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KnockBack, Episode 48: The Super Mario Bros. NES Trilogy (Patreon)

Published:
2019-01-10 17:01:00
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

There's probably no single trilogy more responsible for the trajectory of the video game industry than Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, and 3 on NES. The first game, in particular, was revolutionary, while the third game showed the true power of what Nintendo's aging hardware could do. (As for the second game, well, we love that one, too.) Today's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to remembering these three classic games, not only for what they meant, but for what they are: Master classes in design, graphics, music, and -- perhaps most importantly of all -- gameplay.

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Comments

josh

Sonic 1-3 is better 😂

Russell Garrett

Not listened yet, but I know this is going to be fucking awesome already. Mario 3 is probably my favourite game ever.

George

Whagwarn Colin! It would be awesome if you did a Knockback on American Pie (the film), or late 90s/early 2000s coming of age films in general. Based on your age I imagine you would've been the prime audience for those films when they released, so it would be cool to hear what those films mean to you (assuming they mean anything at all).

Brandon Soto

Great episode Colin. 3 games that EVERYONE should play. Can’t wait for the Super Mario World episode.

Craig Carter

Phantos really are one of the most horrifying enemies in a game ever.. that dude can still give me anxiety to this day

Tony Colton

Errrrmmmmm.... Knockbacks first let's play... Monopoly (Proper Rules)

Marcus Brown

This episode was great. It's hard to believe there will ever be a child that doesn't play a Mario game and that's awesome to think of. Can't wait till next Knockback.

LastStandMedia
>>18787750

I'd love to do that, actually. American Pie (plus its sequel; not so much the third one) was an important film to me growing up. It was my age group's high school movie classic. And they're authentically awesome films. I liked the fourth one, too.

LastStandMedia

Yeah, there's a cheat. I think it might be on the second controller. I don't quite recall.

Jon Devine

I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve played Mario 2 & 3 hundreds of times and I have never finished them. Making my way through SMB3 on Switch and am determined to finally beat it. Still find them to be very challenging games.

Phillip Guglielmo

I started gaming with the Sega MegaDrive before moving on to the N64, so I missed these games the first time around. Managed to correct that with the Virtual Console and, even in 2008, was so impressed with the level design and replayability of every game. I'm also with Dagan in that Mario 2 is my favourite of the trilogy, and that mask (*shudders*) is more frightening than the entirety of Silent Hill and Resident Evil combined. Hoping for a Zelda I and II Knockback one of these days!

Andrew

Mario 2 Majora's Mask I'm even seeing people say they LOVE FINAL FANTASY 13 now No one liked these games.... People are either changing their stories, or people are just more secure in sharing their opinion now so we see more comments from people that might have actually enjoyed those games when they first came out. I'm with you tho, I loved 2 as a kid. I loved the bosses and I loved trying to min/max the slot machine mini game lol. Trying to get as many chances at it every time...

Philip Andersen

SMB3 is my fav game of all time. And every time I get to play as Luigi in Mario-games it feels more like home as with SMB3 physics with being more sliding (“slippery”) and jumpy which I love. Well, SMB2 Luigi is a little different.

Tanner Brant

That was a great episode. Can't believe you like Toad more than Yoshi though, he let's you ride him and is willing to be sacrificed for greater jumps! A true bro

Trent Miller

I really don’t think I’ve ever heard played SMB2 and there was quite a while that I never even knew that it was a game. I think I just thought it went from 1 to 3. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Logan Cleary

As someone who is currently in college, it's really cool to listen to Knockback for the historical context surrounding these games. I knew the NES Mario games were really influential and well designed, but I had no idea they were the first games to have a finite structure, mechanical variety, and depth all at the same time. I'm currently playing super mario 3 on my switch for the first time in like 10 years and having a blast. Really enjoyed this episode!

Logan Cleary
>>18811904

It's crazy how dumb you can be when you're little. I played super mario 3 on game boy when I was young, but never made the connection that I played it until I saw a let's play of the first world a within the last few years (it may have even been Colin's let's play a few months ago...). I don't think I ever got past the fourth or fifth world, but I spent over a decade thinking I had never played the game.

Josh Cummings

Awesome episode. I was told that Super Mario Bros was the first game I ever played.

Ryan B.

Excellent episode as always so thank you guys. In regards to Dagan’s myth about being little with firepower in Super Mario Brothers... that actually is possible but tricky to pull off on the original cart. 1: Obtain a fire flower while big. 2: In any castle, touch the bridge lever while simultaneously touching Bowser. 3: As the screen transitions, the game glitches, rendering the hit point by Bowser while still recognizing the power up. 4: In the next stage, Mario will be little but in white overalls. Every time you throw a fireball, he grows and then shrinks back. 5: Like the negative perpetual swim level, this can only be done on the original and not an emulated version. Tripped me out as a kid, and because of the requisite difficulty and necessity of several attempts, another reason to play straight through v. warping around. Anyways, thanks Colin and Dagan for the memories.

