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Super Mario Bros 1 is hard as shit

Rubius said:
Also, Super Mario Bros 1 is probably my least favorite Mario game. Too hard, controls are clunky and the level design is really poor.
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What? SMB1 is literally the template for all platforming level design and teaching tropes through gameplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2wGpEZVgE

I try to go through the game at least once a year these past years, but it's just not the same on any of the emulated platvorms. It's way easier with a good old CRT and NES.
 
Wow, I never found it too hard

On the NES there was continues was there not?

Obviously it got easier with Mario All stars on the SNES, but for me Mario 1,2 and 3 were all easily beatable on NES
 
I'm pretty sure I used to be able to beat the game in about fifteen minutes as a kid. I haven't really played it much in probably twenty five years though.
 
One of the major things that made this easier was realizing that going under Bowser in worlds 6, 7, and 8 (when he's throwing hammers) is way easier than going over him (which is basically impossible to time).
 
Had it on my NES but never beat it as a kid.

But I did have the deluxe version on my GBC and beat it when I was 8. Those were the times, taking turns with my cousin trying to beat it. That and SMBLL/2 were challenging but them Boo races tho.
 
I can't even remember if I beat the game. I played it way too much, and memories are all jumbled up with the same boss over and over.
 
The first Mario game requires skill. But it is still a pretty easy game compared to the standards back then. The second game IS hard.
 
I feel serious input lag playing it on WiiU through the NES Remix.

Overall I just don't like the physics of the game. Everytime I start playing a classic Mario game, I'm wondering why I'm wasting my time and not playing DKC, a superior platformer.
 
As a kid I never beat it. I knew about the warps and just skipped as far ahead as possible. Years later I decided to go through all the levels in the game, and that went a lot smoother. Of course I did use the warp zones as rough "continues", though. But that did cause me to realize that that's kind of what they're there for, and why it lets you select a world rather than just blatantly going to the farthest one.

But yeah, definitely not a super hard game or anything considering the era, though it definitely puts up more of a fight than the rest of the series.
 
graybot said:
Now that was a hard game. I never got too far in this

Also found Castlevania part 1 way harder than Mario. I dont think I ever beat it but I did get to the end once or twice
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Aye, but did you beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the FUCKING SWIMMING DISARM missions?

I wasn't great at Castlevania either til the SNES iterations :(
 
graybot said:
Wow, I never found it too hard

On the NES there was continues was there not?

Obviously it got easier with Mario All stars on the SNES, but for me Mario 1,2 and 3 were all easily beatable on NES
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OP said they didn't do the a + start trick, AND went through the second quest.

Amory said:
Yeah, started over from 1-1 if I got a game over.
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Amory said:
The second time around was from the first level, but with the new game + mode (all the goombas are beetles, enemies are faster, etc).
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So that IS pretty difficult. It is indeed an easy game if you use a + start to continue, but if you don't, you start to run out of lives pretty quickly unless you're 100% concentrated.
 
Those are my golden rules about videogaming:
1) You can't call yourself a gamer didn't beat SMB1;
2) You can't call yourself a gamer if you can't hadouken OR if your first gaming device ever wasn't older than a Sony Playstation.

If you don't beat Smb1 you're not a gamer, you're just a geek.
 
Eh this can't be serious, I finished this game countless times when I was a kid and then it switches to something else (world A-1 or star-1 etc can't remember) but I slammed through that as well
 
When it came out, I only got a few games a year. I had to play the ones I got forever. So Mario was hard but I played it for months and months until it got easy.
 
Beat it as a kid, maybe 9 or 10? It was a triumph.
Then I made it a point to beat the second run, too.
Then I made it a point to go as far as I could without warping and beat both runs.
Then did it with one life.

See, this is what replayability is like!


I didn't think SMB2j was all that hard, by comparison. It was certainly made to be tougher and kill you more, but I feel like the original game steeled you for it (hence the For Super Players! thing).
 
Man this game brings back so many memories, I remember playing it over and over again when I was younger untill I beat it, kept messing up in the very last stages. Managed to finish it and was very proud so when I was a kid.
 
afternoon delight said:
Aye, but did you beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the FUCKING SWIMMING DISARM missions?

I wasn't great at Castlevania either til the SNES iterations :(
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TMNT was the only game I owned for a while so i played it to death. I could do the bomb disarming section with my eyes shut after a lot of practise

But again I never completed the game. Got very far, I think the Technodrone was usually my downfall
 
Honestly, I don't find it that hard. Its one of my favourite platformers personally. Its straight forward, very fast paced and it never seemed unfair in terms of level design/enemy placement. I can usually play through the game twice in one sitting, if I'm lucky without continuing. Then again I've been playing the game since the early 80's so I've grown up playing the game so that makes a difference.

