I FINALLY beat super mario after 28 years

[Razzie.P]

7 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

I loved Blaster Master as a kid. It totally needed a password or save file. It was a long ass game otherwise (or at least was to me as a kid). It was hard beating it in one go. I think it was one of the few games I left the console on for while at school or some crap.

 

I need to play the sequel on the GBC. It at least added a password feature.

If you haven't already, check out the remakes on Switch.  1st one is about 5 bucks I think, and it's great

[MrBeefy]

18 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

If you haven't already, check out the remakes on Switch.  1st one is about 5 bucks I think, and it's great

Nice I will need to wishlist it. My bro liked the PS1 Blaster Master.

[Tanooki]

Blaster Master Zero(1st one) is great, didn't like the second one at all so I didn't bother with the third since the story plays out, one at least ends as if they only intended to do more if it did well.

 

The GBC game is fantastic and that password is a huge help so you don't waste heaps of time redoing large stages on a handheld.  It's quite honest to the NES version, can't say that for the disaster on Genesis.

[MaximRecoil]

My cousin Mike was the first person I knew to get a Nintendo, in 1986, a week or two after the first national commercials for them aired on TV. We were both 11 years old. Mike had had the Nintendo for a couple/few weeks the first time I visited him after he got it; I was expecting to play his ColecoVision; I was very surprised when I walked into his room and saw him playing that newfangled thing from the TV commercials.

 

There was no "common knowledge" about SMB at the time, and the game itself was completely different than any video game I'd ever played before. Plus those controllers were really weird; I'd only ever used a joystick to play video games. It was too foreign for me so I mostly just watched Mike play it. He couldn't get to World 3; he normally died in World 2-3 due to the flying fish (which I called bees). Mike never thought to try anything other than the most straightforward/obvious path. He hadn't even tried going down a pipe until I suggested it. And he used to hit the block that made the vine grow up out of it, but he'd ignore it and just keep going. He didn't try climbing it until I suggested it; the same goes for getting up above and running on top of the ceiling in the underground levels, which led to the discovery of the warp zone in 1-2. After that discovery, as well as the discovery of the warp zone in 8-2, it didn't take us long to beat the game. I was getting more comfortable playing it by that point, and I can't remember who beat it first.

 

In '87 I got a Nintendo and it wasn't long before I could run through SMB practically on autopilot, beating it without losing any lives in about 8 minutes (using the warp zones to 4-1 and 8-1 of course). I could beat it just as easily and quickly in the second quest, which isn't significantly harder, since I jumped over most enemies anyway, so it didn't matter whether they were those beetle things or mushroom things.

 

I never beat the game by going through all 32 levels until relatively recently; maybe 15 years ago, because I had never bothered to try. The hardest parts for me were the "puzzle" castles (4-4 and 7-4) because I didn't know the solutions. I figured out 4-4 using trial and error, but I looked up the solution for 7-4 online.

 

In 2008 I saw Mike for the first time since the early 1990s when he moved out of state; he came over and spent the night. We couldn't really do anything, like go to a bar and play pool like we used to, because he was fresh out of prison and on parole, so for old times' sake we played a Super Mario Bros. game. I decided we should play one that neither of us had ever played before: SMB 2J, on an emulator, and because of its notorious difficultly, I fully intended to use save states like they were going out of style. We took turns playing and "beat" the game using many save states.

 

There's nothing wrong with using save states and/or a "rewind" function for fun, but I don't considered a game truly beaten unless it's done without those sort of things.

Edited November 2, 2022 by MaximRecoil

[Razzie.P]

On 9/26/2022 at 10:10 PM, Tanooki said:

Blaster Master Zero(1st one) is great, didn't like the second one at all so I didn't bother with the third since the story plays out, one at least ends as if they only intended to do more if it did well.

 

What did you not like about the second one?

 

I loved the 1st, and have replayed it multiple times.  But I've always had trouble sticking with the 2nd for more than an hour, and not sure why.   But I recently re-played 1, and part 2 finally stuck and having finished it, I think its as good as the first, and maybe even a bit better in a lot of ways.

