Super Mario Bros.

System: NES

Cheats Used: Infinite lives

Having not played this game in years, I thought it would be the perfect place to start. After all, it is one of the most important games ever made. I don’t think I would be exaggerating by saying that Super Mario Bros. single-handedly saved the videogame industry after the great crash of 1983.

The game is notable for several reasons. First, it cemented the gameplay style of 2D, side-scrolling plat formers, a genre that would be the dominant one for years. Second, it cemented the idea of a “killer app”, that one game you would be willing to buy the system in order to play. Third, by being packed in with the system when you bought it, it cemented the idea that you should expect a free game when you bought the system. This last is something that is still occasionally done (i.e. Wii Sports and the various bundles for the Xbox 360).

What’s amazing is that even after all these years, it is still a fantastically fun game to play. The last four levels are still fiendishly difficult, especially the maze of the final castle. If you tell me you figured it out without looking at a guide, you’re lying. It’s a good thing I had infinite lives, ’cause I’d have never finished otherwise. The final castle alone took me 30 or 40 tries. It didn’t help that I spent most of the game as small Mario. Naturally, I died a lot. But that’s okay because that’s what cheat codes are for.

I realize that “hardcore” gamers are probably laughing at me right now, but ya know what? I don’t care. I play videogames for the fun of it and to me, cheat codes make games more fun because it gives me a chance of actually completing them. I admire someone who’s good enough not to need them, but I’m not that good. Thankfully, more modern games are generally easier, so I don’t use codes on them most of the time, although there can still be some challenge (like the FLUDDless levels in Super Mario Sunshine, which can make you want to break the controller at times). TVTropes doesn’t call it “Nintendo Hard” for nothing, ya know.