Rew's Mario Series Run!

[Rew]

It's-a me!

Alright, so I hadn't planned on starting this until much later in the summer, but the long-term project I was working on is showing all the signs of being abandoned, so fuck it. It's Mario time!

As with previous series run threads, I plan on playing each game in the series in (relative) order of release date and blogging about my experiences with each game. Of course, for Mario, the series is so vast and has so many side games and characters that spawn their own mini-franchises that it's just absolutely ridiculous. I can't do like I did with Zelda and Metroid and include the side games as well since with the latter two franchises there were only, like, Link's Crossbow Training and Metroid Prime Pinball (not like I ever finished the latter anyway). With Mario, yeah... the number of games could easily number into the hundreds!

So for the purposes of this thread (for now), I'm sticking with the main series games. Here we go!

- Donkey Kong (1981) on VC
- Donkey Kong Jr. (1982) on VC
- Mario Bros. (1983) on VC
- Super Mario Bros. (1985) on VC
- Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986) on VC
- Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988) on VC
- Super Mario Land (1989) on GBP
- Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990) on VC
- Super Mario World (1991) on VC
- Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992) on GBP
- Super Mario 64 (1996) on VC
- Super Mario Sunshine (2002) on GCN
- New Super Mario Bros. (2006) on DS
- Super Mario Galaxy (2007) on Wii
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009) on Wii
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (2010) on Wii
- Super Mario 3D Land (2011) on 3DS
- New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012) on 3DS
- New Super Mario Bros. U (2012) on Wii U


That's a lot of games, but as any Mario fan knows, that's just scratching the surface.

In time, after I've finished the main series games, I do plan to play through the remakes (All-Stars, Super Mario Advance series, etc.) as well as the spin-offs. In fact, it's because I plan to make the spin-offs a separate project is why I'm holding off on games such as the Wario Land series, Yoshi's Island, etc. This also goes for Luigi's Mansion once the sequel comes out on 3DS. Also, at some point I'd like to give the RPG games a try: Super Mario RPG as well as the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. All in good time.

Super Princess Peach presents an interesting case in that it's clearly a spin-off but doesn't fit into any of the other series. I was initially planning on playing it with the Yoshi games (since it's most similar to those, from what little I know of it), but I may just go ahead and play it in the main series above.

The Mario Kart series will come later, and that will probably be the only Mario related "sport" franchise that I play. (Mario Party has never interested me, nor the vast array of tennis, golf, baseball, etc. games.)


So up first will be the arcade trifecta of Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros.! At first blush, these games seem incidental to the main series, almost like spin-offs before the Mario franchise really found its legs in the Mushroom Kingdom. This is especially true of DK Jr., wherein you don't even play as Mario, who's cast as the villain! But I'm playing through all three of these because 1) they're all super short, and 2) they're Mario's uttermost beginnings.

Because they're so short, I plan to play through all three in one go (on both difficulty settings each), then report on all three at once in my next entry. That will probably be tomorrow night.

Anyway, like I said at the beginning, it looks like my writing project may be on the fritz for the time being, but in the unlikely event that it resurfaces, and I'm summoned back, I'll have to put this run on hold in the meantime. We'll see.



Oh, and if you're curious about this mysterious project I keep referring to, here is a shameless plug:
http://www.thepottergamesrebellion.com/
(Right now, there are two entries to that series up on the website. I was going to write the third that would conclude the trilogy, but it looks like there's just not enough interest anymore.)

[hisak]

So up first will be the arcade trifecta of Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Mario Bros.! At first blush, these games seem incidental to the main series, almost like spin-offs before the Mario franchise really found its legs in the Mushroom Kingdom. This is especially true of DK Jr., wherein you don't even play as Mario, who's cast as the villain! But I'm playing through all three of these because 1) they're all super short, and 2) they're Mario's uttermost beginnings.

