It's hard to believe now, but Mario's jump was a platforming first when he and it were introduced in 1981's Donkey Kong coin-op, and his barrel-smashing hammer attack was equally novel. In his first solo title – Mario Bros – he could skid to a halt mid-run, and he swapped his hammer for heading the underside of platforms to flip foes before kicking them off the screen.
The mechanics in Mario's next outing were simpler, in that he used his jump in Super Mario Bros for the NES to deter foes as well as for platforming, which former Rare coder Chris Sutherland describes as an evolution. "In Donkey Kong, Mario would jump in an arc, but you had more control in Super Mario Bros. There was also risk/reward, because you had to get close enough to the enemies to jump on them, but if you mistimed it you might get hit. You had control over the height of the jump too, depending on how long you pressed the button. Then with Koopas, jumping on them knocked them to one side instead of destroying them. So the same move had various different outcomes."
