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macuna's Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
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| [January 29, 2007 10:12:30 PM]
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The second miniboss in world 3 offers a nice addition to the usual challenge of stomping on a quick-moving enemy's head 3 times. Unlike previous mini- bosses, where I was able to wait for him to stop flying and land on the ground where I could more easily hit him, this one did not land without pointing his spikes upward, meaning that not only were my blows ineffective, but they in fact caused harm to me. Fortunately, this change in the enemy's strategy was met with a slight change in the landscape. Two platforms in the middle of the room helped me get a higher jumping platform so that I could more easily do damage to my adversary.
I've started to really appreciate the way that Mario can get a real, good long jump even without the super leaf, by holding down the "B" button and sprinting until the little meter at the bottom is full, then jumping. This has helped me bypass a lot of obstacles and enemies, and when combined with the superleaf has enabled me to fly really high into the air and find little bonus shortcuts, lots of coins, and other neat bonuses.
The final boss for World 3 got really tricky for me, because by the time I got to her, I would have sustained so much damage that I was left in regular Mario form, and therefore vulnerable to any attack. This made maneuvering around the hoops she threw quite a delicate procedure. I couldn't help but notice a change in this boss' attack from the previous two bosses. Whereas those two attacked by throwing a group of three rings, this one threw them one at a time, and instead of disappearing off-screen, they continued bouncing around the room, therefore never ceasing to be obstacles. My most common mistake was trying an attack and then landing right in the spot where one (or, more often, three) hoops were converging.
While I think this game's cutscenes are charming at first, it does become apparent that they are pretty much the same, save for maybe some different colors or different sprites for the King in both his transformed and restored forms. While I do think that this probably had to do with limited space for data in the NES cartridge, I still must say that it wears thin after a few go-arounds.
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| [January 29, 2007 09:19:13 PM]
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There are benefits to having parents who didn't let you own any video games or systems as a kid. Such undisputed classics like Super Mario Brothers 3, while somewhat familiar, are just unfamiliar enough to be fresh and new. The gameplay for this, like other mario games of its era, is very simple 2-D sidescrolling motion. Mario is able to do all the standard Mario moves, such as jumping on enemies to destroy them and gaining new abilites with powerups like the red mushroom (always a favorite,) the fire flower, and the 1-up mushroom. There are plenty of new powerups in this game, such as the Super Leaf, which gives Mario the ability to fly, and a variety of suits that give Mario some exciting special abilities, like the ability to swim underwater with ease.
Another affordance offered by the game is the menu that you can access from the map screen by pressing "B." This menu gives the player the option of selecting a saved power-up. I found that this made it easier for me to strategize for difficult levels that might require some extra advantage by picking the special ability most suited to the level ahead. For example, in levels that involve lots of swimming, I selected the frog suit before starting to maximize my ability to move through the water.
I noticed one flaw in the graphics while fighting the mini-boss in world 3. When he flies up in front of the windows, you can see that the lines that define his wings and other details are transparent, which look fine against the dark background of the walls, but look light blue and a little glitchy with the windows.
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macuna's Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Monday 29 January, 2007
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