I think it's interesting how Mario Bros. itself is the spin-off. The Donkey Kong series (as opposed to the DK Country series, which is really just a separate series featuring the same character) continued afterward with DK '94 and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, and it's sort of fascinating how Donkey Kong and its characters were subsumed by the universe of its own spin-off. Although I suppose it's more accurate to say that the actual Super Mario series didn't start until Super Mario Bros.

I'm curious how you plan to play these three games. Arcade games aren't meant to only be played from beginning to end like today's games, so I think it would be cool if you chased high scores over separate play sessions rather than hanging up the games after finishing the final level.

Super Princess Peach presents an interesting case in that it's clearly a spin-off but doesn't fit into any of the other series. I was initially planning on playing it with the Yoshi games (since it's most similar to those, from what little I know of it), but I may just go ahead and play it in the main series above.

Weren't you just planning to do the Mario spin-offs as one marathon? That way you can fit in Super Princess Peach, and you won't be filled with despair by every Yoshi game that isn't Yoshi's Island.

[Ezlo's Apprentice]

I'm going to guess that although you're playing the original Donkey Kong, the 1994 GameBoy version - with its additional 97 levels - ironically finds itself classed as a spin-off? I've been looking to complete that game myself for well over a decade now...

[Rew]

@hisak: Yeah, what's even more curious than Mario Bros. being a spin-off of the already established DK series is that breakout Super Mario Bros. game had nothing in common with its non-Super predecessor except the two brothers, and one of the enemies is a turtle-like creature.

Yeah, the idea for now is to play the first two up until it "finishes" and recycles the stages--then I'll just keep going until I die too much or get sick of it. As for Mario Bros., I think the highest level before you start repeating is level 14? Again, same thing--I'll keep going until I've had enough. =P


@EA: Yeah, that is kind of ironic, but alas, those are the breaks. At some point, I may play a separate Donkey Kong series, where I'd repeat the arcade games (plus DK3), then play DK '94 and from there launch into the DKC series proper.

[hisak]

@hisak: Yeah, what's even more curious than Mario Bros. being a spin-off of the already established DK series is that breakout Super Mario Bros. game had nothing in common with its non-Super predecessor except the two brothers, and one of the enemies is a turtle-like creature.

I wouldn't say that. It had jumping and pipes and blocks and coins. Super Mario Bros. wasn't a sequel in the way that today's Nintendo sequels are, but it took a lot from the arcade game.

[Rew]

You know, you make a good point, hisak. Still, it was far more similar to the DK games than it was to the later SMB and its myriad sequels.


Anyway, as of tonight, I'm finished with the original arcade trio! The first two games were pretty straightforward, though it took me some doing to get adjusted to the controls again. I've played all three before and have even beaten DK a few times. I'd never beaten DKJ before tonight, so that was quite rewarding. And of course MB just doesn't even have a finish line at all (even compared to the first two games).

Let's start with Donkey Kong, the 1981 classic that started it all. (Just for perspective, I was literally born the year before this game came out.) Playing on the VC version (a port of the NES remake), we alas miss a stage, the so-called pie factory stage. As such, this game contains only a mere three stages before you loop back again. On the first one was where I had to get accustomed to the controls again (I had a specially cheap death once when I forgot that DK could send diagonally falling barrels). The second one tests your platforming and is pretty simple. The third one was the most exciting, removing the supports for the girder complex, sending DK to his doom and rescuing Pauline for good. But those little flame enemies make the task interesting!

Then there was Donkey Kong Jr., which introduced more game mechanics, mainly vine climbing. (Also, there are a whopping four levels in this one!) The first stage introduces and teaches this mechanic very nicely--as well as dodging those pesky Klaptraps. The second one is actually quite challenging until you get used to it. That spring mechanic is very quirky, but the best strategy is to run and jump as soon as the stage begins to land on the floating platform and from there to the moving rope; the rest of the stage is straightforward from there. The third stage is very different--all that moving electricity! It looks daunting, but it wasn't so bad. In fact, I'm not even sure I died there once. Then the final stage has a really neat lock-and-key mechanic where you have to move all the keys up the ropes into the slots to open up the ceiling, freeing Donkey Kong and bringing Mario down to his doom--it's the only time in this series I think I'll be rooting for his downfall.


