Mario Bros. (Game & Watch)

Mario Bros.
Developer	Nintendo Research & Development 1
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Game & Watch
Release date	March 14, 1983
Genre	Platformer
Rating(s)	N/A
Mode(s)	Single player
Format	Game & Watch: Built-in
Input	Game & Watch: Gamepad
Serial code(s)	MW-56

Not to be confused with Super Mario Bros. (Game & Watch).

Mario Bros. is a title for the Game & Watch. Despite its name, it has no similarity to the arcade game of the same name. Instead of plumbing, Mario and Luigi are working at a bottling plant and must prepare packages of bottles to load onto a delivery truck of a waiting driver. This game, played on the Multi Screen model of the Game & Watch, was released on March 14, 1983^[1]—three months before the much more popular arcade title, making this the first game to feature Luigi.

The model opened like a book and could allow for simultaneous two-player action, with one player controlling Luigi on the left half of the game and the other playing as Mario on the right, making it the very first game of the Super Mario franchise to have two-player mode.

The game is featured in the Gallery Corner in Game & Watch Gallery. It was later remade for Game & Watch Gallery 3 and Game & Watch Gallery 4, both of which feature a Classic version and an updated "Modern" version of the game.

The alarm bell

The alarm indicator in this game is a bell that is located under the time/score, and the bell rings when the alarm goes off.

Like other Game & Watch games, Mario Bros. was licensed out as a promotional item for various businesses such as Pokka, which is a Japanese food company, and Campari, which is an Italian alcohol producer.^[2]^[3] These companies put their own logos on the units, which has made them highly sought after collectibles.

Gameplay[edit]

Classic version[edit]

Mario Bros. (Game & Watch) Classic in Game & Watch Gallery 3

The Classic version of Mario Bros. from Game & Watch Gallery 3

The Classic version of Mario Bros. from Game & Watch Gallery 4

Mario must first take a pallet out of the machine on the lowest level and place it on the lowest of five conveyor belts running in alternating directions. A bottle is placed on the pallet as it passes through the divider between the screens and continues on until it reaches the end of the conveyor belt. Here, Luigi must take the package and place it on the above conveyor belt, which takes it back to Mario, who sends it back to Luigi on the next conveyor belt. Luigi sends it back again, and Mario has to put it on the highest conveyor belt, where it is sealed while passing through the column. Luigi then throws the sealed package onto the delivery truck, which eventually gets filled up and leaves, giving Mario and Luigi a brief break until it returns empty. The player earns a point for every pallet moved to another conveyor belt and for every package thrown onto the truck. The player earns ten points after every time the truck is fully loaded with eight packages. The conveyor belts get faster and the number of pallets on the screen increases as time goes by, forcing Mario and Luigi to scramble up and down the ladders in order to prevent the packages from falling off the ends of the belts. Each time a pallet or package falls off, the Mario Bros. get yelled at by their foreman, giving the player a miss. If the player manages to score 300 points without a single miss, the points that are earned will be doubled until the player does get a miss. If the player earns a miss before scoring 300 points, all misses will be cleared instead. After three misses, the player receives a Game Over.

Modern version[edit]

The Modern version of Mario Bros. from Game & Watch Gallery 3

The Modern version of the game has many changes: Mario and Luigi are working in an outdoor cake factory, Wario drives the delivery truck, and Bowser periodically ground-pounds the top of the packing machine to reverse the directions of the conveyor belts, forcing either Mario or Luigi to flip one of two switches at the bottom or top of the screen to switch them back to normal (normal play also resumes if Mario and Luigi "return" all the cakes to the machine that dispensed them during this time). The player does not earn any points for moving cakes backward. In this version, the player earns three points for every cake thrown onto the truck. Plus, if the player fully loads the truck five times without getting a miss, they earn 30 points. When a cake falls and breaks, rather than having their foreman yell at them, Mario and Luigi each just make a face of dismay. At 200, 500, and 700 points, a heart appears for the Mario Bros. to remove a miss. Music is also featured in this version, with the tempo changing depending on the speed of the game.

The Modern version of Mario Bros. from Game & Watch Gallery 4

The game reappears as a secondary game in Game & Watch Gallery 4. It largely has the same premise as in Game & Watch Gallery 3, except that the Super Mario characters are working in an indoor cake factory. Also, the player earns only 20 points if they fully load the truck five times without getting a miss.

If the player selects the game in Game & Watch Gallery 4 yet waits a few moments, a humorous sequence plays. In it, Mario and Luigi are washing the pickup truck for deliveries. Mario pours water with a hose, and Luigi wipes it with a towel. They change positions and then they finish, only for both Wario and Bowser to carjack the truck afterward, much to the Mario Bros.' dismay.

Controls[edit]

Game & Watch Gallery 3[edit]

(up): Move Luigi up
(down): Move Luigi down / Push lever
: Move Mario down
: Move Mario up / Push lever

Game & Watch Gallery 4[edit]

: Move Luigi up
: Move Luigi down / Push lever
: Move Mario down
: Move Mario up / Push lever

Gallery[edit]

Box art
Alternate box art
Box art for the Pokka version
Compari version
Artwork of Mario
Artwork of Luigi
Mario sprite
Mario sprite
Mario sprite
Luigi sprite
Luigi sprite
Luigi sprite