Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels

After Super Mario Bros took the world by storm, Nintendo rushed to deliver a sequel to the now classic platformer. As the story goes, the game was deemed too hard for western audiences, and I can certainly see why they would think that, but I often feel this is just part of the story. The game simply wasn’t that good to begin with, and completely out of touch with what made the original Super Mario Bros so good in the first place.

In retrospect, this sequel brought very little to the table compared to subsequent games in the Super Mario series. Even the western release of Super Mario Bros 2 is much more historically relevant to the series as a whole than this release. This was really meant to be a transitional game of some sorts to keep momentum, until Nintendo could come up with what would actually push the series forward.

First of all, there is very little difference in terms of presentation to the original. This game was built on the original’s engine and there isn’t a major perceivable technical gap between the two. It does have a few slight graphical improvements, but overall, it feels much like the first game. It can be good or bad depending on what you expect, but I don’t really mind one bit. Super Mario Bros looked amazing, and had a solid gameplay on top of it, so it would be natural for Nintendo to exploit such a great creation a bit more.

This is a side-scrolling platformer in its fundamental form. Start in the left-most part of the level and attempt to get to the right-most extremity, jumping your way through several hazards, pits and types of platforms along the way. You can play as Mario or Luigi. Unlike the original, there is a difference between the two. Mario is faster, more grounded and has a weaker jump. Luigi is slower, slippery and jumps higher.

The brothers once again attempt to save Princess Toadstool from the clutches of the evil Bowser; same old. The actual plot of the game is the same as the original game, with the exception that it is set in a parallel world to it. I just love how absurd some story-lines for legacy games are, especially for those games where a plot doesn’t make any difference whatsoever — which is clearly the case here, by the way — but this one just feels lazy.

The player has access to a few different items along the way, such as the Mushroom, which transforms the controllable character into their Super form; the Fire Flower, which gives the ability to throw arc fireballs forwards; the Starman, which grants temporary invincibility; Green Mushrooms yield a 1-up life to the player. Debuting here is the Poison Mushroom, a special type of mushroom that does the reverse of a regular mushroom, and actually kills Mario or Luigi — or decreases them back to their small form in case they were in their Super or Fire Suit form. The Poison Mushroom doesn’t really add much to the game, except the requirement to check spots where it is located to promptly avoid it.

The controls changed a bit from the original. In Super Mario Bros, there was an annoying “slinging” mechanic that permeated the gameplay and was ultimately the worst aspect of it. Mario/Luigi would start running, gaining momentum, and out of nowhere their speed would reach its fastest degree, slinging you forward. This annoying issue was corrected in The Lost Levels, and now the movement is a bit more fluid. It’s worth noting that the problem still exists, and would only be completely eradicated in later installments, but at least in this aspect this game triumphs and feels like a step forward.

The main playthrough features 8 thematic worlds, each containing 4 levels. The last level is always a Bower Castle level where you need to face off Bowser at the end, like how it was in the original. There are secret levels, though. When you beat the game without using any warp pipes, you get to experience world 9, which also features 4 levels. Those really willing can also unlock a set of 4 new worlds (world A, B, C and D), each with 4 levels — totalling 16 secret letter stages — by completing the game 8 times.

The actual levels are nothing to write home about. And some bonus levels are basically tougher versions of regular levels. The main game is filled with weirdly thematic levels that hardly make any sense, with strange enemy placements and an abundance of gimmicky design. Hell, you can even find bloopers, which normally are found in water levels, just flying in the air like it’s nobody’s business. When it comes down to cohesiveness, the game makes very little sense. It’s a romhack way before romhacks were a thing.

Sound-wise it’s still pretty awesome. The music and sound effects are the same as the original Super Mario Bros, and we all know the original has a fair share of memorable tunes in it. So it’s not a bad deal at all. Throughout the adventure, you’ll listen to some of the most classic tunes in gaming. In my mind, that’s a win.

Another important aspect is the difficulty. Yes, this is a very difficult game. This is an instance where the difficulty actually hinders the fun a little bit, mostly because it’s just unfair. The controls don’t feel fine-tuned enough to hold such drastic increase. The levels are problematic with all sorts of “gotcha” moments waiting to happen and jeopardize your advancement, but I reckon the worst part difficulty-wise is the Bowser fight at the end of each world.

