Super Mario Bros 3

[Anonymous No.1096191]

I cleared Super Mario Bros 3 for the first time in my life last week. I used to play it at my friend's place when I was young, but I never owned it myself, so I finally bought it for the NES and played it. I liked it, and it is impressive how much more it has changed since SMB 1. The only setback was that it was too easy. I cleared Bowser first time trying. What kind of final boss is that?

Anyone else frustrated about how easy it is?

[Anonymous No.1096208]

>>1096191
I still can't clear world 7 after 20+ years...

[Anonymous No.1096207]

>>1096191

> i cleared Bowser the first time trying

Impressive, even if that battle is a little luck based. I think it took me like 10-15 lives on my first playthrough of the game, on the second, I did it on my 2-4 try, and on the third, it took 10-15 lives again. His jump is unpredictable, and he can jump in certain places that can fuck you due to the layout of the bricks he's destroyed and where you are forced to position yourself due to that.

[Anonymous No.1096218]

One thing you have to consider is that Mario is supposed to be the main reason you buy a Nintendo console. It's designed to be played by any age group and still be considered fun. The kind of balance that requires is insane.

The shortest explanation I have is that it's supposed to introduce you to the video game world, specifically platformers, but it could motivate a 1st time gamer to try other genres. It's entry level to get as many people interested in gaming as possible.

Harder platformers, like castlevania and megaman are there for the people who've mastered Mario and need a bigger challenge.

[Anonymous No.1096216]

>>1096207

I've also experienced some weird 1-hit kills. It was a long time ago and I don't really remember it, but there was some bullshit... glitch... thing...

[Anonymous No.1096226]

>>1096207
>even if that battle is a little luck based
>His jump is unpredictable

Are the jumps unpredictable? I was under the impression that he would always jump right above you and slam down in order to hit you.

[Anonymous No.1096228]

>>1096226

Not in my experience. Sometimes he wouldn't do a slam and non-slam jump right into me. I would be totally unprepared and it would kill me.

[Anonymous No.1096229]

>>1096218
>One thing you have to consider is that Mario is supposed to be the main reason you buy a Nintendo console
But SMB1 is much harder and if that game isn't supposed to introduce you to gaming, I don't know what is.

You don't get many lives in SMB1, but SMB3 drowns you in lives.

[Anonymous No.1096239]

Another thing I didn't like with SMB3 was the mazes where you have to find the correct door. They were no fun, just frustrating and you end up losing a lot of lives and throw away a lot of time to find the correct passage.

[Anonymous No.1096262]

>>1096229

You've gotta realize, the changes that were happening between 1985 to 1989 in NES gaming alone was mindblowing. It would be like a console going through two generations in terms of starting and ending quality.

Look at the difference between the first SNES game, super mario world, vs one that came out near the end, like DKC or super metroid.

My point is that in 1985, compared to the other games at that time, SMB1 was like crysis good looking, but it also had deus ex levels of gameplay to back it up.

I'm serious. Grab a NES emulator and look at other games from that time. Mario blew them away like it was nothing. Gaming just rapidly evolved during that time. It's hard to wrap your mind around when gaming today is so...stagnant.

[Anonymous No.1096276]

>>1096239

I thought these were fun. I did a replay of SMB3 (NES version) this year, haven't played it in years, and haven't even touched the NES original version since I was a kid, had a blast. I remember having trouble in one of the fortress levels that had a hidden door, I think it was on world 6. When I finally figured it out I was like "Ooooooh!". Come to think of it, they later used that same kind of things for the ghost houses in SMW. I think they give variety to the game design and make you explore the levels rather than go fast and jump on everything. Also these puzzles in SMB3 and SMW were good, they aren't as obvious and require you to not only explore but also think a little bit.

Personally, I think the difficulty on SMB3 is right, world 7 and 8 are challenging enough, and final bosses in Mario games have never been crazy.. in fact, most bosses in Mario games (at least old ones) are fairly easy. Although when I was a kid Bowser kind of intimidated me, so my dad used to take care of him. I only figured how easy it was years later when I replayed it.
And about the difficulty, Arino beat many difficult games like Ninja Gaiden but couldn't beat SMB3, he got stuck on world 8 forever. So, maybe you're just pretty good at Mario OP, but it still has a decent challenge.

[Anonymous No.1096351]

>>1096262
I'm not complaining about SMB1, I love that game. My point is only that it is much harder than SMB3, so SMB3 being a Mario game is no excuse for it being easy, as SMB1 is fairly hard.

[Anonymous No.1096363]

>>1096276
I enjoy those much more in SMW, because the secrets you need to get through are pretty easy and straight forward. The ones you need to find all the Yoshi coins or other secrets are much harder and you can come back to them when you have cleared the level.

