Super Nintendo #3: Super Mario World

Well here's another one of those world altering games that I love writing about so much. Actually, I'm starting to get a little sick of writing about groundbreaking games. There's only so much I can say about them. I think I'll play some completely derivative games after this. At least those don't require so many positive adverbs.

But anyway here's Super Mario World, the game that defined the early 90s and ruined my childhood. Now don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful game in almost every regard, but it did help kill off the NES. I couldn't really see the big picture back then. This was before all the used game stores and tribute websites. These days it's hard to think of the NES as being gone. I can go to just about any town in the country and find some store that at least has a couple of dusty old games for it. In 1992 though it almost felt like the SNES was going to eat the old systems leaving nothing behind. At least it had some great new games to play.

Super Mario World took the overworld map system from SMB3 and greatly expanded it. This time, instead of eight distinct worlds you have one long world with plenty of branching paths. There are eight Koopas to fight, but the world isn't split up into eight distinct areas like the other games. It's closer to six with some mini areas between them. Considering how sacred the number eight has become in Mario lore I doubt Nintendo would ever do something like this again. I think it works very well though. It gives the game a more natural feel, and keeps you from knowing what the next level is going to be like.

This game is kind enough to have a save system this time around, but the developers still didn't get it quite right. To save your game you have to go through a special level such as a ghost house. This means you'll have to beat certain levels over and over again just so you can save your game. This is certainly better than starting the game over every time, but it still could've been refined a little.

I guess my biggest complaint with this game has to do with flying. Mario has a system of gliding which allows for continuous flight. This makes it entirely possible to fly through entire levels. Actually it's pretty easy to do. I think it ruins a game somewhat when you can practically skip levels without even having to cheat. If you're good you can skip just about everything. It's a shame too because the levels are brilliantly designed. They're good enough to use an adverb for anyway.

I did enjoy playing through it again, although I did mostly stay on the ground. I was surprised by how quick the game was. I didn't get to all 96 levels before writing this, but I got to over 70 of them. I'd say only took a couple of hours. I can't believe that this game took up so much of my time and energy when I was a kid. I must've been bad at games back then.

It's likely that you've already played Super Mario World before. In that case I'm probably telling you things you already know. Writing about popular games can be tricky because they will be read by more people but there is less to say about them. I imagine there are 100s of articles about this game on the internet alone. Even if you've never played it I bet you know a few things about it. Even with all this saturation though it is still a great experience. It seems to be in a constant state of rediscovery. In fact you should probably go out and play it today. Just make sure you don't fly through all the levels. This isn't cheating, but it sure is cheap.

Nintendo 64 #1: Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64, the first 3D installment of the Mario series, was the game that changed everything. There had been 3D games before this one, but they were mostly on the fringe systems like the Jaguar, 3D0, and at the time Playstation. Sure you could play some 3D polygon games if you felt like spending 500 dollars and ordering all your games out of the back of magazines. Mario 64 was the first one us regular people got to play. When Nintendo got involved we knew that 3D games were for real.

Now before I get into the gameplay too much, I want to spend a little time talking about the early days of N64. I can never remember a console coming out with so much debate and controversy. It was right during the time everyone was switching over to discs. However, before the Playstation finally broke out there had never been a successful CD-Rom based system. Nintendo saw this and decided to go with good ol' cartridges. This caused no end to the gripes in the video game community. I still hear complaints about it to this day. It helps to have a little context though. Nintendo started developing the system in 1993 when cartridges were extremely successful. Even when it was released there were more people out there playing Genesis than Playstation. I'm sure if Nintendo had waited a couple of years than they would've made a cd based system. However, the N64 was still a rousing success even with the small library of games. There were complaints, but everyone I knew was playing it, and that has a lot to do with Mario 64.

