Syu-Pa Pa-I-Pa Ma-Ri-O

That's my Hongul-to-English attempt at Super Paper Mario. I've been playing it, relying heavily on a guide since I can't read any of the text. Despite my lack of understanding of the plot (with a few exceptions where I happen to be in the company of a native speaker), it's a lot of fun.

The game's got a cast of funny but childish playable characters and bosses. The little colorful butterfly next to mario is a spirit who helps you along your way. You can use a variety of different helpers, each with a different skill, mostly to defeat enemies and solve simple yet fun puzzles. Most puzzles involve flipping from the 2D view to a kind of 3D-2D mix.

Some objects that cannot be seen in 2D can be seen in 3D so you end up switching back and forth to reveal new paths and enemies.

The game has a pretty simple menu interface, as I can even navigate it in Hongul. This is a good thing for me.

It also includes the usual cast. So far I have Mario, Princess, and Bowser. Each have their own abilities and you can switch between them at any point. This also adds to some of the fun of the puzzles as you may have to switch to Princess to float over an area and then switch back to Mario in order to go into the 3D plane and reveal and new door, etc etc.

There's also some fun throwbacks to older games, like the giant original Nintendo Mario pictured above. You can also get a bunch of tiny little versions of him to bounce around and help you. All in all, it's a fun game, not amazing, but fun. I'll definitely finish it, and I've enjoyed it so far with the exception of a few dull points.

Highlight of the Week (10/13 - 10/20)

I'm gonna have to say that my highlight of the week can be seen in recent posts and therefore I'm not gonna really have an additional post about it. Suffice it to say, I beat Super Mario Bros., the Lost Levels for the first time ever and Donkey Kong Country 2 again (in under 2 hours).

Here's a link...or you can scroll down.

That's super-highlight-status.

Mario World Related Post That's Pretty Boring

So, due to a serious lack of more Mario to play (Mario 2 excluded, it's different, gotta get my mojo on for that first...also Mario Kart don't count) I picked up my only other Mario cartridge, Super Mario World. However, as I was about to start a new game I looked and saw this!

No, not just the title screen (you can tell I took that pic because it's ballz), the second game file says...

That's right, 96 STAR! That means that I've beaten the crap outta Mario World already!

See? Totally beat it before. Normally I'd play again, but I remember last time I got the STAR after the 96 levels completed and so like, for realz, I shouldn't be playin' that for a while.

Best post ever.

All Marios Accounted For...With the Exception of 2...But I'll do that Later

At long last! I finally beat Mario, the Lost Levels, and then ran wildly to the other end of the house to get my camera, and then took these pictures! Also, it means I'm really cool.


This is the first jump in the last castle...you cannot make it from the top, it's impossible. Gotta drop down, then jump across, then dodge 2 swirling fire-bat things...see, that's mad hard. I'm telling you. And that's the first thing you do! The rest is like crazy hard, for serial.


A more difficult quest? What a bunch of jerks.


Victory, at last! That's the face of true happiness. I can sense a slight tinge of sadness and self-loathing too!

Also, the totally lame poll I put up showed that 75% of people thought I'd do it by tomorrow at 3PM. And just one thought that no one would really respond to the poll (seriously, it was about me completing an old video game, I'm surprised I even voted in it). Also, the one person that had that vote was me, and I think I was right.

Oh, and Max Payne was kinda weak as a movie.

Weak Yet Informative Screenshots

Here's some screenshots from the Lost Levels, they're taken with a regular digital camera so they're blurry as crap, but they kinda show how hard the game is.


Right after a huge jump, piranha plant, 2 cannons and that pipe blockin' the way, Mario is blurry because he's getting smallified.


My cuz got the game to bug out and you can kinda see him floating through that pipe up there.


Those little things flying around are leaves, representing the wind. Yes, there is wind and it makes your life difficult.


This is just a good example a typical jump in this game. Spring onto the top of that single block tower, then jump over the water because apparently Mario can only swim some of the time. This was merely the middle of the stage, there were plenty more challenges beyond this. If you look closely above the water you can make out the blurry image of Mario falling towards the water...and his death.

Pretty blurry shots, right? That's how I roll.

Onto New and Uncharted Mario

Mario 3 went down hard! Bowser was cake, the most challenging part of World 8 was the first castle and level 1, the tanks and boats were easy as pie. Delicious pie. Take that 1980s video game designers...
By the way, that end screen the first picture taken by my digital camera to appear on the blog! It is a great day indeed.



This is kinda how it felt to win.

Next on my hitlist is Super Mario Bros., The Lost Levels. This one was originally released as Mario 2 in Japan and is damn hard. It features warp zones that'll take you backwards in the game rather than allowing you to skip levels and also has evil mushrooms that are unkind to Mario's sensitive stomach. On level 2-2 now, we shall see how this goes...

Soon...

It is truly a new era of idle-uselessness.

A Good Day for Mario

A mere hour and a half after decimating Super Mario Bros. I reached World 8 in Super Mario Bros. 3. Not only that, I've got 44 lives, and a gigantic and powerful inventory of delicious morsels...

x 0

x 1

x 3

x 1

x 2 (useless I know)

x 2

x 1

x 4

x 4

P-Note x 5

Music Box x 2 (also pretty useless)

Yeah I couldn't get graphics for the last two, but whatever, you find them, it seems to be pretty damn impossible.

Also, the treasure ship appeared, it was sweet.

A Truly Great Victory

I beat the original Super Mario Bros!!

Booya. Not a half hour ago I stormed levels 8-1 through 8-3, then, on my first try, I deeestroyed Bowser's final castle and sent him into a pit of lava...it's pretty much your only option. It was magnificent. Seriously, that game is mad hard, you should be impressed.

Please, leave your congratulations.

Highlight of the Week (10/5 - 10/12)

This week's highlight comes from a Team Snipers game on Narrows. It's kinda weak though...we lost, nothin' super cool happened, but here's some cool Sniper Kills and a funtastic Grenade Stick that I got.



Linin' up the shot, 10x zoom.


Sniped!


Grabbed a Killing Spree about halfway through the battle.


Here's the toss...


Gotcha, running towards that lift isn't gonna help.


Stuck!


Here's a pretty sweet Double Kill via the Sniper Rifle.
First shot...


Following target #2...


And Double Kill!


Notice the X made by both of our Sniper Rifles missing their marks.


Grenade landed right behind him and...


See, told ya it was kinda lame. What can I say, this wasn't a good week for Halo. I have made great progress on Super Mario Bros' though...World 8!

Victory is in my sights...

Drinking Generally Makes Me Want to Play SNES

So, since hooking up my SNES in the living room, I've found that my urge to drink is followed by an urge to play 16 bit games.

So I busted out with the Super Mario All Stars cartridge and after a lot of blowing and messing with the machine in various ways (dollar bill lodged in system allows cartridge to sit in the right manner...etc...) it was time to hit up some of the old favorites...

First up, Super Mario Bros. 2, easily one of the most bizarre of the Mario series.

Turns out my cousin is totally the man at this game by the way and totally rocked it until the last boss. Sadly, the boss was never defeated due to beer and time related issues.

Not long after that session, a Super Mario Bros. 3 session was spawned into the living room.

What a fantastic game, and so great when drinking.

There was also some Megaman X thrown in there somewhere, and Megaman 7...and Mortal Kombat...and Street Fighter II. But that's dull to write about and doing so would compromise the intensity and daring creativity of this post.