The Turtles
The highlight of my week so far has probably been finding all the giant coins in World 3 of Super Mario Brothers Wii.
In the last few years, I have played some video games that could probably be described as pretty hardcore. I have played God of War, where you are the antihero Kratos, doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons. He is dead inside, killing as casually as most people blink, and caring about it that much. I have played Shadow of the Colossus, where the smallest foe you face is fifty feet tall, and it's never clear if they would attack you if you weren't trying to kill them. I have played Resident Evil 4, where if you're not careful, xenophobic villagers will take your head off with a chainsaw.
In the last few years, I have played some video games that could probably be described as pretty hardcore. I have played God of War, where you are the antihero Kratos, doing the right thing for all the wrong reasons. He is dead inside, killing as casually as most people blink, and caring about it that much. I have played Shadow of the Colossus, where the smallest foe you face is fifty feet tall, and it's never clear if they would attack you if you weren't trying to kill them. I have played Resident Evil 4, where if you're not careful, xenophobic villagers will take your head off with a chainsaw.
They are nothing compared to a game where your enemies are turtles and mushrooms.
For Hanukkah, I got Super Mario Brothers Wii, which is easily one of the most hardcore and enjoyable games I have played in a long time. That's demonstrated by the fact I've already "won" the game, but keep on playing, and still keep playing it nearly four months later. Don't let the bright colors, bouncy music and nearly non-existent story line fool you. This is a serious game. Nintendo makes getting past a snowball-throwing turtle or an angry cloud just as challenging as a game where you're suppose to be saving the universe. And just as satisfying.
Not long ago, there was a fine article on the Onion A.V. Club, written by someone who had just played the original Super Mario Brothers for the first time. He was enchanted by how fun it was; how just by jumping, you could find hidden boxes; how you could get past rows of spinning, burning blades not by just running gleefully along, rather than careful timing. Nintendo still keeps that feeling of fun in the latest version.
When I got my Wii, it came with Super Smash Bros Brawl, which I could never quite get into. That upset me a bit; I love the concept of the game, but the implementation never really came together for me. One of the big issues was the fan service. They crammed in characters from dozens of games, some of which I'd never played, or which I couldn't recognize in their newer incarnations. Last time I saw Zelda, you met her on the last screen of your game after defeating Ganon, a big blue monster, and she thanked you for saving her and the kingdom. That was it. She didn't transform into a ninja back then -- which she does in SSBB -- and I can't relate to that. And there are other characters in the game who mean little to me, but the game seems to think I'll go "Oh my God, it's that fox in a space suit!"
Super Mario Brothers Wii manages to pay homage to the game while avoiding the feeling of fan service. I recognized many of the enemies from back in the Super Mario Brothers 1 or 3 days, but they were there because they get the job done, not to provoke nostalgia.
The plot, and basic game play, hasn't changed much from SMB 3. Bowser has once again kidnapped the Princess, and it's up to you, Mario, to save her. There are still eight worlds, each with many sub-levels, to go through. Each world has its own theme: water, desert, volcano, ice, bullets, etc. The controls are almost the same as they were 20 years ago, though occasionally you shake the Wii-mote. (Rather than wearing a raccoon suit to fly around, this one has a helicopter suit. Shaking spins your beanie around and launches you.) It does reference a few of the newer additions to the Mario universe; there are a couple of levels where you get to use Yoshi, a sort of dragon-steed. Figuring out how to use him was pretty easy, and watching him move is very entertaining. For example, Yoshi can barely fly; when he does, he's always flailing his feet as if trying to run on air with a look of intense concentration.
The Wii-mote also has one other great feature I wish that my NES controllers had: a wrist strap. Now, after trying to complete the same jump a dozen times and plunging to your death, you don't need to worry about ruining the controller by throwing it across the room. (A friend destroyed my Arkanoid paddle back in the day by doing that. Arkanoid is not the same with a standard controller.)
If I were still a teenager with infinite time on my hands, I'd probably say that this game is easier than its predecessors. Instead, I'd say it's less frustrating. For people who hate getting stuck, they include a cheat option. After dying on a level about a dozen times, you can ask Luigi to play through it and just watch him. Then you have the choice of replaying the level, or just moving on to the next one. (I watched him to get through a few boards, but always did it myself. But I'm not judging you if you don't.)
Now on to the highlight of my week.
And as with the previous Super Mario Brothers, there's really more than one ending. In the first one, after you beat the game, you were given an option to play again, with harder monsters to "really win." Nowadays, that's considered commonplace, but it was revolutionary at the time.
In each level of this game, there are three giant coins. Some are in plain sight, but require fancy jumping. You might need to bounce off a flying turtle who's at the top of his flight path, for example. Others are hidden, and you need to find the secret tunnel to access them.
If you've defeated Bowser at the end of World 8, and collect all the coins in a world, you get to unlock a new level, on the ninth world. (There are about 6-8 levels per world.)
I managed to find all the coins in World 1, but the others have proven tricky. I'm still stuck on a few places in World 2, but World 3 was easier. That, or I just took to the ice theme better than the desert theme. In ice worlds, you often get a penguin suit, which lets you swim better, slide down hills, keep your traction on slick surfaces, and shoot ice balls. Plus, you look like a penguin.
