Super Mario Bros.

How to play Super Mario Bros.

1. Choose 1 player, 2 players or Practice from the title menu.
2. Move right and jump onto walking enemies from above. Avoid side contact while small.
3. Hit question blocks from below. Follow a mushroom and collect it to grow.
4. Hold the run button before a long jump. Release jump early for a shorter leap.
5. Stand on the correct pipe and press Down to enter the coin cellar. Follow the exit pipe to return.
6. Reach the flagpole, or cross Bowser’s bridge and touch the axe in castles. Use Pause to stop safely or return to the menu.

Controls

About Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. is a browser recreation of the 1985 NES and Famicom platform adventure. The goal is to bring back the familiar rhythm of running toward a question block, collecting a mushroom, clearing a pipe and judging the next jump. It uses newly written TypeScript, hand-authored pixel silhouettes and generated sound. It does not load the original game binary or use an extracted sprite or audio pack, and it is not an official Nintendo release.

The campaign has thirty-two stages across eight worlds, from the opening ground course to the five connected rooms of the final castle. Each route has authored geometry based on inspected period references. Underground chambers, water passages, elevated treetops, mushroom platforms, bridge courses and castle mazes have their own layouts. The campaign includes the normal stage transitions, Bowser bridges, retainer scenes and the Princess ending.

Mario begins small. Touching a dangerous enemy from the side costs a life, but descending onto a susceptible enemy defeats it. A mushroom makes Mario taller, lets him break ordinary bricks and absorbs a hit. A flower obtained while already large grants fireballs. Fire and large forms both shrink directly to small after damage, followed by a brief period of protection. This distinction follows the early game rather than later sequels.

Movement is built around acceleration and jump control. Holding the run button raises the speed limit. Holding jump extends the ascent, while releasing it shortens the jump. You can steer during a jump, and a large Mario can crouch to fit beneath low overhead blocks. The browser’s movement constants are reconstruction choices; the game does not claim frame-for-frame compatibility with original hardware or speedrunning techniques.

The question blocks contain coins or helpful items. Ordinary bricks can hide secrets too. A green one-up mushroom awards a life, and collecting one hundred coins awards another. Koopa shells can be kicked along the ground, but a shell that hits a wall can return toward Mario. Take care before running behind one. A star provides temporary protection from enemies, while bottomless gaps still end a life.

Two players take turns as Mario and Luigi. Each has a separate score, coin count, remaining lives and checkpoint. Losing a life passes control to the other active player. Both characters use the same movement model in this version. A Practice session is separate from a Classic high score, so trying a stage repeatedly does not replace a completed Classic record.

Completing Classic unlocks a second quest with Beetles replacing Goombas, faster walking enemies, narrower lifts and harder versions of several early routes. A world selector lets you begin the harder replay at any world. This browser version remembers the unlock between visits and offers it in Practice too. Those menu and saving conveniences are adaptations; the authored timing values do not claim exact NES equivalence.

The display keeps the compact game image inside a four-to-three frame. On a phone, the controls sit beneath the picture in portrait and beside it when there is room in landscape. You can hold a direction and the run button together, then press jump with another finger. Pausing or switching apps clears held controls. Generated sound is optional, and a storage failure does not prevent play.

A few useful tricks

• Try a walking jump before using full speed near the first pipe.
• A mushroom reverses when it reaches a wall, so watch where it will return.
• Do not chase a kicked shell into a narrow space without room to jump.
• After taking damage, move to a safer position while protection lasts.
• Use Practice to learn a difficult jump without replacing your Classic record.

Good questions