SNES Game of the Week 118 - Clock Tower

[excelsior]

• Publisher - Nintendo
• Developer - Nintendo
• Genre - Platformer
• Initial Release - July 14 1993

  
  

[excelsior]

Not too big a fan of this one I'm afraid. This was my first experience of the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 as I'm sure it was for many. Generally speaking it didn't capture my attention on the All Stars collection, whether that was due to a lack of nostalgia or the difficulty not really grabbing my interest. I've played the original version since then and again it's not a favourite of mine. Still, it plays like Super Mario Bros, which is a good thing, even if this set of stages doesn't really resonate with me.

Ranking - C

[spanky]

Woof, yeah. I remember being VERY excited about "Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels" being advertised with Super Mario All-Stars as I didn't know what to expect. I assumed it would be an entirely new Mario game. I was very disappointed when I found it was Super Mario Bros 1 with a few new features and a set of insanely difficult new levels. It feels like one of those super hard romhacks that are so prevalent. The thing is, if I was a kid with a FDS in 1986 who had mastered the original, I probably would have loved this.

All the same....I'm not 100 % comfortable rating this as I haven't played it since I was a kid. I'd like to give it an honest shot but all my free time is being taken up by Zelda. Let's stick with oh...a C.

[dsparil]

There's a lot of context for Lost Levels that doesn't exist in the US. Jeremy Parish did a good video on it that brings them up. I think the key point is that it was priced like an expansion. It's basically the 80s equivalent of New Super Luigi U, half price compared to the original's MSRP, but with all new content*. It's unabashedly a love note to experts and made for them. Pretty much all of that is lost when it plopped into a compilation without much context. That being said, I've never actually beaten it. I gave it a half-try within the last few years, but got up to world 4 or 5 before putting it down. That was with the FDS original though, and the All-Stars version saves after every level so it's more completable. In that way, it's actually an improvement.

B+

* Apparently part of the genesis of the game was to bring the new content from VS SMB to the Famicom.

[vnisanian2001]

A. And come to think of it, I’m not one to say which version of Mario 2 is better. Both are fine games in their own ways that are very much worth adding to your collection.

[personman]

Save scummed my way through this one last year and I absolutely hated it. Besides the fact that stages are vindictive which got so damn tiring I think all the castle stages and even later regular stages are these mazes which are beyond tedious to navigate. Frankly I don't find that a test of skill at all, you just need to memorize what random pipe you need to jump into to actually get anywhere when the stage itself is already being an asshole. Roadblocks for the sake of road blocks, no thank you.

However I will be nice and give it a C since I recognize that it wasn't made for someone like me. Still though I won't budge on it being one of the weaker entries in the series and I'll take the Doki Doki Panic reskin we got over it any day.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Ha, well like I said I was really into this one as a kid and beat it before SMB1. In my most recent playthrough a couple of years back I realized that a bunch of the level design is pretty trollish, and that it occasionally feels like an average romhack with stuff like octopi flying in the air IIRC. As a sequel it is disappointing when compared to the vastly different and more creative sequels we did get (up until NSMB or so), though as part of the SMA package it's still an overall great game and it explores the original's mechanics in an interesting way.

B+

[Snake]

SMA*: The Lost Levels/Super Mario Bros 2

Rank B

The ability to save makes this version of Mario 2/Lost Levels a lot more accessible.  It's pretty brutal and unforgiving, and just feels like an additional challenge tack-on, continuing from the first game. If anything, they could have repackaged it into a Super Mario Bros 1 re-release and call it 2nd Quest.  Because that's what it reminds me of:  The Legend of Zelda, when you replay through the 2nd Quest (or enter Zelda for the file name).

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

May 15, 2023 9:53:21 GMT -5 dsparil said:

There's a lot of context for Lost Levels that doesn't exist in the US. Jeremy Parish did a good video on it that brings them up.

Yeah I was going to bring this up.

