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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Super Mario World
Second Hour
GAMEPLAY
Comparing Super Mario World to games today, we are so spoiled. In Super Mario World, once Mario falls off a platform or accidently runs into a monster, its not necessarily game over, but it does mean you have to start over from the beginning or from the check point. Did I also forget to mention that there is a time limit also? For players who like to take their time, the time limit will definitely not make it a fun experience. Because of these factors, players become very cautious and actually scream when they see the 1up mushroom fall off the cliff.
I think players do become attached to any of the perks the game has available, such as the mushrooms, yoshi and the pipes that Mario can travel down into. Since the game is terribly hard later on due to the lack of lives, players would be glad to see anything that can help them. This has impacted culture because people do wear shirts with the 1up green mushroom on it. Still, even though the game is difficult people still love it because of how rewarded they feel once they have completed it.
DESIGN
The game overall was very innovative for its time. The level design kept it interesting for the player. There were different challenges every couple of stages that required a new skill from the player instead of repeating the same flat gameplay in stage one. The game provided many challenges, such as how some monsters had to be hit twice or more in order for them to go away, turtle shells can back fire and hit you, Mario could only be hit twice or three times before you have to start over, etc...
What I felt was a reward in the game was seeing Mario progress to the next available stage on the map. It is a good thing because I feel like I just solved the world's hardest sudoku problem but it's bad at the same time because a harder one is coming up next. Even though the game can get frustrating to the point where I would never want to play it again, I wouldn't change anything on this game. It is because of how difficult it is that made this game memorable decades later.
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