|
Classic Game of the Week  Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
- By Eric Tajchman
There was no doubting the success of Super Mario Bros. across the world. Millions of people bought NES consoles with the game bundled in, people jammed quarters into the arcade machines, and people were happy. However, there was a consensus among gamers that the game was a little on the easy side. Nintendo, not being the kind of company to ignore the gamer’s opinion, took this into account when designing the sequel.
The developers added new variables into the gameplay, one of the most notorious is the addition of the poison mushroom. The first block you come upon in the game contains a poison mushroom, and most players who had not seen this before ran and grabbed it, only to die. Certainly, a faint profanity echoed across Japan that first day of the game’s release. Another new feature of the game was the totally random weather physics. Every so often, rain would fall from the sky, and the wind would blow, either helping or hindering running and jumping. The direction the rain fell determined how hard the wind was blowing. As the rain was totally random, leaping over large gaps depended upon luck rather than skill.
 
The game that was released in Japan turned out to be harder than the original, and it was because of this added difficulty that the game was denied an American release. It was decided to keep Super Mario Bros. 2 a Japanese-only title, as it was deemed that it might irritate American gamers. Instead, the U.S. was given a much different Mario sequel that was based off the Japanese title Doki Doki Panic.
 
[LEFT: Japanese Super Mario All-Stars] - [RIGHT: U.S. Super Mario All-Stars]
However, American gamers were eventually allowed to play it when it was released on the Super Mario All-Stars compilation game for the Super Nintendo. However, this version was still slightly different than the Japanese original. The game had slicker graphics than the original and was much more brighter and vibrant than the Famicom version. Each element of the game was redesigned with the power of the SNES in mind, and subtle effects such as small dust clouds when Mario quickly changed direction and active scrolling backgrounds, were added. The wind and rain effect was removed, as it was deemed inappropriate and made the game too frustrating and difficult. In fact, there is a rumor that the wind effect was not Shigeru Miyamoto’s concept, as he was known to give the gamer more control than that in The Lost Levels. The wind and rain effect was an interesting concept, but it was totally random and couldn’t be controlled by the gamer.
However, Mario had a “slippery” control to his movement, and it made the already extremely challenging game even more difficult. It took patience, skill, and luck when Mario had to leap across wide crevices and land on a small single-block-wide pillar.
If you’re looking for a copy of The Lost Levels, your best bet would be to purchase Super Mario Bros. Deluxe for the Game Boy Color. This version remained true to the original Japanese version in all but one aspect: the controversial wind and rain effects were removed. Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is controversial, confusing, extremely hard, but it’s still fun. The Lost Levels is more of a side-note to American Mario history, but if you enjoyed the original Super Mario Bros., then you’ll find The Lost Levels a nostalgic and fun challenge.
Pictures taken from The Mushroom Kingdom
- 8.8.2001 |
 |
|
2.gif)
