So i just spent the last hour playing Mario Brothers 3 and finally was able to get past the first castle. I actually have a headache now because of the frustration I had playing the game. It may be because I’m used to having a controller in my hands but I feel like there was more than just that as to why I couldn’t get past those jumping turtles without dieing.
We keep mentioning in class that a good game is not too challenging but not too easy. I found this game pretty challenging and that’s why I got so frustrated. I found that the character had a very slow response rate. If I was running forward and wanted to turn back around, by the time Mario started heading in the other direction the turtles had already jumped on me. It was also hard to control the character in mid air so he could land on the creatures and kill them. Did anyone else experience these difficulties?
The only reason I would hit my head on the question marks was to see if there was a mushroom or feather underneath it so I could level up. Once I knew where all the mushrooms were I’d only hit that question mark and leave the ones that only gave you points. The points became irrelevant to me the more I played. I don’t know if this was the case for most people. I feel like once someone has mastered the game, then the points would matter to them because they’d keep trying to beat their high score. Other than that, I don’t see the purpose of keeping track of your score.
You may just be a poor player, but I really do think the controller (or absence of one) affects SMB3 gameplay quite a bit. The keyboard seems far less responsive than controller buttons. But it reminds me of how important the interface is when we talk about games (going back to Montfort’s pyramid).
I found Super Mario 3 frustrating as well. One issue may have been the emulator that you were using, which can effect gameplay. For instance, I found it impossible to both run fast and run at the same time, possibly because of an error in emulator or the downloaded game.
Another issue could be that this is the third Mario Bros. With each game, the developers probably try to make it more challenging and difficult to keep the players who beat the previous game buying more.
Or, perhaps you, like me, are just not used to this kind of game. Most games now have less and less skills and game goals in common with the past. If you compare how Pac-man is played to this game, there’s a huge difference, just like if you compare this to Halo or Team Fortress 2 there’s a huge difference.
I believe your perceived problem of control is caused by the fact that you expect mario to stop on a dime like he does in the first super mario bros. I had this problem myself at first, but I think if you get used to the idea that mario has inertia, then it’s less of an issue. Another game called N has a similar physics system, but I never felt like that was an issue. This was likely at least in part because I did not have the preconception that the character should move in a certain way.
Though it can still be difficult at times, to be sure.
If i remember from previous mario games that when you reach one hundred points you get an extra life. This is to encourage players to get the points in a level and is very helpful because you have limited lives and have to start over if you lose them all. I think this creates and interesting trade off between taking more risk to get more coins and saving your limited lives so you can continue the game.
In response to the relative challenge of the game it is definitely more difficult on the computer than on the original system. Also i think that games these days are easier in general from both increases in technology and game companies making games that appeal to more people. There are games that appeal to hardcore gamers who want a challenge and gamers who just want a game for fun and not a challenge. I think they will limited by the technology of the time so that mario bros seems harder today then most games.
Having played more recent versions of Mario Brothers on my Gameboy, I can certainly empathize with the difficulty with the game controls. Even though I had the advantage of knowing the world of the game, the general goals, etc., I could NOT stop dying. It was both frustrating and jarring, and it made it difficult for me to get into the game or achieve any kind of flow.
When the game’s interface doesn’t allow for the player to achieve flow, the game is in trouble. If you don’t have the incentive to continue playing, then the game can’t teach you what it has to offer. As I was talking about the difficulty of games with Katie S., we both agreed that it would be groundbreaking if someone invented an algorithm that would constantly evaluate the player’s skills and adjust the difficulty level to tailor the game to the player. This would allow each player to achieve constant flow, even if they’d played the game several times before (as it would be made more difficult) or had never played before (as it would start out more basic). Though, such a program would likely take up far too much memory, and become economically impractical, it could revolutionize gameplay.
As it is, many games do begin at a less-challenging level. Games like Assassin’s Creed 2 have basic missions to get you acclimated to the controls, the game world, and your character before you go any deeper into the game. However, for games like the computer version of Mario Bros 3 that we played, there is no “learning the controls” period, which can make getting started a lot harder, and far more frustrating.