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Link to original post: [drupal=3503]3D Mario: My Personal Experience and Analysis[/drupal]
Starting a few days prior to the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2, I set a goal: to beat and get 100% completion on Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. I set this goal because I realized how few of my 250+ games I had actually beaten with 100% – around 40 – and decided that I wanted to accomplish this with some games before I bought any more, Galaxy 2 being the game I wanted to buy in this case.
As of last night, I had accomplished that goal.
Having fully completed 3 games I had not completed before, my opinion of them all has changed. I had beaten the final boss of both Galaxy and Sunshine, and I had completed Super Mario 64 DS with 100% completion, but I had not gotten 100% completion of Sunshine or Galaxy, and I had not even beaten the final boss of the original Super Mario 64.
Many of you who have seen me post about 3D Mario in the past probably know that I was rather displeased with Galaxy. I didn’t even intend to get Galaxy 2 because it looked pretty much like a rehash of the first, which I did not enjoy very much, until about a week prior to its release when I saw a clip from Throwback Galaxy and saw commercials which just clicked with me.
Something about replaying Galaxy changed my opinion on it, though. I initially continued from my old file with something like 87 stars, but then decided that I was so disconnected from the game, having played it in such broken up pieces (I beat the game in 3 or 4 sessions, a few hours in length), that I started over in a new file instead.
I got the first 120 stars in the equivalent of about 4 days, so the difficulty was still the same, but something about the music and gameplay was different. Maybe it was the way I approached it; not only did I give myself a challenge to beat these games fairly quickly, since I was excited to play Galaxy 2 from what I heard from my friends, but also in the context of having to delve into every inch of the game and complete it.
Now, I wouldn’t say I fall into the category of people who absolutely adore every inch of the game and consider it to be potentially the best game ever – but do I consider it to be a good game? Yes. It has its flaws – among its lack of difficulty, it has repetitive bosses and a camera which gets on my nerves – but I like it. In completing the three games, I decided playing the Mario and Luigi pieces of Galaxy would be less painful if I broke it up, so I played it through with Mario, did 64 and Sunshine, and came back to Galaxy and did the Luigi half. After having beaten it with Mario I actually found myself anxious to get back to it and replay it.
(As a side note, I’d just like to mention that I think the difficulty of Luigi’s Purple Coins is overrated – I think people tend to panic about the time limit, the disappearing platforms, and the fact that you have to get back after collecting the required amount of coins, and they move too quickly and awkwardly and end up having more trouble with it simply due to nerves. It took me many, many tries the first time, until I realized that the time limit really wasn’t going to affect me since I couldn’t stop moving for very long anyway, and once I started taking my time it only took me two tries. My second time through, it only took me three tries. It’s certainly difficult, but I wouldn’t say it’s the hardest level in any game as some claim it to be.)
Then there’s Super Mario 64. I’ll preface my opinions about Super Mario 64 by telling you that I played Super Mario 64 DS to death. I played that game so much that I could speed run through it, and this was before I even had any concept of what speed running was.
Moving on, Super Mario 64…did not impress me as much with this playthrough. I never got Super Mario 64 when I was younger; I played it once years back for about 5 minutes, and I got the DS remake when I got my DS shortly after its release, but I did not own the original N64 cartridge until the fall of ’08, I believe. Frankly, I found my run through 64 to feel relatively lackluster and boring. The camera got on my nerves a lot, even more than Galaxy’s camera – which is saying a lot, since I hate Galaxy’s camera. I don’t think the problem is that 64 is a bad game, but I don’t think it’s aged very well.
But again, I played the DS version to death. The versions are different in many ways, as I was finally able to note by playing through the original fully, but in the end they are very similar. I noted how much I played the DS version because I feel like I may have worn the game out and that may have been why I didn’t enjoy it as much.
Super Mario Sunshine is the only one of the three games of which I don’t feel differently after completing it. This may have been partially attributable to the fact that I started where I left off on my main file, with 96 Shine Sprites – meaning I didn’t replay the majority of the game. Even though the hunt for the last ~90 Blue Coins of the game that I had to collect was a major pain, Sunshine is still my favorite of all of the 3D Mario games.
I know it has received criticism far and wide, and I can certainly understand the criticisms, but I feel like it went the furthest beyond the boundaries of “Mario” without changing what makes the games what they are. The FLUDD was a new and innovative game mechanic which I feel greatly added to the experience. It’s hard for me to explain, but the entire feel of the game is something special to me.
Ultimately, I would have to say that this past month has been a really great gaming month for me. I got a little upset when I was overly busy and couldn’t work on the games, and I got upset at a few levels (most notably, Rolling Gizmo Galaxy in Galaxy, 100 coins on Rainbow Ride in 64, and blue coins of Corona Mountain in Sunshine). Yet, I love the challenge that I gave to myself; I love that I feel like I’ve finally accomplished something in some of my games; I’m glad that I can proudly move onto Galaxy 2 without feeling like I’ve left something unfinished. Most of all, I’m glad that I forced myself to experience these three games again which I had put to the side and was able to re-evaluate them.
I really hope to do something like this again, in future situations, and if you have the opportunity and the time I’d highly recommend tackling something similar yourself.
