderful! Also, I lol'd at 10:04. :)

Battle City the first video game i ever played. Got it with the family computer. Its fun coz its 2 players

Nice comment section prediction. I have to say, I can't think of a single pirate multicart that *doesn't* have "Tank" on it.

Battle City I've played a little bit of (and it DID help that it was a staple of those bootleg 99999999999999999999999999999-in-1 famicom carts, haha) it's a neat concept! and yeah shout-out to the level editor, more games need stuff like that I think. But SMB of course I played it legit first. Oddly my NES memories didn't start with SMB it actually came later, my uncle must have had the set with duck hunt and gyromite first, cus I remember that game and the majority of the other black box titles, but SMB I didn't see until a little bit later. I'll never forget how intimidating that gap was in 1-2 (I mean I was at least six at the time, haha) but I definitely had some memories from the first time I ever played that one!!

HEY! No dissing MGS4! It was rad! Lol but being serious, given how many little details and mechanics Kojima loved to throw into every single MGS game, ESPECIALLY 4 and 5, my guess is that the only reason we didn't get dynamic or destructible environments in 4 was because implementing them across all the stages and encounters and everything was beyond the engine and probably the PS3's capabilities.

Tank Force may have been a 1991 arcade sequel to this game. That's right: Namco released a top-down single-screen tank combat game in arcades the same year than Street Fighter 2 dropped. I guess Namcot was forever doomed to be eclipsed by industry-shattering game releases. The Guerrilla Games of the 20th Century, if the Horizon games are any indication.

You need to play co-op mode for a while in battle city to fully appreciate the experience, I would dare to say the game is mostly built around that

Battle city reminds me of the Tron arcade game’s tank stages

Love these videos!!! Gives all the feels! Thx!!!

Technically SMB did debut in arcades, although it was just a NES inside of an arcade cabinet, probably some kind of market test-run.

I always thought the tanks were guys with big noses myself

Might be wrong but I want to say during a podcast you mentioned you hadn't beat Super Mario Bros. ever. Looks like you got pretty far this time. Did you manage it this time? It took me till adulthood to do it without saves.

Steven Kent's book on video games erroneously stated that SMB was originally an Arcade game. Most likely he got it confused with the Vs. version, which wouldn't be released for another seven months.

Where is that movie clip from? Is it from "Fatal Attraction".

Dude! To call Battle City a "Strictly Solo Affair"... it has TWO PLAYER. Albeit you're playing co-operatively, it is NOT just SOLO game. Jeepers dude. Anyone who played this 2P back in the day knew... have one guy scout and destroy tanks, while the other guy hangs back and defends the base from those who get through the other players offense. It's mind-boggling how someone can, simultaneously, have so much AND so little gaming knowledge. Great videos, but, man, some of these lapses you have... really make me wonder.

What is going on with the Hammer Bro and the Koopa shell at 10:04?

But when are we going to see the _"game that surpassed Super Mario",_ *Atlantis no Nazo?*

I also thought Mario was first lol I thought the old school Mario Bros was first and Super Mario Brothers was the first good one.

Sick MGS4 burn, hell yeah

Battle City is based

If the Video Game Crash didn't happen in 84, Super Mario Bros could've been the launch title on the NES. We could've have gotten better games than a pack-in robot toy.

Unlike Japan, SMB's USA release date is something that nobody can confirm. Was it released in 1985, or in 1986?

Oh, hey! Lady Blue! I didn't play SMB at the time (hadn't and didn't know anybody who had an NES), but it always seemed to me (prepare your boos...) like such a _basic_ game. I don't know, it never appealed to me. Castlevania on the other hand...