Which SMB2 ? SMB2 in Japan was later released internationally as “The Lost Levels”. The SMB2 that got release in the US and Europe was actually a reskined Japanese game called “Doki Doki Panic” which means it wasn’t even really a Mario game in the first place!
I imagine they mean the US SMB2 aka Doki Doki Panic. I have actually played the “original” version and the SMB2 game is actually improved in some ways, not just reskinned. While I don’t think it is better than SMB3, I think it is a great Mario game, even if not initially intended as one.
The SMB2 that was a direct sequel to SMB1 came out for Famicom Disk System, not NES. There’s only one SMB2 that came out for NES.
Also, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was an advertising game released specifically for Fuji TV’s Yume Kōjō entertainment expo in 1987. As such, because it was just a one-off event title, they took a prototype platform game that Miyamoto had already influenced Tanabe to make more “Mario-like” (but was shelved when the Famicom couldn’t run it as intended), reskinned it to feature the characters and setting of the expo, and released it for the Disk System.
So, NES Super Mario Bros. 2 was a polished, Mario-themed reskin of a rushed reskin of a prototype Mario-esque platformer.
All of that is to say that, yes, Doki Doki Panic was in fact most likely a Mario game in the first place.
Why would you rank those two as better platformers? I reckon FLUDD introduced a lot of fun ways to solve the level puzzles and the hub world is the best designed next to Mario 64.
FLUDD is pretty well done but, pun unintended, they still hadn’t nailed the fluidity of movement that the later titles have. (The existence of a hub world is pretty neutral for me, they mostly serve as a way to soft tutorial the controls.)
I think you’re right with odyssey, that game played beautifully but galaxy (the first one at least) felt as jank if not more jank than sunshine. The wiimote never felt good for platforming and the switch adaptation also struggles with awkward camera angles.
I have been using my Sony DS4 gamepad (wired) with no issues, requires no setup. DS5 gamepads also work well, but I had extra DS4 controllers just sitting around. I greatly prefer them to any of the Xbox gamepad personally.
SMB3 was an absolute banger and revolutionised the platforming genre while making the hardware run things it had no business doing, so much so that even id Software took inspiration from it.
World just improved the formula in every single way though. Far from ragging on SMB3, World just took an amazing game and polished it up beyond what was expected.
Sorry, that’s not correct. SMB3 was released in 1988 in Japan. It was delayed in North America until 1990 and released in the same year as SMW, while Nintendo of America ironed out its Super Nintendo console launch.
Super Mario World, in fact, started development as a port of Super Mario Bros. 3.
They’re interesting but aren’t used in novel ways. Leaf is great and Cape expands on it. Frog is entirely optional, Tanooki and Hammer are nice upgrades to Leaf and Fire Flower but don’t meaningfully change how you approach the game, the Shoe exists for a single level gimmick, and the map items are all little shortcuts to play less of the game. SMB3 does not use its unique tools to build new kinds of puzzles or present alternate paths through a level they just make the challenges a little easier.
Cape, P-Balloon, and Yoshi are much better utilized.
SMB3 does not use its unique tools to build new kinds of puzzles or present alternate paths through a level they just make the challenges a little easier.
This is extraordinarily wrong!
There are secrets that you need specific power ups to get to.
Raccoon/Tanuki are used to fly to secret areas or break blocks with the tail
Fire is used to melt blocks in the ice world
Frog can swim against strong currents
If you start some levels with an invincible star from the map, it will cause some blocks to drop a star instead of a coin, letting you chain invincibility through the whole level
Tanuki and Hammer aren’t necessary for anything in the main game, but they are for some e-reader levels where they can break blocks that can’t be broken normally
This is almost nothing, though. The secret areas are a handful of coins, or an extra power-up, or a magic whistle. Three sections of a water level or a wall of ice in one world is not a puzzle nor an “alternate path” in a meaningful way. E-reader? The niche peripheral adds a tiny bit of extra content for the GBA release of the NES game and that’s among your best arguments?
SMB3 is very good for what it is and a technical achievement but ranking it above World is pure nostalgia.
making the hardware run things it had no business doing,
Speaking of hardware limitations, Kirby’s Adventure plays like a mid gen SNES game, I have no idea how they got it running on NES. I need to play through it again
Kirby’s Adventure is the largest NES game ever officially released in terms of ROM size, and has a frankly absurd amount of graphics tiles. Just consider all of those required for the copy abilities thumbnails alone and you’ll see what I mean. It pulled basically every trick the MMC3 mapper is capable of, and was definitely a masterpiece of the system in the original sense, i.e. it displays astonishing mastery of the mechanics of the Famicom/NES.
What I find more amazing is that the MMC3 isn’t one of the mappers that confers any additional sound channels and the American NES didn’t support that capability anyway. So the entirety of the game’s iconic soundtrack fits within the confines of the NES’ two square waves, one triangle wave, one noise channel, and singular PCM channel.
I think ultimately it ran into memory constraints, even with the additional 8 KB provided by the mapper. If you sit back and look at them as a whole, its levels are all quite short. It’s still my favorite NES game bar none, though.
Programming all the copy abilities had to be a nightmare. Not only the graphics but the controls for things like the wheel & hi jump, the pallet swaps for the Freeze abilities, the environment interactions from the Hammer… it’s a ridiculous amount of content by today’s standards and it was made over 30 years ago.
Then add in cutscenes (all in-game engine, but still), between level overworld sections, mini-games… It’s baffling!
Half of that game would be DLC/premium content if it was made today.
yeah, the ai enemies are crazy, though having pve threat more dangerous than players is good thing imo, it limits the pvp a bit since people have to be wary. But if its unfairly dangerous then its just annoying since you cant survive at all.
I liked the movement, though it could be better too.
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