 

Wasn't overly fond of some bits at the end required to get the "true ending," but thought it was pretty great otherwise.    I'll dive into part 3 as some point in the near future, I'm sure.

[Tanooki]

23 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

What did you not like about the second one?

 

I loved the 1st, and have replayed it multiple times.  But I've always had trouble sticking with the 2nd for more than an hour, and not sure why.   But I recently re-played 1, and part 2 finally stuck and having finished it, I think its as good as the first, and maybe even a bit better in a lot of ways.

 

Wasn't overly fond of some bits at the end required to get the "true ending," but thought it was pretty great otherwise.    I'll dive into part 3 as some point in the near future, I'm sure.

Much what you said for your attempt.  I couldn't stick with it.  I played an hour or two, even did a pretty quick restart to see if getting used to the handling would help but it didn't.  Maybe it was a bit too open world or whatever, but I kind of had a mix of confusion what to do next.  Then it just a huge uptick in difficulty with damage or just holes to float/fall into to die and the rest, an odd mix of just confusion and frustration with it in a bad way that really set me off, twice, that I just ended up selling it.  The original is quite enjoyable, still open, but you still have a general idea where to go, not a bunch of cheap death holes and odd aggravating difficulty spikes that turn you off caring to keep losing to eventually succeed.  I do recall learning about having to do some annoying out of the way things to get a real(true) ending and that alone puts me off playing any game when stuff like that is forced as it's just sadist and needy to me which put me off ever finding a huge discount to try it once last time to be fair.  Due to that I wrote off 3 since I hated 2, twice.

[Astro Rabby]

I beat it once legit like ten years ago. Not since though, maybe because then I was on OG hardware with CRT instead of modern stuff with delays and such? Idk.

The key is to NOT use warp zones and stock up on lives for world 8 if you ever want to try without saves or rewinds.

[Austin]

World 8 should always be the least of your worries, because if you are used to warping through the game you have to play it anyway.

 

Also, regarding save states, do people forget you can continue in this game? A + Start at the title screen. If World 8 is a problem, you shouldn’t need saves. Just continue and try again (and again, until you master it).

[roots.genoa]

4 hours ago, Austin said:

do people forget you can continue in this game? A + Start at the title screen.

I don't but there's no Start button on the SMB Game & Watch unfortunately. 😅

[Steven Pendleton]

Oh, it's this thread again. I have not played Super Mario Bros. since my last post here, but I can say that Blaster Master Zero is really damn great and everyone should play it. I started 2 but never finished it for some reason, so I never played 3, but I did like what I played of 2. 2 is significantly more difficult, though. I should go finish 2 and 3 now instead of playing Super Mario Bros., which is probably should do, but whatever.

[roots.genoa]

Someone: Hey guys, I'm looking for a brand new copy of Super Jump Platformer 4, could you help me? Please.

 

Steven Pendleton: I wouldn't bother if I were you. I've never played it, but if I were you I would buy Mega Shooter 7 instead. It's a completely different game, not even in the same genre, but it's my favorite game ever so you have to buy it asap. But be careful! Don't buy the second revision with the red line on the cover because they removed sequence breaking; it's terrible. Now you can either play the UltraDrive version or the MegaSystem one. It's way too hard on the UltraDrive so I wouldn't pick that one unless you like to suffer, but they completely screwed the music speed on the MegaSystem and it has an unacceptable input lag of 3 frames. So you'd better invest on the original arcade cabinet but good luck finding one under $100,000. Hope that helps.

[Steven Pendleton]

Setting your pitiful trolling attempt aside, you do know that 3 frames of lag is both extremely low and far below the threshold at which I can detect lag, which I am not sensitive to, right?

[Steven Pendleton]

Aw shit, sorry dude, I thought you were mocking me. I realized now that you weren't. I think.

[+wongojack]

I was the right age when this released and was supposed to love it.  While I've gotten to the end with warps, I don't remember ever beating it, and I'm in the small minority that just doesn't really like this series.  When so many other people were having their metaphorical minds blown, I just didn't see it.  Back then, I would have probably just said that I thought the game was too hard, but really I just didn't have fun with it - not any more fun than the Mario games that came before.  I wanted as much time with SMB as I did with Mario Bros, Donkey Kong etc. - then I was done.

