At first glance, the graphics come off as nothing but poor. With pipes, bricks, enemies and pits appearing and disappearing, the screen at times looks like a jumbled mess and t other times like it’s missing important elements. Sometimes only a portion of green hills and white clouds appear and the question mark boxes Mario has headed turn dark green instead of the standard color. You soon realize, however, that this is all a part of the creators’ intention. The purpose is to confuse the player.

Essentially, there are two scenes occurring during every screenshot. Mario is the breaking point between those two scenes. What’s in front of Mario is the original and intact Super Mario Bros., or the “present.” But the scene in front of Mario quickly disappears as he walks into it. Behind him appears what is about ten steps in front of him, or the “future.” Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? When playing, however, it doesn’t take long to figure out how it works.

One of the more exciting features of the game is getting to see inside the green pipes from where the Piranha Plants attack. When you pass a green pipe with a plant inside, the pipe disappears and leaves the green plant visible, floating in the air, and rising out of the now invisible pipe like normal. When you kill the plant with a fireball, you get to see what the dead plant looks like; essentially, the plant is flipped upside down and has had the tip of its mouth hacked off.