After playing through it again I noticed that Mario 64 changed much more than just the perspective. Early Mario installments had been mostly action based. You went from point A to point B while fighting monsters along the way. Mario 64 changed this. Developers now could put in a greater variety of tasks to complete, and the series became much more puzzle based. You now had mysterious stars to find with each one being found in a different way. Half the fun was figuring out the new puzzle. In fact, all the old Mario conventions seem to be put in as afterthoughts. Is there really a reason to go around collecting extra lives? The only difference between a regular death and a game over is where you start on the map. Extra lives only save you a few seconds of your time. Then again, we did want to see what all of that looked like in 3D.

I also think it's interesting how deemphasized the monsters are. I'd say that each level has about a third the enemies that the previous games had. This is probably both because of the new focus on puzzles and the difficulty of getting all the monsters into the new 3D world. It seems like the main purpose for monsters is to help you get 100 coins. This actually makes killing them even more fun than on the older games. The one downside is that in the place of monsters they put in about a thousand of those orbs that shoot fire. Was it really necessary to put those near every ledge and precarious spot? I guess they wanted to make sure we kept moving even without koopa troopas to dodge.

I also noticed this time through how lonely the game is. Other games in the series take place in lively worlds. Even if you can't visit the people you feel like there is a lot going on. In Mario Sunshine you can't go ten feet without splashing a tourist in the face. This game takes place in a lonely castle with only a few Toads who appear out of nowhere to keep you company. I know that Mario goes to other worlds, but this feels more like a temporary trip out. The real world Mario inhabits is lonely and made of stone. This really makes it feel like it is Mario against the world, and I think it is an interesting stylistic choice.

So as usual I had a great time playing this one. It had been a few years since I had really sat down and played it, so it didn't feel that familiar to me. I did go ahead and get all 120 stars as a tribute to my youth. I remember when my brother, my dad, and myself were all competing to see who could get 120 stars first. I can't remember what order we finished in, but it sure was a lot of fun. For the record, the last star I got was 100 coins in Tick Tock Clock. That's a fun level, but it sure is easy to fall down dead.

So 15 years later it's easy to see the flaws in this game. It has all those fat polygons and awkward camera angles. I would actually say that it feels more dated than the older Mario games with maybe the exception of Super Mario Land. However, there is more of a reason to play this game that just nostalgia. In 1996 this game was all about the eye candy. Everybody wanted to get their hands on it just to see those rippling pools and fat goombas. When you play it now, though, you realize how much was put into making this game fun to play. Nintendo could've just put in a bunch of stunning visuals and not worried about the gameplay. I still think the games's biggest accomplishment is that with all the new technical achievements the gameplay still came first.

Game Boy #2: Donkey Kong

I don't know if you remember this, but back in the mid 90s playing old games was not something that people would easily admit. When the SNES and Genesis were in their prime most people would get made fun of for still playing the old 8 bit Nintendo, and the Atari was just a strange old curiosity that everybody's uncle had hidden away in his closet.

Of course the kids of the mid 90s are now the adults of today, and there's no end to the amount of nostalgia they will take in. Because of this, practically every old game franchise has gotten a modern adaptation. Maybe modern day versions of Rygar or Toejam and Earl weren't really necessary, but we've got 'em. Prince of Persia got so popular during its modern day run that it even got made into a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal doing his best Persian guy. Trust me, you don't want to see his worst. There are even some modern day revivals that keep the classic style graphics. The mere thought of this would've made a 1994 kid throw up. It was in this climate that Nintendo released Donkey Kong on Game Boy.

Even over 15 years later I think that this is a very special and important game. I was one of the last kids in the world to give up on the NES. My parents didn't make us sell off our old systems like so many others did, so I had a hard time saying goodbye to the old games. I still thought they were great. At the same time I could see the world changing around me, and I thought that in the near future people wouldn't even know of games like Berzerk, Q Bert, and Donkey Kong. Thankfully Nintendo showed us that not only were the old games still fun, but they could be expanded into whole new concepts that worked great.