You see, you’ll probably have to restart over and over each world and try to beat all 4 levels with the two stock lives, so after enduring the 3 initial levels and the castle, there is a Bowser which you’ll have to pass through and get the hammer on the other side. But since this encounter has too much randomness attached to it, many attempts will actually end there, in this bland, rehashed face-off. And believe me, passing through Bowser is tough right off the bat here, with later battles being pretty difficult, with blocks, moving platforms and an insane amount of hammers thrown your way.

What actually gets me is that Nintendo seemed to have completely forgotten what makes the original so engaging, and that clever level design goes a long way in creating something worth playing. It’s hard to believe that the company that designed such levels as the first level in the original, with all its ingenuity and depth could only come up with such horrendous designs not long after, going as far as calling it an official release.

The lost levels of this second iteration of the Super Mario franchise could frankly have never been found, and not much will be missed by skipping them. There isn’t much to be memorable in terms of thematic freshness, nor newer enemies, nor cool new concepts, nor interesting, ingenuous levels to be played. They just got the first game’s engine and started to come up with the most masochistic, lazy designs conceivable and thought it would somehow be a good idea. How they managed to think that thought is anyone’s guess.

Donkey Kong Jr.

Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to the original Donkey Kong, one of the most classic releases in video-games ever. Donkey Kong is the game which both Donkey Kong and Mario — then called Jumpman — debuted, so it’s historically a big deal. It’s basically a sequel to one of the most important games of all time. This is also the first game in history where Mario was named Mario. Important stuff.

We have to keep in mind when playing games like this that video-games have changed a lot since 1982. What video-games stand for today is definitely not what they stood for at that time, so playing legacy games like this is an exercise in historical context above all. Video-games were played basically for the challenge and high-scores. Arcade was king, in a time before home consoles started to become a thing.

Donkey Kong had been a success and a follow up was just a matter of time. Donkey Kong Jr came out on June 30, 1982 and was also a hit on the Arcades. It was eventually ported to many different systems, including the NES, Nintendo’s first home console.

The game follows a simple yet interesting story. After Mario defeated Donkey Kong in the first game, the gorilla was placed under Mario’s care. Donkey Kong Jr, his son, wasn’t going to have that and decided to rescue his father. Now the roles are reversed and Mario is the one trying to thwart the plans of the poor boy in his attempt to release his father from the clutches of the evil plumber.

The controls are pretty bulky, much like the original. Even small falls will instantly kill Donkey Kong Jr. There is more variety in what the player must do during the playthrough though. It takes advantage of the fact that Donkey Kong Jr is a gorilla to allow him to go up and down poles, chains or whatever he can get his hands on. Mario will unleash animals onto Junior from the top of the screen, with the trajectories of releases being completely random.

There is a very interesting mechanic implemented here that makes a difference. Donkey Kong Jr can hold either one or two poles/chains at a time. If he’s holding only one, he’ll have a pretty slow ascent, but will descend pretty fast. Alternatively, if Junior is holding two poles/chains, one in each hand, he’ll be able to ascend pretty quickly, but descending will be much slower. This mechanic adds a lot of depth to an otherwise more straight-forward system.

The one/two limbs holding mechanic really makes the game much more interesting to be played, especially in the last stage, where you’ll have to carry keys up some chains with enemies coming vertically through the chains and birds flying horizontally. Being able to quickly change one or two hands to escape the threats by quickly going up or down is essential. There’s also the possibility to use fruits scattered around the stages to destroy enemies, though the timing must be well-planned since the fruits fall down and the enemy must be directly behind it. It’s good to earn points, though.

There are 4 stages in total, which can be easily completed in a few minutes. After completing one loop of the game, it starts all over again, with a harder difficulty. There are two initial difficulties, A and B. A would be the beginners difficulty, while the B would be the expert difficulty.

Players can play to see how far they can get in terms of loops or to get high-scores. There’s solo play and multiplayer for two players. If playing with a friend, both will take turns playing, passing the turn every time the active player dies. Players start with 2 lives at the beginning — which grants three tries —, but more lives can be received for every 20.000 points acquired.

Graphically, it’s very rudimentary, but that’s to be expected from a game hailing from the distant year 1982. At the time, it was possibly one of the most advanced-looking games there was, as there is a clear focus on themes as the levels progress, and each one ends up being pretty distinguishable from one another.

