We're starting our 'core' Mario (and New Super Mario) series of podcasts this coming Friday.
Please share your recollections and feelings regarding Mario's earliest Super adventures, from the 1985 original up to Super Mario Bros. 3.
Bear in mind this is going to be a long show as it is so please try to keep your comments as snappy as you can, and make it clear which of the titles you're referring to.
I wasnt alive when these 3 games came out but as gamer I always felt that these were games I had to play no matter what,unfortunally I was never able to really enjoy them if im honest, while I consider the gameplay rock solid especially in 3 and I can see how they set the stage for all that would come later,for me though it always felt like they were missing something and that's probably because I played Super Mario World first,but even if im not able to get into them personally I cant deny their importance to gaming history unfortunaly for me they will always remain more as a piece of history than games I'd like to play.
Can remember playing SMB1 in the seaside arcades, was never much good at it. It wasn't until the Super Mario All Stars snes compilation that I got to play them properly. Out of them all, SMB3 stood out as the best one, a huge play area, catchy music, just a fantastic game. SMB2 was fun, though a bit strange. Though that makes sense seeing as how it wasn't originally a Mario game until the "real" SMB2 was considered too hard for us.
It may seem basic today, but it's clear to see why SMB1 was important. The gameplay was addictive, the music was great,it felt like something original. And it just got better from there.
Even though I had a Mega Drive before. I don't think I truly became wrapped up in gaming until my Dad came home with a Snes, Mario Kart, Super Street Fighter 2, Super Mario world and Super Mario All stars .
The first two games were obviously great with my friends and family and SMW had save files and hidden secrets so it eventually became more of a pass the controller game. But All stars became the place where I went into my happy place and really learned how and why to play games.
I had played the original Nes games at my Uncles on a few visits, but with all 3 games in one handy cart they became my 101 of gaming. Mario 2 first step as it felt like the easiest and I remember it being the one I completed long before the rest. Then I focused on Mario 1 starting with me jumping quickly through the game using the secret warp pipes, before trying to complete it from start to finish (I still haven't manage it sadly). Mario 3 is where I found my gaming home, it just feels complete. New ideas in every world, perfectly slightly slippy controls so you feel like you're only just hanging on, oh and a frog suit! I never really touched the lost levels though, the eight year old me just couldn't handle it.
However much I may enjoy the new Mario game I don't think I go to them for the same reasons as the original 3, mainly as the inclusion of saving your progress makes the game's platforming jeopardy disappear a little for me.
Shit, didn't even notice this thread pop up. I'm guessing it's done and dusted by now, good news for you guys because talking about SMB3 can never be short and snappy!
A new system with SMB, my first operation waking to a gameboy with SML, a birthday with SMB2 presented from a boot outside of TGI fridays and a christmas with SMB3 will probably be the best memories I'll continue to cherish from my childhood! Magical! No other game series can leave an impact (bar the ominous silence of remembering SF2 day).
Yes lovely CaR forum folks, this week we return to Nintendo's most famous character for the second instalment of our core Mario series of podcasts.
Please share with us your thoughts, opinions, experiences and recollections of Super Mario World (aka Super Mario Bros. 4) and Yoshi's Island (aka Super Mario World 2).
Super Mario World, is damn-near the perfect platforming game. From the graphics, to the music, to the addictive gameplay. It's absolutely briliant. Was the first game me and my brother fired up on Xmas Day with our brand new SNES. And it was pretty much the best Xmas ever. There's a very good reason this constantly pops up whenever "best games of all time" lists pop up.
Tubular was a bloody nightmare to get through. Everything else was amazing.
Yoshi's Island I borrowed from my brother's mate, as I'd already spent my pocket money on Doom. While it's not quite in the same calibre as SMW, it's still up there with Nintendo's best. Some of the boss fights, the frog one in particular, were genius.
I never owned a SNES, so Super Mario World is one of those games that I’ve had occasional plays on but never played through to completion. One of my earliest gaming memories is watching my older cousin play the game, and the impression I had was of a beautiful, living cartoon. Yoshi has always been my favourite Nintendo character, and I’m sure that was cemented by seeing Mario mucking about on his back for the first time in SMW.
Yoshi’s Island, however, remains one of my favourite Mario games, partly because of my love of Yoshi, partly because of my fond memories of the GameBoy Advance SP. I first played through the game when it appeared as Super Mario Advance 3. It was perfectly suited for the handheld, and I sank countless hours into its gorgeous, hand-drawn world. My review of it could be applied to any number of the core Mario series; a constant stream of new ideas, controls that are perfectly honed, presentation that makes the game as much a pleasure to look at as it is to play. The only negative I can think of is the horrible sound of baby Mario floating away, which still stands up as one of the most heart-wrenching noises in video-gaming.
Super Mario World is probably my favourite Mario game. A masterpiece from the level design to the soundtrack. I can still remember nailing the exit where you had to fly under the finish line with absolute perfection.
Super Mario World is one of those universally adored classics that I was never able to get into. It is a solidly designed platformer, and I am rather torn up about having negative things to say about it because the care and thought that went into its creation are apparent, but I have never connected with the game. I think that is because it doesn't feel, to me, like the step up from Super Mario Bros. 3 that I was hoping it would be. Super Mario World is lovely, colorful, and alive, but its aesthetic isn't as interesting as that of its predecessor. The sprite art is, most of the time, quite lovely, but there are a few characters here and there that look below the standard of the rest of the art. Most of my other criticisms come from comparisons made against Mario Bros 3. The levels are well designed and emergent mechanics interesting... but not as interesting as those in Mario Bros 3. The cape and other new powerups are fun, but not as fun as the tanooki tail and frog suit. There are elements of the game that really stand out for me -- the boss battles are fairly creative and the castle theme music is incredible -- but this game, overall, fades into the back of my memory when compared against other 2D platformers.