On both I replayed multiple times until I just got tired of them, SD'd, and moved on.

Then there was Mario Bros., which was vastly different than both of its predecessors. And I didn't like it anywhere near as much. Maybe it was because the other two actually had a destination or goal of sorts (which is something I tend to like), but this game was aggravating. Like the first two, I played this one on both the difficulty levels, but unlike the other two, the difficulty level actually makes a substantial difference! The enemies revive from being stunned faster on "Game B," but far worse is that the fireballs generate a heck of a lot sooner too--and that makes all the difference in the world. Maybe I just suck at the game, but the game punishes you for going too fast (you have to let the enemies come to you so you can bop them from below, then go up and kick) and for going too slow (the green and red fireballs appear after a time, creating sometimes an overwhelming array of obstacles to deal with on a single stage). Likewise the controls don't allow much for precision as they're pretty primitive--no mid-air movement control, Mario slides like crazy (and that's not even on icy surfaces!), and collision detection is a bit wonky. At least on Game A I got to the point where the levels started to repeat before I got my latest game-over. On B I got to about Phase 11 (or 12?) before I called it quits.


So with the preliminaries out of the way, now the series can get underway in earnest with Super Mario Bros.!

This game will always hold a special place in my heart. It is both the first ever console video game I've ever played, as well as the first game I ever beat. I'm old enough to remember when "the Nintendo" was a new thing. At my after-school daycare center as a child, they had one hooked up to a TV with the games like Super Mario, Duck Hunt, Simon's Quest, TMNT, etc. Mario looked very daunting to me in those days, and sure enough when I actually played it, I was every bit as horrid as I feared I would be. I was for so long stuck on the moving platforms at the end of World 1-2! And even after I finally overcame that incredible obstacle, we won't even mention the horrors of my first ever underwater level. x_x

Yes, viewing this game with a child's mind yielded fascinating results. Given the peculiar character of the ground sprites, I thought that the whole game was Mario running along massive rooftops and that the green pipes were chimneys allowing Mario to go inside great big blue fireplaces. We never knew the name "Bowser" either. No, the final boss to us was either "King Koopa" or even more menacingly, "the Dragon."

Nowadays I can beat this game forward and backward. For this run, I'll of course be playing all the way through without warping (it should go without saying). In fact, this game had an attempt at a "second quest" (which was perfected in Zelda), which even though it did nothing but turn Goombas into marginally faster Buzzy Beetles, I'll still play through both quests (without warping) such as they are.

It still shouldn't take me long at all. See you later in the weekend!

[hisak]

It still shouldn't take me long at all. See you later in the weekend!

What happened with this?

[Rew]

The rest of the marathon got tentatively postponed by a sudden burst of inspiration--I've been writing ever since.

ETA to resumption of this series is November. Hopefully early November.

[Rew]

ETA to resumption of this series is November. Hopefully early November.

Just as advertised... it's now time for Super Mario Bros.!

This game is nothing short of an historical landmark--for the Mario series, for Nintendo, and for video gaming in general.

The original SMB is responsible for a lot of firsts, but the most poignant for me personally is that (aside from messing around haphazardly on a couple DOS-based computer games we had when I was really small) this was my first ever video game.

It was the summer between second and third grades at my after-school care program. They wheeled in a TV with a Nintendo attached to it (we didn't call it the "NES" back then, it was just the "Nintendo"), and this was one of the games. After a while, though I was sure I'd be horrible, I drudged up the courage to try the game. I was probably even worse than I feared I would be. Eventually I made it past World 1-1, but once I got to those vertically moving girders in 1-2, that proved way beyond my meager 9-year-old playing abilities.

I remember thinking the entire game took place on rooftops, as that's what the ground looks like (roof shingles), and each pit was the gap between houses. The pipes were chimneys of course, and going into them underground meant entering a house/building. And of course, I'll never forget the heart-pumping adrenaline rush of entering (or in my case, watching other kids enter) a castle level, with the grim gray-on-black color scheme and especially the chilling music. Naturally, the end of each fortress with Bowser (or as we called him simply, "the dragon") was always a harrowing ordeal. To say nothing of the disappointment of those decimating words: "But our princess is in ANOTHER castle!"