 

I think now that the problem is that I just don't like the core mechanic of the game being jumping on stuff.  Increasingly small platforms or flying turtles to jump on just seems irritating.  I'm constantly waiting for the game to give me something else to do.  Jumping on platforms is fine as an obstacle to get to something else, but as the sole challenge of the game, I get bored, and I was kinda bored with this genre ever after.  That sucked because this game made scrolling platformers the standard for like 2 generations of console gaming.

 

I also don't really appreciate the emphasis on secrets all the way down to (what someone else mentioned) the option to continue being a type of secret.  Me and my friends never knew about that bitd, and it would have probably helped me enjoy the game more.

 

So . . . my advice is to use rewinds or save states or whatever you want to experience the core of the game, but don't go through any pain actually trying to finish it "legit."  I don't really think it is even worth it.

[Steven Pendleton]

I wasn't alive when this game released (yeah, everyone feels super old now that I said that, right?), but I've always felt like it was one of those things where you had to be around to see how games were before and after SMB to fully appreciate what it did. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know. The game's fine, but going back to it after playing any given subsequent Mario/Sonic/Castlevania/Metroid/Rayman/basically any other later 2D platformer makes SMB look very plain, reveals its very simple mechanics, and shows that the game is actually somewhat lacking in content, especially since it recycles a few levels and is quite short. The game's ROM size is ridiculously tiny, though, so I'm sure that has something to do with it.

 

If you want what probably would have been considered a super stripped-down platformer even within just a few years after its own launch, though, let alone modern post-Sonic and post-Super Metroid standards, you'd probably have great difficulty finding something better.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[MaximRecoil]

29 minutes ago, wongojack said:

So . . . my advice is to use rewinds or save states or whatever you want to experience the core of the game, but don't go through any pain actually trying to finish it "legit."  I don't really think it is even worth it.

SMB is probably the easiest well-known side-scrolling platform NES game to legitimately beat, since there are only 8 levels to go through if you use warp zones (beating the game using warp zones is legitimate since they are an intended part of the game). Worlds 1-1 and 1-2 are obviously incredibly easy. 4-1 isn't hard if you kill the cloud creature right at the beginning and run through the rest (once you learn the layout it's easy to run through). You only have to go through a small portion of 4-2, which isn't hard. Then you have 8-1 through 8-4. They are moderately difficult, but it doesn't take long to learn how to get through them. The main thing is learning how to deal with the Hammer Bros. in 8-3. If you have firepower when you encounter them it's very easy. The final level, 8-4, is a maze, but isn't a hard level once you know which pipes you're supposed to go down, especially if you've retained your firepower (makes killing the Hammer Bro. and Bowser at the end particularly easy).

 

Beating SMB "extra legitimately" (by not using warp zones / going though all 32 levels) is harder of course (I think world 7 is harder than 8, though 7-4 is easier than 8-4 once you learn the maze pattern), but you can get something like 15 extra lives along the way just by collecting most of the coins and getting all of the 1UP mushrooms.

 

I think SMB 2 (USA) and SMB 3 are a lot harder than SMB, and SMB 2 (Japan) is just unreasonably hard.

[roots.genoa]

7 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Setting your pitiful trolling attempt aside, you do know that 3 frames of lag is both extremely low and far below the threshold at which I can detect lag, which I am not sensitive to, right?

I know, it was just a parody. I guess not enough people know your antics to find my impression funny. 😅

[Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, roots.genoa said:

I know, it was just a parody. I guess not enough people know your antics to find my impression funny. 😅

I thought it was funny and very accurate 😃.  And that's no disrespect to Steven, as I have a lot of respect for how he really seems to know his crap down to a cartoon level of minutiae, but yeah, quite impressive satire you pulled off, there

[Frozone212]

5 hours ago, wongojack said:

I was the right age when this released and was supposed to love it.  While I've gotten to the end with warps, I don't remember ever beating it, and I'm in the small minority that just doesn't really like this series.  When so many other people were having their metaphorical minds blown, I just didn't see it.  Back then, I would have probably just said that I thought the game was too hard, but really I just didn't have fun with it - not any more fun than the Mario games that came before.  I wanted as much time with SMB as I did with Mario Bros, Donkey Kong etc. - then I was done.