So the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong shares the same name, but it is only the same as the arcade classic for the first four levels. After this Mario has to pursue Donkey Kong over 9 large worlds. There are a total of 101 levels in this game which would've been impressive on the more powerful SNES let alone the puny Game Boy. This game is an action/puzzle game where in each level Mario has to find a key and unlock the door. Sometimes this is more about outrunning monsters and sometimes it is more about puzzle solving.It has many elements of the old DK games. Mario has hammers, dodges barrels, and collects Pauline's accessories for bonus points. He also has moves that make it feel more like a Mario game. It is a great mix of styles and genres.

I had this game for years before I actually beat it. The first time was when my brother got in a car accident and we had to drive to the hospital to be with him. I think he was happy that something productive came out of his accident. This time through I had less trouble overall, but I'm happy to report that it was still quite a challenge. I died plenty of times, but I always wanted to try the particular level one more time. It has a high replay value for an action game because there are so many levels that you're likely to forget a bunch of them.

So a few months after this game Nintendo released the highly successful Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. Suddenly Donkey Kong started appearing in all the Mario spin off games as well. Then, other obsolete characters started returning. Today the classics have a place in just about every gamer's heart, and they will likely never disappear. When this game came out, though, just admitting that you knew who Donkey Kong was could get you beat up on the playground. Everyone always wants to grow up as fast as possible and throw away everything from their pasts. DK's creator Shigeru Miyamoto has done many great things in his life, but I think that the greatest may be never letting us forget how much fun we had as kids.

Game Boy #1: Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins

The other day I found myself with no more games to write about. I like to always have about three in my backlog just in case I get in the middle of a lengthy game and have nothing new to write about. Well, I've been playing Dragon Warrior 4 here lately, and it's taking even longer than I anticipated. It's taking me so long that I completely ran out of games. Luckily I've been saving my Game Boy for just this situation. If you ever want to beat a bunch of games quickly, just get out your trusty ol' Game Boy. This is especially true in the early days of the system where games were usually just dumbed down versions of regular console games. It appears that the system was expected to be played by little kids riding home with their parents. As such, they didn't want the games to last more than a half hour. Unfortunately, I don't have that many Game Boy games, so I won't be able to fall back on it for very long. I guess I'll just have to get to work and play through some real games.

The first one I played through was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. I don't have the original Mario Land, but I have played through it. I have to say that the sequel is a vast improvement. It's also one of the strangest Mario games out there. At first I thought that it was some less popular Japanese game that they changed into a Mario game, but as it turns out it is a real Mario game, but it wasn't created by Shigeru Miyamoto. I guess this only makes this a sort of real Mario game, but at least the effort is there.

After the straight ahead gameplay of the first Mario Land, I was very happy to see a world map on this one. The game is split up into six worlds each containing a golden coin. Once you get all six coins the door to the castle opens up and you reach the final level. This game is still about one-third the length of Mario 3, but it is still pretty long for an early Game Boy game. Also, unlike Mario 3 it has a save feature. They finally got that one right. Anyway, the basic gameplay will seem quite familiar, but there are some quirks to this game that make it unusual.

First of all, the items are slightly different. Instead of 1-up mushrooms you get hearts for extra lives. I know that this seems like a small thing, but in the world of gaming it's like turing the tri-force into a square. I'm guessing this is because it was hard to distinguish between mushrooms when there weren't any colors. Also, if Mario gets a carrot in this one he sprouts bunny ears out of his head and can fly. Just like a real bunny. Okay, so I don't know why Mario was always using non-flying animals to fly back in those days. I guess this is more plausible than a raccoon, but only slightly. This is the only game with the bunny ears, and although that's not too much of a loss they were kind of cool. It was more of a hover than a flight, so this led to some interesting situations.

Also, you don't get an extra life when you get 100 coins. This is probably the biggest departure in this game. Instead you save up your coins and play bonus games with them. Well, it's actually just a slot machine that sometimes gives you a bunch of lives. You'll need to save up those extra lives too, because if you get a game over you have to go fight the bosses and get back the 6 coins again. This is the one annoying thing about this game. Luckily, it's not too hard to get a bunch of lives.

