Ooo, I quite like the orchestrated version of the New Super Mario Bros. music.


It is a big misstep that Super Mario Maker isn't better integrated with even Nintendo's own social network. Nintendo not figuring out the internet well enough is an old hat, but it hurts more with this latest release.


Aside from my severe freezing issues, Super Mario Maker has been a pleasant time for me. I haven't tried any super hard stages, just the easier ones. It's really nice to play HD versions of these old sprites in user-created levels.

Looking forward to listening on the plane. Thanks for the Miiverse "plug."

Huh, you're totally right the NSMB enemies are at 30fps, I knew they were off but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Can't unsee it now.

Team No Yoishi's Left Behind, the cruelty has gone on long enough.

As for ending music suggestions, there can only be the Disaster Day of Crisis Main Theme. The music is actually pretty decent and sets the tone well for what the game is trying to be. Who knows one day it could come to virtual console, pre-order bonus for Xenoblade X.

I just wanted to post to let you know that I am listening.

I'll preface this with a note that I'm very much enjoying Mario Maker for what it is, a limited toolset to create quirky levels flipping traditional Mario conventions.

That said, my time playing levels has only confirmed why this isn't a "end" to 2D Mario games from Nintendo (other than the fact they're ridiculously profitable):

The games play different (Mario 1 lets you go backwards in a stage, much more mobility in air).
The toolset is severely limited by what Nintendo wants you to utilize cross-functionally between the 4 levels.  This may open up a bit as DLC is (hopefully) offered, but I don't see them ever giving players enough options to match anything near what the full games offer.
The people creating & uploading the levels en masse just don't create them with any cohesive thought beyond one gimmick, or the dreaded self-play level.

I'm praying they update the game to add a much more comprehensive search function, including:

Options to tag levels with descriptions to filter by.
Ways to remove levels from your search queue.

As always, a healthy reminder of the level sharing thread in these forums: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/forums/index.php?topic=48204.0

And also, shameless plug: I played your levels guys and recorded them (death montage at the end included). I thought James and Gui had some really awesome, interesting levels. Greg's Bowser castle was one of the more trolly experiences I've had in the game so far, and I played all of James' levels!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu16ka4--sg


RE: One of Greg's final points. The Idle Thumbs podcast made a similar kind of argument last week by suggesting that the next logical step for Mario Maker would be to let users create simple worlds like those found in the 10 and 100 Mario challenges, where extra lives and coins carry over and the creator has the opportunity to see his concepts evolve over the course of 8 levels, with the possibility of it coming together with a crazy castle level at the end. I think that's something that could be implemented down the road as DLC.

Discussion about Mario Maker confirmed all my fears - that it's a playground for no talent design hacks to troll each other, with way more self-playing levels than anyone should ever care about.


The fact that ratings aren't really indicative of quality, that discovery is problematic right now so you probably spend more time looking for good levels than playing them, and that very few people will be going back and replaying levels multiple times to see what secrets they hold has convinced me that (despite being high quality and a cool concept) it's simply not worth buying right now. Congrats to all those who enjoy the game for what it is, but it's not for me.


Maybe I'll reconsider when the price is less than $80+ (after taxes)...

my issues with the lack of faithful recreation of engines go a bit deeper. the lack of ability to spin-jump on grinders, the lack of double grab or vine grab, the lack of ability to control vertical swim speed by holding up or down on the D-pad in Super Mario World are kinda stark things that have prevented me from making even some basic replications of things I've seen done with a certain program that kinda sounds like 'Tuner Pagent'. I welcome some things like an aleviation of SMB1's awful and stiff mechanics, but other things like how awkward the racoon leaf feels with how quickly the button has to be hit to maintain the slow fall speed or differences in how long it takes for the P meter to fill up are much more minor but still off quirks to myself. even some of the things with New SMB dont' feel quite right. the ground pound and propeller hat drill drop feel a little odd...

What they HAVE managed to replicate does feel good. it's not like something like Sonic 4 where the basic laws of physics the series predicated itself on before are just gone.

