Monday, October 31, 2011

Great or Greatest?

So if you're an 80's kid like me, it was an exciting time to get into video games, I remember vividly my first foray into console video games.  Most people probably won't be surprised to hear that my first console game ever was Super Mario Bros.  This game probably single-handedly plunged me into a well of interactive video gaming delight that I have yet to emerge from.  I was 5 years old, I was at a babysitter's (or maybe just at a friend's house around the corner) and there were a bunch of people there, kids my age, some older kids, and even a few adults all sitting around the tv.  What could captivate such a vast diverse audience?  The answer was Super Mario Bros on the NES.  Everybody sat around in this big circle taking turns playing this game for hours, and from that day forward I knew this was it, this was the coolest thing ever and I wanted to be a part of it.


 There are very few people around my age who wouldn't recognize this.

Unfortunately, my attempts at convincing my parents that this was a device our household could not live without was thwarted by ceaseless logic and in retrospect, good parenting.  This didn't stop me from making friends with as many people in the neighborhood that owned a Nintendo that would invite me over.  I got a chance to play a pretty good variety of games, but not all games were that great and a lot of people I know found themselves going back to SMB time and time again.  It was an incredible game and at the time I don't think anybody realized HOW good it really was, maybe because most people were forced to play it so much that they took it for granted as the "go to" game when others lost their flair or were too difficult to continue any further.  Let's face it, even those lucky turds who had a game genie or a Nintendo Power subscription still couldn't beat some of the tougher games out there.  Also there are secrets in SMB (some of them bugs), that I still find to this day that I never knew about (level -1 anyone?).

Some of these glitches I JUST found out about.

So the inevitable "sequel" Super Mario 2 was a welcome addition to the flowering franchise, even though it was a repackaged version of a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic (which resembled a cartoony Prince of Persia or sorts).  They basically replaced a few sprites, added some familiar SMB controls (holding B to run for instance) and swapped in a crab boss in place of a second fight against Mouser (mouse guy who threw bombs).  At this point the franchise really seemed to kick off especially with the successful cartoon/live action show, Super Mario Brothers Super Show.  I loved the hell out of this show and you better believe that I own the dvds now.  I don't know if anybody remembers "The Family Channel" which was on basic channels for some odd reason, but I watched it on there on like Sunday morning or some weird day that you wouldn't expect to watch cartoons (probably smart considering nobody would have even heard of the show if they put it on Saturday morning against the big boys of cartoons back then).  So I still don't have a Nintendo and it's the early 90's and what does Nintendo dangle in front of my already tortured soul?


Wait a minute...


So Terrible, Yet Sooo Good. Pardon the terrible sound quality.

Super Mario Bros 3!  Introduced for the first time during the movie The Wizard, which my mom let me rent one time and I loved it and never saw it again until I was in high school where I realized it was terrible and wondered how brain dead and retarded I had to be when I was a kid to actually enjoy it.  I know the reason, a combination of hype and a little movie magic, which would later be crushed years later by a more sophisticated taste for entertainment.  Anyway, Mario 3, probably the best game of all time, you could play it for an entire afternoon, or skip ahead and save yourself some time if you felt like it.  Immense re-playability,  lots of solid challenging gameplay, good controls, fantastic landscapes, new enemies, new bosses, a simple yet engaging storyline, it was a complete package, and I don't think anybody could pick that game up, play it for a while and tell me without lying their ass off that it was anything other than spectacular.  I honestly could not comprehend how they could improve on the monster they created, and honestly I don't think they really have, even after the franchise went 3D they still came back to the Mario 3 for inspiration (world maps, walk around stage selection, varying level environments).  I will give Nintendo credit, when they were looking for a good launching point for the Super Nintendo, I think they picked the right franchise for the job.

This had everything a 5-10 year old boy could ever want in a movie at that time.



 Delish, like a fine wine.

Super Mario World.  I always felt that although this game is clearly and upgrade from it's NES predecessor, there were aspects that felt like side grades.  Improved flying mechanics were fun, but getting rid of some of the cooler stuff like the Frog/Bear/Hammer Bro suit made me kinda sad.  Also repackaging the koopa kids and shuffling them around wasn't quite as fun either, they were also much less difficult.  The game looks amazing, and I still played it TO DEATH, it didn't lose any re-playability, and they added tons of fun secrets and surprises for the hardcore completionist, but to me it was a fresh coat of paint, some polished controls, a new story, with some neat ideas.  It is more than a lot of sequels have been known to deliver, but I guess my love for SMB3 was that deep that I could still look down on an amazing game like SMW with some contempt.

 Bigger, better, everything you could ever want.

I didn't think the SNES was as good to Mario as the NES was, and Super Mario World 2 I think was a stinker.  Weird controls, baby mario was the most annoying thing ever (the crying will drive you mad), and I just never got into it, I played it at Toy's R Us for like 5 minutes and went "yeah, I'm going to pass on this one".  However, before I get too far ahead of myself, Super Mario RPG was a gem, probably one of the best games on the SNES and it was a treat late in the life of the SNES to get such a quality game so soon before the release of the N64.  I'm not going to go into detail about it because if you haven't played it, you're missing out, and if you have, I don't need to tell you why it's amazing.




 This game will amuse and delight even the most skeptical.

So I guess it doesn't come to much surprise that about the time I started to lose interest in this franchise was when Nintendo started to struggle.  As far as 3D games go, Mario 64 is probably one of the most successful early entries into the format.  However, for me, it lacked a lot of what made the previous Mario games special for me and Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube held zero interest for me whatsoever.  I played some Mario Galaxy, and I really enjoyed what I have played so far, but I haven't even gotten halfway through it, and I'm not sure I'll pick it up again.  With the emergence of the New Super Mario Bros games I have managed to rekindle the glory days of mario and have enjoyed them quite a bit, especially NSMB Wii, which captures everything I've loved about the old games, and adds in co-op play which is chaotic, frenzied, and SO MUCH FUN!  Also the Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga games (GBA and DS) have been very entertaining for me as well, a nice blend of hilarious comedy, RPG elements, platforming and puzzle solving that give it a rare quality that other games lack, just a fun experience.

 This guy quickly became my new favorite character ever.


 An uncontrollable grin came over my face when I first heard about this game.

I know I'm missing stuff, but I'm writing about the games I remember growing up and enjoy and the ones that stick out in my mind and in my experience.  This was about why this is personally one of the best franchises in gaming for me.  Mario games truly defined quality gaming for me.  I'll always give a Mario game a fair chance because I know I won't be disappointed.