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!
Fuck it, I cant watch any more of that. I am yelling at my computer screen.
Hey, I DID finally make it through. My favorite death comes just after the 3 minute mark.
Ok, what the hell are you doing. For one, stop going after every thing, its not a collectathon. Coins mean nothing, ignore them unless they are in your way. If the ? doesnt have a mushroom dont bother with it, after your first try at them you know which ones to avoid.
But your biggest problem is that you WALK. You have to run, always, for everything. If you go slow in this game things get complicated and you will die. SMB is experty designed so that if you run full speed through the level you have a less chance of dying, DId you see how well you did at 2:10 and on, its cause you just ran through everything. SMB is not about exploring or collecting, run as fast as you can to the exit.
BTW you missed a hidden block at the start of that level.
Of course a SONIC player would say that.
Try it, go an entire level holding down the run button and almost stopping for nothing unless its like a plant popping up at the wrong moment. Of course you will die a few times as you learn the level but it gets easier every time.
This is how you go through a Mario level. Just go.
And if you hate lakitu use the blocks at the start, the ones that are lined up veritically, just get to the top one and bounce on him from there, he wont bother you for about half the level. This works in every Lakitu level, just find a way to hit him.
EDIT: The guy in the video went to the wrong warp room.
I'll try it. I was actually racing through the levels I taped (as opposed to my nromal way of playing).
Time until first death...4 seconds.
3:16.. then you do exactly the same thing.
Lived up to the hype! Thank you for posting it.
Screw Vader's advise. Your way is more entertaining!
I tried that method on 5-1 (my new favorite level). It worked splendidly. 5-2 -- not so much.