Super Mario Bros Deluxe

30 years ago, it you told someone that an Italian Plumber with a mustache, wearing a red hat + shirt, blue overalls, white gloves, and brown shoes would become one of the most recognizable characters in the world, they would call you crazy.  Flash forward to today, and Mario is arguably one of the most popular Video Game characters in the World.  He is so popular that he has become associated with Nintendo.  When people think of Nintendo, people think of Mario.

Super Mario Bros Deluxe is a GameBoy Port of the original Super Mario Bros that came out on the NES in 1985.  Bowser has captured Princess Peach, and it's Mario's job to search the castles in order to find Peach and free her from Bowser's grasp.  The gameplay is nearly identical, but the GameBoy version expands on the orginal by adding challenges for you to do.  One of them is the "Yoshi Egg" Challenge.  There is a hidden Yoshi Egg in each level, and the objective is to find where it is.  The trick is the block is invisible, so often times you would find the Yoshi Egg by luck (aka randomly jumping around). 

Finding a Yoshi Egg in a level

In addition, there is a mode called "Boo Race", where you race across special levels against Boo the ghost to see who finishes the level first.  Though this may seem simple, keep in mind that Boo is a ghost, which means he can pass through blocks instead of having to jump over them.   

Mario vs Boo.  Who will win?

In addition, there are different colors of Boo, which represents how fast they go.  They range from White, Green, Red, and Black.  Coincidentally, the Black Boo is the fastest, and by far the hardest to beat (I don't know if Nintendo did that on purpose, making the Black Boo the super fast one).  Below is a short YouTube video that shows a race against Black Boo. 

Note: This is a lot harder than it looks.

But by far my favorite part of the game is the Luigi levels.  The Luigi levels are basically Super Mario Bros 2, the version that released in Japan.  The Japanese version differed from the U.S Version because it was deemed "Too difficult" to play, so they made a different, easier version for the U.S gamers.  They weren't lying.  The Luigi levels are frustratingly difficult.  There was this one level that was so difficult, I had to look up a walk-through video on how to beat it.  And after watching the video, it still took me a while to finally succeed.

Super Mario Bros Deluxe is my favorite GameBoy game, and the reason I like Mario and still play his games today.  It is such a classic game, a simple 2-D side scroller, but even 30 years after its release it can appeal to new gamers today who have never played a Mario game before.  Just be sure to NOT start them off with the Luigi levels.  They were banned from the U.S for a reason.