Of the levels I've made thus far, I feel like only one of them was meant to truly troll and the other ones were me trying to make levels with a hook and an underlying theme. they do seem to tend towards difficult, as I want to make levels that can still catch me unawares if I'm really slacking off.

Auto-Mario levels are something I'm fine with, as usually it means I can get up and refill my drink whenever i happen to hit one during a 100 mario challenge. I have been playing a lot of expert 100 Mario Challenge, and so I get a lot of troll levels. my rule is that I throw 5 lives at a level before I give it the Gong Show treatment (by the way, PERFECT analogy, Greg.), but more often than not I'll spend 10 because I really do want to see someone's vision with a level, even if it's stupid. (like levels using the recently exposed mechanic on Gamexplain to glitch yourself invincible via a door set on spikes, or a level that starts off with a thwomp 2 inches above mario's head and a pirhanna plant right in front of him).

and at the end of the day, I do try to leave constructive criticism, or at least a stupid doodle. a couple of the podcast folk have already gotten my stupid doodles.

A good suggestion i have is to try and follow indie devs on twitter who have the game. I've been getting levels from Stevie DiDuro, the guy who developed Freedom Planet.... and he's done a semi-decent job of trying to make some of his levels from his game in Super Mario Maker, abeit without the flow of a game that has smooth hills and such. I have a BLAST playing his Freedom Planet remake levels and putting on in my headphones music from Freedom Planet.


... maybe I should be playing Freedom Planet instead of this.




oh, and uh... this game is really good and I've been having fun making and playing stuff. if you institute my 5 lives rule on some expert 100 Mario Challenge, you may find a real challenge and some levels that you love!

Did you just say Super Mario Bros 1 has awful and stiff mechanics!!!!!

That game is tight as hell when it comes to controls. If an HD TV and Wii VC is all you ever played this game on then your grossly misinformed.

I play this game regularly on an old TV and trust me the controls are not “awful and stiff”.

Yes is different from other Mario games that came afterwards for sure but I’m played a million hours of Super Mario Bros going back to the 80’s and while many NES games had bad controls SMB is not one of them.

This is a silly reason to not get the game. The Podcast like RFN fashion concentrated more on what’s missing/wrong than what the game does right which is a WHOLE  lot.

Yes there is a lot of crap out there but you can EASILY skip it. There is also tons and tons of good, great to brilliant levels.

Sure this isn’t Nintendo quality stuff but it was never intended to be. The game is amazing when you can see into people’s mind and how levels reflex their styles. You always see things that make you think wow why didn’t I think of that.
The sharing, feedback and building is what makes this game great. I already poured 60+ hours.

You are really doing yourself a disservice by not playing this game and your reasons are well just silly.

Oops I should have checked if you were playing SMB on a 3DS before popping off. Lol. That seems to be the excuse around here.

I agree that for some reason the racoon flying feels “off” I gotta go back to my NES and plug in Mario 3 to check it out.
The enemies in new mario being at 30 frames doesn’t bother me at all though. Even after it was mentioned. I mean god forbid a Goomba isn’t at 60 frames!!!

Sorry for the bit of hyperbole, but I gotta say that SMB1 and by extension  all the myriad level packs out there for it (SMB Special, Nippon Nights SMB, Vs. Super Mario Bros, the game that Hiroshi Yamauchi demanded Tezuka make into SMB2) do not feel NEARLY as tight as any of the games that would follow. More than ANY othe game, I fear trampoulines in SMB1's engine. I do not touch them. ever. I do not swim down holes for coins because of the magical vaccum effect. my butthole clenches coal into diamond with every other jump in World 8 because I never felt like on an NES, on SUper Mario All-Stars, on Wii U VC, on 3DS VC, on the playchoice 10, or on any other place I've played SMB1 that mario was going to jump when I hit the jump button, that he was going to make the jump or awkwardly hitch on something, or if I'd feel the need to abort a bad jump OH WAIT YOU CAN'T.

If you are going to give me stiff jumping controls, do NOT do it in a momentum based environment! I don't mind games that you have to commit to getting an engagement ring with your jump arcs like Ghosts n' Goblins or Castlevania or La Mulana because there's no momentum there. I'm not building up speed for a jump I may or may not make, and I feel like results are repeatable there.