The most significant thing about this game is that it's the first appearance of Wario. It's sort of a humble debut for a character that would appear alongside Mario in about a hundred games and become an icon in his own right. Wario is a straight up villain in this game who seems to be getting power from his hat. He has really weird eyes and almost looks like a puppet. Wario was much better after he became more of an anti-hero and star of his own games. I know he knocked koopa troopa out of Mario Kart, but if it had to be anybody I'm glad it was Wario.

I'm surprised about how many words I was able to come up with about this game. It's a fun old game, but nothing to get too worked up about. It's pretty easy overall, but the last level is hard so that makes up for it a little. It seems like anytime I get into a Game Boy mood I will play a couple rounds of this one before moving on to Pokemon. It sold very well when it came out, but it's a somewhat forgotten game today. I love that the world's most famous game character still has some dusty old corners to explore.

Nintendo Wii #1: Super Paper Mario

I hope that I have labeled this one properly. Isn't it the first Wii game that I've written about? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm actually starting to have a large blog, so it's getting to be a little more difficult to keep up with.

So, Super Paper Mario is up. This is a game that I wanted to play for a long time, but I was waiting for its inevitable price drop. I expected that to happen sometime in 2008. Well here it is 2011 already and the game is still priced like brand new if you can find it in a store at all. In fact I looked it up on Amazon today and it's not even in stock anymore. You have to buy it second hand. Luckily I took the easy way out. I let my girlfriend buy it for me for Christmas.

It you've never played any of the Paper Mario games before, they're the ones where Mario is really flat. They are typically RPGs, but this one changes up the formula a little bit. It's actually a hybrid of classic Mario gameplay with RPG elements. The gimmick in this one is that Mario is able to flip the world from side scrolling to 3D whenever you push the A button. This helps you find countless secrets, but it also leads me to my biggest complaint about this game.

I've probably talked about it on here before, but it drives me crazy when a game requires you to keep switching items every five seconds. This makes me think of games like Crystalis and Final Fantasy Adventure where every monster seems to require a different weapon to kill it. This causes otherwise fast paced action games to feel like they're in that old fashioned slow motion mode where your special controller kept automatically hitting pause over and over again. That sure was a pointless controller feature. Maybe I'll talk about that one later.

Super Paper Mario is one of the biggest offenders of menu screen mania that I've ever seen. Remember that 3D feature? Well it only lasts a few seconds at a time. So if you want to find everything you'll be doing that a lot. Also, you've got four characters to chose from. Each one of them has some special skill that makes them a requirement in certain areas. It's not uncommon to switch between them every couple of minutes. So that's a return to a menu screen for each of these plus the changes for when you want to go back over sections of the level with 3D Mario. In addition to this you have all these little things following you around called Pixls. They have their own special skills. One is a bomb, one throws things, and so on. There are close to a dozen of them. Guess how you switch between them? That's right, a menu screen! The menu screen doesn't take very long to get to, but it's still a hassle going back to it over and over. It would've been much better if they would've made the Pixls controller moves instead of selectable characters, or if they would've let you toggle through characters on the game screen, or even let all of your characters turn the world 3D. At least there aren't transformation screens when you switch between characters. This isn't a Final Fantasy X-2 scenario thank goodness.

Besides that one major flaw, however, it's a very good game. It's certainly one of the best early Wii games. The gameplay is certainly very clever, and the reduction in towns to visit make it more acton based than the other games in the series. It also has a storyline with much higher stakes than your usual Mario game. There's no princess to save this time. Mario is trying to stop an entire world from being sucked into oblivion by a crazy count with a romantic past. As you progress the black hole keeps getting bigger and bigger which gives this game a real sense of urgency. I know that the world's not really going to fall into oblivion, but it's done so effectively that it still makes me a little nervous when the ground starts rumbling.

