Super Mario Bros. 35 was a Battle Royale Platform Game created to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original Super Mario Bros. It was developed by Arika, who also released Tetris 99, and was available for the Nintendo Switch Online service from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021.
The player was pit against thirty-four opponents in an endless game of Super Mario Bros., competing in all different levels from said game. The goal was to be the last Mario standing by not dying or letting the time run out. Players could prevent others from winning by defeating and sending enemies to the target of their choice. Time could be increased by constantly defeating enemies and coins were used to play a roulette block that gave the player a random item to help them survive the overwhelming number of enemies sent by other players, and besides collecting them on courses, they could be collected by knocking out other players. When few players remained, the countdown timer turned red and became much faster, until one player was victorious.
Super Mario Bros. 35 provides the following tropes:
- Adapted Out: The Bowsers at the end of the first 7 castles are no longer common enemies in disguisenote ; they have all been replaced with the real Bowser.
- Airborne Mook: Lakitus native to the course float high up as in the original. Lakitus sent by others can fly in lower altitudes.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Icons are earned by leveling up.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- Various gameplay elements from later Mario games, including revamped versions of the original, are implemented here:
- Mario can earn a higher leap by stomping on enemies while holding the jump button.
- Mario is able to stomp on ground enemies underwater.
- The game uses the modern power-up tier system introduced in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Fire Mario now goes into Super Mario when hit, and Small Mario instantly transforms into Fire Mario when collecting the Fire Flower.
- As in Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, taking the wrong path in a maze castle is indicated by a buzzer sound.
- Enemies will not appear in bonus areas, allowing the player to relax and gather coins and power ups.
- In the first level of worlds after the first, a hidden 1-up would spawn in a certain place, but only if you collected all the coins in the third level of the previous world. Since the order of the levels in this game is random, the hidden 1-ups are always present if you jump in the correct place.
- Unlike the original game, Mario can shoot fireballs even if he's at the top of the screen.
- Various gameplay elements from later Mario games, including revamped versions of the original, are implemented here:
- Arc Number: 35, befitting the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. There are 35 players in a match, you start with 35 seconds of time in a normal 35-Player Battlenote , and Special Battles frequently have 35 of something (such as starting with 35 coins).
- Ascended Glitch: This isn't an emulation, but a complete recreation, meaning many glitches were fixed just because the engine doesn't have that weird edge case anymore — but the power-up double jump remains intact, suggesting it was deliberately implemented.
- Cap:
- 400 seconds is the highest time a player can reach from time bonuses.
- Level 99☆☆ (299) is the highest player level in the game.
- Changing Gameplay Priorities: If a game lasts long enough for the timer to start counting down at 10x speed, the most important thing becomes lasting out the clock by any means necessary, to the point that taking damage is a beneficial action, just because the Hit Stop pauses the timer for a few precious moments.
- Competitive Balance: Fire Flowers quickly remove enemies from the screen, but provide only +1 second per kill for most enemies and cannot combo to give more time, which will bite you in the ass if you rely on it too much during the endgame when the countdown begins to accelerate.
- Cosmetic Award: After completing every stage at least once, Luigi becomes playable. However, he doesn't have his high jumping ability from The Lost Levels, making him just a Palette Swap of Mario.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: While much of the game is a faithful recreation, there are a few little details that can mess up players very familiar with the original:
- Stomping enemies requires you to actually be on top of them; in the original it was sufficient to collide with them with downward velocity regardless of relative positions.
- Horizontal Warp Pipes will suck Mario in if he has rightward momentum, even if you're not pressing ➡. This is usually convenient for you, but it does make it harder to farm the Multi-Coin Block in the 1-2 bonus room.
- Death Throws: If you knock out an opponent, you'll see Mario getting thrown off that player's spot in the grid, and their KO box will turn orange instead of blue for easy tracking.
- Degraded Boss: The first Bowser you usually find is the version that is the final boss of a world. But as defeating Bowser sends him into other levels. Multiple Bowsers can be encountered in one screen.
- Demoted to Extra: Toad and Princess Peach don't appear in the game even if you beat 8-4, but do appear as selectable icons.
- Determinator: Hammer Bros., Lakitus, and Bowsers will chase after Mario should he pass them.
- Developer's Foresight: Koopa Troopas and Buzzy Beetles only earn bonus time for the first stomp, so the player cannot use the Infinite 1-Ups stair trick to stack up on time.
- Difficult, but Awesome: As shown here
, by rapidly switching between "Random" and "Attackers" targeting, you can bait several players into targeting you at once, which quickly results in everyone's screens being filled with enemies. If you think you can handle this better than your opponents... - Do Well, But Not Perfect: There are several strategies in play that will improve one's performance without clearing courses as fast as possible:
- Stopping to kill more enemies helps add more ticks to the clock and will generally result in more time left on the clock than just speedrunning the course.
- Ducking into bonus pipes or entering Coin Heavens add plenty of coins but sacrifices time on the clock as enemies don't spawn in these areas.
- The warp zones in 1-2 and 4-2 are good for players trying to avoid certain courses, or just jumping farther into the queue to send more dangerous enemies at their opponents, but can inadvertently skip courses a player hasn't cleared yet (which affects those the player can contribute to the queue in future matches).
