Holy fuck, this shit is harder than I remember

Holy fuck, this shit is harder than I remember.

Was it always this hard or did I become shit at video games as an adult? Am I getting to old to video games?

The game was always hard, you just forgot how to play it. You're not too old for it though I'm 35 and I can still play it just fine, git gud faggot

it's the fucking ice world, i tell ya
still, gitgud, faggot

I found that it never really got hard until the last two worlds. Before that I never had to use my saved items.

It was always hard (smb1 was harder).

You probably played it back when Internet wasn't popular so you could dedicate more time to get good.

The only hard parts about that were the hammers in 8-4. I beat it when I was 6. SMB2 was harder.

It's a pretty hard game but once you remember the nuances of individual levels, you'll be fine. Don't use the warp whistle, faggot. That's how you butter yourself up into complacency.

What are you playing on, OP? Perhaps something with more lag than the original console and CRT combo we all had when we were kids? That might be a factor.

Personally, I haven't played Mario 3 in any form since the GBA version, back when it was new. But then, at least, it was easier than I remembered it. I finally beat Bowser with a frog suit, which I never did as a little kid.

Those games were brutal.
Vidya just got more and more casual.

I didn't think it was that hard (OK maybe the side scrolling tank in 8 is bullshit)

Those levels are pretty short though, I thought they'd last a bit long (Then again it was an NES game)

The trick I found to games like this one and Ninja Gaiden on the NES was that they have a rhythm. If you just run through and don't stop suddenly and lose your groove then they are easymodo. Once you stop and second guess yourself then you get into some shit.

Modern games have reduced you to the level of a casual due to modern gaming's increasing casualness. After all, we wouldn't want people who suck at games to miss out on all those awesome cut-scenes Naughty Dog worked so hard on!

some of the levels had little room for error and mario isnt quite as floaty as he is in later games

I'm actually better at games now that I'm an adult. Looking back on some SNES games I played, I can't understand how 12-year-old me was so fucking bad that I couldn't beat them.

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This is amazing.

The only part that was truly hard was World 8.

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If you need a challenge after that, I can find you a patch for the GBA version that adds all the eReader levels like the Wii U eShop did. You'll have to patch it yourself because I'm not a total spoonfeeder. If you'd settle for most of the levels I think I can try to scrounge up a save someone uploaded.

I have found the same thing happened to me when I first seriously went back to old games.
In truth, modern game design has softened us all. Nothing is ever as punishing on the reflexes as it seems in modern 3D video games and nothing in those modern games punishes you AS HARD for fucking up.

That being said, there is also another component that people often mistake for actual skill and that is simple memorization of the levels.
The funny thing is that in modern game design, memorization of the levels does very little to help you where as in old school game design it can help you very greatly.

oh yeah definitely. a lot of old games are and have always been considered "unfair" in the sense that theres a lot of things you couldnt really be expected to prepare for without knowing of before hand.
its lead to many scenarios im sure we are all familiar with where ill prepare for these pitfalls in modern games and it turns out i didnt need to at all. i didnt need to save all those consumable heals for instance. and that consumable buff item can be purchased later. and theres a place to store my items if i even have an inventory limit. and my party members will return with or give me back the items before they leave my party. and theres a string of floating collectables along the jump trajectory that ill be guaranteed safety if i follow.

a lot of people seem to be upset when they fuck something up the first try and im sure i have too at some points. but gone are the times people just had to deal with it and move on. for better or worse. probably both.

Well, one thing I have noticed about myself is that perhaps due to playing modern games for so long now or maybe its the factor that as I have become older, got a full time (40+ hours) job, other responsibilities..etc..
All these time restrictions really makes me want to just say "fuck it" and give up if I fail at an old school game and have to start far back.

It has also done other things to me though. I can't really stand many story heavy games that want me to watch or read something, at length, to get the story across. I can't stand lengthy opening cutscenes, etc etc.
When I used to be all about japanese RPGs now I can barely fucking stand them.

Life changes you in subtle ways.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but some platformers are hard as balls precisely because they barely punish you for failure.

I've had a similar experience with old games, though I haven't actually gotten any Game Overs like I used to, so something must have improved.


Well, the whole idea with those games is that they're built around difficulty and memorisation, and make it as easy as possible.

A Game Over in old games meant starting over from the start, or at least from a significant way back and having to take the time to go through continues and whatever.

That's what I tried to write, but I couldn't articulate it properly, so I scrapped it. It's more about memorizing a 2 minute segment that's super hard rather than getting through, say, a 10 minute level with no checkpoints.

Not to mention in games like Super Meat Boy, Hotline Miami and such you respawn with barely time to complete the death animation, while in older games you'd have the flow broken by it, and sometimes be sent back far.

Kinda why the lives mechanic is so vestigial in modern Mario games and similar; there's no difference between dying and a Game Over anymore besides the latter wasting more of your time.

This user isn't saying smb3 was on the snes, even though it was on all star. His input is relevant to the argument of whether or not we get worse at games as adults.

