A couple years ago, my brother and I decided to make it a summer project to beat The Lost Levels (All Stars version). After replaying several levels many, MANY times, we made it all the way to 8-4 (the last stage) and could never beat that last one. It was just too damn hard!
You’re in for a surprise after you beat “the last stage”.
Has anyone played any of the freeware fanmade Mario games? I was looking around and I saw Mega Mario, Mario Worlds (note the s), Mario Forever, etc., but none of them seem to have reviews online. I downloaded Mario Worlds but it doesn’t have music and I can’t figure out how to make it full screen (the picture was tiny) so I don’t see myself getting too into it right now.
People like to make it sound like NoJ thought us poor, poor Westerners just weren’t up to the Japanese level of gaming so we didn’t get it*. From what I understand, the root of the issue actually was the rental market. The video game rental market doesn’t really exist in Japan (or didn’t then, or something. I believe it’s actually illegal or heavily controlled there but don’t quote me on that). Either way, in Japan you pretty much HAD to shell out $70 for a game and be stuck with it, in America (and Europe?) sales of overly-difficult games suffered because of renting before buying, making people frustrated and not shelling out money for the game like they had to just to try it in Japan, that’s why you get all the stories of game difficulties getting nerfed to hell in American game releases.
There was probably a little bit of playtesting and racism involved as well, but that was the main reason (disclaimer: from what I’ve heard).
*Oops, realized you may take that the wrong way. I wasn’t referring to you necessarily, but it’s a pretty widespread notion.
What, is it more of that “world A” tomfoolery? I guess it doesn’t matter as I’ll never beat it…
Aw, Yoshi’s Island doesn’t count as a Mario title? 
I thought it was a pretty sweet expansion of the Super Mario World thing, and the completist in me made it pretty nifty to get 100% in all of the levels.
(Yeah, baby Mario was a little bit annoying when you lost him, but it was also incredibly satisfying to ditch him at least once.)
The OP says it counts.
Yeah, Worlds A through D, and there’s also a World 9 if you don’t use warps. But apparently you already know about World A, which I thought you didn’t get to see at all till after 8-4, so perhaps my memory isn’t the best…
Getting back on topic here…man, choosing a favorite Mario is like choosing a favorite child. I love most of them (barring Sunshine, which is a huge blemish on an otherwise perfect history). However, I can narrow it down to a top three:
Super Mario 64
Super Mario World
Super Mario Galaxy
While all three were fantastic, if I had to choose only one, I’d have to go with Mario 64. I don’t think it’s said often enough how truly monumental this game was. It was a pioneer of its time, setting the bar for virtually every 3D game since, that actually felt–for lack of a better word–magical. Being able to explore these full realized 3D worlds was astonishing–in many ways, it offered one of the first true “open-world” experiences, beating GTA 3 by a decade.
Finally, someone who agrees with me, at least so far as #1 goes. I was feeling like a pariah over here, everyone else going more old-school. But I stand by it.
I didn’t play Mario64 much when it came out. I rented it I think and dicked around for maybe an hour but never got into it at all. I think I was at a bad age for gaming. I’m not gonna look it up but IIRC I was 14 or 15 and way too concerned with being “cool” and chasing girls, etc, to bother with video games - 'cause they were for kids, you know. Last year I downloaded it to my Virtual Console after finding 90-something stars on Galaxy and getting temporarily bored with that game. I definitely missed out, but I can’t undo it. I owe it a huge debt of gratitude for what Galaxy is, but after playing Galaxy first it felt a bit lacking. I think I got around 40-something stars on it and gave up out of “meh”. Maybe I’ll return to it sometime soon, since I finished all 120 stars on Galaxy awhile back, and don’t plan on running through again as Luigi in the near future.
Hey! Post 13, man!
Mario 64 was the first game that ever scared me. Not, like, “Aaaagh!” scared, but more like a “whoah!” scare.
It was when I swam into the big lagoon with the plesiosaur-looking thing - I could see right away that it wasn’t going to eat me, but I wasn’t real sure that it wasn’t going to squash me.
Tricky question. I’m going to say that it’s ridiculous to directly compare RPGs and platformers, simply because the genres are so different. So with that in mind, I’d say Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, which is not only the best Mario RPG, but one of the best video game RPGs out there, period, simply because it doesn’t get boring. One of the most annoying aspects of RPGs–done away with. YMMV, of course.
It’s a tough question but I’d give the edge to Super Mario World from the SNES, such a classic.
Cisco - I think this might be where the confusion lies. I don’t know anyone that thought Mario 2 (the weird Doku game remake, not TLL) was hard. I can’t remember taking any shortcuts or warps or anything, but doesn’t mean I didn’t. I do remember being able to rack up the lives on the slot machine at the end of each level.
Seriously? SMB 2 was ridiculously hard and if it wasn’t for the slot machine, I’m not sure I would have ever beaten it.
Beating SMB 2 without warping is one of my all-time great gaming achievements.
Yeah - and I’m not very good at video games. I remember playing it with friends and trying to beat all the levels with the same guy, or getting all four characters to be cheered for at the end, etc. Are there any particular youtube clips of really hard parts that might jog my memory of it being hard?
What’s the secret to the slot machine? 'Cause I have SMB2 on my Virtual Console and I still haven’t beaten it.
I don’t exactly remember, but I know I’ve done it. I try to rack up as many coins as possible, that at least gives me a bit of a chance to find the pattern. Once I get it one time, I can repeat it.
The slot isn’t random so if you can get the right rhythm down you can get so many extra lives that beating the game becomes almost inevitable. When I was a kid I had it down perfectly and could get 3 cherries most of the time and even if I missed the cherries I’d still get 3 matches of whatever else, so that’s at least 1 and usually 5 extra lives with each coin I found. I’d make sure to always drop the potions in locations with lots of veggies/coins and even though I’d die a lot I could finish the game without warps and still have dozens and dozens of lives left over.
I got it for the VC and can’t get the rhythm down anymore. Of course, I’m not playing every day for a whole summer like I did back when I first got it either.
It would be if we were comparing the plots of the games, or the play control, or something like that, but I was going more for a comparison on the only metric that ultimately matters: how much fun the game is. That’s why I included Mario games outside of the classic series.
Nah, I just read about worlds A-D at one point and thought it was for another game, but I think it was actually Lost Levels I was reading about.