The sound is pretty good, with the instantly recognizable Arcade-like beeps and blips from early video-games. Again, it’s what’s expected from legacy video-games from a primordial era. Pretty classic stuff. It’s also worth noting that the sound was composed by Yukio Kaneoka, who mentored other Nintendo composers such as Koji Kondo.

Donkey Kong Jr deserves to be played for its classic status alone. I can’t say it held up strong after all these decades of technological development, nor that it will be a superbly engaging experience, but this is a fine piece of historical gaming that anyone slightly interested in video-games should experience. Who knows, perhaps you’ll cheer up every once in a while to pick up the controller and spend some quality 15 minutes making Mario feel the heat of being the villain for once.

Life Force

Sometimes I just think of how much video-games gained from being taken less seriously, stuff from the 80s and the 90s mostly. Take Life Force for example, a galaxy-eating Salamander threatens life as we know it and the whole universe is at risk, so you must board a small ship to fearlessly put an end to this cosmic threat. How wonderfully silly is that? There’s no gray area story-telling, no cloak-and-dagger aspirations with futile complexity, no convoluted motivations, just plain old absurdity for the sake of entertainment.

You’d need to consult the manual to be aware of all that because the game doesn’t even feel the need to waste a second telling you this. It just pops you right into action and asks you to perform. This is video-gaming at its core. It’s you, the controller and the challenge. You might attempt to high-score, but that’s just better performance.

Life Force was released in the west as a revamp of the original title, Salamander, in a series of relaunches and updates that are so complex that it’s not even worth completely mentioning here. Suffice to say that the original game, Salamander, had received a different style of mechanics from its original game in the series, Gradius — which Salamander/Life Force are spin-offs of. Instead of having the upgrades gauge which allowed you to choose whichever upgrade you wanted, provided you had collected the sufficient amount of booster items along the way, it featured a more direct system in which you collected the upgrades directly from the stages themselves.

Sure, Konami was still experimenting with the series, only one game had been released and they tried to make it a bit more traditional. It turned out that it wasn’t the best idea, the upgrade gauge added a dose of strategy that was just unprecedented. Since Gradius was such a primordial release and one of the first shooters to pack many of the aspects that would define shooters in the years to come, one could say that there wasn’t much to be compared to. But even today, the upgrade gauge is such a cool concept, so ingrained into the Gradius series, that it’s hard to imagine it without it.

Understandable, Konami was looking to try things out and decided to release Salamander with a brand new system. After realizing their mistake, they went on to undo it and reestablish the series with its now instantly recognizable feature. The NES version uses the classic upgrade gauge as well as a few graphical and thematic overhauls.

For example, in the original Salamander, the stages had a more mechanical look to them, which was in tune with what Gradius had established a year earlier. When the game was being localized to be released in the West, the developers thought western audiences wouldn’t enjoy the predominant mechanized look, and decided to make thematic changes. The stages were reworked to look like you were actually flying inside the gigantic beast itself, so you’d maneuver through the kidney zone, the liver zone, the lung zone, and so on, trying to reach the brain to ultimately prevail.

The more biological feel to the game suited it quite nicely. Still, the NES version features a different set of stages. Two of them offer the organic theme of the arcade western release, while others are more akin to the Japanese original. Moreover, stages 4 and 5 are unique to the NES version. Stage 5, for instance, is the temple stage, which is quite an unorthodox choice for a game like this, not exactly fitting in neither mechanical nor biological atmosphere choices. The order isn’t consistent among the versions, with occasional switched bosses as well, along with exclusive bosses only found in the NES release of the game.

Unlike Gradius, which features exclusively horizontal style gameplay, Life Force features a hybrid gameplay. Half of the levels are horizontally oriented, and half are vertically oriented. It adds to the diversity of stages, but if you have a clear preference over one of the two styles it can be a problem. The new vertical stages are pretty good, and they provide the same intense Gradius experience as the horizontal ones.

Something that is clearly a step forward in comparison to Gradius are the boss battles. In the original Gradius, you would always face the same mechanized boss over and over. It tended to get tedious. This time around, they offer a multitude of bosses with a wide range of forms and patterns. It’s never a dull battle and they’re clearly more impactful.

