It's been written about endlessly, of course, but Super Mario Bros is the perfect video game. Without wishing to lionise Shigeru Miyamato more than he already has been, it cemented essentially all the basic truisms of game design which would be followed for decades since arguably, to this day although never did another title approach its beautiful simplicity. The original NES Super Mario Bros has been hi-jacked into becoming art before, with a modified version of the game cartridge removing all the enemies, characters, or backgrounds besides the blue sky and floating clouds. Cory Arcangel's Clouds was exhibited in galleries across the US. But there's an argument to be made for Super Mario Bros being art unto itself. It definitely has purpose you play it, there are enemies to squash, there's a loose narrative to be completed. Its look, however, has fallen into becoming something aesthetically pleasing in the age of glitch and pixel art made not because of technological limitations, but deliberately.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
