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Thursday 21 February, 2008
Gamelog #2
Personal Gameplay Critique:
Players play through a multitude of obstacles such as short “Goombas” or shelled “Koopa Troopers,” in which they may either avoid or kill. Mario’s standard attack is his jump which kills enemies as Mario lands on them. In order to achieve this maneuver players are required to jump and navigate Mario so that he will land on the enemy. Furthermore Mario is also able to kill enemies using the different power-ups, which are accumulated throughout the game. In total there are four power-ups within the game. The first power-up is the red mushroom which increases Mario is size and gives him an extra shield from dying. The second power-up is the green mushroom which adds an additional life to Mario’s total life bank. Additionally players may accumulate lives for each 100 coins collected by Mario. The third power-up is the fire plant, which grants Mario’s growth and the ability to shoot fireballs at enemies. With this special ability, Mario is able to shoot up to three fireballs on the player’s screen by pressing the “y” button. Mario’s fourth and final consumable power-up is the feather which gives Mario a cape and grants him the ability to run, jump then fly or float across a level. In addition to the four power-ups, players may also find a “Yoshi,” which grants players the ability to ride a dinosaur like creature and consume enemies.
Super Mario World plays relatively fast and never slows down due to the array of actions players are able to choose at any particular moment. Play constantly changes due to the variety of environments within the worlds and levels. Players will often find themselves flying in the air, swimming through water, or climbing fences and vines despite the games platform genre.
All in all Super Mario World has a timeless classic gameplay that has gone on to spread inspiration to many other 2D platform games within its genre. By adding these new themes and skills to the Mario series, Super Mario World easily sets aside its gameplay between other 2D platforms of its time.
Design:
Rather than just jumping through a map, Super Mario World has added new ways to beat the conventional Mario type game and its predecessors. Super Mario World is a great game for pace, player interactivity, and its new power-up reward system.
Comprised of 72 environmentally challenging levels, Mario must also face new methods of maneuvering and killing obstacles within each progressively harder level. Super Mario World introduces its powerful rewards in the beginning of the game, but these powerful rewards are often short lived due to the constant bombardment of enemy obstacles. Even though the game is beatable in 12 levels, Star Road is still respectively hard to beat.
The reward system is what sets Super Mario World on to the classics list. The combination of power-ups and Yoshi served as an amazingly incentive filled game in my opinion. Furthermore, Mario’s individual attack movements added appeal to the interactivity with Mario. Maneuvering through the game and getting the hang of timing actions correctly was very rewarding to me. Also, using the different abilities of the colored Yoshi added replay-ability of certain levels within the game.
By allowing Mario to interact with many different objects within Super Mario World, the Super Nintendo was able to release its best selling game. Unlike previous Mario titles, Super Mario World added player interactivity and new items for Mario to cope with. This combination creates an addicting fast paced thriller that utilizes items to keep players wanting to try more.
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