In SMB3 you have no save function (unfortunately), so you have to clear the whole game in one sitting. You don't feel like spending a lot of time struggling with one puzzle when (1) you risk losing lives as the time might go out if you can't solve the puzzle and (2) you have a lot of levels to clear and you may not have time to sit and play the game for another 2-3 hours or whatever. In SMW you can save, turn of the SNES, come back and try to figure out the puzzles in your own pace.

World 7 and 8 is where it starts to get hard yes. Some levels I spent a few lives on. But like I said here: >>1096351
SMB1 is harder. I guess I expected the same level of difficulty in SMB3.

[Anonymous No.1096392]

>>1096363

Well SMB1 is harder but also a shorter game. As you said they were meant to be beaten in one sitting. Anyway, SMB1, SMB3 and SMW feature a warp zone.

[Anonymous No.1096401]

I actually thought Bowser was the hardest part of SMB3 period.

[Anonymous No.1096403]

>>1096363
>>1096351

i find smb3 much harder than smb1. smb1 is so freaking easy.

[Anonymous No.1096408]

Mario games always have stupidly easy bosses even when the levels are challenging

[Anonymous No.1096409]

>>1096262
Not only that but the levels were really well designed.
http://www.2-dimensions.com/2013/08/08/anatomy-of-super-mario-xi-learning-the-ropes/
I think these are pretty interesting to read. I can totally understand why some people prefer SMB1 to 3.

[Anonymous No.1096424]

I fucking love Super Mario Bros. 3

[Anonymous No.1096427]

>>1096226
It's rare, but sometimes he won't slam down on you, but just launch toward you. The start of the animation is indistinguishable from the usual attack.

[Anonymous No.1096440]

>>1096191
Warps or no warps?

[Anonymous No.1096467]

There's one thing I hate about the controls, when you're running and your P meter fills up, it makes your jumps sort of awkward and unpredictable. It's the main cause of most of my deaths. I have to make an effort to prevent the P meter from filling up when jumping.

Also, swimming with frog mario is awesome....why not just make that the defaul swim setting? Water levels would actually be FUN instead of the sluggish chores they are with normal mario

[Anonymous No.1096468]

>>1096403
My only problem in SMB1 is the 8-3 with the hammer bros. I still have trouble with that part.

>>1096363
Well you have to think. If you allow your game to save you have to rethink how a game is played. And while you can say Worlds is just 3 but bigger there's a lot more to that. Remember Mario never even had passwords so it was all about playing in one sitting. Playing in one sitting is a much difference experience then playing an hour at a time and having the ability to reset if you are not doing well. Worlds is a slower pace game because now players had the time to not have to play in one sitting. The first time I played it was in All-Stars because I never had an NES and felt it was a bit to easy. Years later when I had the chance to play on the NES and found it much harder. Mostly because I had to focus so much and had to beat it in one sitting.

One thing that's fun if you got the time is try to get 100%. Try to play every stage in ever level. My roommate and I did it a few years back. While annoying at times in the end I loved it. Not really going to play it again soon but felt it was worth it.

[Anonymous No.1096481]

i actually find the bosses the hardest part of mario

the levels are mostly just memorization. memorize what to do, and from there its just a matter of execution. the levels are the same every time so you dont really have to change anything

but the bosses....its more about reacting. you cant just memorize the exact movement you need to do, you need to perceive the bosses movements and act accordingly. thats why its harder for me

the boss of world 3 i always found kind of annoying. those magic rings, and the fact that she bounces after the second hit

also bowser is a nightmare for me. i never was good at that.

[Anonymous No.1096486]

>>1096440

i use warps because the game is long to play all the way through in one sitting. thats definitely a good 2 hours, to play all the levels, if not more.

sometimes i wanna start at world 5 or something

[Anonymous No.1096487]

>>1096239

My least favorite part of SMB3 are the airships at the end of each world. They are sloow but mostly easy so they feel like you're just waiting. I dont like auto scrolling levels.

The ships in world 8 are better because there's a lot more going on and they move faster.

[Anonymous No.1096493]

You found Bowser easy, but what about World 8 as a whole? DIdn't you find the airships, and the levels and the castles, pretty hard?

[Anonymous No.1096527]

>>1096191

SMB3 is still harder than Super Mario World, though.

[Anonymous No.1096691]

what point do you jump into the block, at the end of the level, to get the star? is it the bottom left corner? or the left side of the block, above the corner?

[Anonymous No.1096710]

The game could have been improved IMO by giving fewer extra lives, removing the ability to carry power-ups in your inventory, removing the P-Wing, etc.

