SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Super Mario All-Stars: Terrible Or Incredibly Terrible?

Posted: Jul 12 2006 04:08 pm

I was checking my site logs, and I came across this forum:
http://forums.insertcredit.com/viewtopic.php?t=6303

Needless to say, I was shocked to learn that there are people out there who don't think SMAS is a stinking pile of crap. With that in mind, I was wondering what everyone else's opinion on the game was.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

I rather enjoyed it. It was by no means a replacement for the original games, and certainly in some cases it detracted from the originals' atmosphere (like Dark World in SMB3), but it was fun to see a version of the old Mario games with spiffier graphics and 16-bit remixes of the classic music. At worst, it was a novelty.

Posted: Jul 12 2006 04:34 pm

I just always felt that it was an odd release... The updated graphics didn't add anything to the games, and the updated game physics kinda ruined SMB1. A true Mario collection would have been kind of cool, but 1993 was far too early for a retro collection to be released. So instead, Nintendo added the gimmick of updated graphics and slapped a full retail price tag on it. The upside was that the cartridge took almost no R&D to produce since the games included were all just remakes of already designed games. The downside was that none of the games were any better than the originals and most of them tended to be slightly worse. The Lost Levels was obviously the main selling point of the game, but I still don't think that was reason enough to buy the cart.

Posted: Jul 12 2006 08:21 pm

I enjoyed the "lost levels" thing, because it saved my game. Also it seemed less annoying than the actual real Mario 2. I dunno, it wasn't awful, but the charm of the originals is somewhat lost in it.

Overall not a horrible way to relive the past memories, especially if your dumb parents gave your NES away when you got a Sega Genesis, for some reason.

Also, I got this cartridge for free, with my SNES, some kind of rebate deal, save 50 bucks or some shit. This was around 1996, mind you, that was when I first got a SNES...yes, I was deprived, I know.

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

It's ****ing Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, Real 2, and 3.

You're complaning that they made the games look a little better?

I'm seriously gonna need some evidence to this "ruined atmosphere" complaint.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

For one example: Take a look at SMAS's version of Dark World in SMB3. It's pretty bright and cheerful compared to the pitch blackness of the original game. Not quite as foreboding as it ought to be.

Posted: Jul 13 2006 10:13 am

I liked it because I never owned an NES or any NES games. It gave me a chance to own, play, and enjoy all of those Marios without buying a seperate system and cartridges.

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

DarkMaze wrote:

For one example: Take a look at SMAS's version of Dark World in SMB3. It's pretty bright and cheerful compared to the pitch blackness of the original game. Not quite as foreboding as it ought to be.

I can't.

Can I get some screencaps?

Posted: Jul 13 2006 05:32 pm

I'll let DarkMaze deal with SMB3. I want to focus on SMB1. First, the game physics were changed...

In the original game, hitting a immediately block stopped Mario's upward momentum. As a result, he could bounce off these bricks in Level 4-1 (with a running start) and make it across the pit. In the newer version, hitting a brick does not entirely stop your upward momentum and you will not be able to make it across the pit.

Then there was Level 6-3. In the original SMB1, this level was unique because it was done entirely in gray. In the remade version, it's just another tree level:

Also, you said that All-Stars had better graphics than the original games. You are partially correct. It had *newer* graphics.

Posted: Jul 13 2006 05:47 pm

Of course the original SMB1 is better, compare the scores in the corner between versions Razz

.

Posted: Jul 13 2006 06:28 pm

Did you notice how in the lost levels, luigi jumps about twice as high as he does in the real Super Mario Bros. 2 game?

Even though we finally get the game, it's still dumbed down for us silly round-eyes.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

Yeah, I don't think those SMB3 screenshots are gonna happen on my end, and unfortunately I couldn't find any World 8 pics from SMAS online. However, Syd makes some excellent points about SMB1.

Similarly (though perhaps less significantly), the hidden coin blocks in SMB1's 8-3 are painfully, blatantly obvious in the SMAS update.

Posted: Jul 14 2006 06:25 pm

Level 8 of Super Mario 3, Dark World, made artful use of darkness. The blackspace gave the levels, especially the tank and airship, an ominous air to them. In Mario All-Stars, they added a background:

Posted: Jul 14 2006 08:03 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

Level 8 of Super Mario 3, Dark World, made artful use of darkness. The blackspace gave the levels, especially the tank and airship, an ominous air to them. In Mario All-Stars, they added a background

On the plus side, you can see the canon balls easier.

Posted: Jul 14 2006 08:11 pm

Tebor wrote:

On the plus side, you can see the canon balls easier.

While they are canon balls, they're also cannon balls.

Posted: Jul 14 2006 11:16 pm

I grew up with a Sega Genesis, and only got a Super Nintendo at a yard sale several years ago. I didn't actually play All-Stars when it was new, but I found it pretty good. I very rarely ever play it though, since I own the originals of the games. The games are all worse than their original, but let's face it, Mario games that have declined slightly in quality are still better than almost any other game.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

Syd Lexia wrote:

Level 8 of Super Mario 3, Dark World, made artful use of darkness. The blackspace gave the levels, especially the tank and airship, an ominous air to them. In Mario All-Stars, they added a background:

Thanks, Syd. Smile

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

I can always count on you guys to give it to me straight up.

While I do agree with you on the 6-3 thing, (Maybe they just thought a monochrome level would be stupid...no, no, didn't a Genesis game by the name of Toejam and Earl do something quite similar?) the other complaints just seem like elitism to me.

By the way, was I able to influence you to add anything to that Taito article?

Posted: Jul 15 2006 12:58 pm

Mjcool wrote:

By the way, was I able to influence you to add anything to that Taito article?

Well, I'd like to write about Taito again at some point, so rather than going back and adding stuff into the old article, I'd save those for now and either do a straight up review of one of them or save them for another compilation article.

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

You should do a lightgun shooters article...or do you not like those either?

Posted: Jul 15 2006 06:12 pm

I like light gun shooters... some of them anyway. A Revolution X article was the first content on the site.

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

Yes, yes, that one.

I'm surprised there hasn't been a T2 article, considering that they're more or less the same game.

Revolution X just has more stuff.

Joined: Feb 24 2006 Posts: 2578

What's there to say about the T2 arcade game? As far as I recall, you shoot lots and lots of Terminators. Am I forgetting anything?

Joined: Jun 15 2006 Posts: 143

Apart from the fact that according to the game, robots lay eggs, then no.

But it would make a damn fine blurb in a "Movie based Lightgun games" article, alongside Alien 3: The Gun (This one does not suck, unlike a certain other game based on the franchise) and the Jurassic Park games.

Posted: Jul 16 2006 01:15 am

DarkMaze wrote:

What's there to say about the T2 arcade game? As far as I recall, you shoot lots and lots of Terminators. Am I forgetting anything?

The level where you had to protect John Connor was a fucking bitch.