SMB1 has only aged SLIGHTLY better than contemporaries like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Ice Climber, etc. it is still by all technical means playable, but it does not feel good to play. It has never felt particularly good. was it revolutionary? Yes, very much so! Does mario still wear shit-brown overalls and have an ugly notched nose? Hells the fuck no! I will take Doki Doki Panic, SMB3, or SMW ANY Day over SMB1.

Please try to go back and play any one of those games you just listed, without the rose tinted goggles. You will find that Super Mario is light years ahead in terms of controls. ESPECIALLY ICE CLIMBERS.

I grew up on NES games in the 80’s but I’m not blind to games that have awkward controls or loose controls.

Ice Climbers and Metroid being examples. Yes you can get used to them but they aren’t tight. Zelda just feels restrictive due to the 4 way direction but they are actually tight controls.

Now Super Mario Bros is in no way awkward or “awful”. That’s insulting to this masterful game.

The controls are different from say Super Mario World but no less tight. You can play that game with the up most precision and part of it is because of the controls being perfect for the game. In fact one of the many things that put this game above the rest of the NES games at the time was its tight responsive controls which still holds true to this day.

Again I must stress that this game needs to be played on an old TV because the controls are so tight that ANY lag will throw them off. I know this isn’t the fault of some of you younger gamers who have mostly played this game on HDTV’s or emulators and virtual consoles but calling the controls awkward or awful really just highlights either your age or lack of knowledge.

I don’t mean that to be insulting but it’s true.

I have this game hooked up to my Sony CTR TV at the moment with my NES and I laugh at the idea that it has bad controls. Perfect more like it.

Oh and if you can’t use the trampoline in this game you just need to get better because it requires timing and skill.

It reminds me of the people who can’t wall jump in Super Metroid and call it bad controls. God forbid you invest the time to learn a skill.

Level 3 has a Vine that can only be gotten through the trampoline and it’s a very skillful jump. Anyone who has this game engraved in their mind should know what I’m talking about.

that's actually the trampouline I'm talking about. it is frightful how much I gamed overed trying to get up there because I thought there'd be something better than coins waiting up there for me.

I've... honestly got myself in a lot of hot water. I actually think Metroid is more responsive control-wise than SUper Mario Bros, but that might just be the slower pace to it? ... and besides maybe Ice Climber, I'd legit go back to these titles. I'm the only one in my group of RL friends who's really beaten NES Metroid or Kid Icarus without a password.

I remember a lot of frustration and playing Duck Hunt instead with SMB1. or World-Class Track Meet. I didn't like playing it in all stars, and I remember in middle school getting SMB Deluxe on my GBC, and mostly messing with the stupid Bowser Fortune teller mini-game or the boo races because they were preferable to playing SMB2 especially.

I'm deeply sorry if you think I'm a stupid kid (I think I'm either the same age or slightly older than James Jones, actually.) or spoiled or something. I've played stuff with tricky controls like Super Metroid and appreciated it. I just do not think Super Mario Bros. I got my NES when I was 4. It had this game with it along with some others. I think besides Operation Wolf and Mighty Bombjack, I had beaten all my NES games I had gotten with it. I actually never beat SMB1 until all-stars, and not the NES version without warps until about 2002 when I had a friend over one night. It felt like I got lucky. Lucky that Hammer Bros. patterns agreed with me, lucky that I made that stupid jump in 8-2 (you know the one; it's got a bill launcher right in front of a gap and a single block piece of ground before a screen-wide jump) without eating a bullet bill or a spiny, Lucky that I made it through 8-4 with a fire flower, which is the only sure-fire way to get through the endless stream of hammers that gets thrown during that final bowser fight.

It is of my PERSONAL OPINION that the games made in that particular engine have never been tight or responsive. they're perfect for running ahead and memorizing the levels, but god forbid if you ever have to come to a stop, make a mistake, or have to interact with a trampouline.

I never said you were stupid. Lack of knowledge doesn't mean stupid.