Justin Matkowski

SMB1 Princess Peach missing a chromosome made me snarf my goddamn coffee at my desk! Also, in regards to our man, Luigi - I always preferred the All-Stars version of Super Mario World to the original pack-in due to the fact that Luigi gets his own unique sprite in it. Just something extra they did to make that already unbelievably-awesome collection even better! Another awesome episode from the dudes!

Tyson Williams

First time I beat Super Mario Bros. I died at the same time I won so Princess toadstool was thanking me while Mario wasn’t on screen

Nick DeBoer

Fun stroll down memory lane!! Giant world was the coolest back in the early 90s when we played 3 the first time. We always picked Luigi in 2 and that’s probably why I have odd memories of it. Haven’t played it since who knows when but I could see me liking it a lot now. SMB reminds me of Daycare in the 80s when I was so far down the pecking order I would get one life occasionally and that was it! Kinda fun having the SMB3 let’s play ahead of this to knock the memory cobwebs out! As always another fun episode! Keep em’ coming!

William

Great episode! This brings back a lot of great memories for me. I was born in 88, so I was sort of at the tail end of the NES and didn't start gaming until the SNES. However, I remember going to my cousin's house and he had the Super Mario All Stars/Super Mario World cart for SNES. I remember I booted up the console looking to play Mario World (which I had myself and was the only Mario game I was ever familiar with), but was blown away to find all these other Mario games to play! I had no idea! Over that summer, I would go to my cousin's house almost everyday and proceeded to beat all three core games. It was awesome. Funnily enough, I don't think I realized that the three original games were NES games until I was older and played the GBA port of the first game. It fucking blew my mind. Anyway, I would love to see Nintendo retire the "New Super Mario Bros" series and make a proper Super Mario World 3. Pixel-art and all. There have been so many great, hand-drawn 2D platformers coming from the indie scene, so it'd be great to see Nintendo throw their hat in the ring and give it a go. We'll see if they ever go back to that. Thanks again to you and Dagan for a great show!

Kevin Sullivan

Wow, some great memories here. I definitely look back with fond memories to the days where rumors about video game secrets ran wild on the playground. Unfortunately I don't think kids these days will have the same experience due to the internet.

FrogLantern

Amazing trilogy of games. Goes without saying. I prefer SMB3 over World at this point in my gaming life, since it is more challenging. The combined power of 3 or 4 games on NES (SMB, SMB2 JP, SMB2 US, SMB3) is certainly greater than that of the Mario output on SNES (World and... uh Yoshi’s Island? Which isn’t really a Mario game.) Also, to me, Mario is simply better as a sprite-based sidescroller. The 3D platformers just don’t do it for me in the same way.

Tyson Williams

The Lost Levels isn’t just harder it has a bad case of artificial difficulty and is just poor design

Owen

We need an episode of Dagan getting a mario tattoo now.

LastStandMedia
>>18808361

Super Mario Bros. 3 is, beyond a doubt, a masterpiece. Only bested (in my mind) by Super Mario World.

LastStandMedia
>>18813317

Yeah, dude. Mario 1 and Mario 3 were both incredibly influential, never-before-seen types of games for their time. It's amazing, when you think about it through that lens.

LastStandMedia
>>18821069

I always just wished that, in the NES original, you could opt to play just as Luigi in a single-player game. Alas!

LastStandMedia
>>18833915

Dude, that would be so great: A real, 16-bit-style Super Mario World 3, but reclaiming the series' greatness from the first one. (I never cared for SMW2.) Thank you for listening! <3

LastStandMedia
>>18893642

SMB3 is certainly harder than SMW, though the latter is better-designed, I think. A lot of clever stuff in both games, though.

John Fazio

Very excited to listen to this tomorrow morning at 5am Eastern time. Colin’s last stand gets me through some brutal work days.

Lewis Priday

Am I the only person who think's the classic Mario games control terribly. I purchased a Switch this Christmas my first ever Nintendo console and was so excited to jump into these games. Burned through Mario Odyssey which was fantastic, Mario 1 & 3 are borderline unplayable for me. The first Mario in particular Mario feels like he's on roller skates, when I compare it to say (here comes the hate) Sonic where you're always in full control of sonic even throughout the jump, I can't see beyond nostalgia why their considered such classic games?

Nick Lone

Thanks for this guys, what a great episode! My first experience with gaming was at 4 years old at my neighbour’s house. He was 7 and introduced me to Mario Bros 3, it blew me away. A few years later I got Mario Allstars for the SNES and was hooked on all four games. Mario 2 is absolutely my favourite though. Even after all this time I still prefer the 16-bit versions and if the rumours are true about it dropping on the Switch soon I’ll be playing through all four once again. Thanks again for the trip down memory lane. #JusticeForWart

Michael Miller

I know I’m a little late at commenting on this one, but I’d love to see a let’s play of Super Mario Bros 2 with you and Dagan.