Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. features two plumbers, Italian brothers Mario and Luigi, having to investigate the sewers of New York after strange creatures have been appearing down there. The objective of the game is to defeat all of the enemies in each phase, using only running and jumping.

Unlike subsequent Mario games, players cannot jump on enemies to squash them, until they are already flipped on their back. Each phase consists of a series of platforms with pipes at each corner of the screen, along with an object called a "POW" block in the center. The screen uses wraparound, so characters that go off to one side reappear on the opposite side. Points are scored for defeating enemies and collecting the bonus coins that emerge from the pipes afterward.

Mario Bros. was created by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, two of the lead developers for Donkey Kong (1981). In Donkey Kong, Mario dies if he falls too far. , Yokoi suggested to Miyamoto that Mario should be able to fall from any height, which Miyamoto hesitantly thought would make it "not much of a game".

He eventually agreed on some superhuman abilities. He designed a prototype that had Mario "jumping and bouncing around", which he was satisfied with. Yokoi suggested combating enemies from below, observing that it would work because there are multiple floors, but this proved too easy in gameplay, which the developers fixed by requiring the enemies to be touched after flipping. This was also how they introduced the turtle as an enemy that could only be hit from below.

Mario Bros. was initially a modest success in arcades, with an estimated 2,000 arcade cabinets sold in the United States by July 1983. It became highly successful in American arcades.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Mario Bros. as the third most successful new table arcade unit of July 1983. In the United States, Nintendo sold 3,800 Mario Bros. arcade cabinets.

In 1984, Hudson Soft made two different games based on Mario Bros. Mario Bros. Special is a reimagining with new phases and gameplay. Punch Ball Mario Bros.

includes a new gameplay mechanic: punching small balls to stun enemies. Both games were released for the PC-6001mkII, PC-8001mkII, PC-8801, FM-7, and Sharp X1.