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Review: Super Mario Brothers
2 (Virtual Console)

So, as I’m sure most everyone who actually cares knows by now, I bought a Wii last week. In the process of setting it up (connecting to the internet, trying to stabilize the annoying jitter on the remote), I decided to also “test out” the WiiWare/Virtual Console service. Although, like I’ve already said, I’m probably not going to be investing heavily in the Virtual Console, one small subset of games might be a target for future purchases: Famicom games that were never released in the States. The reasoning behind this? While I can play Japanese Super Famicom/Nintendo 64 games on my North American hardware (with slight modifications), the Famicom form factor is totally incompatible with the NES. And, as of right now, I don’t have a Famicom › NES adapter. So basically, unless I want to spend money to buy the physical versions of these games (which is totally a possibility in the future), it’s way easier to just download the Virtual Console version.

The first game I bought was the Japanese version of Super Mario Brothers 2. It’s subtitled “The Lost Levels” here in the States, to prevent confusion with our Super Mario Brothers 2, which in Japan is called “Super Mario USA.” It was released as part of the Super Mario All-Stars compilation, with reworked graphics, but never in it’s original form.

After playing for a while, a couple thoughts struck me regarding this sequel.

First of all, it’s pretty rare these days for a console to see multiple games in a series on it. Although the NES had three Mario games, the SNES only had two, and N64/Gamecube both had one each. My interpolation of this is that gamers expect way more technological progress between games in a franchise. Plus, even with those multiple sequels on the NES, there were some major gameplay differences between each of the entries. Super Mario Bros. and SMB2 were both side-scrollers, and the main characters were from the Mario universe, but those were about the only similarities. A similar example of drastic change between games in a series would be The Legend of Zelda and Zelda 2. Zelda 2 kept similar characters, but the game had very few of the same elements that made the first so popular.

What makes the Japanese SMB2 so different in this regard is that, at first glance, not much seems to have changed. The graphics are in the exact same style as the first game, which (I may hazard to guess) almost never happens (I can think of a few examples, but not many). These days, it would probably be referred to as an “expansion pack;” new levels and Luigi as a different, playable character are about the only differences one can see. That’s only taking the game at face value, however.

When the player delves a bit deeper, they find that it may share the look of the first Mario Bros., but as a game, is much more punishing. Jumps get rapidly more difficult, progressing to the point where the player cannot actually see where he is jumping to. Small differences get noticed, such as Poison Mushrooms which damage Mario, or red Piranha Plants that bite even if Mario is standing next to the pipe.

Some of the new design elements introduced in SMB2 seem deliberately placed there as a “screw you” to the player. For example, it’s possible to find Warp Zones, but be careful: some zones actually lead backwards, to previous levels. Sometimes the player will make Mario (or Luigi) run along a platform for a long jump, only to hit an invisible block at the optimum jumping point, causing Mario to fall to his untimely death. Of course, this sort of “cheap” kill will only fool you once or twice, but you have to either remember that particular spot, or else proceed much more cautiously when playing the game. In the first game, some castles required following a certain path to proceed (i.e. always go down the pipe after you cross lava in World 8-4). SMB2 takes this idea to fiendish levels, making the player follow a much more (completely arbitrary!) pattern in some of the castles. Without a strategy guide, the only recourse is to keep playing until the solution is found… something that a child might have patience for, but I sure don’t.

Other elements have been added to the game as well, such as the strong winds that Mario must allow to blow him through some levels, and the super-bouncy trampolines, that rocket him above the visible playing area for a few seconds, allowing him to cross otherwise-impossible gaps.

In other words, the game’s designers took the existing, already successful SMB engine and added just a few new features. The true value of the game is in it’s difficulty, and the way it plays off assumptions players have about the way they expect the game to work. Most sequels simply have improved graphics, lots of new gimmicks, and larger game worlds. They are usually not more challenging. What makes SMB2 different is that it was truly a game for fans — those players who wanted more, and who had already mastered the first game. I really find these sorts of sequels to be satisfying. Since both the first game and the sequel are released on the same console, superficial improvements (like graphics) can’t be relied upon — the way the game plays is where the fun is. A similar example of this might be Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, both for the Nintendo 64. Majora’s Mask used the same engine as Ocarina, but was much more challenging (and satisfying, I think).

If more sequels of this sort could be made, the world would be a better place.

No comments · Written by Nathan at 8:30 pm ·

Warcraft III Nostalgia

While browsing through backup directories, I came across some old Warcraft III replay files. This triggered a fit of nostalgia, since I probably spent at least as much time watching replays as I did actually playing that game. You know all those people who go ape for watching professional sports on TV? Well, game replays are basically the same thing: vicarious experience. However, unlike many sports watchers, gamers directly benefit from watching replays, since they can learn valuable strategies. Saving a replay of a game you lost can provide insight into what exactly went wrong. In addition, it’s always fun to watch replays of elite gamers taking your favorite game to a level that you may never reach, but can enjoy and appreciate.

