Topic: It's New Super Mario Bros. Wii Launch Day!

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm not saying that it isn't ok for your partner to pick you up and carry you through the tough parts, your a girl, that's an endearing quality that you might look for in a man.

We're saying that we can do it ourselves and we don't need no help. If anybody does any carrying of anybody across any hard parts, that will be me(doing the carrying)

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

What is this, Smash Bros.?

[Mop it up]

I'm not saying that it isn't ok for your partner to pick you up and carry you through the tough parts, your a girl, that's an endearing quality that you might look for in a man.

We're saying that we can do it ourselves and we don't need no help. If anybody does any carrying of anybody across any hard parts, that will be me(doing the carrying)

I strongly disagree with absolutely everything that you just said, but there's no point getting into it for various reasons.

The funny thing is, when I played with my brother there were a couple of times when I carried him across jumping parts. He didn't really "let" me do it, but at that time he hadn't yet figured out that you could use the spin move to jump off of someone.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Birdo does not want to be grabbed via the ass.

Birdo is supposed to swallow a compadre WHOLE, then spit out said compadre.

[that Baby guy]

Co-op is Co-op, which means you're meant to help each other in the long run.  If you've taken advantage of jumping on each other's heads to reach high places, or jumping to certain doom to grab an item, then pressing the "a" button at the last second, then you've done things in co-op which wouldn't be possible with single player.  Factoring that in, you can manipulate running around while carrying someone.  The extra space said someone being carried takes up, as well as the number of abilities lost while carrying a player is there to limit how often it's used, and also to balance out that it's there.  The action should be guilt-free for any serious gamer who understands what co-op means.

Yeah, I went there.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Lando, so serious.

[NWR_Lindy]

Did somebody say Serious Gamer?  Like magic, I appear.

I'm jonesing for teh Mario, and will perhaps have it before Giftmas.  We shall see.

[that Baby guy]

It's all right, I hear all the NSMBWii stages will be remade for LBP on the PSTriple.

[KDR_11k]

I'd rather cut off my right arm and call it a day, instead asking a robot to beat the game for me.

Ever played, say, Splosionman? If you die enough you get the offer to skip the level. You can't just skip past the difficult part, you can only skip the thing as a whole and you won't learn what you did wrong. I bet there'd be a lot less whining if the superguide was just a lazy "you're stuck, want to skip this level?" prompt.

[Ian Sane]

This game owns me.  I don't mean it's owning my life and taking up all my free time, I mean it owns me in that I suck at it.  It PWNS me.

Yet I haven't got a Game Over yet, I've just lost a lot of lives.  Often I'm approaching the last castle of a world and I've only got like three lives and I figure I'll die and have to redo a bunch of levels and then I manage to pull it off or I get an extra life from collecting enough coins or whatever.  Maybe that's a sign of a good game as I very clearly feel the danger of failure but have yet to have to go back and redo a bunch of levels.  Still wish is just saved after every level though.  Yoshi's Island did it so why can't this?

I think I suck at it because I'm so used to Super Mario World.  To me THAT is Mario.  But both NSMB games seem based more on the NES games which have considerably looser controls and I'm not used to Mario sliding all over the place.

Hopefully I can play multiplayer soon but as luck would have it my brother currently has a big project due for school and is unavailable.

[that Baby guy]

In all my trials through the game, I've been able to keep a constantly increasing life count.  To be fair, though, the first time, I skipped part of World 6 and all of World 7.  The second set hasn't finished and is stopped in World 5, but has a buddy that tries to kill me more often than not.  The third, though, I'm midway through World 7, and I've kept about 99 lives since somewhere in World 3.  I've also made sure that I get all the Star coins and any exits I know of, this time, as well.

I'd say through this, that there are a few too many opportunities in Single Player to keep your life count constantly increasing, but when you add in more players, it's much more difficult, while completing stages is a bit easier, since, if you don't all die at once, you can keep continuing.

[Mop it up]

I haven't gotten a game over yet; do you have to start from your last save?

I think I suck at it because I'm so used to Super Mario World.  To me THAT is Mario.  But both NSMB games seem based more on the NES games which have considerably looser controls and I'm not used to Mario sliding all over the place.

