Super Mario Bros. (NES)

[Dark Jaguar]

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...

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.