So what surprised me about this game? Well the length was a bit of a surprise. After a quick start I was expecting it to only take about 15 hours, but it ended up almost twice that. I was surprised by the variety of levels. All the advertisements I saw for this game showed a fairly typical SMB1 style level, so I was expecting all the levels to resemble New Super Mario Brothers. Thankfully there was a great amount of variety in both the designs and tasks. There were still puzzles to solve and characters to meat, so this kept the game interesting.

It seems like there are only two categories of Wii games. There are the above average ones which there are probably about 50 and the awful ones which number about 500. Has anyone out there played a Wii game that was just okay? Those games might exist, but I've never seen them. Super Paper Mario is certainly above average. Actually, it's probably one of the better games on the system. If this was a couple years ago it would be a shining beacon among all the crappy Wii games. Luckily the system really came into its own in the last couple years and there are now many very good Wii games to chose from. However, even with all the recent successes this one is still a standout. I just hope you like menu screens.

NES #32 - Super Mario Bros. 2

And now by special request, here's Super Mario Bros. 2! I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted to play through this one yet, but I'm glad I did. This is one of those popular games that will ensure me many page views. I like to spread those out, but I'm doing this one right after Super Mario Bros. 3. The two most popular NES games right in a row. What was I thinking? I bet I get twice as many for this one as I'm going to get when I play through something like Widget or Wurm. At least I've still got Super Nintendo.

And now for the disclaimer. I know that this games was originally Doki Doki Panic and not SMB2. It was converted for the US after the Japanese SMB2 was deemed too difficult and too much like the first game. It was later released as the lost levels on Mario All-Stars and several other carts. I don't want to dwell on this too much though. As a kid playing this game it was nothing but the next Mario game. I think it deserves to be treated that way too. It's certainly earned it.

I love the early days of the NES. The developers really seemed fearless, and everything was new. I mean, they turned Legend of Zelda into a pseudo side-scroller, and they weren't afraid to do the same for their most important character. Japan can keep their sequel, we want a game that is completely different.

Actually the game couldn't be much more different than the first one without completely switching genres. It has none of the same enemies, radically different levels, and completely different play mechanics. It's a little shocking when you think about it. The first game was all about what was above you. All the items were hidden in blocks over you heads. To kill enemies you had to jump on them. In the second game, it's all about what's under you. You don't break up blocks but pull up plants and mushrooms. Jumping on enemies does no good unless there's something hidden above their heads. Probably the most famous difference, however, is the ability to change characters from level to level. Each one has their own pros and cons. I'm a Luigi man, but when I play through this game I use everyone but Mario. This has got to be the only Mario game where you can play through it without even seeing him. You have to admit, that is pretty shocking.

All of these changes could've made the game playing public angry, but all I remember from the time is love. This game had something that the first one didn't have. It had much better advertising. When I was real little Mario was everywhere. He had that great cover picture that got pasted on just about everything. I wish I still had my Mario belt and lunch box, but they've been lost. The first game came out and Mario was the game to play, but by the time the second one came along Mario was already becoming a legend.

I have many memories of this game. It was the first game we ever rented back in that glorious time when you could rent Nintendo games cheap. At our local place the trick was to rent the games on Saturday because the store was closed on Sunday, and you could keep it an extra day. This started a tradition of me and my brother renting a game every week for years. Right up to the Dreamcast era actually. That's a long time when you think about it. This was also a game I got on my 7th birthday. I know this because I've seen the pictures. This would make it 1991, so I must've played it for a while before I ever owned it. I think I already had Mario 3 by then, but there is no picture of me getting that one.

What I'll always remember about this game is its difficulty. If the real SMB2 was too hard for Americans, it must've been by only a couple of spiny eggs. I spent more time playing this game than just about any other, but I never beat it till I was in college. College! I'm not sure what my hang up was as a kid. I remember getting past world 4 with no trouble, but after that my mind gets a little fuzzy. Fry Guy was pretty tough, and those mushroom power-ups get much more difficult to find, but I don't remember a specific level that hung me up.

