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Game Debate #100: Super Mario Bros.


Reed Rothchild

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59 members have voted

  1. 1. Rate based on your own personal preferences, NOT historical significance

    • 10/10 - One of your very favorite games of all time.
    • 9/10 - Killer fucking game. Everyone should play it.
    • 8/10 - Great game. You like to recommend it.
    • 7/10 - Very good game, but not quite great.
    • 6/10 - Pretty good. You might enjoy occasionally playing it.
    • 5/10 - It's okay, but maybe not something you'll go out of your way to play.
    • 4/10 - Meh. There's plenty of better alternatives to this.
      0
    • 3/10 - Not a very good game.
      0
    • 2/10 - Pretty crappy.
      0
    • 1/10 - Horrible game in every way.
      0
    • 0/10 - The Desert Bus of painful experiences. You'd rather shove an icepick in your genitals than play this.
      0
    • Never played it, but you're interested.
      0
    • Never played it, never will.
      0
  2. 2. Next week's poll



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On 5/7/2022 at 1:06 AM, Tulpa said:

First of all, they're not called "helper" chips, they're called "enhancement chips." I'm going to correct your misguided terminology with extreme prejudice, even if it kills you. 😛

PS: How did they fit this many of his catchphrase in a mere 13 episodes?

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Graphics Team · Posted

My brain can't separate historical significance from objective quality on Super Mario Bros. It just gives-off a perfect "classic gaming" feel that clouds my judgement too much.

But I will say - I wish the "continue" function was a clear option on the GAME OVER screen instead of being a hidden button combination (A+START).

-CasualCart

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One thing I always loved with SMB, maybe more than any other 2D Mario game, is holding right + B and just timing my jumps to get through the level. Maybe out of impatience? I'm not a speedrunner but I always have fun playing through SMB for that reason. It's a good platformer, but what I've always liked about Mario that I don't get from many other platformers is the high skill ceiling of precisely timing your jumps. It feels really good to run through 8-1, 8-2, and 8-3, and jumping up the staircase before the flagpole without losing your running speed 😛 

I remember reading somewhere that Sonic was inspired by people playing Mario fast? I grew up playing Sonic, but it doesn't scratch the same itch at all. I can play through a Mario level blind and still run and plan my jumps, but with Sonic, at full speed I'm slamming into a wall 3 screens ahead of me unless I've already memorized the level.

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On 5/6/2022 at 12:37 PM, mbd39 said:

10/10. I'm in the minority, but it's my favorite Mario. No gimmicks, no bells and whistles, not too long, not too short. It's just right.

 

I agree. As a kid that grew up in arcades in the early '80s, I thought this was perfect. SMB 2 and 3 seemed tedious in comparison, especially without a save feature.

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On 5/12/2022 at 11:13 AM, Alder said:

One thing I always loved with SMB, maybe more than any other 2D Mario game, is holding right + B and just timing my jumps to get through the level. Maybe out of impatience? I'm not a speedrunner but I always have fun playing through SMB for that reason. It's a good platformer, but what I've always liked about Mario that I don't get from many other platformers is the high skill ceiling of precisely timing your jumps. It feels really good to run through 8-1, 8-2, and 8-3, and jumping up the staircase before the flagpole without losing your running speed 😛 

I remember reading somewhere that Sonic was inspired by people playing Mario fast? I grew up playing Sonic, but it doesn't scratch the same itch at all. I can play through a Mario level blind and still run and plan my jumps, but with Sonic, at full speed I'm slamming into a wall 3 screens ahead of me unless I've already memorized the level.

I could see this being true.  The thing is with Sonic, going fast is a reward for learning levels.  Green Hills gives you a good sample of what fast game play can be like, but if you want to match that pace for most of the game, you have to "get good".  Speed is the goal, not the requirement.  With Mario, speed is optional but it also works to your benefit.  You can pay attention to timing and watch the enemies but it's easier to go fast in Mario and iteratively go faster.  In a way, both games play the same way, but in Sonic it's intentionally built to be something to work for where in SMB it's optional but very satisfying to build the muscle-memory to lightening through levels..  

7 minutes ago, G-type said:

I changed my mind. It's a 10. Doesn't matter if another Super Mario is slightly better (it's not). It's the GOAT.

I keep seeing this thread pop up and the more I think about it, the more I wish I voted it a 10.  I didn't beat this one until a few years ago and, even then, I was using save states.  I'd just never beat this game on my own.  I meant to go back and try to play it a bunch until I could beat it without the save states, and I think I could now, but I never did.  Regardless, this is like the equivalent of "Mom's apple pie back home."  You've probably had better apple pie than your Mother's, but it's what you grew up with, it's comforting, familiar and because of that there's nothing better than that.

Sure, there are better games but this was a perfect game for it's time, it's aged reasonably well and much like a bicycle, is super-easy to pick up and play even if you've not played it in 25 years.

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Editorials Team · Posted
56 minutes ago, RH said:

Also, @Reed Rothchild, with the recent leaked release of Duke Nukem 2001, now might be a good time to debate Duke Nukem 3D.