- The Super Mushroom can sometimes be more desirable in the late game than the stronger power-ups offered in the Item Roulette. It adds 15 ticks to the timer if the player is already in Super or Fire form, whereas the Fire Flower only does so if one is already in Fire form. POW Blocks are useless if the screen is empty and otherwise less desirable than feasible bounce or shell combos, and Super Stars prevent such combos altogether (although the net time gain can still be comparably effective if enough enemies pop up by the end of the invincibility period).
- Deliberately picking the wrong path in 4-4, 7-4, and 8-4 will remove all enemies that spawned on your previous run of the section, making it a viable tactic to loop around if a player has time to spare.
- Drought Level of Doom: Any course that doesn't have a line of enemies (native or sent), coins, or power-ups to chain time is this, particularly in water and castle levels. Reaching an empty level with a fast, red timer typically spells doom for the player.
- Earn Your Fun: At the beginning, new players will only be playing on the first few levels before they get to play the later ones.
- Elite Mooks: Of all the enemies, Hammer Bros. and Lakitus pose the biggest threat, since they are the only enemies that have a way to actually attack Mario.
- Endless Game: The players run through the game's 32 courses endlessly until one is the victor. To avoid repetition, the course progression is random.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: The bottom bar locates the enemies' distance from Mario. However, it doesn't locate their positioning; enemies can appear on higher platforms.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Piranha Plants can sometimes end up in places that force you to get hit or die, should you get unlucky enough.
- Flying Seafood Special: Bloopers outside of water act the same as underwater, but they can be stomped on. Defeated Cheep Cheeps jump from the bottom of the screen and don't return.
- Gameplay Grading: Finishing 1st place enters the player into the Coin Ranking where their best coin total is put against other 1st place finishers. The table goes from E to S Rank.
- Gimmick Level: The Special Battles are the same as the 35-Player Battle except with a rigid course set and added special conditions (such as starting with 100 coins or as Super Mario).
- Guide Dang It!: The game was released with no documentation whatsoever, leaving the playerbase to figure everything out on their own:
- Course progression: Before joining a match, every player selects a course, and all selected courses are placed into a list ordered by player level (lowest to highest, typically resulting in levels being kinda ordered from earliest to latest but still pretty random) and all players play through the same "world" of 35 courses in order. Warp Zones allow skipping forward in the list by two to five places, depending on which pipe you select.
- Unlocking new levels is simply clearing them when it shows up. Every level you've completed during a match, plus the earliest level you haven't, will be available to select. Annoyingly, winning the match before you finish the course will prevent you from earning the clear.
- The game never mentions that you can stop the roulette sooner by pressing X again while it's spinning.
- It was assumed that only Mario was playable, but it is possible to play as Luigi after completing every stage at least once and holding L as you start a new game. There wasn't any indication this was possible anywhere.
- Hard Mode Perks: Starting a match as Small Mario doubles the player's total coin bonus at the end of the round.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Choosing difficult courses can backfire easily, as this makes the match harder for everyone, including the player who picked it. Don't be surprised if you pick a course with Lakitus and minutes later your entire screen is filled with Lakitus.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Playing 1-1 in your typical Super Mario Bros. playthrough? Probably not that exciting. Playing 1-1 while you're plowing your way through Lakitus, Spinies, Hammer Bros, and Bowsers dumped on by your opponents? Absolutely exhilarating!
- No-Sell: Some enemies are immune to certain kinds of attacks.
- Spinies, Piranha Plants, and Bowser can't be jumped on. Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps also can't be stomped while underwater.
- Buzzy Beetles and Bullet Bills are immune to fireballs.
- To prevent idle time-farming, Bullet Bills are immune to kicked Koopa shells.
- One-Hit Kill: Bowser will instantly be defeated should a kicked Koopa or Buzzy Beetle shell hit him, but the collision will mutually wipe out the shell. POW Blocks and Super Stars will also defeat him in one hit.
- Palette Swap: Enemies sent to others and you are tinted gray (as to avoid confusion from red and green Koopa Troopas and Cheep Cheeps).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Lakitus leave for good once they run out of Spinies to throw. This is likely done to prevent players from camping on an endless supply of Spinies.
- Secret Character: Luigi becomes playable once you complete every stage at least once. To play as him, hold L when you start a match.
- Smart Bomb: The POW Block removes every enemy on screen. Grabbing the flagpole and axe also has the same effect.
- Songs in the Key of Panic: Mixed with Near Victory Fanfare. The music speeds up once five players are left.
- Timed Mission: Players can earn time by defeating enemies. Chaining a combo from stomping without touching the ground, shell kicking, or invincibility nets more seconds per enemy. Should a match last too long, the countdown timer turns red and speeds up.
- Unwinnable by Design: There are moments where a load of sent enemies will gang up on the player (worse when they're positioned in narrow hallways). The player is ultimately screwed if they're unlucky to not have a Fire Flower, Star, or POW Block at the moment.
- Warp Zone: Present in the same locations. The pipes this time skip up to four levels in the course progressionnote instead of going to the first level in a predetermined world. However, the last Special Battle of 2020, which set the levels to appear in the same order as the original game, set the Warp Zones to warp to the respective levels they would in the original.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: KO'ing an opponent with your sent enemies transfers their time and coins to you.
- Zerg Rush: The more enemies killed, the more enemies that enter rotation. By the time a match enters the last few players, the duplicate enemies still in rotation will stack up on those players and can cause their queue to be swarmed by foes. For even more shenanigans, those players can pass the enemies between them by mass-killing them via Fire Flowers, Stars, or POW Blocks.
