Uniquely unplayable – yet truly special.
When the first Super Mario Bros. game was released for the NES in 1985, it became an instant sucess, prompting Nintendo to release various sequels since, such as the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 (also known as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels) in 1986, and in 1988 for Western audiences.
But what about the game that released in between those two?
Nintendo, PC Gaming And A Small Little Bee
Nowadays, Nintendo is notorious for their insistence on their franchises exclusively being playable on their platforms. Because of this, it may surprise some to learn that from 1984 to 1986, a company named Hudson Soft – the developers of the Bomberman franchise with their signature bee logo – was granted permission to port some of the early NES hits to Japanese PCs.
While at the time, these devices (mostly sold by the NEC and Sharp corporations) were not nearly as well-equipped for gaming purposes as Nintendo's console, Hudson Soft managed to create competent versions of Nintendo's Balloon Fight, Excitebike, Golf, Ice Climber and Tennis. These may not seem particularly notable in retrospect, considering they just accurately recreate the simple gameplay of their NES counterparts, but Hudson Soft also tried their hand at something more standout: Sequels to some of Nintendo's early classics!
They expanded on Donkey Kong 3's shooter-style gameplay with more stages in Donkey Kong 3: Dai Gyakushū, added more mechanics and stages to Mario Bros. in Mario Bros. Special and Punch Ball Mario Bros. and – most importantly – ended with the subject of this article: Super Mario Bros. Special in September 1986.
Making Special Something Special
Although Super Mario Bros. Special retains the visual style, music and basic gameplay premise from Super Mario Bros., it expands on them with entirely new levels, more enemies and more power-ups. Special is often mislabeled as a mere port of the NES game, but considering how it brings way more original ideas to the table than recognized sequel The Lost Levels, this just seems plainly false.
The new levels may not be as tightly designed as those in the Miyamoto-led titles, but if anything, that just makes them stand out more. But what's in these levels is truly interesting: Hudson Soft apparently drew from their resources accumulated throughout their previous porting work to add enemies and power-ups that were in Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., but not in the original Super Mario Bros., plus coming up with plenty of completely original ideas.
Players will encounter Sidesteppers, Fighterflies, Barrels and Icicles, which they can smash with a hammer, fly over with wings or wipe out in an instant with the Lucky Star. Hidden in the levels are also clocks which add more time to the countdown as well as Hudson Soft's bee mascot Hachisuke for some bonus points.
A Sequel That Went Down The Drain
All of this sounds incredible, right? So how come Nintendo never acknowledges Super Mario Bros. Special and the fans mostly remain silent as well?
Well, aside from Nintendo never really being involved with the game (with Hudson Soft handling development and publishing themselves), its exclusivity to the NES PC-8801 and Sharp X1 in Japan as well as the Samsung SPC-1500 in South Korea means that – unfortunately – Special is stuck on systems never designed to handle such a game and thus marred with technical issues.
Constant lagging at an abysmal framerate, a limited color palette, out-of-pace music, no smooth screen scrolling and abundant glitches make playing the game a nightmare. Its many cool and original ideas are held back by its hardware limitations, because of which anyone who has played it is unlikely to recommend it.
...Which is why the fans have taken up the task of remedying this game's fatal flaw, as is often the case with Nintendo video games.
Wasted Potential Finally Realized
If the only thing keeping Super Mario Bros. Special from greatness (or even just being a playable game) is that it was trying to emulate the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. on inferior hardware, why not just try to bring it to the hardware that it was inspired by?
Fans like Karatorian or Frantik have created various mods for Super Mario Bros. that aim to recreate the Special experience in the superior engine. They first brought over its levels in March 2012, then the distinct color palette in July 2012 until finally – after a multi-year hiatus – replicating the full game including the unique enemies and power-ups with SMB Special – 35th Anniversary Edition in July 2021.
In August 2021, I myself joined the over 60,000 people who have downloaded some version of the mod since. I was instantly hooked by its unique layouts and gimmicks – feeling like an official Super Mario Bros. sequel from an alternate timeline – and enjoyed myself the whole way through. If you want to acquaint yourself with this forgotten piece of Mario history, this is the way to go.