Finally, we have reached the part of the journey where I chronicle my top ten favorite games of all time. AGAIN, these are NOT in ORDER of PREFERENCE! I cannot rank these individual games, I love each of them very much, so I present them in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, oldest to newest. Time to start:
Day 16:
Super Mario Bros. 3
-Nintendo Entertainment System (redone a bunch of times) February 12, 1990
Since this is the only NES game to chart in my list, a bit of background is in order.
The original NES was a complicated monster back in the day. The majority of games made for it had the "arcade" mentality: make the game very hard and punishing to cause players to use up as many quarters as possible. This was common due to the fact many games were ports of said punishing games. They did not really take into account that people were sitting at home on their NES learning the fine art of controller chucking while suffering through many of the "quarter munchers" when there were no "quarters" being used. Of course we WERE sinking 50 dollars a game back then, THINK ABOUT THAT!
Shigeru Miyamoto thankfully did not think that way. He built adventures that told a story with very few words. In the 8-bit era, the processing power of gaming was very limited, so creativity was of the utmost importance. It is not like today where developers hide shoddy gameplay with pretty shiny graphics.
So this insane premise of an Italian plumber in a place called the Mushroom Kingdom fighting off turtles and mushrooms to save a princess came about. The original was a platforming masterpiece, easy enough for anyone to understand and play, but had a learning curve for those who would eventually master it to appreciate.
After a weird sequel that turned out to be a dream and the antithesis of a good platforming game (soooo bad and the story of why it exists is just as annoying as the game itself), they returned to the previous formula and added more depth to the game with way more levels and different bosses. My favorite addition to the game was one you got to try out right away.
The ability to FLY!
Yes, the first time I saw Mario's little arms spread out and I hit the jump button to take off, it was EPIC! Flying into the sky and finding clouds to land on to find hidden coins was just AWESOME! The incorporation of it into the game was seamless. Just genius design.
The various secrets of the game were great too. In the age before the internet, it was normal to seek out strategy guides or in the case of NES games: the Nintendo Power Player's Guide. I got my grubby little hands on one for Super Mario Bros 3 at a Toys R Us and read it like a novel.
This leads to a silly story.
I recall visiting some relatives in Mexico some time later, and they had their NES and had just imported SMB3 and were addicted to the game. They tried to show off how great they were at the game, so I took my turn and went to World 1-3 and blew their minds. I used the knowledge I had gained from the players guide and found the hidden warp whistle. They were shocked. I then went to the World 1 fortress and found the warp whistle there as well. I used both and went to World 8, handed back the controller and said, "lets see how good you are now" I was an arrogant little bastard when I was 11 years old.
Back to the game itself, it is pure platforming awesomeness. Add in all the new power ups (the popular Tanooki Suit, useless Frog Suit and very rare Hammer Bros suit) the hilarious Koopa kids (their expressions are just too funny) and the differing worlds (desert, ice, GIANT which was my personal favorite) and you have in my opinion the best Super Mario game of all. Yeah, I said it. Not Super Mario World or Mario 64. THIS ONE.
Tomorrow, we hit the second entry of the top 10, which comes from 1992. Another game that has aged very well in my humble opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment