A Mario Retrospective - Part VI

SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE

This game didn't exactly do much to advance the series. Need proof? I almost skipped straight to Super Mario Galaxy after Super Mario 64. This is probably my least favorite game of the series, but that's not to say I didn't like it. As a Mario game, it was kind of a disappointment, but as a standalone game it was pretty darn good and a lot of fun.

Let's get down to brass tacks, shall we? We'll start, as usual, with the story. This time around, Princess-saving isn't exactly the motive for everything right off the bat. Instead, we meet Mario, Peach and a new, crappy character, Toadsworth, flying into Delfino Airport on the beautiful island of Isle Delfino. Mario's earned a vacation from all the princess-rescuing hubbub of the Mushroom Kingdom, so a dolphin-shaped island apparently tickled his fancy. Well, they arrive, and as soon as the plane is vacated it turns out that Mario is already a wanted criminal. Of course Mario's not really the culprit; a Mario doppelganger has been carousing around the island spreading multicolored, toxic graffiti. As a result of the filth, the island's guardians, the Shine Sprites, have left, leaving darkness in their wake. After being arrested, Mario is forced to clean up the island and bring back the Shine Sprites with the aid of the water pump FLUDD. Turns out the doppelganger Mario is really Bowser's son in disguise, and he thinks Peach is his mother. (???) He is determined to kidnap the Princess and make his father happy by getting his mother back. So yeah. There's that whole awkward thing.

The gameplay itself is, to be honest, frustrating. You'll often find Mario doing things you didn't tell him to do. Mario's movements are often jerky, and the gimmicky FLUDD sometimes takes that Mario feel away from the game. In fact, the general consensus seems to be that the best part of the game comes when they take away FLUDD, and Mario is forced to navigate complex platforming levels by himself. I follow that line of thought, as those parts of the game are the most refreshing. To get myself reacquainted with the game (it's been awhile), I decided to play one level, and all I can say is I don't think I'll be doing that level for a while. I was just plain frustrated the whole time. You'll find that grate-climbing, once a refreshing, fun addition to Super Mario World, can be really trying on the nerves. The game really suffers in terms of gameplay.

The sound of the game is also less than impressive; though sound is crisp and clear, it just doesn't come across as very memorable. In fact, some of the music is annoying, like Pinna Park and Ricco Harbor. The music for the few "secret" levels is probably the best, as it's a cute little take on the original Super Mario Bros. theme song. The rest is just, as they say, "meh".

The graphics! That's where the game excels. It's bright, beautiful, and intricately laid out. You have the option toward the end of the game of wearing sunglasses, which darkens the screen, but I just can't wear them in good conscience. It doesn't do the game justice to dim the colors, as those are easily the best parts of the game.

I think the most infuriating part of the game, though, comes in the form of blue coins, ten of which will earn you a Shine Sprite. You need to collect all of these coins in order to fully complete the game, which is a drag since it's hard to keep track of the coins you've collected. It seems kind of lazy.

The game isn't exactly a bright spot in the Mario series, but it was good enough to tide us over until New Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy. So I say, "Fair enough, Super Mario Sunshine. You did a perfectly adequate job."

Ugh...

June/July means fireworks late at night. Fireworks late at night means little sleep for me. The chain reaction continues from there.

Expect the sixth part of the Mario retrospective, Super Mario Sunshine, sometime this week.

A Mario Retrospective - Part V

Super Mario 64
Lo and behold, mere mortals! Bow your heads in shame, as you could never accomplish what this 64-bit piece of hardware did for 3D platforming, and the game industry as a whole! I speak, of course, of Super Mario 64, one of Miyamoto’s greatest achievements and one of the greatest games of all time (Notice a pattern with these Mario games?).
I would have included Yoshi’s Island here; after all, it is subtitled Super Mario World 2. However, I could never do that game justice, as I never owned it for the SNES, and despite the fact that I own the Game Boy Advance version, I just don’t feel acquainted enough with the game to delve deeply into it.
SM64 is another story. The game is absolutely huge, and by God, I’ve played it so many times I nearly want to puke whenever I hear “Thank you so much for-to playing my game-a.”
The story follows the core storyline established in earlier games, i.e. Princess Peach has been kidnapped. The Princess invites Mario over to her castle to have some cake, and Mario shows up only to find a deserted castle occupied only by the creepy laughter of Bowser. It turns out Bowser has hijacked the castle and robbed it of its power stars, and it’s up to Mario to defeat Bowser, restore the castle’s power and rescue the Princess. We’ve seen stuff like this before.
The game spans several worlds, each containing 7 stars, and a few bonus areas, each containing a variable number of stars as well. There is an assigned task to accomplish for each star in the game, ranging from defeating a boss to simply collecting 100 coins in the level. There are 120 total power stars to collect; when you collect all of them, you’re rewarded with a slightly different ending and 100 lives from Yoshi, who resides at the top of the castle.
Mario is armed with more than his jump this time around. The familiar Super Mushroom/Fire Flower tandem from the earlier Mario games has been eliminated this time around, making way for the more modern Cap system, which features the Wing Cap, Metal Cap and Vanish Cap. The Wing Cap famously gives Mario the ability to fly by either executing a triple jump or being fired out of a cannon. The Metal Cap turns Mario into living metal, making him invulnerable to enemies and allowing him to survive underwater or in a cloud of poison gas. The Vanish Cap makes Mario, well, vanish, allowing him to pass through enemies and certain walls. Mario has also been gifted with new athletic abilities, such as a mastery of punches, kicks, flips, and breakdancing maneuvers. Of course, Mario’s trademark jump can still be used as a potent weapon.
The boss fights make up one of my favorite aspects of the game, as they’re more varied and creative than ever before in the series. Each boss is assigned a different strategy, ranging from picking up and tossing King Bob-omb or pushing the Big Bully into the sea of lava in Lethal Lava Land. The three battles with Bowser are the most fun and challenging, with a lot of thumb endurance and accuracy needed to take down the big guy. The first battle is pretty easy; Bowser moves slowly and practically presents his tail to be grabbed so you can swing him around. The second battle takes place over a lava pit, with the arena wobbling as Bowser’s weight pounds down upon it. Bowser’s a lot faster here, so you’ll have to be pretty dogged in your pursuit of his tail. In these first two battles, hurling Bowser into a bomb lining the arena once will defeat him. The third and final Bowser fight is by far the most intense; Mario has to fling Bowser into a bomb three times to secure victory. This time around, though, Bowser is faster than ever with a formidable arsenal of fire-based attacks, with many of them lingering to pester you as you pursue Bowser’s tail. After you’ve hit Bowser twice, the arena will collapse into a giant star shape, making it more difficult to throw the Koopa King into the bombs.
The interesting thing about this game is that it’s the first game in the main Mario series to give Mario a voice. It’s the debut of Charles Martinet in a true-blue Mario game, and from the beginning the man gave the little plumber a lot of soul. His voice work is goofy, but just human enough to make you feel bad when Mario gets hurt. The “huulgh” sound Mario makes when he takes a hit is both hilarious and a little shame-inducing when you hear it. When Mario falls a big distance, he utters a silly shout that makes it hard to realize you’ve just sent a man careening to his death.
Hands down, the game is good. Just good in every aspect. A little glitchy, sure, but this was the N64. The early years of the N64. Glitches at that point were inevitable. Of all the 3D games of the mid-90s, Mario 64 was easily the most polished and enjoyable, and continues to be one of my favorite games to this day.
Up next, we’ll deal with the other black sheep of the Mario family (more like the redheaded stepchild), Super Mario Sunshine. We’re almost done!

Mario, where art thou?

So, with little to no Mario news these days, I have to say that Sonic Unleashed looks harder and harder to screw up. I've been a bit lazy lately, but I hope to finish up the Mario Retrospective soon.

A Mario Retrospective - Part IV

Super Mario World

This game is what really got me back into the Mario universe. After my NES broke, I was exposed to nothing but the original 3 Sonic games for a few years. When I got my SNES, it came with Super Mario All-Stars with Super Mario World, featuring my old favorites in an updated form, along with the all-new game Super Mario World.

The Japanese version of the game features the subtitle Super Mario Bros. 4. I think that’s pretty cool.

The story of the game follows Mario, Luigi, and Peach as they take a vacation in Dinosaur Land. As always, Bowser finds a way to kidnap the princess and ruin everything for everyone. This time around, Mario and Luigi have help, as the friendly dinosaur Yoshi joins the hunt for the missing princess.