There’s also a gameplay mechanic that will show up twice during the playthrough that is worth mentioning. It’s a fast-paced maneuvering segment. During the fourth stage and the final segment after fighting the final boss, you’ll have to endure an intense segment where your ship will accelerate and you’re gonna have to maneuver through the blockades and hazards to come out in one piece. The one in the fourth stage is cool, but the final segment is a bit broken.

The upgrades are a bit different than they were in Gradius. In Gradius, only the “Speed” power-up had more than one stage of functionality; now, all upgrades have two stages, you have to apply them twice to get its full potential. It still features the “Speed”, which raises your ship’s speed and maneuverability. The “Missile” upgrade now shoots missiles upwards and downwards. The two primary projectile upgrades are completely different, one of them is the “Ripple”, which shoots circular rounds that have some spread; and the other is the “Laser”, which is more powerful but has no spread whatsoever.

You can still apply two “Options” which are a staple in the Gradius series to serve as indestructible firing pods, following you around and providing quite some depth of gameplay possibilities. The last upgrade is the “Force”, which provides some defense to your otherwise defenseless little ship. It’s worth noting that the shield feels nerfed from the original Gradius, since the “Force” can hardly provide defense aside from occasional meager bullets. It’s gotten worse because this game focuses a bit more on more powerful hazards than Gradius, such as falling boulders and fire waves, which sometimes instills us with the feeling that we’re constantly under-powered.

Life Force also makes a few adjustments on how players respawn after a death. In the original Gradius, you’d have to restart from a checkpoint, which often brought more headaches than convenience because you’d lose all your upgrades, and some checkpoints could be quite brutal for players trying to recover — there is even a term for that, Gradius Syndrome. This time, you get back into the action automatically, although losing a life. This helps a lot in making the game feel much more dynamic, avoiding the break of the flow and eventual horrendous checkpoint placements with very little chance of survival.

One very cool change from Gradius is the fact that now two players play simultaneously instead of in turns. When playing with a friend, you both get to face the action cooperatively, and it’s so much better than having to sit waiting for your turn. Playing alongside someone is not only fun, but can ease up the difficulty for those having problems with it.

Once again concessions had to be made to make the game run on a NES. Other versions of the game let you have up to 4 Options (secondary firing pods), you can only have up to 2 in the NES version. The enemies and the stages themselves were modified to work fundamentally the same, but generally with less stuff going on at the same time. The graphics are simplified versions of what you would see in the Arcades or even other more powerful game consoles. In the end, once again I’m just glad they managed to make it fit nicely into a NES cartridge, even with the concessions. It ultimately becomes another Salamander/Life Force experience that is unique and quite worth it.

As is often the case with shooters and Arcade ports, the game features a very stark difficulty. It’s certainly not the kind of game you’ll be able to master after a few attempts. To help players with that, the Konami Code — which actually debuted in the original Gradius — is back. The Konami Code in the original Gradius gave the player some upgrades automatically, this time it helps out a bit more, it hands the player 30 lives — which is actually more akin to the historical purpose of it.

If you somehow thought that Gradius felt too brute, too rudimentary for your taste, perhaps Life Force might be your cup of tea. It certainly is a lot friendlier to newcomers than the original Gradius. Fair enough, some mechanics might not have worked as they should, and the pacing might be somewhat erratic, but it ultimately delivers a very intense shooting experience. The NES version is certainly unique in many aspects, and ends up being one of the finest releases for the console.

Ice Climber

Sometimes it’s hard to apply the context to its full extent. In many cases, do we really care? Sure, games have a history, but when we’re playing them, we’re not playing their history, we’re playing what they can provide. Take Ice Climber for example, judging this title many decades after its original release is not an easy task. It was one of the launching titles for the Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as NES.

Yes, the NES, Nintendo’s primordial console. First released on the Arcades in October 1984, it soon saw its release on the NES in early 1985 in Japan, and late 1985 in the rest of the world. Everything was different back then, and so were video-games, how they were viewed, their purpose, their target audiences.

But then again, it’s not like there aren’t classic video-games that stood the test of time. There’s quite a few games from around that time that hold significant entertainment value even today. Ice Climber might not be exactly one of those. Sure, it can be fun for a little while, but there’s quite a few problems with it that hold it back.

