Video Game Review (Posted on 06-25-2017)
You've all been waiting for it, so here you go: our review for one of the biggest, yet most popular video games in
history,
SHOWSOTROS! style. It's almost impossible not to think of this game when you're talking about the 16-bit console required to play it (to be reviewed soon). This game defies everything in your human arsenal to
beat complete the game.
The graphics are a beauty of the 16-bit era. All the colors and gradients are spot-on, and even when upscaled via RGB, it looks wonderful. The controls are perfect, with no glitches, no delays and no hang-ups (though many gamers have spotted some glitches in the game going beyond the limits). The music is your typical video game music: catchy and arranged in a way where it can loop forever. For the gameplay overall, there's nothing bad to say about it.
The goal if this game to save
Princess Toadstool to restore peace in
Dinosaur Land. You're certainly most familiar with this screenshot:
The run-through:
A button makes Mario spin-jump—useful when killing most enemies and deflecting against spikes from
Porcu-puffer and/or
The Big "Boo",
B button makes Mario jump normally,
X/Y button while pressed with the D-pad makes Mario run/dash. When riding on
Yoshi, the
X/Y button gets Yoshi to capture objects and/or enemies with its tongue (yes it's spelled
tongue, not "
tounge," people). Throughout the game, there's an instructions/information box you could hit that happily helps you, with tips and tricks, throughout your journey in knocking out enemies left and right, plus clearing the stages. However, if you've played this game time and time again, like I have, then you know where everything is—the secret areas, how to access
Star World and much more.
With the secret areas, this game features
96 levels of video gaming goodness. You may not be able to finish it all in one sitting, unless you know a proper cheat and/or are a tool-assisted speedrunning gamer, so getting through the entire game requires some patience, skill and some luck. The game isn't too hard per se, but some require all of your attention (some enemies on the game get ruthless, however, like
Torpedo Ted).
Again, as the difficulty of this game is moderate, it requires second-guessing, lots of exploring, logic, some puzzle solving (especially at the
Forest of Illusion), good timing, where to find the keys to open secret passages and areas, and just straight-up going all out smashing anything that moves. Possibly the most difficult set of levels would be the
Special world, featuring 8 levels of top-level difficulty. The last level is named
Funky, and when beaten, you see a string of coins written and that message is:
"YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER !!"
Nice!
When you beat that final level, you get to access what's called the
Alternate World. You'll notice a change in colors and environments on the
World Map, and that's normal. Plus, you see a change in enemies too!
Koopas are now
Masked Koopas;
Bullet Bill is now
Pidget Bill;
Jumping Pirahna Plant are now
Jumping Pumpkin Plant. There's no way to revert back but it's an extra feature in the game.
When you get to
Bowser, defeating him shouldn't be too much. It takes three sets of hits, and to hit him, you use
Mechakoopas, which Bowser summons, that you hold and toss upward hoping it'll land on Bowser's head. Three sets of hits equals 6 hits in total. When he's defeated, Mario saves Princess Toadstool! The game ends with credits, with enemy roll call and a nice illustration of Mario, Princess Toadstool and Luigi.
When you defeated the castles, you saved an egg. What are those eggs you saved while saving Princess Toadstool? It had to do with the Yoshi family as they are baby yoshis. Not too bad.
You notice that even when you cleared a stage/level, you can always go back to it. However, when you beaten a castle stage, or fortress, you can't go back and play it again. Here's a trick: go on any castle or fortress you've defeated, then press the shoulder buttons
L and
R. Oh, you're very welcome, anytime.
This is as classic and timeless as you can get. In fact, when my parents bought this for me back in 1993 which included this as a pack-in game, it's certainly one of my most played game growing up. It's that good.
I'm sure you've played this game at least once in your lives. Now, see if you can complete the whole game. No rush, we'll be here. Happy gaming!
We'll also be here for Dollar Deals! Save 95% off teaching supplies at
Carson-Dellosa Publishing:
© 2008-2017 written and reviewed personally by Kris Caballero.
Video Game Ratings
My Rating:
100%
0%
Fan Rating:
Video Game Credits
Main Director
Takashi Tezuka
Map Director
Hidequi Konno
Area Director
Katsuya Eguchi
Program Director
Toshihiko Nakago
Mario and System Programmer
Toshio Iwawaki
Object Programmer
Kazuaki Morita
Background Programmer
Shigehiro Kasamatsu
Tatsunori Takakura
Map Programmer
Tatsuo Nishiyama
Area Data Input
Yoshihiro Nomoto
Eiji Noto
Satoru Takahata
Character Graphic Designer
Shigefumi Hino
Sound Composer
Koji Kondo
Special Thanks To :
Yoichi Kotabe
Yasuhiro Sakai
Mie Yoshimura
Hironobu Kakui
Keizo Kato
Takao Shimizu
Dayv Brooks
Producer
Shigeru Miyamoto
Executive Producer
Hiroshi Yamauchi
THE END