1. Super Mario Bros (NES, SNES)

For now I'm going to number these, even if I have no intention of the number being important.

When I was young, SMB was fun.  As an adult it's fun and amazingly impeccably designed. Mario is facing right.  You use the cross shaped button to move him left or right.  You stop at the edge of the screen if you go left, if you continue right the screen follows you.  coming towards you is a mushroom.  If you touch the mushroom you die.  One of the buttons on the controller allows you to jump.  You can jump over the mushroom, or if you land on it, it pops out of existence and you get points.

I'm not going to continue with that.  I'm certain I've read something similar on action button .  What I will say, and what so many games before and since SMB have gotten wrong, is that it is fun to control Mario.  He has physics and friction.  You hold the button to determine the height of his jump.  you keep your thumb held on the other button to make him run.  The little pixel animation at just tapping the d-pad is excellent.  The fact that he slides just a little bit if you start running and let go.

So many other games, games that are praised, are not fun to control.  Monster World IV is depressing to move around in.  You can run, but it doesn't have an effect on your jump.  It's predecessors, the Adventure Island series, takes the SMB format in such a weird direction. 

Playing it now, I'm amazed how tightly design it is, and how Super Mario Bros 2 (FC, SNES) subverts that design and tightens it even more.  Watching someone blaze through either game is entertaining.  While Castlevania is fun, I'm certain watching someone play it well would be.

If you're going to start learning about video games as a medium, as entertainment, Super Mario Bros seems like the perfect place to start.  In the 25+ years since it's release, video games have rarely been better or as tightly designed.

Confession: I've never beaten SMB or SMB2.  I've seen them both beaten (not the ultra end of SMB2 however) .  If I have five minutes to spare somewhere, it is not unheard of me to play the first stage of Super Mario Bros in a frenzy.  I've played it between rounds of Counter-Strike.

I use Super Mario Bros as the basis for video games entertaining me.  While their are other video games I would rather play, SMB works as a grading scale for excellence.

CAN I PLAY THIS RIGHT NOW?
Dude, of course you can. Virtual Console. Also, I am surprised you are reading this blog and have never played this game.