14 DAY TRIAL // 
When you create a game that becomes a symbol of your company and any game you've ever made, that's a real hit and a cult game. Mario is one of the most common Italian names and one of the games that changed gaming history. When the first Mario title surfaced, there was no gaming industry and Nintendo have gained many fans thanks to this funny critter. Mario T-shirts, Mario dishes, Mario graffiti tags, this guy is everywhere! Let's go back to the roots and find out what made an average plumber the star he is now. What's better than downloading and enjoying this freeware version of Mario?
Story I was playing Mario in 1990 and 17 years later it still rocks! Time may pass, but the golden oldies remain in our hearts for a reason: quality. Forget the graphics, forget any of the next-gen hits we have nowadays, let's all Mario in peace. As you can see, I've transformed the guy into a verb to keep the phenomenon going on. With his trademark moustache and plumbing gear (did you know that he was a plumber?) our brave hero must save the people of Toadstool and a beautiful blond princess called Peach.
Koopa is a mean, mean reptile and together with his reptilian friends he destroyed Toadstool and chased away the locals. Take control of the providential plumber and use his skills to find Koopa and throw him back to the swamp where he came from. Oh...and rescue the princess. The story might not be much, but since there are entire forum topics based on it, there must be people that know more about Mario's true story or they're imagining stuff.
Concept & Gameplay Things certainly look better than they did on the first Nintendo title and so does the gameplay. There's a lot less sliding on the platforms than the 2.0 version and I'm really thankful for that, because slipping on those blocks can become really frustrating. You won't be satisfied with the good old story mode and maybe you'd like to try the Mario Minix game. Although it sounds like some candy bar's name, this mode features a one-on-many combat between our favorite plumber and all the critters in the game.
Mario will have to smithe them all collecting as many coins as he can and using those lovely green turtles to create combos. The turtles can't be killed, but with one jump on their shell, you can turn them into deadly weapons that clear the screen leaving no creature alive. That equals tons of bonuses and points and they are the purpose of the Minix minigame. If you think you've achieved a high score rating, join the official list and see your name in the hall of fame.
Aside from the standard game mode and the Minix, there's also a level editing tool, called Mario Worker. You can download some scenarios or upload your own levels and scenarios and feel free to check out some of my crazy combinations displayed below. Clueless? Check the tutorials if you want to design a level that would give the biggest Mario fan a headache. The options in the level editing section left me a bit puzzled because of their names, as I didn't know if they were puns or mistakes. Things like "Block's", "Buddie's" or "Mark's" shouldn't really appear in such a famous title, but we're talking about a freeware game after all, so we shouldn't give it that much thought.
Set up the scenery by adding pipes, clouds or patches of all sorts and place the enemies in the level. You'll recognize those guys from the story mode and they can be green turtles, red turtles, the evil Koopa, carnivorous flowers and many others. Marks are also important and you'll be adding stuff like normal passages or secret ones and, of course the level ending. There's so much variety in Mario Worker that you'll be under the impression that you just created a brand new Mario game. Don't forget to upload your levels and scenarios to make other gamers happy, or torment them with your strange creations. In the end, you should name your level and pick a music theme, not forgetting to set the gravity and other such unimportant options that should be left at default value.
The original story mode is a retouched version of Super Mario 3, with small modifications in level design and approach. Buziol Games created the perfect 2D platforming game or should I say revived? While playing the story mode, you'll have the chance to use those trademark mushrooms that give Mario special abilities, like growth, flight or the ability to shoot...let's say bullets. You'll be collecting coins the whole time, getting various bonuses when they pile up. A frustrating aspect of Mario is that if you lose all your lives, it's game over, so be sure to collect those 1up pickups.
You'll have the chance to see our part time plumber, part time hero in 3 forms: the little Mario ( a bunch of agitated pixels), the big Mario (standard version, a normal guy) and Doctor Mario (dressed in an uniform and shooting yellow thingies). Every level is called a "world" and there are many worlds to explore till you reach the castle where Koopa holds Princess Peach. Seeing all these hilarious names, it scares me to think that there even was a movie made out of this story. While being the "big" Mario, you can break the light-brown colored bricks throughout the level by hitting them with your head.
Any enemy that walks on them when you're using your head gets killed and you'll get many points for doing that. Keep an eye out for the invisible bricks that are available especially in the hidden levels. You can access those through a pipe system that's available in all the worlds you'll visit. That makes the levels far more challenging because those pipes will offer you coins and life bonuses and take you to the end of the level. It would be futile to talk about the game's replayability since this game is being played over and over from the eighties till today. No serious producer has ever ignored the possibility of creating a new Mario sequel, because that sure sounds like "Ka-ching!" to any PR who has some gaming background.
Video What can I say? It's Mario, one of the best 2D platforming games out there. One thing is for sure, we're dealing with the grandpa, if not the ancestor of those acclaimed platforming games that are being released right now. There's no reason to mock the graphics of a game that came out in the eighties and we should rather notice the improvements made in the game's video section, while trying to keep the original looks. We're taken to lava levels, the desert, forest levels or the famous castle challenge.
There's quite a set of enemies, each with their looks, sounds, but equally dangerous. There are significant improvements if you compare this game to the 2.0 version and the levels look better and have better colors. Do cutscenes exist in Mario? Yes and no, because the story is told through a screen filled with clouds and text followed by a short funny animation. You'll hear no one complaining about this, when the hero plumber collects his mushrooms reminding us all of the childhood days.
Sound Having a midi-based soundtrack in the era of the next-gen consoles might seem a sacrilege for some, but it will be an encounter with the past for the die-hard Mario fans. You will be able to select midi tunes while building your own level with the Editor and there's a pretty big list to choose from. That means that you'll hear those tunes while playing the game so stay alert if you're into that kind of arcade soundtrack. There was a time in the distant past when the sound of a mushroom coming out of a destroyed block made my day better. You can't dismiss the old games just because they lack the hype and eye-candy of the recent cult games. If Mario sounds the same for another 1000 years, it will still be played and recognized as the founding father of all platforming games.
Multiplayer Each Mario game can be considered a multiplayer, since there's a crowd around the player and they're all going "let me try!" "let me try!". They all want to see what's changed and what remained the same in yet another installment of this immortal title.
Conclusion Mario is the Sean Connery of games: it's old and it still kicks a*s! That should sum up my opinion and that of 80% of the gamers out there about the most famous game ever created. Buziol Games did a nice job with Mario Forever 4, but it's not a flawless version. However, it keeps the fans satisfied and promises to take up many hours of true gamers' lives.
