I liked the Mario Bros. style mini-game in Super Mario Bros. 3. Back then, it wasn't quite as commonplace to see a nod to a classic arcade game like that, so I thought that was cool. I also learned through this mode that you can be a real jerk in Mario Bros. if you want to!
I wonder how many kids back then knew that the song in the Mario Bros. commercial is just the tune to "Car 54, Where Are You?"
One time as a kid we went to Chuck E. Cheese and I was playing Mario Bros. when I felt someone come up beside me and try to play the game with me. I didn't look over at first, but after they kept bumping into me and fumbling with putting the quarter in the slot, I was like, "What the heck?" And when I looked over, it was the guy in the Chuck E. Cheese costume trying to play!