Gario

Regardless of how many Super Mario clones are out there, more are still being made, which means that it’s still not enough. Naturally, most of them are individual projects from amateur developers, so the quality level is not exactly high. However, you can stumble on something nice every once in a while if you know where to look.

Gario is certainly not one of them, because it barely makes any sense at all. In essence, there is only one level and it starts the same way the original game did three decades ago, even if it gets a bit different after a while. There is no background story and no explanation for the name “Gario”, which means that you have to go with the flow and just hope that everything makes sense later on.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. In fact, very little makes sense, because you just have to navigate the level by simply avoiding the critters and jumping over the traps, which is not as difficult as you might think. Collecting coins rewards you with additional points, but since there is no high score screen and the points do not seem to matter anyway, there’s not a lot of purpose in doing so.

Just like in the original game, you can search the boxes for mushrooms, which help Mario get bigger. Not only that, but special flowers are available as well, which enable you to shoot fireballs and take out the enemies from a distance. 1UP mushrooms can be found as well, so you can increase your odds of success by coming back to life after dying.

Visually, the small resolution makes it very difficult to appreciate the graphics, but they look decent. The character is nicely animated and everything looks a lot like it did back in the NES era, which should play well with the nostalgic. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can see, because the game is still very short and not entirely too exciting anyway.

Since Gario doesn’t aim to demonstrate any new mechanics, or set the pace for a story of sorts, the disappointing size is not excusable. Hence, if you want to play Mario, try one of the other thousands of clones available out there.