Vs. Super Mario Bros. was the arcade version of Super Mario Bros., which made it to US arcades a few months after the NES release. It’s a much harder game than the home version, with levels brought in from the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, and operator adjustments that can make it even more difficult.
A little remarked-upon aspect of the game is that it came about before the drawn character design of Mario and his enemies had been solidified, at least in the US, so the official arcade release of SMB had a weird marquee, with an image design that was never drawn upon by later releases:
It’s somewhat reminiscent of the flyer they distributed to promote the game when it was going to be titled Mario’s Adventure:
And even more interesting, it had this title card. Behold, an official Mario looking meaner than he ever had before or has since!
