Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. for Game & Watch is Nintendo's 1983 Multi Screen release, model MW-56. It is a dedicated two-screen LCD handheld, not the similarly named arcade game: its setting is a bottling plant and its action is built around moving cases through a conveyor system. The unit opens sideways like a book, with one screen for each brother's side of the factory.

Mario works the right-hand side and Luigi the left. A case begins at Mario's lower station; each brother must climb to the correct height and pass it to the next conveyor level. The route zigzags between the two screens until Luigi, at the upper left, loads the finished case onto the waiting delivery truck.

The design makes cooperation its central challenge. In a two-player game, each person operates one brother with the up-and-down rocker switch on that side of the handheld, so every transfer depends on the other player being in position. A solo player can instead manage both switches, turning the same relay into a fast coordination puzzle for one pair of hands.

A missed handoff drops and breaks a case, earning a miss; three misses end the game. Each successful move onto a conveyor scores one point. Filling the truck with eight cases earns ten additional points, after which the truck departs and a new one arrives, briefly pausing the work before the pace resumes.

Game A is the normal mode, while Game B raises the difficulty. Reaching 300 points clears recorded misses; doing so without a miss triggers Chance Time, during which scoring is doubled until the next mistake. The score display tops out at 999, keeping the goal focused on maintaining the increasingly demanding production line.

Like other Game & Watch units, MW-56 also functions as a clock and alarm, but its horizontal dual-LCD layout is its defining hardware feature. The separate left and right controls make Mario Bros. particularly suited to shared play, while the fixed LCD character positions and constantly advancing cases give the game its crisp, mechanical rhythm.