(Part 2 of 5)
So, as one could expect, the original Super Mario Bros. was a smash hit, not only bringing the video game industry back into a good state after a good period of uncertainty, but also selling a whopping 58 MILLION copies all the way up to this day, which is pretty damn impressive for what it is. With all that in mind, you know this instant success would lead Nintendo to immediately develop a follow-up for the game to capitalize on its success. Not only one follow-up, but… two of them? Yeah, we all know this at this point, but for those who somehow don’t, we would end up getting a doppelganger game, a fake Mario 2 you could say, which was still a good game, but not the true follow-up to the original. The original true sequel would stay in Japan for 7 years, and if you ask me, it is where the game should’ve stayed after all this time. For anyone who has played Super Mario Bros. 2, or The Lost Levels as it is more well known as, you know exactly why.
For those who may be unfamiliar with this game, you may not assume that much about it upon looking at it at first. It just seems like another batch of Super Mario Bros. levels, with a few changes here and there, and that’s it. So, what is the problem? Well, we will get to that in a second, but for everyone who has played this game, many of them would say that this game is one of, if not THE WORST Mario game ever made, even after all of this time, and I can’t help but partially agree with the wide majority on this. While I don’t think the game is complete garbage, as a sequel to the original game, it is pretty fucking terrible, not only being incredibly lazy, but also taking all of the elements that made the original game fun to play, and completely ruining them.
For the most part, the game is a complete copy of the original game, having the exact same graphics, the same music, the same story, the same control, the same gameplay, the same EVERYTHING. That’s not to say that nothing was added to the game though, as there are a few new elements…… key word being few. There is drop shadows on a lot of the text on screen, there is more detail given to a lot of the background elements and items, and there is one new item………. which hurts you whenever you touch it, so, you know, fuck all of the developers. At its core, it is mostly the same game as the original Super Mario Bros., so if you liked the gameplay of the original, you probably aren’t going to mind the gameplay in this game. But, there is one central element of this game that completely ruins the entire package: the level design.
The game was originally designed to be much harder than the original Super Mario Bros., to the point where the game is sometimes given the subtitle “For Super Players”, and you know what, I would say they succeeded in making the game harder. In fact, I would say they did TOO good of a job at this. As a whole, the level design of this game is not only made much harder then the original, but also made much more asinine, with there being plenty of bullshit moments where it feels like you need to have the skills of a god in order to get through them unscathed. Yes, it is all still possible to beat without getting hurt, but none of that is gonna be achieved without lots of practise, and piles of dead Marios that would reach to the height of the Empire State Building. Now, that’s not to say that extreme difficulty in video games is bad, as many games have been made that live or die on its tough challenge, especially nowadays, but the difference between this game and all of those games, is that those games have something called GOOD GAME DESIGN.
In addition to this bad level design, there are also plenty of dickish elements that were placed in the game that I can only assume was meant to make the player ask “Why”. Not only is there the item I mentioned earlier that is meant to kill you, but the warp pipes also make a return in this game. However, instead of sending you forward to a different world, it sends you BACK to previous worlds of the game, which makes me ask who would EVER use these pipes, and why? In addition to this, there is also a bunch of bonus levels that you can play for this game, which is pretty cool if there is somebody out there that wants to torture themselves any further for some reason. But, in order to unlock these bonus levels, you have to beat the game EIGHT TIMES, which also makes me ask, who the hell is gonna play through this game eight times, let alone TWO times? Except for, again, those who wanna torture themselves.
So yeah, as a whole, this game is pretty bad as a sequel, but you may be wondering, “Is there anything that this game does right compared to the original?” Well, yes, there is. As I mentioned before, despite there only being minor changes to them, the sprites and graphics are better as a whole, and in terms of my one problem with the original, they actually fixed it! In this game, whenever you do get a game over, instead of being sent back to the beginning of the game, you get sent back to the beginning of the world that you are on. It isn’t much of an improvement over the original game, as you do have to go through a bunch of poorly designed levels again, but at least it is some mercy that the original game didn’t give you. But aside from that, there are almost no other positives I can give this game, as it is still pretty bad.
Overall, despite an improved life system and some graphical updates, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is one of the best examples of how NOT to make a sequel to your video game, as it completely takes everything that made the original game so good and shoots it straight in the back of the head until it can’t bleed anymore. I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone, unless you just think Mario is too easy, and you want some more challenge from this series, because this game will certainly give you that and then some. And you wonder why they originally kept this game exclusive to Japan for a good while……… it’s a stupid reason, but hey, it is a valid one.
