With Super Mario Bros. celebrating its 35th anniversary, Nintendo has been releasing a bevy of celebratory content. One of the smaller releases is Super Mario Bros. 35, marking the series first foray into the battle royale genre. Unlike traditional battle royale formats, Super Mario Bros. 35 relies on a time based elimination mode. While not as grandiose an experience as Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Super Mario Bros. 35 is definitely worth a look.

Gameplay wise, Mario Bros. 35 is pretty straightforward if you’re already familiar with the original game. You and 34 others compete through the classic Super Mario Bros. levels. Stomping goombas and koopas earn you extra time, while power-ups keep you in the game longer. The better you do, the worse other people will do, as enemies will continue to spawn forcing lower ranks to adapt quickly. Outside of that, there isn’t much differing from the standard Mario experience. If you complete a level, you advance onto the next until you are the last player standing. The coins that you collect in the levels can be spent on getting powerups at the start of the game. In addition, the experience you gain grant you custom profile pictures to flex on other players on the leaderboards.

Occasionally, Nintendo will run a Special Battle event. This is a limited-time event that puts in place special rules or a set order of courses. It changes things up a bit, and can give fun variations to the mix, but overall won’t feel too different from the main game. Keep an eye out for these special events, as players can use the layouts to their advantage.

Graphically, there isn’t much to say here, it is after all just Super Mario Bros, which looks great. While purists will say it won’t beat the warm glow of the NES classic on a CRT TV, I would disagree. The overlay can be hectic at times due to the constant goings on, but it’s manageable. Performance isn’t really an issue either, as there isn’t any lag running an NES game. Similar to Tetris 99, Mario Bros. 35 can drop connection at times, but not frequently enough to be a problem.

Overall, despite lacking in a few elements, Super Mario Bros. 35 has the standard Nintendo nostalgic quality with an inventive twist. While I’m not the biggest fan of platformers, even I could appreciate the unique alterations to the classic Mario formula. Unfortunately, it’s only available until the end of next March, which puts a dampener on what’s overall a great game. Still, if you like a unique platform experience, give this one a try.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

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