Game:

Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Duration: 1:12:08

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13

So ZeroPaige spends 7 years on making an almost pixel-perfect copy of Super Mario Bros on the Commodore 64, and 3 days after he released it Nintendo starts to throw around DMCAs.
But how is the game compared to the original version?
It is surprisely good, with a handful of complains...
First of all, running it on an original C64 will give you slowdowns here and there, especially in castles with lots of fireballs spinning around. Which can be solved by playing it on something faster, like an Commodore 128 or a Commodore 64 with a processor upgrade, like the SuperCPU.
I play with the SuperCPU and the game runs better than on the original Nes. Which is not strange seeing that it is much much more powerful than the Nes, but that is a whole different matter. You can also chose between playing the PAL or NTSC version of the game. Playing the PAL version will give you less slowdowns on original hardware.
The C64 does not originally support as smooth scrolling as the Nes, but it is possible to "hack" it to do it with the VSP (Variable Screen Positioning) technique. The problem is that not every C64 "supports" this hack, which will crash the game if you are unlucky. Only way to fix it is to hunt down another C64.
The controls are pretty good. The problem is if you only got a joystick with one button, which was pretty standard back then, in which case you will jump by pressing Up on the joystick. That is pretty messed up if you are used to the classic Nes controls.
Graphically... it does not use the exact same colors as the Nes version, but they are still pretty good. The C64 got a wider horizontal and a shorter vertical resolution, so it is impossible to get a pixel perfect solution. The stuff at the top and the bottom are cut off and the screen is "too wide" (best seen at the end of an X-3 and X-4 level), but that is acceptable.
If you run and duck when you are big, you can slide inside locations that only small Mario can normally fit. If you jump, you can destroy the block above you and you can stand normally. In one or two locations you can do this with one of those blocks that contains ~10 coins (Level 6-1). In this version, you are forced back out the way you came if you do this with a coin block.
At the end of level 6-3 with those steel beams that will drop if you stand on them, if you jump instantly when you land on one of them, they will all go invisible. They are still there, you just can't see them.
If you jump on a Koopa Troopa or a Buzzy Beetle, you can kick its shell to attack other enemies. In this version, it doesn't seem to connect with every enemy, making it possible to leave some alive.
The Buzzy Beetle shared the Koopa Troopa AI in the Nes game. Here it shares the AI with Spiny instead, which makes them change direction while moving to a new platform if you stand in the opposite direction.
The fireball you shoot disappear earlier in this version, so you will not always hit the enemies you shoot at.
Jumping and breaking blocks are different. In the original Nes version, you hit the block below, it gets destroyed and you are being pushed down. In this version, you keep going up a bit before going down. This will ruin your momentum and can easily get you killed.
I'm not sure, but one of the fireball swirl in the water in 8-4 might be placed one block too low. I might remember wrong in this case.
This version added moving water and lava waves.

It is an impressive port, even if it got a handful of flaws. Most of them can easily be overlooked.
I dislike the new jumping height when you break blocks, but it is nothing that will make me stop playing the game.

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