Shoulda voted for it!

I'll do another FPS in a month or two.  Or maybe I'll do it anyway.  I've barely had a free moment at the office today, or time to give it thought.

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You want a surreal duke experience, fire up the Genesis game.  That thing may only be episode2 from PC but it's no joke, even on easy, it's not that easy, yet it plays far better and displays much further distance than that mess zero tolerance ended up being.

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8/10

I remember this game being like a dream, back in the day. I'm not really good at Mario games, and nowadays it seems repetitive. But the game compensates that with several qualities, like originality, fun gameplay, style...

Edited by DreamCuPS
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Ok so I gave this game a 10/10. I think it might be tied with Mario 3 for me . Even tho Mario 3 is objective a more impressive and comprehensive game, SMB just hits different. It's a game that I can pick up and play through until I get a game over and never feel like I wasted my time. If I'm looking at a stack, nay, a wall of games, I know I can grab SMB, play til I die and it just sparks a flame in me to game. 

SMB just hits different. It's the first game a remember playing and possibly the first game k ever even beat although that was on SMB All-stars but same thing. 

For me it's just that #1 game. 

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  • 4 months later...

Ok, here we go . . . 6/10

I played this game when it was brand new.  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.

 

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Uuuuuuhhhh first time I played SMB/dh I was 7-8 years old and it blew my metaphorical mind to smitherines. Then it melted and dripped out of my ear. My aunt was pissed I had ruined her hand woven tapestry.

it’s not my favorite game but I still think it is a 10

Edited by docile tapeworm
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I gave it an 8 as it is deserving of  greatness due to being a timeless sort of fun.  Aged, a little perhaps, but dated; never, if that makes sense.  There's no shortage of games that improved upon the concept of platforming [(CastleVania, Ninja Gaiden, Milon's secret Castle) to name a few personal favs], by creatively adding additional action, exploration, varying the function and feel of the controls etc to the formula and are, in my humble opinion, deserving of either of the two higher ratings here, but the thing that Makes Mario 1 great is simplicity done perfectly.  Unlike the games mentioned above and so many others, it's what you might call "pure platforming" or very nearly so -the ability to power up and shoot fireballs being the exception, but also something that blends seamlessly with the sort of speedy platforming as described by @Alder above.

The first time I ever played Mario 1 was at a friends.  My friend opened up his game case and asked what I wanted to play.

Me: Can We Play Mario !!!!

Him: No.  ........... well, ok.

I then received about 30 seconds of pure bliss before tumbling down the first pit of doom in level 1-1.  My friend then said: "Ok, that's enough", before promptly popping the cartridge back out and presenting me with the open game case again.  I picked Dino Riki and he told me that he'd never been past the first level.

Take a moment to imagine Dino Riki having been the pack in game with your NES.  A lot of us wouldn't be here having this discussion if that had been the case..

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On 5/7/2022 at 12:57 AM, OptOut said:
On 5/6/2022 at 7:21 PM, Tanooki said:

It's fairly average, kind of blocky, feels kind of overrated and just there has been so many better things on the system, even older sys....GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  Sorry OptOut tried to pull another 4/10 on this one too. 😄

Geez, you rate LTTP 4 out of ten like ONE time, and you never hear the fuggin end of it! 🙄

I'm probably the last person on the site who wasn't aware that you'd done this, so it can be officially over now if everyone wants... 😉 

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On 5/6/2022 at 7:21 PM, Tanooki said:

It's fairly average, kind of blocky, feels kind of overrated and just there has been so many better things on the system, even older sys....GET OUT OF MY HEAD!  Sorry OptOut tried to pull another 4/10 on this one too. 😄

 

Seriously though, I gave it a 9/10, it's not perfection but it's in its simplicity compared to the sequels it still just does so much right, and largely hasn't become creaky and annoying other than some slight memorization bits (like 8-4 has) to finish the stage which sucks if you're not good at that...a product of the time, like annoying games with many random identical doors to somewhere hopefully the exit.  Wasn't fun then, even less fun now...or I'd have probably given it a 10.

Great use of control, mechanics of the entire design element of attack, evasion, stage design.  The music and sfx are memorable and that's underselling it given.  It has so much hidden content for the period, 1UPs if you do this or that, the fireworks, the bean stalks, the warp zones, the jacked up minus world even.  It's hard, not evil, but it's a challenge if you go in blind to it as a fresh player, yet it does subtly hand hold new concepts by the world so by the time you hit world5, you have the tools you need.  A true stunner when you consider THIS was peak NES, peak bare system NES...it didn't get better than this until they started goofing with NROM, MMC this or that, and so on.  A game that pushed the limits right out of the gate, no peers, then even now among the blackbox array of games.  Despite all the advances, this still beats quite a great many of more colorful, more detailed, more widely designed things and that says a lot to earn its high place marks.

Thank you, This is exactly how I feel about SMB1, but you articulated it a lot better.

 

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