They traverse side-scrolling stages while avoiding hazards such as enemies and pits with the aid of power-ups such as the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Starman.

Players control Mario, or his brother Luigi in the multiplayer mode, as they traverse the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Toadstool from King Koopa (later named Bowser). The NES version received a wide release in North America that year and in PAL regions in 1987. Following a limited US release for the NES, it was ported to international arcades for the Nintendo Vs. and the first game in the Super Mario series, it was first released in 1985 for the Famicom in Japan. The successor to the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. is a 1985 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).