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576

Podcast Discussion / Re: Super Mario World - RFN RetroActive Discussion Thread

« on: August 10, 2009, 09:08:24 AM »

Speaking of Dinosaur Land, someone has to mention how cool it was to see the stages and enemies of SMW integrated so well in Super Mario Kart. The moles, the ghost houses... it added so much to both games, IMO.

As for SMB3 being a twitch platformer, not completely. We're talking relatively, here. Compared to SMW, it is. Compared to SMB, it's not. But Mario platformers have always featured a good dose of secrets and exploration from the start.

lol Yoshi's Island wasn't linear? I don't know what game you were playing.

I admit my memory's a bit fuzzy, it's been a while. Perhaps because I always aimed for 100% completion in every level, it didn't feel linear to me. It sure as hell was a twitch platformer, though. Or was it? I need to replay it.

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Podcast Discussion / Re: Super Mario World - RFN RetroActive Discussion Thread

« on: August 09, 2009, 08:07:39 PM »

Before I replayed this game for RetroActive, I tried to remember the things about it that blew my 10 year old mind when I first played it: the various mode 7 effects like the pixelation of the screen when entering a level or a door, YOSHI!, the keyhole door engulfing Mario, the gigantic map... This game was really impressive, back in the day.

Slightly less so today. But I still appreciate how it evolved the series. As someone else mentioned, secret doors opening new levels are a much, much better reward for exploration than coins and lives. And the cape is a better power-up than a raccoon tail since it requires skill instead of just a runway.

SMW had a number of improvements that often contributed to making it an easier game, for instance the ability to save, or to replay a level, making racking up lives even easier in a game that perhaps gave you too many to begin with.

Other changes made it a much friendlier game than its predecessors. The bricks were gone, instead you had blocks that spun before becoming solid again, so you couldn't screw yourself out of reaching a high power-up. And Yoshi acted as a shield of sort, giving you essentially one more health point in addition to the power-up you could hold in a box.

All of this makes the game way more friendly to exploration. I have to agree with GoldenPhoenix, this title is way more adventure-y than its predecessors. Yoshi's Island and Super Mario 64 evolved further in that direction, before Galaxy brought back some degree of linearity and twitchiness.