Back in the day, I completed this zeventyfazillion times. I could do it with my eyes closed. I could do it upside down in a bucket of water. I could do it by shouting instructions over the phone to someone else holding the controller. Now? I can’t get from 8-1 to 8-4 without losing at least two lives, can’t get past the water bit on 8-4 at all, and am generally just crap at it. Clearly, Nintendo have hardified it …
When did this get so hard? I don’t remember it being hard. It’s never been hard. But still, I can’t do 8-4. I’m stumped on the water bit in the middle of the level. There’s a bit where you have a spinny fire thing and two Bloopers and I can’t get past them. One Blooper starts high, the other low, and you can’t weave round them fast enough. Even luring them both to the top or bottom doesn’t seem to …
Grr. Still can’t get past 8-4. It’s not that it’s especially difficult, it just seems that I lose most of my lives on 8-1 before I can get there.
Bah. Got to the watery bit of 8-4 this time, only to die. I’m sure this version runs faster than any other version I’ve played as well, which doesn’t help. I’ve found the continue option though – you press A and Start on the title screen. That’s NES-A, not Wii-A, so is 1 on the remote.
Hey! Nobody said this was on the Wii Virtual Console shop today! Well, probably lots of people did, but I didn’t hear them. So i found it myself and downloaded it. Lovely. Of course, I managed to get to World 8-1 on my first go, but then forgot how difficult it is. And there’s no continue function in this version! Nooo!
Still working through World 4 collecting coins. Although I only completed two levels with all three coins, I have collected one or two in each of the other levels. I’m completely lost as to how to get the third coin in the Ghost House, as well as a couple of other coins that I can’t even see, let alone get to. Well done to Nintendo for making a game that’s easy and bloody hard with only one difficulty setting!
After several attempts, I managed to get the final coin in the castle in World 6. It was where I expected it to be, but I obviously hadn’t tried hard enough. Anyway, that’s World 6 completed now. Moved on to World 4. Yes, I realise I’m not doing them in order. Got the missing Star Coins in one level, and then unlocked and completed (without one of the coins) another level.
Played through most of World 6 picking up Star Coins. I have all of them on that world now, bar the final one on the last castle. I’m pretty sure I know where it is, but can’t seem to jump high enough to get to it. I think I need to do some sort of triple jump, but there isn’t the space to do it.
After a week or more off it (Oblivion and stuff sucked my time away), I’m back on it, getting coins and unlocking routes. I’m pretty sure i’ve unlocked all the actuall levels now, but not all the warp cannons and houses. Anyway, today I finished off all the coins in World 3, and found the Warp Cannon to World 6 in the World 3 ghost house. Once in World 6 I set about finding some more coins, and managed two …
With all the worlds technically “complete”, I’m left with two tasks: get all the big coins (there are three hidden on each level), and spend them all (on opening gates, mainly). Went through World 1 and World 2, and now have all of the coins there. I also have all bar those in the Tower and Castle in World 3 as well. Some of them have been pretty difficult to get too – this is obviously where the real challenge …
You know, this is the best platformer I’ve played in years. Lots and lots of years, in fact. Ten or more. Yeah, Sonic Rush was great, and some of the Sonic Advance games were pretty good, but this is fantastic. Everything about it is so right. Controls, level design, secrets, retro-ness and everything. ACES. So today I finished off the two “secret” worlds – 4 and 7. By “finished”, I of course mean “defeated the boss in the castle at …
Multiplayer only this evening, playing both random minigames and two player Mario vs Luigi mode. Both modes are actually really good fun to play, with Mario vs Luigi mode reminding me of the original Mario Bros (sans Super), and the minigames being a little like Mario Party. I won, of course.
This evening, I played wireless multiplayer with my wife. And it’s great! Most (all?) of the minigames have been stolen from Super Mario 64DS, but now that they’re multiplayer, it seems a billion times better. The Mario vs Luigi Star Battle Hyper Fun Happy Fighter II mode is great as well – being not entirely unlike the original Super-less Mario Bros in a way. Fun all round!
OK, so with the game started (and completed) in just a few hours yesterday, I set about opening up all the pathways I’d missed – mainly with the aim of opening up Worlds 4 and 7. It seems some of the pathways I missed first run through were, in fact, the “normal” routes, and I’d accidently taken secret exits and therefore detoured. Specifically, on World 6 I seem to have missed out almost the entire set of levels. So, plenty …
Yes! Already! I thought it was actually going to end a bit sooner, what with reaching the castle in World 8, but oh no – there’s more. Nothing very hard, however. I did like the find-the-correct-route bit in the “real” final castle. Very Super Mario Bros! So now it is completed, in about two and a half hours play, what next? Well, the other half of the game, of course! Loads of levels (and two entire worlds) left to unlock! …