Though i'm baffled that anyone would ever think that Metroid controls better than SMB. But it's all opinion I guess.


That trampoline part in world 3 is hard as hell and i still don't nail it 100% but man it feels good when you get it and it's all skill. You don't get in between those blocks by accident.


Yeah the reward might be coins but you tend to forget that in the original Super Mario Bros coins actually MATTER!


Sure now that the game is older and you know every single 1-up and every warp pipe maybe coins don't matter as much but when this game came out it wasn't a given that you would beat the game with the lives you had.


This isn't New Super Mario. So you had to stop and collect every coin and break every block looking for coin blocks or even the rare (back then) 1-up!!


Most people who played this game in context of when it came out will probably see it the same way.

WOWOWOW what happened here?


That's like, my opinion man.


Anyway, if you guys want to post Course ID's I'll try to get through em.

Here you go James, I made an airship stage. Greg's already played it!

Bowser's Cargo Airship - CDE1-0000-0061-C533

Jungle Gym Deluxe!!! Casual Fun

(B0B1-0000-0045-5917)

Well you did say in the podcast you wanted more discussions. Lol.

Sorry, James.

uuuh, I suppose I can toss Wigglin' Wolt at you. It's the level of mine I'm most proud of.

263C-0000-003B-A73B

I'm glad we're at least cool and all. I probably killed a lot of my credibility in this exchange, huh?

Hi!

Am I the only one who is having problems with the forwarding function in the last few episodes?

I use "Pocketcasts" on Android 5.1 and all the other podcasts work just fine as usual. I set the forward button to "forward 10 seconds" and the rewind button to "rewind 30 seconds".

Problem is, that if I press forward, it sets me BACK to last section. I could imagine that you have a new setup for  chapter marks.
If I listen in my car and get out of it, the next time my phone connects via bluetooth the podcast does not start from where I left, but again from the start of the last chapter mark.

Even if I press somewhere on the time line it jumps right to the closest chapter mark.
This is very annyoing and makes it impossible for me enjoy your greatly appriciated podcast at the time.


Does anyone else have the same problems or maybe even a solution?


Cheers,

Christoph

Whoa, is that true? That's not how I remember the discussion going at all! I need to listen to it.

You DID go into great detail about how this game in conjunction with the Karen not being around has reverted you to bachelor mode. (Gentle Ribbinng; Don't worry, I know this guy.)

Ah maybe I'm too sensitive about this. Super Mario bros was the first ever game I played back in 87. It holds a very special place in my heart.

It seemed like the discussion at times went more that way.

Maybe the 30 frames goombas and friend list and search modes and missing features discussions stick out more.

I feel you guys could have touched more on the gamepad and how this game really highlights the gamepad and its features. It was briefly mentioned how it's a mostly off play game which it is.

Also while some stuff is missing the stuff that's in there is great and Nintendo did an amazing job tying it all together and also how damn easy it is to start.

I also think that the reason for 16 digit codes is so it doesn't limit you with level names. Without the codes you wouldn't be able to name two levels the same. You would get a lot of this name is always taken add a bunch of numbers to make it different.

Just as I mentioned I found the look of the enemies' motion in the New SMB set slightly bothersome, I explicitly said the enemy frame rate was a "really trivial" issue. It was merely an observation from my experiences playing the game without a negative tone attached to it, properly contextualised and made in a lighthearted way largely at my own expense rather than the game's. 

I’m amazed you can spot that.  I went back to the game and tried to noticed it and couldn’t.  Though one thing I do wish the game had was Mario 3/World style boss fights where you stomp their head 3 times and then you pass the level.

I made this level specifically for you.

Yoshi’s Ultimate Sacrifice…

7204-0000-005b-9340

You had to put lava in there to make Yoshi's (repeated) demise all the more heartbreaking - not even Neal did that!

I heard the podcast where you guys mentioned Neals ideal and even IGN on their pod cast mentioned his idea and one night I had a dream about doing something similar (it's a great idea) but with lava to see Yoshi go down like the T-1000 in Terminator 2.


Then the Axe coming down at the end of the level is the cherry on the Yoshi corpse cake.