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Super Mario Bros. (NES) - A Black Falcon - 14th December 2023
While a lot of my retro setup has gone little-used for some time, the NES is a system I've been using fairly regularly. It's the system I have the most nostalgia for as a kid, though since I didn't own one myself my time with the games was somewhat limited. I've owned a NES since 2007, but as the 'games I have finished' thread shows, I've only finished a relative few of those games.
Well, I decided yesterday to cross off the biggest missing title on that list. Yes, I beat the original Super Mario Bros. today for what I'm pretty sure is the first time. I finished the GBC version, SMBDX, back when that game released, but the fact that you have to restart the world you're currently on in the NES game had always caused me to give up and stop trying. After all, I've beaten a version of the game before and I've beaten every level on the NES version except for 8-4, that's good enough, right?
But I decided, like, seriously, you should beat Mario 1. I put the Mario 1 / Duck Hunt cart into my NES and started playing. By the way, the NES dogbone controller is fantastic, it's the best NES controller for sure. I quickly got to world 8, since I now know where the warp in world 4-2 is thanks to watching lots of Mario content on the internet, and... proceeded to struggle like usual. The levels in world 8 are quite difficult! They're long and have few powerups. 8-1 and 8-4 have no super mushrooms at all, so if you want to have an easy time at Bowser you'd better get through 8-4 without dying after playing through 8-3 and getting both of its powerups. That's pretty tricky. The challenge of these stages is fun, they are challenging in ways that frustrate but keep you coming back until you do better, but I do think that 8-1 really should have had a powerup in it.
Before that though, in my first run I blocked off the 4-2 warp, so I kept going... and got through the level 4-4 maze first try. I died in world 5-1 and restarted (in order to take the 4-2 warp), but I guess I have that route memorized for some reason, I would not have guessed that since I don't think I remember any of the OTHER mazes... I certainly don't remember the 8-4 maze's solution. Honestly, I had to go look it up. The solution is perhaps disappointingly simple -- just take each first pipe after the lava pit -- but I'd forgotten it. Once you know where to go this level's actually only a moderate challenge at most, so long as you haven't died at all and have that powerup from the previous level; otherwise it's very hard thanks to the Hammer Bros. and Bowser at the end's endless streams of thrown hammers.
It took a little while, but today I eventually got it and beat Mario 1. It feels pretty great! I know it unlocks the second quest, but I'd honestly completely forgotten that it unlocks a level select after you beat it, how silly. Why couldn't they have put that in as you go, why the "hold A when you press Start to start from the last world you reached" continue code? Some elements of classic game design don't make much sense.
So, Super Mario 1 is a truly fantastic game. It's the best game of the 1980s and it's still exceptionally great today. But... those physics! Gah, if there's one thing about this game that is hard to go back to as someone who has played many many hours of newer Mario games it's the physics of SMB1. The way you run to build up speed, the sudden nature of your speed increases, how easy missing a jump can be if your speed at launch was just barely off, how dramatically different the game feels from the more refined NSMB style of physics all modern Mario games use... it's a big learning curve to get used to. To anyone used to newer Mario games there is a sizable learning curve to this title, I won't deny that I got frustrated more than a few times because of this games' weird physics. Once you get used to it it feels alright, but... yeah, I think I like new physics better.
However, it is true that the physics increase the sense of danger in SMB1. Every jump in this game is hazardous in a way that would never happen with the more precise controls of the newer games. Even enemies are a significant threat, as in maybe the hardest thing to get used to in this game when compared to most any newer Mario games, you get only a VERY VERY small bounce off of enemies after jumping on a foe in SMB1. Indeed, often I think that in this game it makes more sense to avoid enemies than to attack them! Koopa Paratroopas particularly are dangerous, you get such a small bounce off of them after the first hit to knock their wings off that there's a high likelihood that you will die upon landing as they land just behind you and hit you. The ending part of this game is dangerous and feels threatening in a way that the more friendly, refined newer games in the series have to put much harder-appearing level designs in to come close to.
That's not to say that I like the physics here or the lack of bounce off of enemies, though; honestly, I like the newer style more. This game is frustrating and punishing, and it sometimes doesn't feel fair (though it is) due to how odd the physics rules are in SMB1. But once I'd played this enough to start unlearning at least a bit of that Mario Maker / Mario Wonder / etc. physics and control style and having finished it for the first time, I can say that the original Super Mario Bros. is indeed still one of the greatest things this industry has ever produced. Level 1-1 is gaming's greatest stage ever, and the rest of the game is all-time-great fantastic as well, with a very well done difficulty curve from beginning to end.
RE: Super Mario Bros. (NES) - Dark Jaguar - 15th December 2023
Did you know if you hold A on a Game Over you will continue from the same world you were last on? It's not even considered a cheat code, it's right there in the (Japanese) manual. Basically the game has infinite continues.
Lost Levels was the first to implement added "bounce" off of enemies, and then Super Mario Bros 3, to me, is the ultimate expression of that style of design on the NES. It's usually what I call my favorite 2D Mario game, but Super Mario World creeps up to take it's place whenever I'm actually playing World. Now though, there's another contender. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just so amazing.
Now as for the physics, there is one major change in Super Mario All-Stars which appears to be entirely accidental. A sign got flipped from positive to negative for how bouncing off a block is handled, so that instead of bouncing straight down as originally designed (allowing you to maintain running momentum), it instead pulls you up into the space of a brick you just broke, which often catches you on the block beside it if you were running forward. It's not enough to ruin the game, but it does make the physics just a little less fun and seriously messes with speed running. So, it ends up being better to use a modded ROM of All-Stars that fixes this physics glitch. Again, for most people this will barely even be noticed and the game is still an amazingly fun retro experience, but this just... picks that one piece of burned bean from the chili, you know?