Even compared to SMB3, this game is gigantic. Featuring over 90 levels, this monster occupied my time for a couple weeks, at least. The 7 worlds of the game include Yoshi’s Island, Donut Plains, Vanilla Dome, the Forest of Illusion, Chocolate Island and the Valley of Bowser, among other, smaller areas, including Butter Bridge.

In each world there resides at least one boss, with the Valley of Bowser housing both Larry Koopa and Bowser. As you can probably guess, the seven bosses in the game are all Bowser’s Koopa Kids, with the final boss being Bowser himself. The bosses can be found in their respective castles, with fortresses housing lesser boss Reznor also dotting the landscape. The boss battles are more varied here than in the earlier Mario games, but they do tend to become repetitive. Six of the boss fights fall into one of three categories: Iggy and Larry Koopa must be knocked into a lava pit from a teetering platform, Wendy and Lemmy must be bopped on the head as they pop out of pipes, and Morton and Roy Koopa walk around an enclosed arena, climbing up the walls and walking on the ceiling. Ludwig von Koopa, the apparent black sheep, is fought in an open arena as he jumps around and shoots fireballs at your plumber of choice.

The enemies in the game are even more creative than in previous installments, such as the segmented caterpillar Wiggler, reinvented Flying Hammer Bros., and Chargin’ Chuck, the football-playing turtle. The variety of enemies keeps things fresh throughout the game to the very end. And let me just say, I hate Rip Van Fish with a passion. Those were the little jerks that slept until you swam by, when all hell broke loose. I remember whole platoons of those guys chasing after me. But I digress…

My favorite part of the game has to be the Forest of Illusion. There are so many ways to finish the world’s levels that I find myself refusing to rest until I’ve found all the exits. The levels themselves are a lot of fun, too, challenging players as they search for all the nooks and crannies they can.

If someone you know thinks that Mario games are too easy, you have three choices. You can a.) agree with them (jerk), b.) make them play the original Super Mario Bros. 2, or c.) direct them to the Special Zone of this game, in which you are forced to endure eight levels of pure gaming hell. I must have spent hours upon hours trying to beat these levels; I certainly lost life after life on that ice level. Jeez.

In terms of pure gaming goodness, it doesn’t get much better than Super Mario World. To correct what I said earlier, about SMB3 being the pinnacle of the series, here’s a different idea: SMB3 completely revolutionized the series, then SMW revolutionized it again. After a few playthroughs, I’ve come to realize that Super Mario World is a lot more fun than I found it as a kid. If you want the whole Mario experience summed up in one game, look no further than here.

Super Mario 64, yet another reinvention of the Mario franchise (and gaming in general), is up next.

Regarding Blue Redemption

In an earlier post I called out Sonic the Hedgehog and explained, in my opinion, why he tanked. Well, to be honest, the idea came from these guys, who offer much better coverage of Sonic's fall from grace. They even cover Sonic Extreme, a Mario Galaxy-esque game that never saw the light of day. It's all a good read, and I highly recommend it to you.

The Rise, Fall, and Deafening Crash of Sonic the Hedgehog

A Mario Retrospective - Part III

Super Mario Bros. 3

In 1988, Nintendo unleashed a game upon the world that would forever change the course of the Mario series, and, in its own special way, the world of video games as a whole. The game, Super Mario Bros. 3, took Mario to whole new levels, including giving the portly little guy the gift of flight.

I’ve played SMB3 about 70 times over the last few weeks, perhaps to the point that I’ve grown tired of it. Whatever the case, those play-throughs really gave me a closer look into the game’s more subtle nuances, and a greater appreciation of just how good the game is.

First of all, the amount of levels in the game was absolutely unheard of in the Mario series. Breaking the earlier established format of 7 or 8 worlds consisting of 3 or 4 levels, Mario 3’s 8 maps contained a minimum of 8 levels, including fortresses and airship levels. And unlike the original Super Mario Bros., the game featured levels that were all unique and original, each offering a new experience.

The Sun is apparently opposed to tornado-hopping.

The game’s music is superb, with each song upbeat and catchy. I find myself going over the music in my head over and over every time I hear it, sometimes to the point where it gets maddening. But it’s ok, I’m a Mario fanboy. Most notable about the game’s music is the revised version of the classic Mario underground theme, which adds a kick-ass beat to those memorable notes.