I used to not really like this one all that much, but I've grown to appreciate it more (I guess it'll grow on you since you have to beat it 8 times in order to unlock all the stages). It's very much made to challenge players to an extreme degree, and it does that well. That it's called SMB2 is in a way a bit unfortunate, because that implies it's just part of the same Mario lineage, whereas it's really meant as something different. It's sometimes subtitled as "For Super Players", which is just what they should've gone with as the localized title, tbh.

Anyway, it's not as good as SMB1 (there are a couple of moments where they went too far/mean), so I'll probably give it a B, taking into account that I just don't like the aesthetic upgrades to these two games in All-Stars as much. The ability to continue at every stage instead of every world is a downgrade IMO, since on the FDS it forces you to get better at stages/learn them, to take advantage of the flag-pole 1up mechanic, and it makes carrying over powerups more rewarding. 4 stages isn't that long to beat, and it's more rewarding to do, and retains some kind of punishment for death. So I guess in every way the game makes the most sense on the original system, back in 1986, in Japan.

[excelsior]

• Publisher - Nintendo
• Developer - Nintendo
• Genre - Platformer
• Initial Release - July 14 1993

  

  

[excelsior]

This is where the Super Mario All Stars collection really picks up for me. The new visuals and audio did a really good job of enhancing the look and feel of the original version we got here. The save states are a real help for me. I never beat the game without saves on NES as I think it gets quite tricky as you progress - and it's also long enough that one sitting can be a bit much. Generally speaking I'm high on this game - with the snatch and dash gameplay adding a lot of tension beyond what's normally present in a Mario game. The selection of four different characters is also nice, with all bringing a difference in gameplay feel - and I was pleased to see this idea revisited.I don;t think you can go wrong with any version of Super Mario Bros 2 really, but I do think of this as an improvement to an already great game.

Ranking - A

[vnisanian2001]

A, too.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Love the look and sound of this one (too). SMB2U had a lot of interesting ideas and mostly executed really well on them; it's more exploration-focused like later games, there are multiple different bosses that are pretty well designed (the door coming alive is a great moment too), the four distinct characters, parallel world and more. It's also more than a spriteswap of Doki Doki Panic, I don't think it gets enough credit in that regard (although it did lose saving until this version).
That said, the pacing is noticeably slower, various mushrooms are a matter of trial & error to get to (the pit in 3-1 is one of the worst examples) and it gets repetitive after a while. I think they could've also added some quality of life features like smoother vertical scrolling and a counter for the hearts and stars so you didn't have to keep track of that (and made it so they couldn't appear where they're unreachable).

B+

[spanky]

I really love Super Mario Bros. 2 and this is the only entry on All-Stars that I would consider an improvement over the original without any sort of reservation. The NES version is such an expressive and cartoony game and the 16-bit enhancements really make it pop. It just looks so LUSH with great background depth, and the new night scenes are a great addition.

As far as the game itself, I love the twists and deviations of the Mario formula. The 4 unique characters are a great idea and a surprising amount of personality is communicated through their animations and attributes. It is slower and more exploration based but you can definitely play it as quickly as you want to. And the game is full of memorable moments like sailing across the ocean on a Birdo egg in World 4, and the enormous, labrynthine final area. I do think some of the mushroom locations are a little too cryptic, but the game is perfectly manageable without all of them. It's an A.

[Snake]

SMA*:Super Mario Bros 2
Rank - A

The NES original box had the tagline "Mario Madness!"  It was a pretty maddening trying to finish the whole game in one go, no passwords, no save spots.  Just relying on pure skill, and the luck of slot machine extra lives.  There were a few occasions that I would leave the NES on all-night, so that I can continue playing in the morning.

So thank goodness the SNES rehash brings in save spots.  This, reimagining of Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic, changes up the character archtype mechanics a bit. And thank goodness you can swap out characters, instead of having to beat the damn game 4 times with each character, just to get the final ending.  The music is nice and catchy, for being only a handful of tracks.  

Solid title, and does a good job of reskinning itself into a Mario motif, though it was all dream without reading Word Up! magazine, nor Salt 'n Pepa nor Heavy D up in the limousine.