Sunday, 30 August 2009
-
SMB3 on Wii: My Skillz Are Gone!
At my brother's place. Got on the Wii. Went old-school. Super Mario Bros. 3 on the Wii.
Playing with two of my brothers (PrattBro#4 and PrattBro#5). For the record, I'm PrattBro#1. At first, I offered to be the specialist. "If you can't beat this stage, hand me the controller." Then I realized...I'd better make sure my skillz haven't degraded over time. My two brothers and I were passing the controllers around, so I didn't play every stage.
World 1-2. Tried to impress the guys with the Flying-Goomba-Stomp-1up-Machine. Couldn't get more than three before hitting the ground. Uh...this could be trouble.
World 1-6. Hit the wrong button and fell in the first hole. AGH! OK, I just lost a lot of street cred with my brothers.
World 2-Pyramid. Watched all three of us fail repeatedly to defeat it. Buzzy Beetle 7, Mario 0. Just plain funny, watching my bros. keep dying in there.
3-4. Tried to pull off the Turtle-Shell-Hits-A-Million-Spinies-1up-Machine. Failed. Repeatedly. Sad thing...my brother succeeded. OK, so I'm not the Wizard I thought I was...
3-7. Probably died five times trying to get to the vine for the Jugem's Cloud. Much strategizing will be done with the clouds and P-wings. Mainly because 8-1 is such a $!!#$
3-9. On my last life, succeeded in running the Turtle-Shell-Hits-A-Million-Bullet-Bills-1up-Machine. Great, 99 more chances to fall in a pit.
Paused game after both players up'd to 99 lives.
We'll probably start again in the afternoon and push through Worlds 4 (PrattBro #5 likes it)...maybe go on to 6 for the HammerBro Suit. But, with three Warp Whistles...maybe it's time to rescue the princess. Preferably before we hit what I would consider the ultimate ignominy: "Continue / End". If, after racking up 99 lives, I end up at that screen...I should turn in my Gamer-Card.
Have you ever returned to an old game only to find you weren't as good as you used to be?
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to HardestLevel's HardestLevel Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in HardestLevel's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: Romans_837@xanga
- Name: Steven
- About Me: I'm More than a Conqueror, I'm a husband and a father, I'm one of the Pratt Brothers 2000™
-
True
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 10 Views: 0 2850 Comments: 0 105 View all posts by Romans_837@xanga
Comments (8)
No, never. I'm always as good as I used to be. Except in golf; if I don't practise that my shots go right out the window.
I think the reason you aren't as good is possibly your not used to the Wii mote? I can almost play any game with any type controller and do as good as the original.
Believe it or not... there have been some very subtle changes to the Wii-downloadble versions of the old games. I've not noticed any such things in the Mario titles, but there are certainly some rather glaring changes in the Super Metroid download. Glaring, that is, for someone who has played it since the age of four >.>
It's old school games in general. Modern day games are spoiling us with all the functionality there is. Yeah, you get 2 weapons, a bunch grenades, and you can take a couple shots before you die, not to mention the waypoints for easy navigation and semi-decent npcs that help you. Or you're a good 5 levels higher than the recommended level for this boss fight, you've learned all available spells and skills, and you have an ass load of healing items. We're spoon fed nowadays.
But old school games, you just have 2-3 hits before you're dead and a certain amount of lives. It's been too long for me to remember what it was like to have good timing, algorithms memorized, and crazy reflexes. I tried playing SMB3 and Megaman 2&3 not too long ago (on NES). I keep asking myself, "How the hell did I do this when I was only 6 years old?"
I'm not an expert at getting 99 lives through monsterously repetitive or fast acting methods. I am a perfectionist who, after 14 years, still manages to play just as well on SMB3 as I did when I was a kid. Arguably I'm a better player now than before because I am more aware of what's to come instead of working with stuff as it comes. I've went through SMB3 losing no more than 10 lives after playing every level. I generally lose 1 life to Bowser at the end as I try to get a feel of what I need to do to beat him. Lose maybe a life or 2 in world 8 on the flying mini fortress level and on the 2nd level where there is the giant pit that has a jumping block in the middle of it and the sun attacking. The other 7 or 8 lives may be lost from dumb mistakes involving large lava pits, need for a super form when I don't have one, human miscalculation, or being eaten by the giant maneating fish. In short, the game isn't anything difficult once you've memorized it. My girlfriend struggles to play it with me. She didn't survive past the 3rd World before getting a game over. Man eating fish kept eating her.
My skills wane as I play more and more...I used to be really good at Smash Bros...and now I kind of suck, but we've never really stopped playing. It's the oddest thing.
But as far as Super Mario 3 is concerned, those skills are here to stay.
@TheAsianCleric@xanga - You rock. I don't think I was ever so good that I could go through, hit every stage, and lose < 10 lives.
My favorite 1up machine in SMB3 involves just dropping a turtle shell between two bullet-bill launchers in 3-9. But I do know the 'hop on Goombas all day with a raccoon shell' one. (Just couldn't pull it off.)
Yeah...the man-eating fish sucks!
(For the record, the game got reset, we played again, slightly better, and managed to win it. But the number of lives lost at the 1st tank in world 8...pathetic.)
@Romans_837@xanga - It was one of those games that I repeatedly played as a kid. It's not like I've got any super human abilities. I had maybe 10 games as I grew up. So I memorized the games almost perfectly minus a secret here or there that I just never learned about. I think my record deaths in that game was probably on one of the dumb plant levels in World 7 Pipe Land where I had lost 12 lives to the dumb black heads that stick out of the small pipes. All it took was for me to mistime the ducking or jumping and I'd fail to get the star necessary to stay invincible. Now a game that I epicly fail at would be any Sonic game that was released on the handhelds. That's where I just plain get murdered.