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Kimano's Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
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| [October 5, 2009 11:34:34 PM]
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So, I decided to sit down and play an old game from my childhood, Super Mario Brothers 3. I used to come home from school and play this game for hours.
SUMMARY
Super Mario Brothers three was a platformer for the NES, and one of the best designed in terms of power ups and their interaction with the environment and monsters, especially for its time. It had a huge variety of enemies and each powerup had distinct advantages and disadvantages against them.
GAMEPLAY
One of my favorite things about this game was how varied your play style can be. You are given several ways to defeat any given level, and what powerups you choose can vastly play how you approach any given challenge. Another thing that I always liked about the game was how free it felt. It wasn't as huge or vast as modern sandbox games, but that was a good thing. In a modern sandbox game, the design of the game basically forces you to explore. It makes you feel like you have to run around and do side quests and explore in order to get the full benefit of the game.
Super Mario was so well designed you could run around and explore and still be consistently working toward you objective. It's like the difference between camping and going out to play in the backyard. They're both a fun activity, but when you go camping, it almost seems like work to go and explore, whereas when you're spending time horsing around in the backyard, it's more free and spontaneous. You don't need to go looking for the variety in SMB3, it comes to you.
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| [October 5, 2009 10:57:55 PM]
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Note: These are backwards, since I just lost my first entry to a gamelog timeout. the game also should have been SMB3, not 2.
One of the things that always hindered me playing that game, compared to a current one, is the lack of a save feature. I used to have the NES stay on, hidden away in the cupboard so I wouldn't lose my progress. That's still true, as the game doesn't have any kind of save function, but the emulator I played it on does utilize save states that helps deal with the lack of an in-game save.
GAMEPLAY
One of the other things I really liked about this game is how complex the game manages to be, without needed any special gimmicks. It's a good platformer and it focuses on the aspects jumping primarily. It also has a large variety of temporary (until you're hit) buffs that enhance some form of Mario's (or whichever character you choose's) gameplay.
I had a lot of fun playing around with the new powerups in SMB3. My favorite was the Leaf, and I use to spend hours trying to fly around and get as high as I could. After mastering it, i went on with the story line. The story is obviously rather basic, consisting of a rather dreary trudge through several different castles to save, oddly enough, the character I was playing, and keep her from Bowser's clutches. Unfortunately, every time I went to save her though, I was thwarted by intelligence as bad as most of the stuff our military seems to use. Every time you defeat the final boss, and advance to the room to save the princess, instead of saving her, you're informed she isn't there and it's time for ANOTHER castle. It's fun the first time, boring the 7th.
DESIGN
The game itself is fun. Hopping around dodging endless streams of thrown bones are fireballs can provide endless entertainment for an 8 year old. But soon after that age, the fun starts to wear. Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing game, but every time I play, I'm expecting something more. Maybe I'm spoiled by modern games with their twisted plots and in-depth characters, but the game just seems shallow.
Part of this is the game showing its age. It's a very old game, and the technology we use for games today would have made us seem alien in the 80s. But nevertheless, the game seems to lag in story content compared to other games, most notably Zelda. This is all forgiven though, because it isn't the story that drives Mario, it's the playing and level design.
The levels are well thought out, with traps and puzzles that are hard enough to make you work for them, but not frustrating enough to make you quit (*cough* Zelda Water Temple *cough*). This, in the end, is what makes Mario the classic it is today.
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Kimano's Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 5 October, 2009
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