The Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt NES Cartridge Changed My Life (and Maybe Yours As Well)
Shoot the ducks. Save the Princess. Mind blown.
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I emerged from my mother's womb, gasping for air, and clutching Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt in my right hand.
Or... maybe that never happened. Not physically, anyway. I was born in the summer of '85, a full three and a half years before the SMB/Duck Hunt combo cartridge would grace our sweet American shores within the NES Action Set. Also, the NES wouldn't be released in America in any capacity until October 1985, another few months after my birth. Also, from what I understand, my mom's womb was sealed tight until my exit. No NES carts in there!
No, I did not appear from my mom with the world's most iconic combo cartridge in hand. But considering I received the NES Action Set at the tender age of four, I can truthfully say that my conscious mind doesn't remember a time without Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt.
Like Cyndi Lauper's “Time After Time,” or the first “Ghostbusters” film, SMB / Duck Hunt is one of those pure 80s creations that feels like it's always existed.
For myself and millions of millennials, Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt was the pixelated gateway drug, the portal to new dimensions. We had all experienced moving images on our television set from an early age. Now, with Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt, we were asked to actively participate in what was happening on screen.
When Mario jumped, we jumped.
When Mario increased in size with a Mushroom, we too grew several feet taller.
When Mario ran into a Goomba, we cried and fell on the floor.
We weren't simple. We had just become one with a paunchy, mustachioed Brooklyn plumber. His triumphs were our triumphs. His pain was our pain. No mere television show could produce such reactions. Video games were a brave new world, one that could consume us if we weren't careful.
Of course, Super Mario Bros. is the real breadwinner in this relationship. SMB is an Adventure with a capital 'A.' 32 smoothly scrolling levels, it changed video games forever, Mario still controls like a dream, yada yada yada, a true American classic, except it's as Japanese as it gets.
Duck Hunt is the game where you shoot ducks. And clay targets, if you're feeling like your dad. There's that goofy dog that laughs at you when you miss. He's amusing, although lots of folks that live on the Internet seem to hate him.
What would our young lives had been like if Nintendo had paired two of their great early adventures – SMB and Metroid or Kid Icarus – together instead of SMB and Duck Hunt? Too much greatness in one combo cart? Or was Nintendo implying that we should complement our larger adventure with smaller, more immediate fare, like Duck Hunt or Hogan's Alley? Without Duck Hunt's perhaps inevitable placement in the combo cart, we wouldn't have received that quintessential piece of 80s tech, the neon orange Zapper. And a childhood without a futuristic video game gun isn't much of a childhood at all.
Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt is one of the most ubiquitous NES games, and thus, can be found for a few dollars used online. Loose copies of the original Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt are much more rare than the combo carts and cost several dollars more.
Today, Super Mario Bros. is the first entry into a universe-conquering franchise. Duck Hunt is still a lone NES title where you shoot ducks (and/or father-approved clay targets) with your canine companion. While Nintendo likely never viewed them as games of similar quality, they each sold different, at-the-time equally important aspects of Nintendo's new “Entertainment System.” If you didn't like Super Mario Bros. (you monster), you could shoot virtual ducks to your heart's content with the Zapper. If you didn't like Duck Hunt, you could go save the Princess again and again.
There will never be a world without Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt. Even if all of the combo carts are rounded up and buried in the New Mexico desert somewhere, the millions of personal memories made from this most blessed of pairings will permeate our atmosphere for ages to come.
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I still remember the intro song to Duck Hunt. Now that you mention it, was there ever another instance of a combo cart? The only one I can remember from the top of my head is the LoZ OOT Master Quest, but even then, that's just a different version of the same game. I wouldn't count compilations like Super Mario All-Stars either...
So many memories. Seems many other feel that way based on the positive reception to this!