The basic premise is actually pretty unique, even by today’s standards. You have two characters, a boy named Popo (first player), and a girl named Nana (second player). They can jump and break blocks of ice by jumping at them to scale mountains. You must reach the top. Every mountain has 8 stories to be conquered. As you climb and the screen adjusts, you can’t go back; and if you fall down a pit, you lose a life. You also have a wooden mallet to protect yourself from enemies that might happen to show up during the ascent.

The main part of the level is conquered when you reach the top of the 8 stories, after which a bonus stage is triggered. In the regular ascent, there’s no time limit and you can plan your moves as you please. In the bonus level, on the other hand, you have only 40 seconds to reach the end and jump on a bird. According to the manual, the bird is a condor, and it’s shown holding a vegetable and flying to the top of the mountain, so that’s probably why you do what you do.

The sides of the mountain are connected, meaning that if you exit the screen through the left side, you’ll appear on the right side. It can be used to your advantage to circumvent certain tight spots. There are a few different blocks of ice as well, some of them are breakable, some are not, some of them will allow the character to stand still while others will push them to the sides, probably because they’re slippery or something.

There are three types of enemies. Topi, Nitpicker and the Polar Bear. Topi are small Yeti-like creatures and are the most common enemies. They’re confined to one floor only and will keep circling the floor for as long as they can. They can be taken down but they’re respawnable. One interesting thing about them is that when they find a hole in the ice, they’ll go off-screen and get a chunk of ice to refill it. Trying to move up a floor with a Topi might be hard if the jump is tough, because they’ll keep blocking the hole you make on the ice.

The Nitpicker is a bird that flies around the stage. There’s not much else it does except fly around, but since its movements are less predictable, they can become quite a problem. You can jump attack them, but it’s much less reliable. The last enemy is the Polar Bear, and it’s the rarest one. It only appears when you take too long on a certain floor, then the Polar Bear will appear and push the screen up; if you can’t keep up, you’ll probably fall down the pit.

The enemies aren’t the only dangers of the ascent. You can also find droplets of ice that will occasionally fall down. These icicles have the power to kill you instantly, so watching out for their formations and being extra careful for when they finally drop is recommended.

This game could have been pretty solid fun if it wasn’t for one major problem. It has an absurdly awful collision detection. For a platformer it’s quite a deal breaker, as you need to make pretty weird adjustments for jumping and sometimes, even when it seems like you’re gonna make the jump, you don’t. This leads to incredibly frustrating instances of jumps failing because the wonky floor detection just doesn’t seem to register what you see on the screen.

The controls overall are pretty tankish with very little dynamic to them. It’s not as one-dimensional as prior games like the original Donkey Kong, but it’s not as fluid as later NES games, for example. If you play it with an open mind and realize beforehand that it won’t feature state-of-the-art mechanics, the issues with the controls can be circumvented and even absorbed as handicap or a charming broken product of its time.

There are a total of 32 different mountains. You can tackle them individually by choosing whichever one you want to play at the main menu or try going for a highscore by playing as many of them consecutively. You have three spare lives before you get a game over. The game is programmed to auto-increase its difficulty the more consecutive mountains you clear. Enemies get faster movements, icicles fall faster and more often, the rotating clouds that serve as platforms in some floors are much faster, you get more pushback from slippery ice, etc.

The graphics are primitive, but it does carry a certain cohesiveness to it. It just works for what it attempts to convey. The sound is also pretty archaic, both the actual music and the effects. There’s just two main tracks, one for the regular level and one for the bonus portion. After playing for a while they might even start getting stuck in your head.

There’s multiplayer for those looking for some 2-player fun. And contrary to all odds, the multiplayer is actually pretty interesting. Sure, the disaster that is the collision detection won’t be solved, but at least you’ll have another friend to share the frustration and have schadenfreude fun out of it. Strangely, this game can be played both competitively and cooperatively. If you want to compete on who gets to the top first, trying all dirty tactics to take out your opponent, you can. If you both want to help each other out trying to overcome the obstacles that should come your way, you also can. This really is an interesting game to play with a friend, and the multiplayer almost redeems a few shortcomings.