Anyway, I had a much easier time of it here in 2011. I had plenty of lives and actually got through it quite quickly. I of course skipped all the warp zones, but they're there if you need them. I would say my favorite world in this one is world 4 with the ice and those whales that shoot the streams of water, but the worlds aren't connected in this one like they are in the other games. They are much more random.

I remember in college I used to hear people complain about the ending to this one, but I gotta tell you something. Even going into this game you know how it's going to end. I knew it when I was seven, and I didn't even know how to tie my shoes. If you read the prologue then it shouldn't be a surprise for you. So if you want to complain about this one, find something real to complain about. I actually don't have many negative comments about this one. Go figure.

Well I think I've said my peace about this one. It's a really special game to me that I've had longer than just about any of them. 800 games later and it still has a special place in my heart. I miss the days when Nintendo wasn't afraid to be bold and made sequels that weren't just carbon copies of the previous game. Well there it is. I hope you enjoy it. And please come back when I'm out of cool games to play and have to play through Demon Sword or Code Name: Viper. I would really appreciate it.

NES #31 - Super Mario Bros. 3

Well it's a new year and I finally have a new computer, so I can actually get back to writing about games again. I was going to do a year end recap at the beginning of January, but then I remembered that I started this blog in June. I will wait till then so that I can record a whole year of actual gaming.

I can think of very few ways to start out the new year better than talking about Super Mario Bros. 3. This game is very special to me. In fact, I would say that the two things that define my childhood the most are They Might Be Giants and SMB 3. Yeah I know, I was a cool kid.

I'll never forget the first time I played this game. My cousin had got it right when it first came out. I was five years old at the time and can't remember if I knew it was coming or not. I was pretty little though, and we didn't get Nintendo Power so video game news traveled slowly. I doubt anything could've prepared me for it. I thought that it was the most amazing thing I had ever gotten my hands on. I was instantly hooked by the great graphics and wonderful gameplay. It was like the first SMB, but everything was improved by about a million times. I just figured that playing that game was all I was ever going to do. I found my true purpose in life. For about the next year or so I was right. Then the Super Nintendo came out and that's a whole other story.

I even had my parents put it on lay away for me at Wal-Mart the next time I saw it in a store. We didn't have very much money back then, and this was the first game I ever got that wasn't for a holiday or birthday. I'll never forget when they picked me up from school the day they finally paid it off. The world sure was awesome twenty years ago.

So at the beginning of Christmas break I sat down to play through it yet again. Honestly I would've played through this one a long time ago if it wasn't for the game's lone flaw. This game takes a long time to play through, and since there are no saves or passwords you have to play through it in one sitting. Now I know that there are those flutes that race you right through the game, but every level is so much fun and lovingly designed that it's a shame to skip over them. I'm not saying that warp zones are only for losers or anything like that, but who wants to skip all those cool desert levels, or the ones where you skip between being tiny and regular sized, or all those ice levels with the frozen coins that you shoot with a fire flower? It makes me a little tingly just talking about it.

As much as I love it though, it really starts to wear me out after a couple of hours. I don't remember having that same trouble as a kid. I guess I'm getting old. The worst part is that I always start out flawlessly. I think I made it to world 3 without even dying once. However, just as my eyes are starting to gloss over and my back starts to get sore from sitting in the same spot for too long the game gets very hard. Pipe World drives me absolutely crazy. As if Sky World and Ice World aren't hard enough this one's full of puzzles. By then I've usually got about 50 lives and still don't know my way around very well. There are multiple levels in that world where the time will run out on me. After I've been playing a game for three hours that last thing I want to do is die from lack of time. Luckily I saved all my clouds so I was able to skip a couple of the harder levels.

In fact I remember the last time I attempted to go through this game it was with my friend Dustin in college. He was the same person who used to play SMB every day so we were well in tune with the series at that point. We got to pipe world and got so wore out that we had to quit playing. Sometimes you get to a point where you can't go on anymore. I was playing with a purpose this time though so I was able to press on.

