The Beatles
What I wrote about last week made me nostalgic for some older Mario. Since I have Super Mario Brothers 2 and 3 on my Wii, I started playing the third one. Many Mario purists would say that the second game in the series shouldn't count. In Japan, it's not part of the Super Mario series; it's actually a different game which they slapped popular Mario characters into to appeal to American audiences, much the way American actors were thrown into Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
I've had SMB 3 on my Wii for quite a while, but haven't touched it since soon after downloading it. For one thing, it felt extremely difficult. It's extremely easy to die if you're not careful. But I'm glad I took it up again. I'd forgotten how fun it was. I'm not quite done with it yet (just got to World 7) but I'll share my impressions so far.
While the controls on Super Mario Brothers Wii feel a little different, they're similar enough that I could take my experience back with me. While many of the levels are difficult, they're also perfectly sized. They're often amusees, a delicious way to start the meal, but only a couple of bites.
A few other impressions:
- The game seems huge, especially when you consider it came out in 1988, when computer memory was expensive. Like the last one I reviewed, it's broken into eight worlds, each with many sub-levels. And, like its successor 20 years later, each world feels enormous. World 6 has 10 basic stages, three mini-castles, and several places where you can earn special prizes or pick up extr. Some optional paths on the worlds are blocked off with boulders. In one, I broke a boulder on one world which let me enter a pipe that led to a raft. And that raft let me sail across a sea to where there were half a dozen prizes waiting to be picked up. In addition, almost every level seems to have hidden areas to reward inquisitive players.
- There's an incredible amount of variety. There are one or two monsters here which didn't make it into Super Mario Brothers Wii, but probably deserved to. For example, one castle looks like it has candles lighting it. But those flames are actually little monsters which will jump off the candlestick and chase you if you turn your back on them. In Super Mario Brothers Wii, one of the bosses (I never learned the names of Bowser's kids) threw giant bouncing balls at you. I was amazed to see that he used the same trick in Super Mario Brothers 3, and that you could jump off those balls to get at him back then too. It felt so sophisticated to find in a game back then.
- There's also a bit of mental variety. Some worlds are best handled by running as fast as possible. Others require careful timing and judgment. A few are even puzzle worlds; you need to figure out the correct way to get to the exit.
- While losing all your lives resets the numbered levels on a world, the castles stay defeated. Since defeating a castle unlocks shortcuts to get around the world, it makes the game a lot easier. If you die while fighting the final boss of a world, you may have to play through one or two boards to get to their flying ship, but you don't need to replay all of them.
The coolness of Super Mario Brothers 3 inspired me to go out and pick up a classic controller today. I've always heard that Super Mario 64 was an incredible game (and Super Mario Galaxy is excellent, so I know Nintendo can do 3-D Mario) and figure I should check that out, and maybe some others in the series.
(An aside: While I was waiting in line to buy for my controller, I saw the meanest mother ever. She was with two boys, about 6 and 9, and kept saying to them they were only there to see if they had a game the older child wanted. Then she kept pointing out the awesome games they had. "Oh look, here's a 'How To Train Your Dragon' game! Didn't you love that movie?" she said. "There's Animal Crossing. Didn't you always say you wanted it?" Why tell them about all the great things if you're not going to buy them?)
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