It would be years before I ever beat this game, but nowadays of course I can practically coast through this game in my sleep. Don't get me wrong, though, it is a right challenging bugger of a game (much harder than SMB2-USA, SMB3, and SMW). I will of course be playing all the way through all 8 worlds, and just for kicks and giggles, I will likely do the same with the so-called "second quest" afterward--even though nothing changes more than the enemies being slightly sped up and Goombas turning into Buzzy Beetles.

I'll play it tomorrow after work, and I don't foresee it lasting me any longer than a day.

And yes, I know this post is almost a complete rehash of what I said above in May, but blast it, I don't care!

[hisak]

Woop!

No Warp Zones or the run is a bust. Since I have my Ambassador copy of Super Mario Bros. sitting on my 3DS, I might try to find time to play it along with you.

[Rew]

Definitely no warping. Besides, Worlds 6 and 7 are perhaps some of the most fun levels in the game.

[Hyruleansoldier]

Woohoo!  Have fun! \o/

I don't remember how old I was when I first played SMB.  Possibly the year between primary and secondary school.  Definitely took me a while to beat SMB too.

Will you be playing it on the SNES All Stars version?  You can save there, making the Lost Levels a lot more doable. :3  And SMB 2, of course.  Which I've never beaten. .__.

[hisak]

Will you be playing it on the SNES All Stars version?  You can save there, making the Lost Levels a lot more doable. :3  And SMB 2, of course.  Which I've never beaten. .__.

This is even worse cheating than using Warp Zones!

[Hyruleansoldier]

How is that worse than skipping worlds entirely?   Also, shut up, you didn't even beat it.

[hisak]

How is that worse than skipping worlds entirely?

Not part of the original game, no sale. It's like using a walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda.

[Hyruleansoldier]

I did finish SMB on the SNES before getting the SNES compilation.

I prefer the Collector's Edition of LoZ, as it's easier to save (and reset, to make money fast).  Technically it WAS in the game, but who wants to use 2 controllers and physically reset the console?

[Rew]

Woohoo!  Have fun! \o/

I don't remember how old I was when I first played SMB.  Possibly the year between primary and secondary school.  Definitely took me a while to beat SMB too.

Will you be playing it on the SNES All Stars version?  You can save there, making the Lost Levels a lot more doable. :3  And SMB 2, of course.  Which I've never beaten. .__.

All the NES Mario games (including Lost Levels) are being played in their original 8-bit balls-to-the-wall-hard glory on the Wii Virtual Console.

At some point I plan to have a "Mario remake" marathon of All-Stars, the Advance series, etc., but that won't be for a while yet.

This is even worse cheating than using Warp Zones!

Hmmm...not so sure about that.



And that's a wrap!

The original SMB is in the can, and dang, I'd forgotten just how hard it can be! At least in World 8. I game-over'd in both quests, both times on World 8. If you don't have firepower in that world, you're going to be in some serious trouble.

And what makes World 8 so hard are the Hammer Bros. Worlds 8-1 and 8-2 are no sweat, but you have to fight through a legion of them in 8-3. With firepower, you just keep spitballing them and rolling on. Then you come to 8-4, which aside for one part where Cheep-Cheeps live up to their name and can get you with a cheap hit, the only worry is a lone Hammer Bro at the very end, right before Bowser. Seriously, without firepower, you have to get lucky by either running under it (and jumping clear of the Podaboo beyond it!) or jumping on its head when it's not lobbing a hammer.

Other than that, the game is fairly straightforward, and at least for one with my experience, clear sailing. It is a bit disorienting on the second quest when you reach aerial (X-3) levels and certain castles, and you have to face the later versions of them earlier (for instance 5-4's castle in 1-4).