Finally I got past it and raced through world 8. I know that Bowser is really easy in this game, but that's probably just to even things out a little bit. Getting to him is so difficult that nobody could stand a tough boss fight. I would say that I got through the game in about 3 and a half hours. That's not too bad without using warp zones and having not played it in about two years.

So that's my SMB 3 story for today. It wore me out, but I still had fun with it. My goal was to beat one of the Koopalings using my hammer brother suit. I remember doing this as a kid and I thought it was really cool how the king said something different. I was about an inch away from victory, but I misjudged my jump and got hit. So I failed that one, but I still had a great time. I was still amazed by the great level design and seemingly endless secrets. I still love Pipe World after all is said and done. Everything is right with the world.

NES #20: Super Mario Bros.

I decided to close out my summer vacation by playing something really iconic. I had originally planned on playing through SMB 3, but that game takes way too long so I will save it for another day. Of course it doesn't get more iconic than the original Super Mario Bros. It's only grown in stature now that all of us that were kids when it came out are adults now. It's the game the most people play to get nostalgic, and it has been kept alive by countless dumb t-shirts and a few cool ones. It's just hard to top those good illustrations from back in the day, and it really doesn't help things when you add a dumb slogan or a joke. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.

I have a lot of memories about this game. When we got our first Nintendo back in 88 or 89 the multi cart with SMB and Duck Hunt was the only game we had. I don't think we got another game until the next Christmas, so for the first year it was all we had to play at our house. I think it took us about 4 months until my dad was able to get all the way to world 4-1. I remember that being a really exciting day at our house. That was also around the time the Mario tv show started. I used to watch that in the mornings during my kindergarten year. I also had a Mario lunchbox that I'm fairly sure still exists somewhere even though my brother hit it with a hammer. To this day I am not sure why he did that, but I don't think he meant any harm by it. So that first year of video games was pretty much dominated by Mario. Of course we only had one tv back then, so we weren't able to play that much and one game lasted a lot longer. However, when I look at my shelf with 250 Nintendo games and about 500 games for other systems it makes me chuckle a little bit when I think about only having one game.

Another significant memory I have of this game is during my freshman year of college. I used to have a friend that would play this game every single day. This went on for almost a whole semester, and possibly even longer than that. He played just about every inch of that game, and did just about every trick and glitch. I saw him go to the minus world about a dozen times. In all that he never got tired of this game. I guess it's how he would unwind after class. This was 2002 so he had plenty of other games to chose from. I guess I'm not the only one who takes comfort of the games from my youth.

I'm actually really glad that I went back through this game again. We got this game so early in my life that I couldn't remember if I had ever beat it legitimately or not. I know I had seen many of my friends and relatives do it, and I'm sure that I finished it sometime in there, but I don't remember for sure. I couldn't guarantee that I hadn't used a cheat code or warp zone back then. This time I decided to do it for real and end the debate once and for all.

What probably surprised me the most about playing through it again was how easy it was for me. I guess it's like riding a bicycle. I was really expecting this one to be hard as I hadn't played it in years and never found it to be all that easy to begin with. However, I never even died until world 7-4, and I don't think I ever had less than 10 lives. It also surprised that my girlfriend had it memorized even better than I did. It sounds like she spent an even longer amount of time with only one game. So I got to the end and defeated Bowser. Hopefully the next time around he doesn't leave that axe so close to the bridge.

Well there's not too much left for me to say about this one. I still don't understand the cover of this game. Why did they decide to have Mario jumping against a wall? And can you even shoot a fireball through the bricks? Anyway, I'm getting off topic again. It was nice celebrating the end of my summer vacation by playing our most iconic childhood game. I'll have to go back tomorrow and teach to kids who were born after the Nintendo 64 came out. If that wouldn't make a person feel old than I don't know what would.