So I spent about an hour watching some replays of myself that I had saved early in my Warcraft III career. Apparently I didn’t play much past patch 1.05, which was actually really early in the lifespan of the game. Even so, I could see how strategy evolved so quickly in the War3 community… watching my replays was somewhat tortuous. Although I discovered the importance of Heros early on, the idea of “creeping” was practically unknown to me. Through each replay, I could see bad Hero choices, bad skill choices, and bad micromanagement. Somehow, though, I was able to win a lot of these games (or at least most of the games I had saved).

Warcraft III was really a very worthy addition to the Warcraft franchise; watching these videos almost makes me want to bust it out on Battle.net. Almost.

No comments · Written by Nathan at 6:29 pm ·

Review: God of War (PS2)

Unfortunately, unless one is totally dedicated to games, one is likely to miss out on a release or two. The fact of the matter is that there are just too many games; I usually have to stick to development studios that I’m familiar with (a bad habit, I know), or else try something only when acclaimed by others I respect. One such game that I missed was God of War. Yeah, yeah, it was like, “Best of E3″ a few years ago, or something, but for whatever reason (probably because I was in Japan at the time) I didn’t play it when it was released.

Well, a sequel came out, and my friend Adam was raving about it over IM, so I put the original into my rental service queue. A couple months later, I work through the other games on my list, and God of War is sent my way. The gist of this game is that it’s ACTION/ADVENTURE. Yes, not action/adventure, but ACTION/ADVENTURE. Taking place from a 3rd-person perspective, the player controls a Spartan warrior named Kratos through all manner of ridiculous situations. See, Kratos is a true amoral hard-ass, and killed a lot of people for the glory of Sparta… all at the cost of his sanity. Now plagued by nightmares of atrocities committed in his past, Kratos does the dirty work of the gods. As I’m sure you’re able to tell, this game borrows liberally from Greek mythology, although mostly in character (as opposed to setting). Regardless, the gist of the game is that Ares (the “God of War”) is laying waste to Athens, and other gods are forbidden to fight against him. It’s therefore up to Kratos, as a human, to put a stop to Ares’ rampage by finding an artifact called Pandora’s Box.

Now, if you were an aspiring developer, given a team of geeks and told to make a game, what would you do? Try creating something quirky and original? Well, I can tell you what David Jaffe, lead designer of God of War did: he stuffed a somewhat mediocre game full to the gills with over-the-top action, larger-than-life situations, and huge tits. Kratos attacks various baddies with his Blades of Chaos; fiery daggers attached to lengthy chains which slice and dice in a quite impressive display. As enemies are killed, Kratos absorbs blobs of red energy (wait, this is starting to sound familiar) which allows him to power up acquired weapons and spells. As enemies are whacked to oblivion, a counter pops up on your screen, recording how many times the player has consecutively hit an enemy (I’m sure I’ve seen this before somewhere).

Sometimes, an enemy is too big and/or bad to simply dispatch with your blades… you must grapple the beast, then execute a series of timed button presses or analog stick movements to finish it off. This includes bosses, which are obscenely large. Unfortunately, the boss fights, while cool, never attain the level of excitement or intensity that a game like, say, Shadow of the Colossus, possesses (that was perhaps a bit unfair, but we do compare with what comes before).

To the casual observer, God of War looks impressive. Once the player picks up the controller and delves deeper, however, the game proves somewhat monotonous. A similarity with Grand Theft Auto III seems to exist, both in audience and style of play. If the player is the type to enjoy simply having their on-screen avatar run around, killing stuff in a virtual world, then God of War seems like a good game to play; similar to how some of my friends enjoyed endlessly stealing cars and blowing them up in GTA3. The sad fact is that nothing really seems to change in the course of the game, and it just gets boring fighting the endless streams of enemies in exactly the same way.

Another thing that irked me about God of War is the way that it takes from Greek mythology. As you may know, people can spend their entire careers studying this sort of stuff; i.e. the history is vast, and each figure in that mythology has a fairly well-established personality. God of War doesn’t seem to transfer any of that; there’s no sense of “canonicity.” The designers seemed to think that it would be cool to have Greek gods as charactes in their game, but didn’t seem to care enough to make them act like the mythology says they are supposed to. Certain parts of the mythology are totally out of place as well, such as Sirens in a desert (wouldn’t it make more sense for them to be in the initial shipwreck stage?), or Cronus (Zeus’s Titan father) being chained up and wearing Pandora’s Temple like a turtle shell. I don’t have a problem with storytellers borrowing from existing legend, but it helps when they actually respect the source material.

I wasn’t able to finish God of War, due to the fact that the disc I rented had problems in the Playstation I was using. The game was ok, but just not compelling enough for me to jump through any sort of hoop in order to continue playing. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the blatant pandering to the teenage male audience… maybe this was just another sign that this game wasn’t for me. As a side note, I do appreciate the fact that the lead designer, David Jaffe, was able to get off the team that is making the third installment of this series. I can understand the sequel, and I’m sure that there were some unfinished ideas that he wanted to realize, but three games in such quick succession is whoring it a bit, and I respect him for leaving after the second game. Anyway, to sum up, God of War is a well-produced, impressive-looking (if somewhat uninspired) action adventure game. Worth a rental if you liked killing pedestrians in GTA3.

No comments · Written by Nathan at 5:30 pm ·