For quite some time now, I've been on the lookout for the oldest videogame featuring co-operative gameplay.  Of course, this all depends on your definition of co-op.  Here at Co-Optimus, we don't consider team or squad based games to be true co-op; working together against a non-human opponent would count, though.  This disqualifies the first titles that popped into my head, like Atari Football and all the crazy Pong clones that featured more than two players.  (To my knowledge, you couldn't use an AI player for these games.)  The game we'll look at this week may not actually be the oldest co-op game there is, but it certainly predates early classics like Gauntlet and Contra.  Mario Brothers may be famous for other reasons, but it's still a solid co-op experience. 

The year is 1983.  Michael Jackson's Thriller sells a bajillion copies.  The Smurfs and the A-Team were on the TV.  The Golden Age of the Arcade is about to come crashing down, but some fantastic games were still being made.  Dragon's Lair made you feel like you were in a cartoon.  Spy Hunter, with that funky theme song hit the arcades in this year, as well.  Joining the mix was the first game to feature the Mario name: Mario Bros.  (Yeah, Mario was the guy from Donkey Kong, too, back in 1981, but he was technically a carpenter named Jumpman at that point.) 

Many of the traditions that popped up in the innumerable future Mario games were established in Mario Bros.  Mario was the main character, of course, and his palette swap of a brother, Luigi, appeared for the first time.  The pipes that were so famously used in the king of the platformers , Super Mario Bros., were used here first.  The classic "kick the turtle shell" maneuver had its origin in this game as well.  For these reasons alone, Mario Bros. is an important part of video game history.

Legendary gaming icon Shigeru Miyamoto was the designer of Mario Bros.  The story is told that it was his idea to include the co-op play.  The inspiration for this?  The simultaneous two player mode of Joust, which we discussed a bit in a previous Co-Op Classics.  In Joust, riders could still kill each other, and sometimes earned points for doing so; that defeats the purpose of co-op.  But in Mario Brothers, the co-op was legitimate: both players worked together to defeat all sorts of enemies.  Turtles, crabs, and all sorts of other nasties popped out in waves from the pipes at the top of the screen.  Defeating enemies was a two-part endeavor: Mario and Luigi popped the bad guys from underneath first, then ran over to kick them.  At the end of each level, a tougher enemy appeared, usually moving faster than a normal foe.  Once the last baddie was conquered, players moved on to the next level. 

For being such an early example of co-op, Mario Bros. sure did a lot right.  Defeating enemies by first jumping at them from a level below, and then kicking them while on the same level is pretty tough to do solo.  However, when you are below a turtle, and knock him over, and your buddy, one the turtles level, runs over to mop him up, it's a snap.  The cooperative aspect makes the game far easier, less frustrating, and more enjoyable.  You'll be working out a good strategy for your teamwork, I guarantee it.
 

In typical Nintendo fashion, Mario Bros. has been ported many, many times.  It appeared on the venerable NES, and this version is available on the Wii's Virtual Console even today.  If you played the enhanced remakes of the Super Mario Bros. series on the Game Boy Advance, you could count on having the original arcade Mario Bros. as a mini game.  You could even play co-op with a buddy with one copy of the game and a link cable!  Earlier this year, the stage layout for Mario Bros. appeared as an unlockable arena for Super Smash Brothers Brawl. 
 

I think most gamers would agree that Mario Bros. was a video game milestone, for many reasons.  However, the co-op aspect means the most here at Co-Optimus, and Mario Bros.' solid co-op makes it particularly memorable for us.  I'll keep on the lookout for earlier appearances of co-op in classic games, but I doubt they'll be as timelessly enjoyable as Mario Bros. is. 

 

 Tags: mario co-op classics mario bros.