Granted, it was the first game (and it made tons of headway since the arcade Mario Bros. game), but the jumping is very iffy in this game. You don't have as much control over Mario (or Luigi) as you do in later games, which can really affect those tricky jumps late in the game.

With the leap from Mario Bros. to Super Mario Bros., you really get an appreciative feel for the sheer scope of this game--arguably greater than Super Mario World to Super Mario 64 or any of those games to Super Mario Galaxy.


Well, with that out of the way, up next is Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels--God help us all.

Of all the games I've played and beaten, this is the only one that I count as harder than Zelda II. Seriously, as difficult as the original SMB can be in places, it's a friggin' bonus stage compared to its Japanese successor.

And as HS realized above, the SNES version on All-Stars is a good bit more forgiving than the original. And...I'll be playing the original. 

Also, I'll be playing as Mario. I've never beaten this game as Mario before (it's always been Luigi in the past). And I've only ever beaten the All-Stars version--and the big difference that makes is not only does the SNES version start you off with 2 more lives, but if you get a game over, no problem--just press continue, and you start off in the same level where you died! But in the original, you only get 3 lives, and a game over dumps you back at the beginning of the world. So you die on Bowser in a castle stage on your final life, it's all the way back to X-1 for you. On the SNES version, you can save and come back to it. You can't really do that on the original (though on VC you can just navigate back to the home page, then pick up where you left off later).

As with SMB, I will be doing this without warping. So I'll be playing Worlds 1 to 8, which opens up World 9 (I do love World 9--it's the icing on the Lost Levels cake with its brilliant weirdness, almost like it's a beta world). The real drag is that on the NES original--unlike All-Stars--you have to beat the game eight times before you unlock Worlds A to D.

So first I'll beat the game once, without warping, Worlds 1-9. Then after I've beaten it once, you'd better believe I'm going to warp after that, just to beat it seven more times and open up World A. (For those of you wondering, the most direct path I've found through the game is 1-1, 1-2, warp to 4, World 4 in its entirety, 5-1, 5-2, warp to 8, then World 8 in its entirety.)

After I beat World D, this godforsaken game will finally be done. Given how nightmare-inducingly difficult this game is, though I plan to start it tomorrow, God only knows when I'll be done. See you then, though!

[Rew]

Alright, I'm doing a "compromise" with myself.

Last night, after approximately 20 tries (I'm not even sure that's an exaggeration), I finally succeeded at conquering World 8 and thus beating the game! After that came World 9, and despite coming harrowingly close to dying in either 9-1 or 9-2, I passed that world with little difficulty.

So that earned me a little star on my title screen, but access Worlds A through D would require eight stars--i.e. beating the game seven more times. I don't think I could stomach the thought of going through World 8 so many times, even if I used warp zones and Luigi.

So I say all that to say I've beaten the game, without warping, the lettered worlds aren't much fun anyway--and because it's my birthday today, I'm treating myself to an early departure from the Lost Levels in order to move on to...

... Super Mario Bros. 2! The USA version, that is.

For some reason, this game gets a bad rep, and it seems to be only recently so--because I can't remember anyone hating on it when I was a kid and the game was new.

Sure it's not a "true" Mario game, but it's a fun little adventure all its own. Granted, it's of course not as good a game as SMB3 or SMW, but I enjoy it quite a lot all the same--and I'd take it over Lost Levels any day of the week!

Anyway, because the game is short, and it's seriously one of the easiest games I've ever played in my life, I'm going to play it in its entirety (i.e. no warping) with all four characters--for a total of run-throughs! I like to think it'll make up for my skipping Worlds A, B, C, and D in Lost Levels.


I'll start that today, and for all I know, I might even finish today. If not, tomorrow. See you then!

[Rew]

Well... I'm back! That didn't take long.

SMB2 is in the can, and that's after playing the whole game (no warping) four times in a row, once with each character. It's a fairly easy, very straightforward game--a sharp contrast to the original SMB and especially Lost Levels. But then again, it wasn't intended to be a Mario game at first.

Interestingly, I found World 5-3 to be the hardest stage in the game--or rather, least easy, because even it isn't all that hard.

