Collection essentials #33: Mario Bros. (Game & Watch)

 

After two Donkey Kong games, Nintendo’s next big arcade game was Mario Bros., not to be confused with the more-famous “Super Mario. Bros” which came later. So, naturally, there was a Game & Watch called Mario Bros. The curious thing here, though, is that this Mario Bros. has basically nothing to do at all with Mario Bros. the arcade game. The Donkey Kong Game & Watch was a distinct thing from the original arcade game, but it certainly resembled it and was a different take on the concept. But this Mario Bros. feels like they invented something random that involved two characters and decided to just slap the “Mario Bros.” name on it for marketing purposes.

Now, is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, as this game is pretty fun. Mario and Luigi work in a bottle factory. Mario takes an empty box out and puts it on a conveyor belt, where it goes through the machine which adds bottles to it, and Luigi waits on the other side needing to pick up the box and put it on the next conveyor. There are a total of five conveyors for each package to traverse before being sent off to a delivery truck.

You control both brothers, able to move them up and down. You must not fail to grab a box as it reaches the end of a conveyor, or else it will fall and break! Three misses and you’re done. As you can imagine, once a lot of boxes are in play then things get pretty hectic! I enjoy the challenge of having to divide your attention effectively. I also really like this dual-screen design and it’s a different experience than playing it on a small Game Boy screen.

When playing these Game & Watches recently, I really enjoyed them and it makes me feel tempted to collect more of them. Oh no, my poor bank account…I must resist!!

Tomorrow’s post is a big one, as I throw out a mess of paragraphs about Nintendo’s famous first console. Stay tuned.

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