[Anonymous No.1096719]

>>1096229

Consider this: The market for home gaming consoles were turning away from an arcade style disciplinary system that was intended to make you pump more quarters into the machine. I mean, you already bought the game, arcade limitations were making less sense as games on the consoles were developing objective based play rather than a rush for high scores.

Least, this is why I think SMB3's difficulty was much easier than SMB1. (Except those fucking tank levels)

[Anonymous No.1096725]

I never liked Mario 3's graphics. I understand it's supposed to resemble a stage production. But most of the colors just feel too out of place, almost as if the visuals were unfinished.

[Anonymous No.1096728]

i frequently see people say that the all-stars version of SMB3 has worse controls/physics. is this true? when i play it on all-stars, it feels exactly the same as the NES version.

mario 1 and 2 feel different, but 3 feels exactly the same....or am i missing something? funny enough, i notice that the map screen controls a bit differently (mario takes a bit longer to move) but as for the actual gameplay, no change

[Anonymous No.1096759]

>>1096728

I'm not certain but I think they may have used Mario 3's engine for All-Stars...or was it Mario World? I could be totally wrong, but I heard that used something like that and it sounded plausible to me. I don't reallly know how remakes work. I'd be interested to see someone more knowledgaable talk about it.

[Anonymous No.1096774]

>>1096728
I'm not sure about Mario 3 but Mario 1 and 2 are definitely shitty in All-Stars. I've played them back to back to compare the physics

[Anonymous No.1096963]

>>1096440
OP here. Did not know there were warps in the game.

[Anonymous No.1097001]

>>1096963
>Did not know there were warps in the game.
A full length motion picture was made with a climax that hinged on there being warps in Super Mario Bros. 3.

It is the commonest of knowledge

[Anonymous No.1097054]

>>1097001
Not him and I didn't even know about the film when I first beat it

[Anonymous No.1097084]

The game excelled in separating the levels by screens. Going down a pipe meant venturing into the unknown. Sometimes it would be a screen that ran parallel to the main route. Sometimes you would come up for air only to hit some blocks that would require you to head back the way you came. Personally I would take the airship levels over the mode-7 abusing stuff in SMW. Style over substance.

[Anonymous No.1097103]

>>1097084

What exactly is mode 7? I looked it up on Wiki and it has an interesting article but Im not quite grasping it. When did SMW use mode 7?

[Anonymous No.1097114]

It feels weird, because I'm 20, so I missed out on the SMB3 phenomenon. Apparently the hype and attention for this game was so immense that it was practically a part of pop culture.

It's strange...Nintendo was still so young. How there was so much excitement just based off the previous 2 Mario games, and the internet wasn't even around.

[Anonymous No.1097226]

>>1097114
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQO2VtV1PNg

[Anonymous No.1097241]

>>1096208
isn't world 7 the one with that castle you can get literally thousands of coins in over and over again?

[Anonymous No.1097242]

>>1097114
There are other forms of media than the internet, so those were probably used to spread the hype. Also, you know that the NES literally singlehandedly reversed the Video Game Crash of 1983, right?

So yeah, Super Mario Bros. (NES's launch title) alone had already generated enough hype to create massive anticipation for 3.

[Anonymous No.1097249]

>>1096691
Run at full speed onto stage right and jump into it.
Easy 5 lives every 3 levels

[Anonymous No.1097254]

>>1097103
The SNES was slow and couldn't scale or rotate without Mode 7 or special on-cartridge chips. So, boss battles.

[Anonymous No.1097258]

>>1097242
>>1097114

it makes me feel old when people talk about the period of time "before the internet" as if they're talking about the fucking stone age

[Anonymous No.1097268]

>>1097001
What movie?

[Anonymous No.1097269]

>>1097114
>Nintendo was still so young
You are now aware that Nintendo is over 200 years old.

[Anonymous No.1097274]

>>1097268
the wizard, come on

[Jordan Parks No.1097295]

>>1096710
thinking about that now that you are a refined gamer yes this could be true. BUT when I was 5 and I was playing Mario 3 i used the fucking P-wing to beat the level with the Sun chasing you because I was a child and not very good. This game is meant for a wide audience so it becomes a matter of don't use the items but the fact that you can get a hammer brothers suit and a frog suit makes the game amazing.

[Anonymous No.1097297]

>>1097269
>founded in 1889
>over 200 years old
Nintendo turned 124 yesterday

[Anonymous No.1097306]

>>1097297
No, it's true. How else could Mario's face get on those ancient pillars in Marble Zone?

[Anonymous No.1097316]

>>1097306
Holy shit how did i never notice that?