Super Mario War

Nintendo scored the mother of all jackpots with the Italian plumber called Mario, since it practically defined the company from that point onwards and the franchise still brings them a lot of money. However, although there are plenty of official multiplayer variants when it comes to Super Mario, the old-school platformer still cannot be played in a more violent manner, since it only has co-op.

Super Mario War is designed to provide you with the long-awaited platformer skirmish, in which you can go head-to-head with up to three other players and have fun with a variety of characters from the Nintendo universe. In essence, the purpose is for the players to stomp everyone else as much as possible, but it all depends on the chosen game mode and the rules of the round, since you can customize everything about it before starting the match.

There are a lot of modes to choose from, all of which provide you with a different challenge and a new way to experience the Mario universe. The deathmatch is about as classic as it can get, since the main purpose is to stomp your enemies, while the one with the most number of frags in the end wins the game. You can also try out modes like Race, Domination, Capture the Flag and King of the Hill, which get even more entertaining when there are four people involved on a tiny map.

In order for the players to avoid confusing their character with someone else’s, the game provides you with a large number of options to choose from. Alternatively, if two or more players happen to choose the same character, the game assigns them different colors once the match starts, which makes it very easy to keep an eye on your personal Mario. Moreover, the levels are very nicely designed to bring back memories from the SNES era, while some of them are even inspired from other games, such as Zelda.

Lastly, you may have already guessed that the graphics are nothing to stand in awe off, but that’s to be expected, considering the theme and the general idea of the game. However, the amount of detail that went into the level design and the characters is commendable, even if the color scheme is in 8 bits and there isn’t much you can do when the resources are so limited.

Super Mario War may hit you with a blast from the past, but it may also remind you that things were moving much faster back then and video games were much more unforgiving with the players. Thus, do not be surprised if you are unable to follow everything that’s happening on the screen, nor enraged at the fact that every other jump you make is into the lava pit.