Ice Climber is a pretty cool idea that unfortunately wasn’t realized in its fullest. Certainly the hardware limitations at the time played a huge role, but the fact that video-gaming was still in its infancy and developers were grasping the ins and outs of the media also played a huge role. Nintendo’s team would go on to develop games like Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda, so the experience certainly paid off. If the clumsy controls don’t get in the way, it can be fun for a while, especially if you have a friend to play alongside.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Legend goes that once Howard Phillips, game tester with close ties with Nintendo Power at the time, tested the original Super Mario Bros 2, he found the game too difficult for western audiences. I think that’s half of the story because when he played the game he probably found the game too difficult for any audience, too punishing to be any fun. Hence why Nintendo was probably worried about keeping the Mario brand’s momentum outside of Japan and decided to edit another Nintendo game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic with Mario franchise stuff and release it in the West instead.

This proved to be the best move since, first, Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was never going to be released outside of Japan anyway, so western audiences got to enjoy the game with rebranded design with Super Mario features; and second, the original Super Mario Bros 2 was indeed an atrocious game, not only because of its bizarre difficulty, but because if failed in advancing the original Super Mario Bros in any meaningful way — despite having better tuned physics mechanics.

Even Japan eventually got to experience the rebranding as a release called Super Mario USA. So in the end Super Mario Bros 2 managed to keep the momentum going for the Super Mario franchise outside of Japan, and paved the way for the better-realized Super Mario Bros 3. The western release of Super Mario Bros 2 is not to be underestimated in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, it might be seen by some as the black sheep of the Mario franchise because of the whole context, but Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic was a great game, and so is Super Mario Bros 2.

The plot revolves around Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad all having a dream about Subcon, the land of dreams, and how it has been conquered by the villain Wart. When out on a picnic, the group realizes they all shared the same dream. They notice a small cave nearby, and inside the cave a long staircase leading to a door. Upon opening the door they see it with their own eyes, Subcon, the land of dreams.

The game is set in 2D platforming perspective. Unlike the original Super Mario Bros release and the Japanese second iteration, this game features a more roaming style, with stages having lots of vertical exploration as well. The vertical shifting is not fluid though, every time the screen must adjust in the vertical axis it freezes for a brief moment to make the change. It’s not really a nuisance, it quickly becomes part of the charm.

There’s the option to select four characters, Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool and Toad, all with different skills and control styles. This is something that’s entirely new to the series, which up to that point and for a long while afterwards only featured Mario with the eventual addition of Luigi as the secondary character. Only when Super Mario 3D World was launched for the Wii U that something of the sort was implemented as well.

Mario is the all-around guy, he doesn’t excel at anything, but he’s also not subpar in anything. I find him to be the least interesting character to play as. Luigi is a jumping powerhouse, he can jump in an arc which has incredible vertical distance as well as pretty good horizontal reach. Luigi can be a bit unwieldy at times, as his feet are a bit slippery.

Toad is the fastest character of them all, but he has a pretty bad jump. Princess Toadstool is probably the most useful character in the game. She has a floating ability that lets her float in the air for a short while. The floating ability is great for newcomers and comes in handy in many sections. It comes at a price though, she’s the slowest character.

Depending on who you choose to play, you’ll have a completely different experience, which works pretty well for the game’s longevity. When you reach the end, you can find out how many times each character was used in each of the game’s segments. Once you start a segment, you can’t change the character anymore, so you must choose wisely when you get the chance.

The campaign is composed of 7 worlds, each containing 3 segments — with the exception of the seventh, which only has two. At the end of each segment, there’s a sub-boss fight; and at the end of the third segment of each world, there’s the boss fight. At the end of the last world you face the big boss Wart.

There’s only one sub-boss, Birdo. You fight her over and over again, and it gets increasingly more difficult as you advance. Basically Birdo will spit projectiles and you’ll have to time your jump to land on top of them to hold and throw them back at Birdo. It’s not a difficult fight per say, though later in the playthrough you’ll be having to do it in tight platforms leading to instant death pits, with Birdo occasionally spitting fire instead of projectiles and even moving floors.

The playable character can hold items and throw them at will. There will be small grass tufts scattered all around which can be pulled to reveal all sorts of items. One of these items is the Magic Potion. When you throw one of these potions it creates a door on the location it hits; this door leads to the Sub-Space. The Sub-Space is an important location, since that’s where you’ll be able to find coins and Mushrooms. The coins are used in the slot machines after clearing a segment and the Mushroom adds a heart to your 2-heart initial health gauge — up to 4 hearts is possible. The hearts you collect in a segment only last for as long as that segment lasts.

