3 posts tagged “super mario world”

I'd like to believe that somewhere in the world there is always a marching band playing various music from classic Nintendo games.

I have some serious nostalgia problems with 8-bit music. Anything that sounds like it was picked straight from a NES evokes a visceral reaction completely independent of my knowledge of the music or even the genre. These kinds of things show up in more and more public settings and somewhat obviously, video games have a certain sense of nostalgia for the under-35 crowd. It's a popular nostalgia - if you play the super mario bros. theme in the crowded theater you'll hear cheers, not boos. And it's not just the geeks cheering. But before you celebrate the national acceptance of video games as a pastime, it doesn't extend very far past basic recognition. Most people that realize what they're listening to haven't touched a console in years and probably stick to the games-are-for-losers mentality.

Before I go further I should get clear something up: I was raised a 16-bit gamer. Let's not get things mixed up, I have a NES on my desk at work and I can run through SMB in under 15 minutes but my childhood experiences were mainly with the first console I owned - a SNES. The primary NES generation is close to 30, if not older, and only in the last couple years have we started to see both music and art which is highly derivative of older video games. Those people driving creativity related to older video games are not the original generation of gamers but the second major generation of gamers, those who have a familiarity with the NES but truly hold their roots with it's 16-bit successor. This is pretty clear if you look through the mis-titled I AM 8-Bit exhibit where most of the art relating to Mario (those images from Ann on We ♥ Wii) has some clear connection to Super Mario World rather than the previous 3 NES games.

Discussing the reasoning behind this shift and the differences between the two game generations is more difficult. The change from SMB to SMW is a great one and Mario's world was given a lot more depth and clarity which surely went a long way in keeping kids glued to the screen for hours on end (myself included). Also, I don't really have a good way to end this short essay and concluding paragraphs take too long.

What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.

Okay Vox, you're bringing it on, giving me questions I can't resist answering. I get it.

NUMBER THE 5th: Asheron's Call on the PC
I was dipping outside of my regular stomping grounds with this one (as an MMO) but it was a lot of fun. AC was the alternative to EverQuest when it first came out and although AC always had fewer subscribers, it was always more eloquent and impressive with what it created. I've tried a number of MMOs for a couple days or a week and even the ones a lot of people really enjoy feel like crap sometimes. This one really felt epic and even though I'll probably never play a classic MMO ever again, it was really fun to play with the real-life friends I actually knew. Something about the system of items and quests just made you feel like you had unlimited possibilities. I rerolled too many times to ever really compete with the serious gamers though.

NUMBER THE 4.5th: Diablo II on the PC
This game was the hottest hack-and-slash to ever exist. Not only did online play make me fiercely competitive for the ladder spots and best items but hanging out in the basement with 3 other friends powering towards the same goal is totally fun. Blizzard kept this one going for a while too with updates that had new items and skills. Mostly, this game was just really well made. Although I won't be able to play D3 like I used to play D2 (all night and with lots of caffeine), I can't wait for it to come out.

NUMBER THE 4th: Super Mario World on the SNES
Like SMB3 before it, awesome map-based platformer with so many hidden things that it took forever to really finish.  It was the first game I ever really owned on the first system I ever owned (everything before it involved me going over to my friends' houses). The only thing about this game that I dislike is unlike the real mario games before it, going from new game to end boss is boring - it's just a short route with some secret paths, no warp whistles or warp pipes or anything. Plus, it had yoshi. Who can deny the impact yoshi has had on all our lives now?

NUMBER THE 3rd: Final Fantasy VII on the PC
I never had a playstation so I had to wait to get this game when it came out for PC. But I heard good things from my ps-playing friends. And this game was good, EPIC even. Awful graphics. And LOOOOONG. But soooo much fun. Before that I had never played the FF series and now I'll be picking up FF3 for the DS this afternoon. Changed my rpg-loving life, man.

NUMBER THE 2nd: Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 (and subsequently, Perfect Dark 64)
Not really an FPS lover but Goldeneye had it all: the perfect FPS controller (other than a keyboard + mouse), awesome graphics (for the time), nifty AI, a good assortment of guns (all named fake names to avoid legal action, surely - I still think KF7 whenever I see an AK-47) and replayability. It doesn't take too long to beat the game on easy but there are time-based achievements on each level for easy, normal and hard. I added Perfect Dark 64 on the end there because it's basically the same game but with the ability to attach remote-detonated mines to characters. Boom.

NUMBER THE 1st: Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES
As much as I love the original SMB (and we don't speak about the second), this one really does it for me. Definite replayability and some seriously hard levels. I can't even find the words except for Best Game Evar.