Myiamoto strikes a gold mine with his second smash hit, right out of college I might add.
Super Mario Bros. was popular for its highly imaginative worlds that threw surprises at you around every corner. Like the lava room where the level just keeps looping around forever, or just the plain fact that you can jump and find a block create out of thin air; genius design for its time and still is genius.
This was also the fastest and smoothest action anyone had experienced at this time, allowing free motion as Mario jumped in smooth parabolic paths that stretched across the screen. The screen always moving constantly and pushing the action along; constantly forcing the player to think on their toes. The action is all the more better when you've got tons of crazy enemies swarming about to crush and frustrate you at times (especially the levels with flying fish!)
Let us not forget the amazing sound that this title produced, all originally written by Myiamoto himself, it is the most recognized video game music over the game industry's entire life span. Never having produced music before, Myiamoto was faced with a great challenge, but ended up succeeding with the uttermost perfection. Mario's main theme was even presented in an orchestrated concert, giving the theatre record sales...actually the theatre quickly sold out, for its first time too. Not forget the other sound qualities that Super Mario Bros. had, like Mario's infamous jump sound (who would have thought to actually make a spring like sound for jumping?), and the other bloops and bleeps that engage while stomping enemies and busting bridges while defeating the evil monstrosity we all know as Bowser.
After all these years, the franchise still moves on, while now taking a less (way less) innovative approach, it still has its great moments from title to title. If you're a new gamer, not taking your GTA: San Andreas and Halo 2 for granted, then just take note that, with out Mario, none of these systems would be here today (accept PC).