RE: Super Mario Bros. (NES) - A Black Falcon - 16th December 2023
Quote:Did you know if you hold A on a Game Over you will continue from the same world you were last on? It's not even considered a cheat code, it's right there in the (Japanese) manual. Basically the game has infinite continues.Of course, yes, I said that. But after you beat the game you unlock a WORLD SELECT! Pressing B on the main menu changes which world you start from, straight out, no "hold A to restart" stuff. Why is this something you only can use after beating the game, it's so strange.
It's particularly strange given that you unlock the 'second quest' hard mode after beating the game, but don't actually need to play most of it to beat this mode, you can just skip to world 8 with the level select you've also unlocked...
Quote: Lost Levels was the first to implement added "bounce" off of enemies, and then Super Mario Bros 3, to me, is the ultimate expression of that style of design on the NES. It's usually what I call my favorite 2D Mario game, but Super Mario World creeps up to take it's place whenever I'm actually playing World. Now though, there's another contender. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just so amazing.I have long thought of the NES Mario games being 1>2>3>LL, honestly, with World being better than any of them. SMB3 is an incredible game, but the levels are just too short! Mario 3 levels are great... then they end at what should be like maybe the halfway point. It's distractingly annoying.
I will say though, I'd totally forgotten that LL is the first one with a high bounce off of enemies. I should play it some more...
RE: Super Mario Bros. (NES) - Dark Jaguar - 16th December 2023
(16th December 2023, 8:16 AM)A Black Falcon Wrote:Quote:Did you know if you hold A on a Game Over you will continue from the same world you were last on? It's not even considered a cheat code, it's right there in the (Japanese) manual. Basically the game has infinite continues.Of course, yes, I said that. But after you beat the game you unlock a WORLD SELECT! Pressing B on the main menu changes which world you start from, straight out, no "hold A to restart" stuff. Why is this something you only can use after beating the game, it's so strange.
It's particularly strange given that you unlock the 'second quest' hard mode after beating the game, but don't actually need to play most of it to beat this mode, you can just skip to world 8 with the level select you've also unlocked...
Quote:Lost Levels was the first to implement added "bounce" off of enemies, and then Super Mario Bros 3, to me, is the ultimate expression of that style of design on the NES. It's usually what I call my favorite 2D Mario game, but Super Mario World creeps up to take it's place whenever I'm actually playing World. Now though, there's another contender. Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just so amazing.I have long thought of the NES Mario games being 1>2>3>LL, honestly, with World being better than any of them. SMB3 is an incredible game, but the levels are just too short! Mario 3 levels are great... then they end at what should be like maybe the halfway point. It's distractingly annoying.
I will say though, I'd totally forgotten that LL is the first one with a high bounce off of enemies. I should play it some more...
Not often I see someone who ranks them like that, but credit where credit is due, I certainly appreciate your opinion on Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA). That game deserves more credit than it gets, though I do feel like the pendulum has started to swing back to people liking it again.
Lost Levels is also notorious for the sorts of pranks it pulls on the player, punishing them with tricky dead ends and warp pipes that send you back to the beginning. I can understand how this wouldn't sit right with a lot of people.
I never felt like Super Mario Bros. 3 levels were too short myself, so that's a unique perspective to me. For my part, I appreciated the number of levels and enjoyed that each one had a certain unique gimmick going for it and didn't overstay it's welcome. Further, each one had a lot of flexibility in how I as the player could approach them, bolstered by the wonderful "stored powerup" system between levels. It also was the start of allowing players to pick their own paths through the game, besides warp whistles I mean. Now every time I play these days, I like to hit every single level in the game, but back then it was nice to be able to plot a path since certain levels were simply more challenging for me than others.
Super Mario World does improve on this further though, in that it also provides hidden exits that take the player to different parts of the map. I also loved the secret and super secret worlds full of hidden levels all their own, with the reward being a Halloween themed partial reskin of the game. Now if only taking that final warp star could flip the game back and forth between those two modes... Still, an appropriate reward considering the game was originally an October release.
The specific "world select" would make more sense if the older Mario games saved your progress. It's a shortcoming the All-Stars remakes resolved, and there the world select after beating the game is very much appreciated. Again, I do prefer to take on all the levels when I decide to play through the game and it's harder mode, so I don't really make too much use of it, but yes, considering progress is just erased when powering down the NES original, it's not that much of a reward. As it stands, even Lost Levels only saves your overall "completion" progress, not individual level progress beyond the basic "continue the last world by holding A" setup. Oh yes, All-Stars was especially merciful to players on that one. Worlds A-D are always accessible after beating the main game, and it's only World 9 locked away if you take any warp pipes. Further, unlike the other games that keep their "continue only from the start of each world" restriction, Lost Levels in All-Stars allows continuing from each level individually. In the original, it's far more frustrating and time consuming. World 9 is still only seen if you avoid any warp pipes, but you also start that world with only one life, and the world loops over and over forever until you lose that life, like a parody of the minus world glitch. Worlds A-D are MUCH more frustrating. Each time you beat the Famicom version, a "completion star" is added to the title screen, and only after completing the game 8 times do you finally get to see worlds A-D, by holding down A and Start at the title screen. These frustrations, plus the simple fact that this game wasn't all that innovative a sequel, barely changing anything mechanically from the first game, led NOA to advising Nintendo to come up with a much less frustrating and much more unique sequel to Super Mario Bros, and you and I both seem to appreciate that they delivered.