Mario, Sonic & Me

Warning: this will be a rambling post.

The other day I bought Super Mario 64 for my DS. This extra bit of warmth has hatched a once seemingly infertile egg (laid by a Yoshi). I am now a Mario fan.

Just two short years ago it all seemed so unlikely. I mean, when I was a kid, I didn't have any Nintendo or Sega consoles like many other kids had. (I progressed ZX Spectrum -> Commodore 64 -> Amiga 1200). Yet I had a fairly clear idea on what I thought of Mario vs Sonic. Mario's an ugly plumber with a dodgy Italian accent. He seemed as unappetising and American as day-old takeaway pizza. Sonic was a blue hedgehog - a blue hedgehog! And he could run at craaazy speeds... I could see that on my friends' Game Gears.

In contrast, my only prior experience of Mario was Super Mario 64 on a uni friend's N64. I liked watching my friends play it, but I was a 2D guy in a 3D world. I had no real control over the portly plumber. I was a motivational speaker addressing an audience of narcoleptics.

Oh how times change! I did succumb to the temptation to play Sonic, getting Sonic Rush for my DS. It was highly rated and even had a choice of characters you could use. It should have been some classic retro platforming. But it just didn't suit me at all. It went too fast; i'm a strategic planner not an intuitive reactor. Plus what type of game gives non-linear environments to explore yet has speed of completion as its raison d'etre? There's no real incentive to explore, yet I still felt I was missing out. I'd also finish a level so quickly I'd have no idea how it all had happened. I was so disappointed I got rid of the game. And I have no desire to get any new 3D Sonic games, as they're meant to be mediocre.

But Mario, dear Mario. As in real life, substance and heart triumph over glamour and gimmickry.

I was reintroduced to him a couple of year's ago through a friend's Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. I only played for a few hours, but it was a fantastic experience. I have a copy at my mum's. I also have Super Mario Sunshine which I've been playing on my new Gamecube. Super Mario World (2D) on my GBA. And now Super Mario 64 on my DS - the game that I couldn't play on the N64!

It's much better on the DS. I can actually use one (and only one) of the 3 different control methods. Plus I get to be Yoshi in this version too. Double Yay.

So why do I like the Mario games so much? I guess the same reasons as everyone else; fantastic physics and level design. They're interesting, challenging and fair.

But the 3D Mario games are what have me cheering in my little head. You play a level till you complete a certain scenario which gets you a star. You then replay that level with a different scenario to get another star. When you have enough stars, you get access to new levels. You can then go to those new levels to get more stars, or you can try to milk each last star possible out of your older levels before moving on. If a particular scenario is just too hard, you can go elsewhere to get the stars you need to progress further. Phew.

That's all very abstract and needlessly confusing. So here's a concrete example from Super Mario Sunshine. After getting a certain amount of Shine stars, I was able to access a new beach area. My first task involved watering a certain flower, which made a magical sandcastle (naturally), which I then entered, as you do. The bad dude robbed my water pump off me, so I had to do normal jumps across falling bricks and climb a big sandcastle to reach the star. So far, so mundane? Well, when you retrieve a star, you're transported back to the main area, and on returning to the beach level, there was now a different task to get a star. The island has a special egg which the natives keep warm with sunlight from huge mirrors (how else?). Naughty bugs had got on the mirrors so they were pointing the wrong way, and a caterpillar was now wrapped round the egg! So I do fatty-bum jumps on the high sides of the mirrors to catapult the nasty bugs off. And when everything's back in place, it's too hot for the caterpillar who scarpers, and I get my star... Yet now when I return to the beach, the angry caterpillar is charging around. Yikes! I have to water plants to make sandcastles that'll trip that livid larva so i can fatty-bum jump on its segments till it's defeated - then I get another star!

Mario remains the same strength throughout the game. This is actually a positive feature. It means you'll never have huge amounts of life or weapon upgrades. So you can't get through a boss fight with reckless bravado - but similarly it means you're not up against enemies that may have ridiculous amounts of health, do crazy damage, or are just plain unavoidable.

Oh and one last reason why the star collecting system is so great. You can play for half an hour, collect a star or two and think, "Good job, you. You've done well today." Mini-endorphin rush. And if I keep doing that, then sooner or later these games will join the hallowed few that I've actually played to completion.

Ramble over.