Fun has been defined as 'a sensation, a feeling, an element of happiness. It includes satisfaction of reaching goals, but also of having goals to reach and choices about how to reach them.' This is why fun is most often associated with games, especially, in this day and age, games that are computer based or able to be played on your mobile telephone. [Castronova, 2007].
For the purpose of this blog, we will discuss a game that most people recognise from their childhood, that being 'Super Mario Bros', which has been around since 1985 and was developed by Nintendo. It is a game in which the player chooses to either play as the title character, Mario, or his brother, Luigi. They are portrayed as Italian-American plumbers who have to defeat creatures coming out of the sewers. Several other now well-known characters are introduced throughout the game. [Nerurkar, 2007]
It is a platform game, which is one of the traditional forms of games, which can be found in many arcades, where the player uses their character to jump from platform to platform and collect objects or items, in Super Mario Bros case, these items are coins.
What makes Super Mario Bros. innovative for it's time is that the gamespace extends beyond what is visable on the screen, meaning that the player has to move from screen to screen, exploring the environment and trying to find the end of the level by jumping over objects and sliding down pipes, before they can reach the next level [Nerurkar, 2007].
The main objctive of the game is to ultimately rescue Princess Peach from being kidnapped by one of the main villians, Bowser, while collecting as many coins and killing as many villain characters as possible throughout the game. Each level has several different option on how to reach the end, so you don't have to play a level the same way twice, and can find new and interesting areas to explore in the virtual universe. This makes the game fun as there is not too much repitition, leaving the player bored.
There are many obstacles throughout the game, these include 'mini-villians', such as turtles and the 'koopalings', which are defeated by jumping on them or shooting them, and while so not kill you instantly when you touch them, deplete your health levels. You must also jump over platforms, slide down sewer pipes and climb up beanstalks to find the end of the level. The main obstacle at the end of each level is Bowser, who you must defeat to continue, and to end the game you must defeat King Koopa, who has Princess Peach held captive.
As you progress through the game it becomes gradually more and more challenging, as each level becomes harder. For example, in the beginning sewer pipes only lead you to underground worlds with more coins and items to collect, and to not hinder your progress through the level, however in later levels, these sewer pipes can take you back to previously visited areas of the level, setting you back significantly. The game also adds new worlds as you go along, for example, underwater levels are introduced where you must swim and avoid underwater villians.
In conclusion, when I think about fun games from my childhood, Super Mario Bros always comes to mind, most specifically the SNES release, because while challenging, it is fun for all ages as it is bright and colourful, includes interesting obstacles and gives the players many different universes to explore, making it a very hard game to get bored of.
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