This article is about the first Mario game and the series that followed.
For Mario the character, see Mario.
Super Mario Bros. was Mario's breakthrough game, and the title that saved the videogame industry when it was released in 1985 for the NES. There are those who contend that Mario 1 would be the biggest wildcard on GameFAQs if it were able to make it into a Game Contest because of its iconic status and huge importance to the industry, and also because Mario 1 is the site's third most-played game (behind only Tetris and Mario 3). On the other hand, how many voters would consider it a "favorite" game? These factors give Mario 1 a huge potential range of strength. This strength was later shown in the Spring 2009 Contest, where Super Mario Bros proved its dominance over the 8-bit generation until it was the victim of a three-way vote split with Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World.
Super Mario Bros. is also the official name for the whole Mario platforming series, which competed in the Series Contest of 2006. SMB had an excellent showing that season, as it blew out the early competition before nearly defeating Final Fantasy in the tournament's Final Four.