One other thing I had noticed about older games, especially in like the NES and SNES eras is that they really weren't as long as people seem to remember.
RPGs were always very long but action games such as platformers and the like never really were that lengthy. Most could be beat in 1 to 2 hours depending on how badly you played the games.
I think the reason why people have this idea that old games were of any real length is because they were children when they played them.
As you age, your perception of time also ages. What that means is that the more time you've lived, the less time holds in your perception. If you're 10 years old, a year is 10% of your life. Follow that downwards and to a little kid an hour may seem like an eternity.
When you get older, you lose less of that so when you're 20, a year is only 5% of your life, so on and so forth. The unit of time doesn't change but its perception of passing does.

Also, little kids are generally shitty at video games. There are tons of super old games that I love that I never fucking beat until I was way older.

Say what you will about the New Super Mario Bros. games (they're shit), but at least there was punishment for getting a Game Over (you get sent back to your last actual save, at the beginning of a world or at the middle fortress). Miyamoto even said he had trouble with mutliplayer Mario because it was a game where "if you die you go back to the beginning".

I should also note that I think SMB3 is the only major 2D Mario game without checkpoints. The first one and J2 had invisible ones, but from World on they've been ostensibly optional.

i liked how meat boy handled "punishment"
and then they totally fuck that up with the warp zone and glitch levels by making you sit through the intro
hotline miami also comes to mind

Remember you'll never be as casual as the guy who wrote a book calling it the best game ever made, but never actually beat it himself

MOVIEBOB?

Well, SMB3 levels on the other hand are much shorter than usual, I think, they don't really need checkpoints. And you sort of get checkpoints on the world map; Fortresses stay destroyed and the Locked Doors let you skip large parts of the world. Let alone smashing rocks with hammers.

please choke on a dick and die movie bob

i hope a nigger gang rapes you to death with a bowie knife

That's another thing 3 did fairly well, made the map kinda feel useful. In World it obviously expanded on the idea, but that was usually from something you did in a level.

3 and World's level design philosophy are two very different ones. 3 seems to focus more on gimmicks that are quickly discarded, while World mostly has several core ideas it iterates upon a lot. Someone who seems to know what they're talking wrote about the cadence of World's levels or something, I dunno. I like 3's ideas more but I might just not like World since I didn't play it as a kid. I also played LttP late in the SNES's life and I don't like that much compared to the first game either, so it might be a problem with me and Miyamoto on the SNES.

They are interesting comparisons. SMW's map especially had an… organic feel to it, something that the newer games just can't recreate because of focus on convenience. The geography changes as you progress, and small features become important.

SMB3 is less organic but has more active features on the map; wandering Bros, random traps, blocks and hidden features, Toad Houses and such. Navigating the map is part of the game, not just a glorified, overcomplicated level select.

Was a real shame that Mario Maker doesn't let you make world maps or even level sequences.

one thing that bugs me when i go back to play mario 3 is the lack of secret exits, i mean even the first smb had that in the form of warp zones

You were obligated to get them in SMW if you wanted 100% completion

SMB3 had legitimate secrets. There are 3 warp whistles across the first two worlds, for example. Or how about 1-5 (I think) where you fall into a white background block and run behind the stage end and get an item?

that game just does not live up to its potential it absolutely breaks my heart. i want to like it, and i probably would if i tried it out, but there are details that drive me away.

Mario Maker's greatest asset and downfall is the idea of convenience. Maps aren't quite convenient to make or travel through. Plus if they were added they'd mostly be NSMB's shitty maps but with a different skin, since Mario Maker is just NSMB's engine with some classic Mario skins.

Maybe for Mario Maker NX, or something.


There are technically 2, where you get the warp whisles. Although one barely counts since it's the same place just behind the black. Are there other levels which kick you out but give you an item?

Plus there's also the odd requirements for White Toad Houses and those money ships.1

I think SMB3 is probably the best SMB game to have been made. Any game that gets back towards that formula for SMB games is getting closer to greatness.
The overworld interaction and themes.
The individual levels going along with those themes.
A ramping difficulty not only as boards go past but as each stage on a board increases (double scaling difficulty increase).
And of course the plethora of costumes and power-ups that are essentially board-locked and one-offs. This is what makes them memorable, fun, and a TREAT to get. Being able to hold on to a frog suit way after board 3. Being able to hold a hammer bros suit all the way to world 8. Fun shit.

And don't forget BOOT.

These are screenshots from the WiiU level-building game but they're all I have of BOOT

It's Kuribo's Shoe, you walnut

Also

Huh, that reminds me of one of the levels I made, although I did a thing where I included an idea of progression with the shoe. I feel like I pushed the boot to the limit, mostly.

das boot

Mario Maker felt like they were trying too hard to take over the YouTube romhack market at the expense of player options. The legal shit they were up to around its release didn't help matters.

I've gotten better, but at the same time I care more about dying.
When I was little I could throw myself into pits for hours and barely give a shit, but now I kinda expect better of myself.

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You're simply out of practice. Keep playing at it and you'll get good again.

Snes NES or advance version?
The NES version controlled like shit SHIT!

Difficulty Ranked
Mario 3 > Mario 1 > Mario 2 (no, not lost levels, idiot)

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