- Firus
Starting a few days prior to the release of Super Mario Galaxy 2, I set a goal: to beat and get 100% completion on Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy. I set this goal because I realized how few of my 250+ games I had actually beaten with 100% – around 40 – and decided that I wanted to accomplish this with some games before I bought any more, Galaxy 2 being the game I wanted to buy in this case.
As of last night, I had accomplished that goal.
Having fully completed 3 games I had not completed before, my opinion of them all has changed. I had beaten the final boss of both Galaxy and Sunshine, and I had completed Super Mario 64 DS with 100% completion, but I had not gotten 100% completion of Sunshine or Galaxy, and I had not even beaten the final boss of the original Super Mario 64.
Many of you who have seen me post about 3D Mario in the past probably know that I was rather displeased with Galaxy. I didn’t even intend to get Galaxy 2 because it looked pretty much like a rehash of the first, which I did not enjoy very much, until about a week prior to its release when I saw a clip from Throwback Galaxy and saw commercials which just clicked with me.
Something about replaying Galaxy changed my opinion on it, though. I initially continued from my old file with something like 87 stars, but then decided that I was so disconnected from the game, having played it in such broken up pieces (I beat the game in 3 or 4 sessions, a few hours in length), that I started over in a new file instead.
I got the first 120 stars in the equivalent of about 4 days, so the difficulty was still the same, but something about the music and gameplay was different. Maybe it was the way I approached it; not only did I give myself a challenge to beat these games fairly quickly, since I was excited to play Galaxy 2 from what I heard from my friends, but also in the context of having to delve into every inch of the game and complete it.
Now, I wouldn’t say I fall into the category of people who absolutely adore every inch of the game and consider it to be potentially the best game ever – but do I consider it to be a good game? Yes. It has its flaws – among its lack of difficulty, it has repetitive bosses and a camera which gets on my nerves – but I like it. In completing the three games, I decided playing the Mario and Luigi pieces of Galaxy would be less painful if I broke it up, so I played it through with Mario, did 64 and Sunshine, and came back to Galaxy and did the Luigi half. After having beaten it with Mario I actually found myself anxious to get back to it and replay it.
(As a side note, I’d just like to mention that I think the difficulty of Luigi’s Purple Coins is overrated – I think people tend to panic about the time limit, the disappearing platforms, and the fact that you have to get back after collecting the required amount of coins, and they move too quickly and awkwardly and end up having more trouble with it simply due to nerves. It took me many, many tries the first time, until I realized that the time limit really wasn’t going to affect me since I couldn’t stop moving for very long anyway, and once I started taking my time it only took me two tries. My second time through, it only took me three tries. It’s certainly difficult, but I wouldn’t say it’s the hardest level in any game as some claim it to be.)
Then there’s Super Mario 64. I’ll preface my opinions about Super Mario 64 by telling you that I played Super Mario 64 DS to death. I played that game so much that I could speed run through it, and this was before I even had any concept of what speed running was.
Moving on, Super Mario 64…did not impress me as much with this playthrough. I never got Super Mario 64 when I was younger; I played it once years back for about 5 minutes, and I got the DS remake when I got my DS shortly after its release, but I did not own the original N64 cartridge until the fall of ’08, I believe. Frankly, I found my run through 64 to feel relatively lackluster and boring. The camera got on my nerves a lot, even more than Galaxy’s camera – which is saying a lot, since I hate Galaxy’s camera. I don’t think the problem is that 64 is a bad game, but I don’t think it’s aged very well.
But again, I played the DS version to death. The versions are different in many ways, as I was finally able to note by playing through the original fully, but in the end they are very similar. I noted how much I played the DS version because I feel like I may have worn the game out and that may have been why I didn’t enjoy it as much.
Super Mario Sunshine is the only one of the three games of which I don’t feel differently after completing it. This may have been partially attributable to the fact that I started where I left off on my main file, with 96 Shine Sprites – meaning I didn’t replay the majority of the game. Even though the hunt for the last ~90 Blue Coins of the game that I had to collect was a major pain, Sunshine is still my favorite of all of the 3D Mario games.
I know it has received criticism far and wide, and I can certainly understand the criticisms, but I feel like it went the furthest beyond the boundaries of “Mario” without changing what makes the games what they are. The FLUDD was a new and innovative game mechanic which I feel greatly added to the experience. It’s hard for me to explain, but the entire feel of the game is something special to me.
Ultimately, I would have to say that this past month has been a really great gaming month for me. I got a little upset when I was overly busy and couldn’t work on the games, and I got upset at a few levels (most notably, Rolling Gizmo Galaxy in Galaxy, 100 coins on Rainbow Ride in 64, and blue coins of Corona Mountain in Sunshine). Yet, I love the challenge that I gave to myself; I love that I feel like I’ve finally accomplished something in some of my games; I’m glad that I can proudly move onto Galaxy 2 without feeling like I’ve left something unfinished. Most of all, I’m glad that I forced myself to experience these three games again which I had put to the side and was able to re-evaluate them.
I really hope to do something like this again, in future situations, and if you have the opportunity and the time I’d highly recommend tackling something similar yourself.
- Firus
