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Sunday 17 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY:
There is a unique state of adventure and curiosity that Super Mario Brother 3 is able to put its players in. Part of this is due to its level design. There is a sense of awe created by looking at the giant “?” blocks of World 4 and there is a sense of wonder for players that jump to and from floating winged red shells. The game rewards players for exploring the levels by providing shortcuts and special items for advanced players. The flute, an item that will warp players to later levels, can only be found in certain levels where the player must travel into typically unseen areas – only discoverable through immense exploration. This keeps the game continually interesting and adds much replay value into every stage.
While I didn’t grab the attention of any bystanders, I can say that Super Mario Brothers 3 is a social game by the fact that many people have been exposed to it. Even a decade after its initial release, I can still invite friends over to play this game with me because they still fondly remember and still want to play the game. And even though one of my roommates despises the game, we can still hold a conversation about it. The fact that I can still talk about a nearly two decade old game makes it a highly social one.
DESIGN
An aspect of the game that is particularly interesting is the game’s hub system. Prior to this Super Mario Brothers 3, few platformers used a hub system. Instead, these games had players traveling from level 1 to level 2, and from level 2 to level 3, and so forth in a very linear fashion. In Super Mario brothers 3, players are given the option of which level they want to play in the hub world. Of course, that is not to imply that the levels lose their linear feel. For example, in the first world, level 2 must be played after level 1 but after that, players are given the option to play either level 3 or 4 to reach an item or to bypass those levels completely. It is this sense of an open world that makes it unique compared to older platformers.
Also innovative was Super Mario Brothers 3’s use of the camera. At that time, traditional platformers had camera systems that panned only left and right. Therefore, to allow for exploration of the 2nd cardinality, characters were displayed fairly small on the screen. The unique camera of Super Mario Brothers 3 allow for more detailed sprites without sacrificing the 2nd cardinality of play. As a matter of fact, the new upward scrolling camera allows the developers to further explore the potential of object is the sky and much higher then a simple jump. This new design aspect demanded a new ability, the raccoon tail, for players to fully explore the skies above – something impossible to pull off using the old camera.
In the end, Super Mario Brothers 3 is a highly enjoyable game the never ceases to amaze me. There is no doubt that it was ahead of its time and is still fondly remembered today by many players, myself included. If you've never played this game before, you should.
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