Super Mario Brothers
It would be hard to make a list of the most influential games, anywhere, and not included Super Mario Bros. It isn’t that the game exactly did things that no one had ever seen before (though it did do those), it’s that it them altogether. The game features a certain level of cohesiveness rarely seen in games up to this point, and rarely seen since in many ways.

The levels were structured, but in a way that made sense. Drop into a pipe and you’re in an underground world, trying to get back to another pipe to get above ground. As you will note, every 2D Mario game since has borrowed this very basic seeming mechanic, but one that game the games a sense of “world” long before Mario had his own World.

Perhaps most intriguing about the game’s influence is how many games still try to copy it to this day, twenty plus years after its release. Consider that New Super Mario Bros. (DS) is most influenced by the original and World, despite most fans claim of the superiority of the third chapter. (more…)

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