Background:
- I was not a NES kid. Not by choice, just lack of exposure given where I grew up.
- I loved and beat Mario Bros on the Game&Watch. No easy feat.
- I loved and beat Super Mario Land 1 and 2 several times.
- The first time I played any NES or SNES Mario game with my girlfriend, now wife. She remains an absolute top-tier Mario platformer.
- Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 have both been GOTY game for me. I think they are among the most perfect games ever made.
So the first few hundred times I have tried to beat a 2D Mario game on a home console have not been pleasant. In fact, they still are not pleasant -- at least for anyone who could observe me hopelessly crawling my way through a game. I am very, very poor at controlling Mario. I routinely, seemingly for no reason, jump into a hole killing myself. I will jump on a koopa, then jump on his shell, then land on the shell. I will catch projectiles that kill me, but miss 1UP's and mushrooms. EDIT: VIdeo provided below at Foolz request.
But, I figured. What the fuck. I am a grown man, I am capable of beating games, therefore, I will beat Mario Bros for the NES.
Today, after several hundred attempts in the last 2 weeks, I made it past 3-4 and started level 4. Now I get it. When I hit 3-3 for the 60th or so time, something stuck me -- this is what it felt like when I'm playing Super Mario Galaxy. I'm dieing a lot, but I'm not frustrated. I'm the problem, not the game. And as I replayed level 3-1 through 3-3 endlessly I was getting better. Not mastering, but not dieing either. Then I turned it off. Then a few seconds later I'd turn it back on and give it "one more go". Just as I did with Super Mario Galaxy.
Then it occurred to me that Mrs. Aspro didn't come out of the womb mastering Mario. She probably, at the age of 5 or 6 or whatever, was going through what I was going through now, to the point where today when she picks up the controller it's all muscle memory.
Onto world 4!
I'm happy for you - jerk.
I'm currently stuck in 5-2. Played it for 3 hours yesterday (the game, not that level).
As a child (7-
(I accept that the japanese SMB2 is an evil exception even though I haven't tried it)
Got to say, I find this amusing as all hell. While I can't say I entirely understand why Mario has you stymied, I can relate to just not being able to get certain games/genres or just having disasterous results with them.
I found the last level of NSMBWii annoying and incongruously hard.
Seriously?
I found myself having to play that level many times and very often but only because my god-daughter loved watching it so much and she loved to watch Mario rescue the princess and we would also do a silly dance together at the end while the credits rolled. She still nags me to play it from time to time when she remembers it.
About time she learned to use the controller I think. I bet she could handle Super Mario
Seriously. I spent a good number of tries before I nailed that bastard level.
This, at least, prvides some solace.
It's all a matter of what you are exposed to. At least the way I figure it.
Still have not gotten past 5-2.
I suppose so. I cut my teeth on games like that and space shooters so for a long time they were second nature to me. I think I should test myself with the new Donkey Kong Country
I still play everyday. Still stuck on 5-2. I can get through 5-1 without casualty.
It's starting to get me down. But I'll beat this, I don't care if I have to crush my soul into little bits.