Did you catch these 8-bit games featured in The Super Mario Bros. Movie

As we collected in this morning's review of The Super Mario Bros. Movie without spoilers, the film is a torrent of references to the entire Mario universe but, taking advantage of the scenes set in New York, it also saves a good handful of nods to other Nintendo games and franchises that were successful in the 80s on the NES and in arcades and that we have compiled here.

Of course, we recommend that you continue reading once you've seen the movie (and let us know if we're missing any!) because we're inevitably going into spoiler territory...

Have you hunted down all these NES games in The Super Mario Bros. Movie?

1. Donkey Kong, 1981. The first job that young Miyamoto was commissioned to save Nintendo in the West, the one that started it all, had to have its appearance in the film, beyond the fact that Mario and Donkey Kong themselves share much of the footage staging their rivalry. In the film, you can even see the arcade machine with the name of Jumpman (like Pac-Man or Walkman, before being baptised as Mario in honour of Mario Segale). The references to the game that led to Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. and the Donkey series itself do not cease throughout the film, including the appearance of Pauline or the red beam stage and the music that plays when Mario and DK fight. a la Smash Bros.


2. Punch-Out!!, 1983. The pizzeria featured in the film in a couple of scenes in Brooklyn is named after the innovative boxing game that was first released in arcades. It marked the debut of a certain Koji Kondo as a composer...


3. Baseball, 1983. Ok, this one is taken a bit more convulted, but you can't tell us that the merchandise and fonts on Mario and Luigi's belongings make no reference to the NES game that made the console a hit with American kids and their parents. Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto himself and presented in New York with professional players, Baseball was one of the best sports successes in the history of Nintendo.


4. Balloon Fight, 1984. A Yoshio Sakamoto design programmed by one Satoru Iwata, first as an arcade game and later expanded for the NES. One of the balloon fighters is clearly seen in the Brooklyn night.


5. Wrecking Crew, 1985. In the midst of the Super Mario Bros. boom, Miyamoto lent his characters to different titles and sports. Here Yoshio Sakamoto put them to work as bricklayers for the evil foreman Spike, whose actor first leaked the film a couple of years ago. In it he plays Mario and Luigi's former boss plumber and gives a nod to the NES and arcade game.


6. Kid Icarus, 1986. A year later, guess who, Sakamoto-san was working on Pit's first adventure while creating something much more ambitious called Metroid. In the movie, Mario himself plays a game on his NES when he feels like a failure.

If we count all the references to Mario's own games in his more than 40 years of history, it gives us another almost infinite list, but what do you think of these nods to the beginnings of Nintendo in homes and stores in that decade?