Yoshi's Island, on the other hand, is a bold step in an entirely new direction, completely unmistakable for anything previously seen in the Super Mario series. Its adherence to its brave and striking art direction and its wacky, new play mechanics make the game stand out from everything else before or since. The music is wonderful, the look of the game is wonderful, it controls like a dream... Even the level design is more labyrinthian than the linear Mario levels in the past. Yoshi's Island's storybook aesthetic compliments both the incredibly cheery levels and the scarier, darker moments. Nintendo fully dedicated to the storybook theme. The game operates on storybook logic, and the insane amount of commitment to this idea is what makes everything hold together so well.
You know the drill, it's N64 launch legend Super Mario 64 on the podcast this week.
You Cane and Rinsers must have some memories of this one you'd like to share...
Confession time: this is my least favourite "core" Mario game (though i've still never played Sunshine). Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate it. I just disagreed with all the "99% best game ever!" review scores it got at the time. Naturally when I bought my new N64 with my brother, buying Mario 64 was of course a priority. And though for the most part I enjoyed it, for some reason I didn't think it lived up to the hype. I think sometimes the camera had a mind of it's own, which led to a few deaths which pissed me off.
I've never replayed it since, compared to the many times I've revisited other games in the series.
Super Mario 64 was an extraordinarily revolutionary title, setting the new standard for 3D platformers. Its influence is immeasurable. It has affected every 3D game since its release. It taught designers and players how 3D games are supposed to control, how 3D worlds are supposed to be built, and how 3D games are supposed to feel. But, you know, in my mind, the legacy it left is one of a stepping stone along the way to something better. It's a good game, but it was, only two years later, surpassed in every way by Banjo-Kazooie and other titles in the genre. Mario 64 may have been the first, but it is hardly the best in class.
Mario 64's level design is clearly an example of early 3D platforming work. While the levels are large and open, each objective typically constricts play to a rather linear path through the level, not often taking full advantage of the open space at the game's disposal. This is exacerbated by the fact that the game kicks you out of the world after completing each objective, a design choice built around the linearity of design of certain levels. The game rebuilds certain elements of the levels to change the course depending the selected challenge, something that works well in a game like Super Mario Galaxy that does not try to hide its linearity but feels unnecessary in a game with such large, often open worlds. Excuse the multiple comparisons to Banjo-Kazooie, but it is a helpful reference point to a more "fully evolved 3D platformer". Banjo-Kazooie did not kick you out of the level after collecting each Jiggy (that game's analogue to Mario's stars). All 10 challenges were built into the same space and could be completed simultaneously. Also, whereas every element in Banjo-Kazooie's level design feels like a natural part of the world the game built -- following a certain in-world logic -- Mario 64's levels tend to feature shapes, objects, and textures that don't make the same kind of in-universe sense, feeling less cohesive overall. This is a stylistic choice, though, as Mario games have always reveled in their own abstract artifice. Super Mario Sunshine would go in the opposite direction, establishing a consistent "space" that cohesively and logically ties all elements together, and Super Mario Galaxy would go even farther in the opposite, artificial, abstract direction. Mario is comfortable in both extremes.
Lack of cohesiveness is something that damages, in a small way, the entire game. Many of the enemies and game elements don't fit the game's established aesthetic, like the plesiosaurs, Wet-Dry Land water striders, and Bowser's submarine. While these elements don't hurt the gameplay, they take away from the feeling that Mario 64 all takes place in one connected world. Compare again to Banjo-Kazooie that, even juggling two oppositional driving aesthetics (nature / fairy tales and heavy industry / machinery) interwove everything so seamlessly that nothing felt out of place, and every enemy and character seemed to be cut from the same design sensibility.
Mario 64's music never connected with me when I played it (with the exception of a few notable standout tracks like the Dire Dire Docks theme and Bowser's music). I always assumed I just didn't care for the composition of the game's songs, but hearing some of the music re-recorded in later games, like the Nostalgic Fortress theme in Super Mario Galaxy 2, I found the songs to be quite fun and jazzy! Looking back, I think that what I didn't care for was the strange choices in instrumentation that the game made. The bizarre, difficult to describe sounds that the instruments make in the Super Mario 64 background music are inseparably tied to the game, but I think that they undersell what are actually some pretty well-written pieces.
All that said, Super Mario 64 is a very fun game that does deserve praise for being the first, even if it was not the best, to do what it did. Although there are other games that I prefer to play when going back to that era of 3D Nintendo 64 platformers, Super Mario 64 will always have a place in my heart.
I believe it was Christmas 1998 I got my N64 and a copy of Mario 64 - the game was absolutely unbelievable to me at the time and I'm actually not sure it's been bettered in 3D terms (be gentle - I haven't played the Galaxy games). The courses all had a personality of their own with a fantastic sense of scale, I remember many of the levels fondly and always loved the 'jump in the painting' mechanic to access them. I loved the hub world in the castle, the myriad of secrets, it's a damn sight more exciting to explore a castle than the straight line progression of levels on Mario 3D Land that's for sure. The boss levels were also brilliant, and somehow the camera felt perfect unlike any other 3D game of that era. The music was also amazing and the star collection system gave you genuine reasons to revisit levels, often with exciting new challenges that change the way you approach them.
I've got the DS version and going back to it the game isn't quite as incredible as I remember it today, but at the time it was the absolute pinnacle of 3D platforming and has aged quite well considering. I'd love an HD remake but recognise the chances are pretty slim.