Remake #4
So, as one could expect, the original Super Mario Bros. was a smash hit, not only bringing the video game industry back into a good state after a good period of uncertainty, but also selling a whopping 58 MILLION copies all the way up to this day, which is pretty damn impressive for what it is. With all that in mind, you know this instant success would lead Nintendo to immediately develop a follow-up for the game to capitalize on its success. Not only one follow-up, but… two of them? Yeah, we all know this at this point, but for those who somehow don’t, we would end up getting a doppelganger game, a fake Mario 2 you could say, which was still a good game, but not the true follow-up to the original. The original true sequel would stay in Japan for 7 years, and if you ask me, it is where the game should’ve stayed after all this time. For anyone who has played Super Mario Bros. 2, or The Lost Levels as it is more well known as, you know exactly why.
For those who may be unfamiliar with this game, you may not assume that much about it upon looking at it at first. It just seems like another batch of Super Mario Bros. levels, with a few changes here and there, and that’s it. So, what is the problem? Well, we will get to that in a second, but for everyone who has played this game, many of them would say that this game is one of, if not THE WORST Mario game ever made, even after all of this time, and I can’t help but partially agree with the wide majority on this. While I don’t think the game is complete garbage, as a sequel to the original game, it is pretty fucking terrible, not only being incredibly lazy, but also taking all of the elements that made the original game fun to play, and completely ruining them.
For the most part, the game is a complete copy of the original game, having the exact same graphics, the same music, the same story, the same control, the same gameplay, the same EVERYTHING. That’s not to say that nothing was added to the game though, as there are a few new elements…… key word being few. There is drop shadows on a lot of the text on screen, there is more detail given to a lot of the background elements and items, and there is one new item………. which hurts you whenever you touch it, so, you know, fuck all of the developers. At its core, it is mostly the same game as the original Super Mario Bros., so if you liked the gameplay of the original, you probably aren’t going to mind the gameplay in this game. But, there is one central element of this game that completely ruins the entire package: the level design.
The game was originally designed to be much harder than the original Super Mario Bros., to the point where the game is sometimes given the subtitle “For Super Players”, and you know what, I would say they succeeded in making the game harder. In fact, I would say they did TOO good of a job at this. As a whole, the level design of this game is not only made much harder then the original, but also made much more asinine, with there being plenty of bullshit moments where it feels like you need to have the skills of a god in order to get through them unscathed. Yes, it is all still possible to beat without getting hurt, but none of that is gonna be achieved without lots of practise, and piles of dead Marios that would reach to the height of the Empire State Building. Now, that’s not to say that extreme difficulty in video games is bad, as many games have been made that live or die on its tough challenge, especially nowadays, but the difference between this game and all of those games, is that those games have something called GOOD GAME DESIGN.
In addition to this bad level design, there are also plenty of dickish elements that were placed in the game that I can only assume was meant to make the player ask “Why”. Not only is there the item I mentioned earlier that is meant to kill you, but the warp pipes also make a return in this game. However, instead of sending you forward to a different world, it sends you BACK to previous worlds of the game, which makes me ask who would EVER use these pipes, and why? In addition to this, there is also a bunch of bonus levels that you can play for this game, which is pretty cool if there is somebody out there that wants to torture themselves any further for some reason. But, in order to unlock these bonus levels, you have to beat the game EIGHT TIMES, which also makes me ask, who the hell is gonna play through this game eight times, let alone TWO times? Except for, again, those who wanna torture themselves.
So yeah, as a whole, this game is pretty bad as a sequel, but you may be wondering, “Is there anything that this game does right compared to the original?” Well, yes, there is. As I mentioned before, despite there only being minor changes to them, the sprites and graphics are better as a whole, and in terms of my one problem with the original, they actually fixed it! In this game, whenever you do get a game over, instead of being sent back to the beginning of the game, you get sent back to the beginning of the world that you are on. It isn’t much of an improvement over the original game, as you do have to go through a bunch of poorly designed levels again, but at least it is some mercy that the original game didn’t give you. But aside from that, there are almost no other positives I can give this game, as it is still pretty bad.
Overall, despite an improved life system and some graphical updates, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is one of the best examples of how NOT to make a sequel to your video game, as it completely takes everything that made the original game so good and shoots it straight in the back of the head until it can’t bleed anymore. I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone, unless you just think Mario is too easy, and you want some more challenge from this series, because this game will certainly give you that and then some. And you wonder why they originally kept this game exclusive to Japan for a good while……… it’s a stupid reason, but hey, it is a valid one.
Remake #4
KKGlider
6 months ago