Super Mario Bros. Special

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Super Mario Bros. Special is a video game released by Hudson Soft in the spring of 1986. It is the first of four officially licensed direct sequels to Super Mario Brothers in the 8-bit era. Due to its being developed by a third party developer, and being only released on an obscure Japanese PC for a limited time in the 1980s, this game is all but forgotten by the gaming community.

Summary

"Super Mario Bros. Special" ran on the obscure Japanese PC-8001 computer, and was created in 1986 by veteran developers Hudson Soft. Despite the "Bros." in the title, Luigi is missing from the game as there is no 2 Player mode. Graphically, Super Mario Bros. Special looks very much like the NES prequel. However, some colors are different. For example, the green Koopa Troopas are now yellow, and most white objects are yellow as well. Strangely, Mario's coloring when possessing a Fire Flower has been fixed, and his eyes and mustache no longer change color. Sound-wise, the game has everything from the original, except at a slower pace. The actual speed of the game apppears faster, with powerups moving quickly, the timer draining faster, and the jump controls taking a little adjustment. Bowser himself is faster and more unpredictable, making it harder to get past him in one piece. Furthermore, Super Mario Bros. Special has two major differences to its parent.

It contains a complete new set of levels, different from both the first game and the Japan-only "Super Mario Bros. 2: For Super Players", which finally appeared on the SNES Super Mario All-Stars compilation as the [[Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels]]. And secondly, rather than having a scrolling display in the manner of the other Mario games, SMBS features a flick-screen format which changes the gameplay significantly. For example, a kicked Koopa shell will now rebound off the edge of the screen and come back at you whether there's an obstacle there or not.

Largely because of these changes, and the primitive hardware the game was running on, Super Mario Bros. Special is significantly harder than the original and a challenge even in comparison to the Lost Levels. It is the only game in the series bearing the "Bros." title (besides the recently released New Super Mario Bros.) that has not yet been remade or ported in any form, no doubt due to its appearance on a non-Nintendo gaming system and that it was developed by a third party..

GBC Version

And unrelated game bearing a similar title, Super Mario 3 Special, is an unlicensed HKO pirate cartridge. It contains the graphics from the original game with simplified palettes, altered levels and bad controls highlighted by the especially sloppy jumping physics.

All graphics are taken directly from the original NES SMB, although having decreased palettes. The game runs on the original monochrome Game Boy, as well as the Game Boy Color. Running it on the GBC gives little more in the way of colour.

The game seems incomplete: The game implements the star powerup for invincibility, but it doesn't take out enemies, it simply prevents them from hurting you while it lasts. All the same, bumping turtle shells will send them speeding off, but they won't kill the enemies either. Unimplemented features are fireballs, item saving on the bottom bar and none of the pipes can be used for warping.

External links

• [Review of Super Mario Bros. Special at the World of Stuart]
• [Review of Super Mario Bros. Special (GBC) at bripro.com]
• [Introduction to the NEC System and SMB: Special]

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