As for the four characters, I know he gets a lot of hate, but Toad is easily my favorite of the lot. Sure he can't jump very high, but in a game like SMB2, you don't really need a lot of high or precision jumps (unlike, again, Lost Levels). But he's FAST, and I love how he actually goes faster when he's carrying something! So yeah, Toad has the tightest controls.

My least favorite is Luigi. Most people love him because he jumps so high, but like I said above, SMB2 isn't a game where you need a whole lot of height. But he has that floaty, flutter-kick thing whenever he's in the air that annoys me and throws off my timing. Fighting Birdo is particularly annoying with Luigi (ideal with Toad, however). I think I died most using the green-clad plumber.


So up next is Super Mario Land!

Unlike the others in this thread so far, I've never played this one before since I never had a Game Boy growing up. Well, I take that back--there was one stretch in 8th grade (mid-'90s) where I borrowed a friend's GB and this game. I played it for all of an afternoon. I got through quite a few levels, but I don't think I actually beat the game. I barely remember anything about it.

But this game is short and sweet (I think it only has four worlds), so I don't anticipate it taking me long at all. I don't think it'll be quite the cakewalk that SMB2 was, but there's no way it can be as hard as Lost Levels either. We shall see!

[Rew]

I'm starting to go through these pretty fast, aren't I? Now Super Mario Land is down!

I rather liked this game, but it proved a lot trickier than I thought. For one thing, all the sprites in this game, including Mario, are TINY, and on top of that the controls are really loose and slippery. So that made the precision jumping necessary in Worlds 3 and 4 an enormous headache.

The nice thing about this game is that, especially early on, it pretty much throws 1-ups at you--coins everywhere, 1-up hearts, those bonus games. And that turns out to be fortuitous because you only have a limited number of continues in this game! To be sure, I still don't know how exactly the continue system works yet. I just know that I ran out of lives in 4-1 and was told I only had two more continues left. (I've heard your point total determines your continue situation?) I hate to say it, but if you run out of continues, I think you're booted all the way back to World 1-1! Ouch, that's even more harsh than Lost Levels. =/

Thankfully it never came to that for me. World 4-1 was definitely the hardest level for me (though Worlds 3-2 and 3-3 weren't easy either). Controlling a tiny, slippery Mario on those tiny, abruptly moving little platforms was nasty. I was okay in 4-2 and 4-3, though, but it took me a bit to figure out the final boss battles.

As for the boss battles, I have to say, aside from the final two at the end of World 4, they're a disappointing lot! When I arrived at the boss of World 1, I thought it'd be a simple matter of jumping on its head several times. I was wrong--it was even easier: just hit the switch behind it, like Bowser in SMB. As for World 2's boss, just keep shooting and avoid its easy projectiles. World 3, use the boulders it throws to jump across and hit the switch. Easy, easy, easy.

But the platforming and sometimes ruthless enemy placement in some levels definitely ratcheted up the challenge level in this game--especially with the prospect of having to start over from scratch if you run out of lives!

I found out after beating the game there's actually a second quest I hadn't known about. I couldn't be arsed, though--maybe next time.

I'm afraid I'm all too eager to move on to Super Mario Bros. 3!

This game is easily my favorite game on the NES and still reigns as my current favorite in the Mario series (just barely edging out SMW). Granted, I have yet to play the Galaxy games or NSMB series (at least any of those in their entirety), so we'll see if SMB3 holds on to the top spot as this marathon goes on.

It is soiled a bit by having just played it with a friend recently, but still this is one I love a lot. The power-ups, the themed worlds (esp. Giant Land!), the level design, the impressive length by NES standards. This game goes deep, as deep as any on the NES, in my opinion.

Naturally I will not be warping in this one, nor using P-Wing or Jugem's Cloud. In fact, I plan to beat every level in the game, skipping none. It shouldn't be a problem, though--I'm pretty much the master at this game, and there's very little here that gives me a genuine challenge.


I'll start it up tomorrow!