Super Mario Bros.
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 11 of 78 video games by recommenders
People recommend the NES original for its fun, simple design and lasting influence on games. Critics mention Nintendo repeatedly re-selling the same ROM.
People recommend the NES original for its fun, simple design and lasting influence on games. Critics mention Nintendo repeatedly re-selling the same ROM.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Defined the genre and revived consoles
“The only thing anyone needed to aid their perception and reboot the video game market in north America was 15-20 minutes with super mario bros.”
Comment from 10 Nov 2025 in “Former Nintendo employees reveal what it took to launch the NES” “so much better than everything that came before them that they became the face of the genre”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “PlayStation 2 Recompilation Project Is Absolutely Incredible” “Nintendo came out with originals like Super Mario Brothers and Zelda”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “How Donkey Kong Toppled Atari” - Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Super Dario”
- Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The 1987 Game "The Last Ninja" was 40 kilobytes”
Simple, fun and instantly playable
“You turn the NES on, press start, and there's Mario on the left side of the screen.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Game design is simple” “Surprisingly Mario has essentially no plot, yet it turned out very fun.”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Hollywood's Video Game Era Is Here. Will It Be Any Good?” “For a super casual game, such a mechanic is great.”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Making difficulty curves in games” - Comment from 22 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025”
Still holds up on modern systems
“Mario for NES doesn't need updates - yet it's perfect game by many.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “No More Hidden Changes: How MySQL 9.6 Transforms Foreign Key Management” “still work great on Linux”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard jumps and lost lives
“I’ve had initial attempts at an emulator set-up where I was losing lives on friggin’ Mario 1:1 though.”
Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “NeoGeo AES+: SNK announces reissue of retro console without emulation” “trying to get the jumps right on Super Mario Bros level 8-2”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “The hottest new phone is Tin Can, a 'landline' for kids”
Other video games people recommend
The four most recommended other video games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helldivers 2 | 50 | 34 | 60% | 10 | 1.9 yrs3 owners | — |
| GPU building game | 49 | 16 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Triple-A Minesweeper | 40 | 25 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
| Quake II | 33 | 8 | 80% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Super Mario Bros.This page | 19 | 5 | 79% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
20 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Surprisingly Mario has essentially no plot, yet it turned out very fun.”
“For a super casual game, such a mechanic is great.”
“Just amazing how right a few people at Nintendo got this in 1985”
“Nintendo came out with originals like Super Mario Brothers and Zelda”
“Nintendo makes some token effort to sell the same Mario ROM to people for the tenth time”
“I’ve had initial attempts at an emulator set-up where I was losing lives on friggin’ Mario 1:1 though.”
“for the state of console gaming in 1985, SMB1 is damn impressive”
“trying to get the jumps right on Super Mario Bros level 8-2”
“widely agreed to be the best SMB on the NES”
“Mario for NES doesn't need updates - yet it's perfect game by many.”
“SMB3 introduced us to Raccoon Mario which lets you also cheese large sections of trickier levels.”
“so much better than everything that came before them that they became the face of the genre”
“tiny ways in which you do make a difference as the protagonist in SMB actually did draw me into that”
“as an adult it's not only hard to find time but once I do, games feel like an exhausting chore”
“the original super Mario is a nice game”
“Super Mario and Predator are both classics of their genre”
“Nintendo does have their Zelda and Mario that they have taken care of well for decades”
“The only thing anyone needed to aid their perception and reboot the video game market in north America was 15-20 minutes with super mario bros.”
“You turn the NES on, press start, and there's Mario on the left side of the screen.”
“still work great on Linux”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.