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Eaubay's Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
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| [January 26, 2008 01:57:31 AM]
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Gamelog entry #2
GAMEPLAY
Characters: There's something about the silent protagonist that draws people. It works for the weighted companion cube and it worked for mario in this game. It probably has to do with the fact that players can project whatever they want onto the character. At the time though I think it was particularly appealing because there was very little to connect with in terms of the characters in gaming, a game like tetris or pong may be fun but there's nothing in it like "Mario." So I think there was this desolate gaming landscape in terms of personality and then here comes "Mario" he's go this unique look to him, suspenders, a funny hat, and this goof mustache. Nowadays we've got games like Bioshock with incredible depth in characters but you can't help but like "Mario," so even though there isn't any story on him he's still likable.
It's certainly interesting to play. The levels never feel repetitive, so it manages to feel fresh as you go through the worlds, each of which has its own theme. It's not so interesting however when you hit a plateau and have to play a level over and over, and if you die you start over.
DESIGN
I can't speak to how innovative Super Mario Bros. 3 was because I don't know what the platform market was like twenty years ago, but it's a classic because it was a very good game. I keep trying to apply modern standards to the game, but it's twenty years old! The fact that I can pick it up and have a good time after playing Mass Effect speaks to the calibre of the game. It's a solid game, the enemies are unique and the level design is creative. On the negative side you can't save, but it's hard to complain about that because it wasn't a feature of games at the time. It's like complaining about the game not being in HD, it's an unrealistic standard to apply. I can however complain that the game doesn't have much of a story, that's not unrealistic because The Legend of Zelda came out on the same system and the scale in that game is nothing short of epic.
The tone of the game world is fantastical and comedic with a dash of the macabre. It maintains this tone with unusual enemies and whimsical settings. These include but are not limited to goombas, flying turtles, piranhas, and Bowser who I suppose is a fire breathing dragon-turtle. It gets a bit darker in the castles where "Mario" has to dodge flames and lava without being crushed by giant spikes, it still keeps that whimsical tone though with cartoonish ghosts and skeleton turtles.
The game fosters social interaction between players through its multiplayer mode. In this mode one player controls Mario and the other Luigi, and they switch off playing levels. This promotes cooperation as the two players must work together to complete worlds. When one player runs out of lives the worlds that they completed become locked and have to be played again. There is also a level that the two players can compete in at the beginning of each world, it's optional, and as far as I can tell there is no reward to be gained from it. The gameplay in this level is much different, as it is a single stage with multiple platforms that enemies file across, and the first player to die loses a life and the stage ends.
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| [January 26, 2008 01:07:53 AM]
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Gamelog 2: Entry #1
SUMMARY
Let's kick this pig. I played Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. The player controls "Mario" a mustachioed Italian plumber. The game has a World select menu in which the player selects which sidescrolling level to play. Mario must navigate the various platforms in these levels to reach the end of the level, along the way defeating enemies. Very few enemies actively attack mario, most of them move in a scripted pattern, but nearly all of them can be dispatched by jumping on them. The object is to reach the end of all of the worlds, and while I was unable to do this I'm imagining there's a princess there, she might even be in another castle...
GAMEPLAY
My roommate, his girlfriend, and I took turns playing the game when I first brought it back. We approached it fairly arrogantly, because the game was released in Japan around the same time we were born, how hard could a game this old be? Besides, we're next gen gamers, we don't just dispatch alien hordes, we do speed runs and solo legendary. Yeah well... Answer: It's hard, very hard. So our "emotional state" during this first fourty five minutes was frustrated and befuddled. How can this be happening? Did a flying turtle just kill me?
We started to get the hang of it and on the end of the last level of the first world a bit of story was introduced. A king has been turned into a dog and my job as "Mario" is to board a flying pirate ship and steal a wand so that he can be turned back. Thank God for that little bit of exposition or I would have been really confused. In short, Mario is lacking in story, every so often there's a bit of explanation about why you have to do this or that but it really just muddies the water even more. Who is this king? Why was he turned into a dog? Why am I the one that has to do something here?
The game didn't flow particularly well for three reasons:
1. We kept dying.
2. You can't save.
3. There's no transition between levels. You go from a cave to floating platforms in the sky to a lava filled castle without any explanation why.
When these three are combined it's a confusing and exasperating experience. That being said the more we played, the better we got, and the easier it was to get through the levels and back to where we were in the game before we turned it off or died. If nothing else, my gaming ego has been considerably battered and bruised.
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Eaubay's Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Saturday 19 January, 2008
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