Mario Bros.

Mario Bros.
North American arcade flyer
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Shigeru Miyamoto
Producer(s)Gunpei Yokoi
Designer(s)
  • Shigeru Miyamoto
  • Gunpei Yokoi
Composer(s)Yukio Kaneoka
SeriesMario
Platform(s)
Release
1983
  • Arcade
    • NA: March 1983
    • JP: July 14, 1983
  • Famicom/NES
    • JP: September 9, 1983
    • NA: June 1986
    • EU: September 1, 1986
  • Atari 2600, 5200
    • NA: December 1983
  • PC-88
    • JP: February 1984
  • FM-7
  • PC-8001
  • Commodore 64
    • NA: 1984 (Atarisoft)
    • EU: 1987 (Ocean)
  • Amstrad CPC
    • EU: June 19, 1987
  • Atari 7800
    • NA: July 10, 1987
  • ZX Spectrum
  • Atari 8-bit
    • NA: November 22, 1988
  • Nintendo e-Reader
    • NA: November 11, 2002
  • Game Boy Advance
    • JP: May 21, 2004
Genre(s)Platform
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Mario Bros. is a 1983 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for arcades. It was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's chief engineer. Italian twin brother plumbers Mario and Luigi exterminate turtle-like creatures and crabs emerging from the sewers by knocking them upside-down and kicking them away. The Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System version is the first game to be developed by Intelligent Systems. It is part of the Mario franchise, but originally began as a spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.

The arcade, Famicom, and Nintendo Entertainment System versions were received positively by critics. Elements introduced in Mario Bros., such as spinning bonus coins, turtles that can be flipped onto their backs, and Luigi, were carried over to Super Mario Bros. (1985) and became staples of the series.

An updated version, titled Mario Bros. Classic, is included as a minigame in all of the Super Mario Advance series and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003). The NES version of Mario Bros. had been re-released through the Wii and Wii U's Virtual Console as well as the Nintendo Classics service; the original arcade version was released by Hamster Corporation on the Nintendo Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series.