Friday, November 12, 2010

the Old Mario

Over the past few weeks i found myself taking some of my spar time to play Super Mario Brothers for the Wii, which in my opinion was a fail of a game. Everybody is used to super mario for the nintendo, super nintendo, or even the N64. All these different systems had a unique way of making the mario game original. When it first started with the nintendo, the game was a hit right off the back. With a simple concept of a plumber who is sent to save a princess by traveling through pipes to eventually reach and defeat the dragon who kidnapped her. Sound wierd? Yes, but very unique. This one of a kind game originally was developed and looked like this
As you can see, that the graphics are a little but choppy. And by that i mean, instead of the character and its surrounding looking realistic, it has more of box type imagery to it.














When Super Nintendo came out the release of Super mario bros 3 came out. and the graphics here have increased dramaticly. With the characters looking much more smooth and proper, it really added a new element to the game. To go along with the way the characters looked, they added a few more elements to the game.  Instead of just getting a mushroom to make you get taller, or a flower to make you throw fire, the game gave you a feather. This feather gave you the ability to make your character Mario or Luigi fly to the sky. The picture below actually shows you mario flying while being equipped with the feather. And next to him you see luigi dressed in a frog outfit. This was another ability added to the game. When playing with that costume on, it give you a slight advantage in water levels. With the ability to jump higher, but swim faster gave an edge to the game, that none had before.
In the N64 we were introduced to aa whole new game play. With Mario 64 you were the character Mario on search for the Princess you are in love with. But instead of going from level to level, land to land, you were actually in the dragon named bowsers castle. This game was less of a level game, but more of a free wondering game. Never having to do a level in order, you just had to beat what ever came in your path and save the princess. This Mario game was the 1st to use 3D graphics for the game play. Probably my favorite mario games of all time, Mario 64 in my opinion might have been the jump start to games such as Fallout and Dead space, where you have the ability to free wander where ever you please. And as you can see in the picture below, the graphics look more computer designed rather than hand drawn.

Today in my opinion mario games arent the same. I played the one for the Wii and i just felt like it didnt fit with the other game. In this one you were aloud to play with four players at once during a level, an ability of having a windmill on your head, and even a mushroom that makes you smaller rather then bigger. Really?!? whats the point in being a smaller mario!? I wish i can go back in to the days where mario consisted of 4 buttons and a directional pad, and we call it a day. But with the new generation these are the types of games they will learn to love. Maybe its just me wishing things were like the old days with such a classical game.

this is not the mario I have loved for so many years. =(