The game also features the ability to store items in an inventory that, when I think about it, stores a hell of a lot of items. You receive these items in bonus games, chests found in levels, in letters from the Princess, or in Toad’s Mushroom Houses. It can really come in handy when you find yourself getting your butt kicked by a particularly rough level.

I usually don't use any of these things, but it's nice to have them.

The original Mario’s two-player mode was pretty shallow, with one player taking his turn only when the other has lost a life. This game takes two-player to a new level, with one player taking his turn when the other has either died or completed a level. Also new to the game is the ability to hijack the other player’s turn in a thrilling two-player battle royale reminiscent of the original arcade game Mario Bros. In this mode, the players have the ability to steal the other player’s turn if he dies. A play can also defeat 5 enemies to secure the victory and resume play. An interesting addition to this mode is the ability to steal your opponent’s cards, which can inch you ever closer to securing the coveted 5-life bonus that you receive when you possess 3 star cards.

Yes, despite the advancements of Super Mario Bros. 2, Luigi was right back to being nothing more than Mario's clone.

The card system adds a bit of depth to the game, with the goal at the end of every level giving you one of three possible cards – the Mushroom, the Flower, and the Star. When you’ve collected three cards, the game awards you one of four prizes: one life, two lives, three lives, or five lives. One if you don’t have matching cards, two if the cards are all mushrooms, three if they’re flowers, and five if they’re all stars. I don’t know if this is intentional or not, but they made it pretty easy to get star cards; all you have to do is run full speed into the side of the block at the end of the level.

Also making their debuts are neat little bonus games. The first you’ll probably encounter is a matching game, in which three panels alternate quickly between parts for a mushroom, flower and star. There are two mushroom parts in each panel. Your job, as you can probably tell, is to make the panels form one of the three possible shapes. The payout works similar to the card system – a mushroom yields 2 lives, a flower 3, and a star 5. This time around, though, if you can’t match the panels at all, you are sent away with nothing. No consolation prizes here.

The second bonus game comes in the form of a card-matching game, in which you are told to flip cards and match identical cards. For each match you make, you are awarded with the item pictured on the cards in your inventory. For example, if you match a pair of cards with stars on them, you can find a star in your inventory after the bonus game is over to give yourself invincibility for the next level you visit. If you match a couple of 1-Up cards, you get an extra life, etc.

The Powerups! My God, what have I been doing? SMB3 plays host to some of the most memorable abilities in the Mario series. Starting with the basics, Mario has the ability to grow, as always, and the familiar Fire Flower makes its comeback here. However, look beyond that, and this game features totally new outfits and abilities for Mario to try out. Take for instance, the Super Leaf, which gives Mario the ears and tail of a raccoon, and the inexplicable ability to fly. Also making their Mario debuts are the Hammer B

ro Suit, the Frog Suit, and the Tanooki Suit. The Hammer Bro Suit is my personal favorite, as it gives you the ability to throw hammers a la the hated Hammer Brothers, and a protective shell that really comes in handy when you press down to crouch. The Frog Suit tends to be the most useless, mostly due to the fact that there are only a few water-based levels in the game. You are given prolific swimming ability when underwater, but when Mario goes on land, his ability to walk is hindered greatly. The Tanooki Suit is almost exactly like the Raccoon Suit, except for the fact that this suit gives Mario the ability to turn into a statue when the player crouches and presses B at the same time. This ability makes Mario capable of defeating almost every enemy, including Thwomps and Roto-Discs.

Fat guy + flight = unforgettable.

The bosses in the game are a tad repetitive, with Boom Booms at the end of every fortress and not much changing from battle to battle besides the landscape. Boom Boom does acquire the ability to fly in the later levels, but frankly, the strategy for defeating him remains unchanged throughout the whole game. Bowser’s back, of course, except this time you don’t get to see him until the very end of the game. Instead of being faced with Bowser in every trip to a flying fortress, you are treated to meeting his Koopa Kids, with each more sinister than the last. Granted, most of the battles with these offspring of the Koopa King are similar, but a few really stand out as really memorable. Wendy O. Koopa, for instance, fires beams that not are not only unpredictable, but permanent as well; they stick around and keep bouncing of the walls of the stage. Lemmy Koopa also makes for an intense boss battle, as he releases a beach ball that travels in a manner similar to Wendy’s beams when he’s hit. And the last two Koopa Kids, Roy and Ludwig Von Koopa, are so heavy that when they jump or fall, they create an earthquake so jarring that it renders Mario helpless for a few seconds. And then of course, there’s King Bowser himself, whose body weight you must use to gain the advantage. As he jumps around the level, you must goad him into landing on the soft brick floor below you, chipping away at it until Bowser falls through, resulting in a tremendous “CRASH” and your march to victory.

It is there that you’re greeted with one of the weakest endings in video game history. Peach, who has been in captivity for what I assume to be months, simply walks up to Mario and proceeds to deliver the following atom bomb of a “thank you”:

Thank you. But our Princess is in another castle!...Just kidding! Ha ha ha! Bye bye.

My God. The guy just spent all of his being to come and rescue you, and you have the gall to crack a stupid tasteless joke like that? Talk about ungrateful. But with Mario being Mario, I would assume that would be enough for him.

Well, there you have it. Super Mario Bros. 3. This is considered by many to be the greatest game of the franchise, and I, for one, am in that camp. It’s the pinnacle of the series, with all the goofiness and over-the-top antics that many have come to expect from the Mario series. Few games have since come close to the sheer enjoyment that this game brings. With that, it’s time to wrap this baby up. Expect Super Mario World to be the subject of the next installment of Mario: A Retrospective.

A Mario Retrospective - Part II

Welcome to a multiple-part retrospective of the Mario series, starting with Super Mario Bros. and working its way to the latest Mario adventure, Super Mario Galaxy. It will only cover core games in the Mario series. Spinoffs will not be included. This is Part 2.

Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario USA

Many hardcore Mario fans are perfectly aware that the Super Mario Bros. 2 that we in the USA know is not what was originally intended to be Super Mario Bros. 2. For that reason, many video game enthusiasts consider the American version of Super Mario Bros. 2 to be the weakest in the Mario series. I differ in opinion; the game is just as good as any other in the Mario series, although it’s a bit different. Ok. VERY different.

We’ll start with the original Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2. Released on June 3, 1986, the game didn’t see American soil until well into the ‘90s, when it was included in Super Mario All-Stars. The game was almost exactly like its predecessor in terms of graphics, and in terms of gameplay, it featured a faster, higher-jumping Luigi. New elements not found in the first game included windstorms, poison mushrooms, and subtle changes in physics. Not much was different this time around except for the fact that the game was hard. Really, really hard. This worried Nintendo, who feared that American gamers would feel frustrated by the game’s intense difficulty. So instead of going ahead and releasing the game, they took another Shigeru Miyamoto-designed game, Doki Doki Panic, and Mariofied it.

Doki Doki Panic, originally released for the Famicom Disk System, was a game that featured four family members on a quest to save a couple of kids from the kidnapper Wart. At a glance, the game seems totally unfit to be a Mario game – the only Mario-esque element from the game is the Starman, which gives the family invincibility for a short time, perhaps paying homage to Miyamoto’s earlier game Super Mario Bros.

Doki Doki Panic

Whatever the case, the game was given a face lift, Mario style. The four family members from the original were replaced with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad. Items were replaced with elements from the original Mario game, most of them being mushrooms. Interesting to note here is the enemies are all unchanged from the original Panic, with the exception of a new boss, Clawgrip. Also added to the game was the ability to dash, an essential Mario element that gave the game new depth and playability. The music was changed a bit, though the change proved to be a big difference, as the music from SMB2 is some of my favorite in the series.

Super Mario Bros. 2
Image taken from Wikipedia

The story here has also changed a bit from the original Panic. In the original, a couple of kids are sucked into the land of SubCon while reading a book, and it’s up to the family of four to save them. In SMB2, Mario has a dream in which he is called by the people of Subcon to rescue the land from Wart. Mario awakens and hears the same voice calling him, and ventures with his friends into the land of Subcon.

So, let’s recap here – the game is actually an alternate version of two games.

But that’s not to say the game doesn’t have its own little charm. I still love playing SMB2 to this very day, and it continues to rank up there with the best Mario games of them all. The story behind this game is really convoluted and frustrating, so that makes it one of the most interesting games in the Mario series so far.