Although I agree that the play control in Super Mario World is more tight, I don't know why a lot of people say that the control in this game is loose or slippery. It seems fine to me, but maybe I've just adjusted to it.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Why is everyone shocked about the abundance of 1ups? It has been like that since SMW, heck SMB3! The Mario games have always been generous with lives but IMO that does not make the games lacking in challenge. Maybe less frustrating in that you don't have to restart a huge chunk of the levels but I don't really find that fun going through everything I've done before.

[King of Twitch]

Mhm. I think they've balanced that out by not saving them when you shut the game off. That actually rewards longer play sessions to some degree. For instance I was just trying to race the penguin last night on Mario 64 and because of the stupid rubberband AI knocking me off the side, I had to wander off to some easier stars until I got more lives built up. I like that.

"I don't know why a lot of people say that the control in this game is loose or slippery."

I noticed in some videos, tiny Mario can jump across like half the screen! That's not very realistic.

[Ian Sane]

Although I agree that the play control in Super Mario World is more tight, I don't know why a lot of people say that the control in this game is loose or slippery.

Well you just agreed with me that Super Mario World is more tight.  So if that's what I'm used to wouldn't it make sense that I find the controls in this to feel loose or slippery?

[Mop it up]

The last 2D Mario game I played was Super Mario World and I don't find the control in New Super Mario Brothers to be loose or slippery. It is just different.

[Ian Sane]

The last 2D Mario game I played was Super Mario World and I don't find the control in New Super Mario Brothers to be loose or slippery. It is just different.

For me Super Mario World is more than just the "last 2D Mario game I played" it's the Mario game I've played more than any other Mario game.  I'm not saying the controls are broken, they're just looser than what I'm used to.

Though I am of the idea that a series should move forward and NSMB for the DS was dissapointing because it took steps back and it wasn't like the series needed a reboot.  The tight controls of SMW are not just a feature of that game but the natural progression of the Mario formula.  To base the controls more on the NES games, to me, is going backwards.  I'll see what my brothers think since they know SMW even more than me.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

More people are familiar with the NES games.  They are the forgotten customers.

[BeautifulShy]

I want to make a comment on the controls. In Super Mario World and to a extent the NES games it was quicker to get running.
In NSMBW it takes a little longer to get to top speed. Think about in Mario 64 it takes a little bit to get going. There is different speed animations in NSMBW that the past games didn't have it was just 1 animation to get running.

[Mop it up]

That doesn't mean the controls are less responsive, it's that way for a reason. It prevents you from making a running jump off of a tiny platform, which allows for more challenging level designs. You've got to keep your momentum when making jumps.

[NWR_Lindy]

Why is everyone shocked about the abundance of 1ups? It has been like that since SMW, heck SMB3! The Mario games have always been generous with lives but IMO that does not make the games lacking in challenge. Maybe less frustrating in that you don't have to restart a huge chunk of the levels but I don't really find that fun going through everything I've done before.

In Super Mario World you could stockpile 1ups for a while, but then you would hit one area that would stonewall you and you'd lose them reallly quickly.  Really great design that sucks you in and keeps you playing, because you view the difficult areas as aberrations that can't possibly be as hard as they seem.

[NWR_insanolord]

Limited lives and game overs are archaic remnants of the arcade. They're unnecessary in modern games. What's important is that a game provides a challenge; game overs are just annoying.

[Mop it up]

I don't think they're completely unnecessary, but they should be handled a bit differently. Games like New Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Galaxy have checkpoints in the levels, so losing all of your lives makes you start the level over from the beginning.

[Ian Sane]

I don't think they're completely unnecessary, but they should be handled a bit differently. Games like New Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Galaxy have checkpoints in the levels, so losing all of your lives makes you start the level over from the beginning.

I agree.  That provides a clear disadvantage to failure but in a way that's not too frustrating.  NSMB though has save points so if you die you have to redo levels.  That's kind of archaic since games that save after every level are common now.  Yoshi's Island saved after every level and every time your high score improved for a level, but if you got Game Over then you lost your checkpoints which was significant in some long levels.

Though NSMB does have a quick save which at the very least makes the save system flexible.  I hated when I lived at home and my Mom was nagging me to do something and I had to tell her "wait for a save point".  She never understood that and always got mad.  Quick saving should be a mandatory feature.  Hell it should be built into the console itself.  It's just an extended pause.

[NWR_insanolord]

That's an idea for Nintendo's next console: Virtual Console-like save states mandatory in every game for the platform.