Here's what my to-do list looks like right now:
1. Play more Mega Man games
2. Learn how to use half-stars
3. Pizza party?
Anyway...
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:
I loved Super Mario Bros. 2. But I get the sense that a lot of people did not. Well, I get that sense now that I have the Internet and its search engines. I know they took a different game and put Mario in it, but why isn't it considered a classic anyway? I love pulling shit up from the ground and throwing it at people. And couldn't you float in that one? I think you could float a little. Maybe that originated in SMB3.
Super Mario Bros. was a momentum-based action game of unprecedented speed and fluidity, where the only controls were the Joystick off a Pac-Man cab, the flipper off a pinball table, and the nitro pedal off Vin Diesel's car. It was about hauling ass on a one-way trip from left to right, vaulting pits, stomping enemies, smashing bricks, and cha-chinging long strings of bling. It was a fat guido chasing his dick on a breakneck rampage through the Magic Kingdom. It was PERFECT.
Super Mario Bros. 2 was about... I don't know what the fuck Super Mario Bros. 2 was about. Digging vegetables? Climbing ladders? Making weird, floaty jumps? Getting buried alive in sand with a creepy sentient mask in some kind of horrible nightmare scenario? There's a discussion going on right now over in Gamerasutra about "flow state", which from what I can tell based on Stew's references to a Wikipedia article I didn't read is that feeling you get when The Force is with you. I never once managed to enter the flow zone or whateverthefuck playing SMB2, and believe me, I tried. That game came along at a point in my childhood when I had infinite time and zero entertainment options, when I could do the underwater bomb defusal mission in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blindfolded just because I liked driving the turtle wagon afterwards. I'm not saying SMB2 was a bad game; like Dr. Mario, it was probably fairly decent, especially by NES standards. But for someone who wanted nothing more out of a sequel to Super Mario Bros. than Faster, Harder, More Challenging Super Mario Bros., it was possibly the greatest disappointment imaginable :(
Fortunately the ending revealed (SPOILER WARNING) it was all just a bad dream your parents paid $70 for and then they made SMB3 which fixed everything and was one of the greatest games of all time. It's like if Miyamoto spilled your drink at a party and then bought you a Cadillac. I love that guy!
I also love the soundtrack to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.