Friday 25 January, 2008

Summery: For my second game log I played Super Mario World on super SNES. The idea of the game is that you (Mario) and your friend yoshi who comes and goes as the game progresses try to rescue the kidnapped princess toadstool, from the evil king bowser. This is a side scroller a 2-d game. I played the two player version where the only difference is that Luigi also plays the game, but one at a time. This game is animated.

1st gameplay: As the first level commenced I noticed that I had a huge grin on my face as this is in my mind the best game ever made. The typical Mario music brought me back to my childhood years as I would play the game every day, and back then my system wasn’t so old and worked properly I could save the game and turn off the consol and then come back to the saved game, now I turn off the system and it restarts. I had a smile on my face for the whole time I was playing because it is an extremely fun game to play. No one can have complaints about the most classic siblings in video games to date, Mario and Luigi. The idea of the game isn’t anything special just trying to rescue a kidnapped princess. The thing that I really liked about the game is that even though there is only one finish line, there are multiple ways to get there as long as you are moving more right then left as it is a sidescroller. The thing I love the most about this games Is how hard it is. Of course the first ten or even 15 levels I can play almost from memory, just knowing each little secret and such, where to get power ups and stuff. As the game progresses it gets much more difficult, as levels that you do not know very well take caution and time to complete which is challenging with a time limit of 300 seconds for every level. Ive played this game very frequently as a child and still have trouble at certain parts of the game.

2nd Game play: Nothing changed after I played it for another 45 minutes. Although I noticed that I would scream when I fell through a crack or get killed by an enemy. Another thing I like about this game is that there are only three buttons to use, one to jump, one to run, and one to jump off yoshi/ do a spin move. I could play this game for the rest of my life. So simple but yet so much to it.

Design: the design of the game is very interesting. All levels move from left to right although some of the castles,(the bosses) change after you reached a certain point in the castle. Another interesting point in the game is that for some levels the screen makes you move as in the other ones you could stand in the same place as long as you want, in others the screen would push you off whatever object you were one and you can not run through the level as the screen would not move as you moved, but you must move as the screen moves. Another thing I noticed is that there are constant rewards, not only coins which give you an extra life every time you collect 100 but growing mushrooms, feathers to fly, and flowers to turn into fire Mario where you can throw fire balls. I also enjoy how after you finish a level it goes back to a map of the imaginary world and you can choose which level you want to play. The enemies in this game come in waves, if you kill one it wont be there next time your in the same spot. The last thing I would like to mention is that as you get more familiar with the game it seems as though more rewards are thrown your way, as you know where more of these rewards are, this is very cleaver as it keeps people who have been playing for a while still interested. The last thing the game is is boring as the levels change from sky high levels to underground cave leves, to water levels, and normal surface levels. i really enjoy the variety of secrets that you can find in the level, the solid clouds you can land in f u can fly, the tubes that take you to places you wouldn't normally see or further into a level or into a secret bonus area. I don’t really know what I would change as if anything changed the game wouldn’t be the same and I love it the way it is, this is my favorite game of all time.

You clearly have a lot of enthusiasm for the game, and do a fair job of describing the gameplay. The design section feels like just another take on the gameplay, instead of analysing why the game works and thinking deeply about the choices the designers made. You bring up points you find interesting, but then don't go anywhere with them. A deeper look at auto-scrolling levels and what they do to the pacing of the gameplay would be something to consider.

Also, please try to use standard writing in the future, and remember we'd like it if you'd separate your GameLog into two entries, not one.

Amy Leek (grader)