Summer Games Challenge 2015

[alienjesus]

Well I gotta disagree a bit there. I find SMB waaaaaay easier than Mega Man or GnG. The controls in Mario are so much more fluid. Mario does lack continues though, which I suppose is a factor.

I also think the original SMB is the only difficult one of the original NES trilogy. Part 2 is totally broken by Toadstool's floating. 3 has about a billion opportunities to gain extra lives.

(I guess technically The Lost Levels is the hardest - but only on the FDS. It's totally manageable on the SNES.)

EDIT: Realized you said Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts, not Ghosts 'n Goblins... My point still stands though.

My point was less about claiming that it was a harder game than those in general, and more to claim that it's relative. I didn't grow up with the NES and I find the Mario games on that console to be pretty challenging.

[MrPopo]

SMB isn't too bad until you die and lose Fire Mario. Depending on where you are it can be a nasty point to try and recover from.

[darsparx]

Back up to the future, but man I forgot how long it takes to get through the labs especially if you're just kinda wondering around...

[Exhuminator]

Exhum, that sucks, but I am not surprised. The only Clock Tower I have ever beaten is 3 because the gameplay bugs the crap out of me. I even own the PS1 port of The First Fear, but...nope. Not gonna do it.

The interesting thing is that Clock Tower 3 (which was actually the fourth game funny enough) was developed by Sunsoft, whereas the first three games in the series were developed by Human Entertainment. I'm betting a change of developer made all the difference in playability. Then you've got Haunting Ground on PS2, which for all intents and purposes is Clock Tower 5. And it was developed by Capcom.

Well anyway, interesting series at least in theory. I have not played enough of it to give proper opinions on anything but the first Super Famicom game though.

[terrin707]

It may be because I have been playing SMB since I was three years old (when my Dad bought me a new NES in 1988), but I find the game to be pretty easy (compared to other games of the same time period). I beat it the other night pretty quickly without using warp pipes, but have done so dozens of times before.

[Sarge]

Fascinating. I find the original SMB to be in between the other two games mentioned, with the Mega Man games being insanely easy to control (unless we talk about the first game, which has some odd quirks with falling), and the G&G games, which are intentionally pretty stilted. The physics in SMB are a slight bit weird, and take some getting used to. Especially if you're coming off of more modern entries. For my money, SMB3 has my ideal Mario physics.

[alienjesus]

Mario on NES I think is interesting to discuss in this way because so many retro gamers grew up with it and played it to death and, in my opinion, forgot how much of a learning curve was required to get to that point. All I know is I genuinely struggled more to beat that than most other NES games I've played.

But I understand people not getting it. I watched a streamer I like playing the Sonic game on Mega Drive. Neither of them grew up with the console and they were awful at them. Made me realise that perhaps they weren't quite as much of a cakewalk as I had assumed too.

[MrPopo]

As a kid most of my platforming focus was on Mega Man; I had 2 and 4. I played Mario 3 to a lesser extend but the original Mario fell by the wayside once I got the other games. So I never really got good enough at it to feel like I was comfortable with the physics and it still remains a difficult game for me.

[BoneSnapDeez]

See I grew up playing Donkey Kong and "the original" Mario Bros. before I ever touched Super Mario Bros. So the improved jumping/walking/running controls were like a dream come true. Plus, a scrolling screen!

[Key-Glyph]

I love this Mario conversation, especially this:

Not to slam anyone but when did Super Mario Bros. become a hard game?

This made me laugh a lot, because I totally get where this is coming from. Like alienjesus, it's what ran through my mind while I was perusing the Together Retro Sonic & Knuckles thread. It made me stop and realize how much of what I thought was common knowledge ("well of course the paths all lead to the same place!") was stuff I'd internalized over years of practice and discussions with friends.

But that said, Super Mario Bros. and I... well, we've never gotten along. Not when I was four and it was new and I didn't know any better. Not even during those times when I've gotten a solid grip on the controls. I see this game as an enemy. It's Classic Gaming 101 and it's been an unbeaten thorn in my side for half my life. That is why I needed to kill it with fire[flowers] -- and why I used the Summer Games Challenge as an excuse to see it through.

My issue with this game boils down to two things. For one, I have no good memories with it. My older brother played it a lot when our family got our NES, and he was utterly frustrated by it. Although I do believe he eventually beat it, it was distressing to see him so infuriated by the game. As for me, I was too young and too infrequent a player back then to be any good at it, so it was a similar exercise in punishment... except worse. This is the kind of cartridge that made me feel like the Nintendo was laughing at me.

The other issue is simply this: I don't find it compelling. And I sincerely do not mean this as an insult to the game, which is legendary, or to the people who enjoy it. I just mean that in a totally subjective way, at this point in Mario's evolution I do not enjoy the art style, the character, the story, or the gameplay. So the entire time I'm engaged with it, I'm basically pissed off by default. This obviously does not help me accept Game Overs with grace, nor does it motivate replays for any reasons other than "God@$*&ingdamnit I will beat this game even if it kills me."

So really, I am thrilled that my completely ridiculous and nonsensically personal battle with Super Mario Bros. is done.