 

I think now that the problem is that I just don't like the core mechanic of the game being jumping on stuff.  Increasingly small platforms or flying turtles to jump on just seems irritating.  I'm constantly waiting for the game to give me something else to do.  Jumping on platforms is fine as an obstacle to get to something else, but as the sole challenge of the game, I get bored, and I was kinda bored with this genre ever after.  That sucked because this game made scrolling platformers the standard for like 2 generations of console gaming.

 

I also don't really appreciate the emphasis on secrets all the way down to (what someone else mentioned) the option to continue being a type of secret.  Me and my friends never knew about that bitd, and it would have probably helped me enjoy the game more.

 

So . . . my advice is to use rewinds or save states or whatever you want to experience the core of the game, but don't go through any pain actually trying to finish it "legit."  I don't really think it is even worth it.

Glad you feel the same way. 

[Steven Pendleton]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I know, it was just a parody. I guess not enough people know your antics to find my impression funny. 😅

lol yeah, don't worry about it man. My mistake. I apparently left my reading comprehension behind at work or something.

[MaximRecoil]

I just tried a warpless run of Vs. Super Mario Bros. (which is the arcade version of SMB) and 5-2 is a roadblock if you're small Mario, because I don't know of a reliable way to get past the Hammer Bro. on the steps, plus when you do get lucky there's a pit right after the steps that you have to avoid falling into, and the small ledge before the pit is still in the range of his hammers (which is relevant if you managed to just jump over him rather than stomp him). They removed the mushroom before the Hammer Bro. that's in the normal home version. There's no mushroom in 5-1 that I know of either, so continuing doesn't help you get big Mario.

 

After a couple continues I made it past 5-2, but 6-3 is the next roadblock. It has a jump that you can't make unless you time it just right in order to bounce off a flying turtle to reach the next platform. I've done it before but it's a luck thing for me; I can't do it reliably. Completing 6-3 is a requirement even if you use warp zones, because the option in the normal home version to warp to 7-1 or 8-1 from the 4-2 vine warp zone is gone; 6-1 is your only option.

[Wayler]

14 hours ago, MaximRecoil said:

I think SMB 2 (USA) and SMB 3 are a lot harder than SMB, and SMB 2 (Japan) is just unreasonably hard.

I concur about SMB 2 (Japan) and I think everyone would but a hard NO on SMB 2 (USA) and SMB 3.

SMB 1 is pure platforming with precision jumps and memorization, while 2 & 3 are more laid back adventury affairs. You get so many helpful items and gameplay options that the approach is so very different.

I find SMB2 especially to be a enjoyable breeze with the right characters on a given level and the accumulation of extra lives through the slot machine is very generous.

SMB 3 is long but that doesn't make it hard. Maybe only the auto scrolling levels will give you a headache, but you can always get through them with a P-wing.

 

[Bloodreign]

There was a time in SMB2 where I had the timing of the slot machine down pat, and knew how to get the most coins out of each level's 2 trips to sub-con. You could only get coins twice in sub-con in each level, anymore than that and the grass you'd pull while in there would just be vegetables. I'd try to find an area in each level with the biggest clumps of grass grouped together, bring a potion, grab as many coins as possible before it automatically made you exit (Toad really helps here as he yanks the coins out of the ground quite fast), rinse and repeat twice to get plenty enough tries at the slot machine at the end of the level. Would often get 3 cherries on the slots, gaining 5 lives, after 99 lives, the game starts awarding lives like A0-9, B0-9, etc. I'd get the lives counter all the way to O before the end of the game, insuring I had enough lives to never worry about a game over, but it would also drag SMB 2 US on longer than it had to be due to coin farming (warps help cut down the time taken to finish the game, hate, HATE, HATE the ice level though). I had no such luck with the slots on SMB 2 on All Stars or on GBA, just could never get the timing down right to see how high the lives counter would go.