On the other hand, the "All Night Nippon" version of Super Mario Bros for the Famicom Disk System is noticeably harder in my experience. Its essentially the same game except with enemy and power up placement tweaked, some levels swapped out for Lost Levels stages and the Hammer Brothers no longer wait around in their areas, instead they run straight toward you. That last point has made it impossible for me to finish world 8-3 which has tons of Hammer Brothers that are incredibly hard to avoid!
 
Me and my old roommate used to beat this game casually as a warm-up to play through Lost Levels...probably beat SMB1 hundreds of times now. It was hard when I was a kid, but by the time it was around on Game Boy Color (and also through the gift of emulation), it was light work with practice.

At one point, we'd mastered playthroughs of this game so thoroughly that we started trying to play it in 2x speed or sideways to add some sort of challenge to it again, lol.

Everyone should be able to beat SMB1:

- without using the 1UP trick
- without using warp zones

Game is not the easiest game...but it's still good old, universally-accessible Mario Bros.
 
I Beat it when I was 6 years old. Back in my day there were no game saves unless it was a rpg. If you were lucky there may be a cheat code or a password 'save' system. Kids these days have it easy.

I also walked to school uphill in the snow, in both directions and had to beat Contra without the Konami code. Ninja Gaiden stole my lunch money and left me with a bloody nose. I didn't cry, or run to the principle. I trained in the dojo, watched karate kid on VHS on repeat and crane kicked that bitch.

When people tell me the Souls games are hard I laugh wryly and stroke my long grey beard and tell them kid, that's how games are supposed to be.

I'm 34. My oldest son is 4 and gets frustrated when running into a wall in Mario kart. He just wants to hit blocks in minecraft. I have much work to do
 
I beat it in '89 when I was like 12 or something.

Not too hard, but I did beat Super Mario Bros 2 before I beat the first one.

I liked 2 more, though.
 
JimmyJones said:
I've never actually beaten it myself but I've beat Super Meat Boy so I guess I would be able to if I had a proper attempt.
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Gosh, Super Meat Boy is a better game and more enjoyable game than Mario 1. I think you can probably handle SMB1. If anything meat boy is easier because of its more friendly design mechanics, and it doesn't control like absolute Assss.
 
Yeah it's not as easy as many people assume. The physics are just completely different from every Mario game, and not being able to go back is a big hindrance. Playing through some of it again recently, it felt harder than it did when I was a kid. I would say SMB3 is a more challenging game, but SMB1's difficulty comes from our shifting ideas when it comes to games.
 
I finished both versions just recently (and when I say both version I mean, OG Nes version and All-Stars version) and the original is tough, for sure.

My only advice is to keep running. Especially in the later worlds.
Oh God, don't stop running.
I found that jumps were so much harder to deal with the moment I broke my flow.

Fun Fact : Finishing both of these back to back took less time than formatting the Mac I had at the time.
 
MegamanPoweredUP said:
Those are my golden rules about videogaming:
1) You can't call yourself a gamer didn't beat SMB1;
2) You can't call yourself a gamer if you can't hadouken OR if your first gaming device ever wasn't older than a Sony Playstation.

If you don't beat Smb1 you're not a gamer, you're just a geek.
Click to expand...

My only rule is you can't call yourself a gamer if you are mute.
 
It requires patience and some skill if you're not skipping levels, for sure. Not sure how using warp zones proves how easy it is anyway, or using tricks for unlimited lives...

I got an N3DS recently and am for the first time putting effort into beating it after I played it some as a kid. I think I'm somewhere in world 6 after remembering I could use saves. Haven't been using warp zones or continues because I just learned about them!
 
Beat it three years ago on the 3DS. Both modes too, and I didn't use any warps.

It's almost like trial and error. Everytime I died, I played a little better because I knew what to expect.

Used to think the mechanics were trash, but you get used to it.

Great game!
 
MegamanPoweredUP said:
Those are my golden rules about videogaming:
1) You can't call yourself a gamer didn't beat SMB1;
2) You can't call yourself a gamer if you can't hadouken OR if your first gaming device ever wasn't older than a Sony Playstation.

If you don't beat Smb1 you're not a gamer, you're just a geek.
Click to expand...
Lol what is this shit?
 
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