I don't know if it counts as cheating or not, but I had to look up the location of one of the coins, hidden in the haunted house. Don't ask me what a haunted house is doing in the middle of a frozen wasteland, but someone apparently thought it was a good idea. Other than that, I found all of them myself, and figured out the appropriate method to collect them.
I'm amazed how satisfying that feels.
World 9, from the two levels I've seen, takes some of what you've seen before, and turns the dial up to 11. I haven't gotten past either of the two I've unlocked, but World 9-3 features Bullet Bills -- bullets with frowny faces. Only these Bullet Bills are heat seeking, and sometimes you have a dozen coming at you at once from all different directions, homing in on you.
And each of these levels have three giant coins. I don't know if I'll ever be able to unlock them, but I'm curious what happens if you collect them all.
Not long ago, there was a fine article on the Onion A.V. Club, written by someone who had just played the original Super Mario Brothers for the first time. He was enchanted by how fun it was; how just by jumping, you could find hidden boxes; how you could get past rows of spinning, burning blades not by just running gleefully along, rather than careful timing. Nintendo still keeps that feeling of fun in the latest version.
When I got my Wii, it came with Super Smash Bros Brawl, which I could never quite get into. That upset me a bit; I love the concept of the game, but the implementation never really came together for me. One of the big issues was the fan service. They crammed in characters from dozens of games, some of which I'd never played, or which I couldn't recognize in their newer incarnations. Last time I saw Zelda, you met her on the last screen of your game after defeating Ganon, a big blue monster, and she thanked you for saving her and the kingdom. That was it. She didn't transform into a ninja back then -- which she does in SSBB -- and I can't relate to that. And there are other characters in the game who mean little to me, but the game seems to think I'll go "Oh my God, it's that fox in a space suit!"
Super Mario Brothers Wii manages to pay homage to the game while avoiding the feeling of fan service. I recognized many of the enemies from back in the Super Mario Brothers 1 or 3 days, but they were there because they get the job done, not to provoke nostalgia.
The plot, and basic game play, hasn't changed much from SMB 3. Bowser has once again kidnapped the Princess, and it's up to you, Mario, to save her. There are still eight worlds, each with many sub-levels, to go through. Each world has its own theme: water, desert, volcano, ice, bullets, etc. The controls are almost the same as they were 20 years ago, though occasionally you shake the Wii-mote. (Rather than wearing a raccoon suit to fly around, this one has a helicopter suit. Shaking spins your beanie around and launches you.) It does reference a few of the newer additions to the Mario universe; there are a couple of levels where you get to use Yoshi, a sort of dragon-steed. Figuring out how to use him was pretty easy, and watching him move is very entertaining. For example, Yoshi can barely fly; when he does, he's always flailing his feet as if trying to run on air with a look of intense concentration.
The Wii-mote also has one other great feature I wish that my NES controllers had: a wrist strap. Now, after trying to complete the same jump a dozen times and plunging to your death, you don't need to worry about ruining the controller by throwing it across the room. (A friend destroyed my Arkanoid paddle back in the day by doing that. Arkanoid is not the same with a standard controller.)
If I were still a teenager with infinite time on my hands, I'd probably say that this game is easier than its predecessors. Instead, I'd say it's less frustrating. For people who hate getting stuck, they include a cheat option. After dying on a level about a dozen times, you can ask Luigi to play through it and just watch him. Then you have the choice of replaying the level, or just moving on to the next one. (I watched him to get through a few boards, but always did it myself. But I'm not judging you if you don't.)
Now on to the highlight of my week.
And as with the previous Super Mario Brothers, there's really more than one ending. In the first one, after you beat the game, you were given an option to play again, with harder monsters to "really win." Nowadays, that's considered commonplace, but it was revolutionary at the time.
In each level of this game, there are three giant coins. Some are in plain sight, but require fancy jumping. You might need to bounce off a flying turtle who's at the top of his flight path, for example. Others are hidden, and you need to find the secret tunnel to access them.
If you've defeated Bowser at the end of World 8, and collect all the coins in a world, you get to unlock a new level, on the ninth world. (There are about 6-8 levels per world.)
I managed to find all the coins in World 1, but the others have proven tricky. I'm still stuck on a few places in World 2, but World 3 was easier. That, or I just took to the ice theme better than the desert theme. In ice worlds, you often get a penguin suit, which lets you swim better, slide down hills, keep your traction on slick surfaces, and shoot ice balls. Plus, you look like a penguin.
I don't know if it counts as cheating or not, but I had to look up the location of one of the coins, hidden in the haunted house. Don't ask me what a haunted house is doing in the middle of a frozen wasteland, but someone apparently thought it was a good idea. Other than that, I found all of them myself, and figured out the appropriate method to collect them.
I'm amazed how satisfying that feels.
World 9, from the two levels I've seen, takes some of what you've seen before, and turns the dial up to 11. I haven't gotten past either of the two I've unlocked, but World 9-3 features Bullet Bills -- bullets with frowny faces. Only these Bullet Bills are heat seeking, and sometimes you have a dozen coming at you at once from all different directions, homing in on you.
And each of these levels have three giant coins. I don't know if I'll ever be able to unlock them, but I'm curious what happens if you collect them all.
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