 

SMB 1 the lives trick in 3-1 koopa and 7-1 buzzy beetle are easy enough to pull off, just don't get too greedy or if you lose 1 life, it's game over. SMB 3 once I learned the game, 99 lives was easily achieved. The 3-1 and 7-1 trick also works well in SMB Deluxe on GBC.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Bloodreign

[MaximRecoil]

9 hours ago, Wayler said:

I concur about SMB 2 (Japan) and I think everyone would but a hard NO on SMB 2 (USA) and SMB 3.

SMB 1 is pure platforming with precision jumps and memorization, while 2 & 3 are more laid back adventury affairs. You get so many helpful items and gameplay options that the approach is so very different.

I can't think of any particularly precise jumps that you need to make in SMB, and the only memorization needed is for the maze levels: 4-4, 7-4, and 8-4; or only 8-4 if you use warp zones.

 

9 hours ago, Wayler said:

I find SMB2 especially to be a enjoyable breeze with the right characters on a given level and the accumulation of extra lives through the slot machine is very generous.

It's never been generous for me. I hardly ever get anything through the slot machine. Either way, if it weren't harder than SMB, I wouldn't need any extra lives, because I can consistently beat SMB in about 8 minutes without losing any lives, and I have beaten it without using warp zones without losing any lives at least once, though most of the time I lose a couple/few lives during a warpless run. However, there are easy and reliable ways of getting something like 15 extra lives along the way (rather than relying on a simulated gambling machine), so losing a few lives is no problem.

 

The ice levels in SMB 2 alone are harder than any level in SMB, and the final levels, 7-1 and 7-2 are way harder than any level in SMB. The bosses are harder than any boss in SMB, since all the SMB bosses can be defeated with 4 or 5 fireballs from a safe distance, and if you don't have fireballs, you can just run underneath any of them (or jump over them, but that's hard to do consistently with the ones that throw hammers).

 

I watched a video of "Kosmic" playing SMB 2. He's among the best in the world at various Mario games. For example, his speedrun time on SMB is 4m 55s 646ms, and on SMB 2 (Japan) it is 7m 55s 384ms, plus a warpless run (all levels) of SMB 2 (Japan) in 21m 23s 869ms. Those were world records at one point, and still in the top 10. Getting times like that require some frame-perfect maneuvers that most people can't do at all. In any case, he didn't exactly breeze through SMB 2 (USA). He lost several lives, enough so that he had to continue a couple times. This is what he said while playing it:

 

"This game has SMB One Syndrome, but on steroids, where people are like, 'I beat this when I was five...' Also, anyone that remembers it being easy probably got to like world four as a kid and never actually beat it. They probably just warped to four and felt like they made lots of progress."

 

You can watch his video here:

 

https://youtu.be/qy9CzGZkq44

 

I wish I could see gameplay videos from everyone who says that SMB 2 is easy.

 

9 hours ago, Wayler said:

SMB 3 is long but that doesn't make it hard.

That would be true if it had battery-backed saving functionality like Super Mario World (SNES), but it doesn't. So you have to keep practicing until you can beat a long game in one sitting, or be willing to leave your NES on for extended periods of time while you do other things like sleep, eat, work, etc. I've never had the patience to beat it. Once I lose the initial three lives and continuing kicks me back a couple/few levels I've always shut the game off out of irritation. I recently got an Everdrive though, so maybe I'll use save states to "beat" it at some point.

Edited November 16, 2022 by MaximRecoil

[mbd39]

I agree with MaximRecoil about SMB2 US being harder than SMB1. Harder for me, at least. Especially if you avoid using Peach. Her floating mitigates a lot of the difficulty of the platforming. But even with Peach, the later levels can be frustrating.

 

Also agree about SMB3 being too long to not have saves. I may have beaten it with warps a long time ago, I don't remember, but I've never played through the entire thing. Maybe someday.