The gameplay relies heavily on some mechanics. One of these is key hunting. You’ll frequently find locked doors on your way, and that means that somewhere, a key lies. These keys are always guarded by magical masks which are dormant for as long as the key rests within their hold. So when you snatch them, these masks will awaken and hunt you down mercilessly. Evading these hellish soaring fiends is no small task.

The game also features an interesting digging mechanic which is quite interesting. When you find dirt tiles, you’ll be able to dig them out, creating a blank space for you to snuck in. In some instances, you’ll have to watch out for the digging, since you’ll be required to make the trip back, and digging a lot of tiles might make the terrain inaccessible, or at least harder to traverse. Not to mention the fact that enemies will be roaming around and might catch you off guard by falling through some of your tunnels.

There’s a whole lot of enemies throughout the adventure, many of which are very peculiar to this release. Many enemies debuted here and eventually became well-known enemies in the franchise, such as Shy-Guys and Bob-Ombs, for example. Since it changes the core gameplay mechanic of the Super Mario franchise, jumping on top of them won’t do anything, you’ll probably just take damage or ride on top of them. To defeat enemies you’ll have to either get them and throw them away/into other enemies, or use the items taken from grass tufts to attack. Alternatively, by collecting 5 cherries a Starman will appear, as always, granting the character invincibility for a brief period of time.

Graphically, the game is pretty well made. There’s a whole lot of inside locations in this, and the thematic differences are not as drastic as in other Mario releases, but it still features pretty atmospheric locations and expertly designed landscapes. As for the sound, both the soundtrack and the effects fit the game perfectly. There’s not a lot of variety, so you’ll be listening to the same tunes over and over; like a tune for the outside, a tune for the inside, a tune for the Sub-Space and a tune for the sub-boss battles. It gets repetitive, but the ones that are featured are surely memorable.

The fact that Super Mario Bros 2 is just a rebranded version of an original product might interfere with how people see this title. I get it, but for what it’s worth, this is an awesome game, worthy of carrying the Super Mario legacy. With the bar set so high, it might even be understandable that many people might feature this as one of the weakest Super Mario games out there, but it’s also worth noting that even the weakest Mario titles are some of the most classic releases in video-games, that’s how much respect this franchise demands. Super Mario Bros 2 is a superb game and wields the Mario brand with valor.

Super Mario Bros. 3

By the time Super Mario Bros 3 hit the shelves Mario was already on the top of the world. It was the flagship series for Nintendo and offered a platforming experience like no other. Still, the sequels to the original were shaky — both in Japan and the West. The Japanese second installment was a carbon copy of the original with slightly tweaked controls and an absurd level of difficulty. The western second installment — while still insanely good — was an edited version of a Japanese game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. While both games had their merits, fans were waiting for a definitive sequel that would leave a more enduring mark. That’s where Super Mario Bros 3 comes in.

Many are the concepts which debuted in Super Mario Bros 3, many became a staple for the Mario series in the years to come. Stuff like the overall map navigation, ensuring that each world features a general location where the player can follow a path and choose the stages; new items and Mario transformations like the Racoon Mario, the first time he gets the ability to fly; the Koopalings governing the evildoings of each world, with them serving as sub-bosses at the end of them. It really brings Mario to a whole new level.

After the events of the previous Super Mario Bros games, peace was restored to the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser wasn’t done though, so he sent his seven children, the Koopalings, to wreak havoc in the other countries of the Mushroom World. Bowser’s minions stole seven magic wands and transformed the kings of the seven lands into animals. Mario and Luigi are once again tasked in restoring peace to the land. While they were at it, Princess Toadstool gets kidnapped again by Bowser and they also have to rescue the poor princess. The game will give you hints of what’s going on, but to get a full picture of what’s actually happening plot-wise the manual should be consulted. The plot is absolutely skippable anyway.

The game continues with the 2D platforming style that was used in the first three games — the original and the two versions of Super Mario Bros 2. It’s interesting that, at first, Nintendo was going to make a revamp and create a game where Mario is controlled top-down, being able to jump and move around at will. Technical limitations impeded that from happening.

Mario still has the ability to run and jump on stuff. You’ll be doing a lot of that. Along with Super Mario (when he eats the mushroom) and Fire Mario (when he gets a Fire Flower) other transformations and items can be found. When Mario gets the Super Leaf, he’ll transform into Raccoon Mario, this allows him to use his tail as an attack move, glide and even fly for a while by getting the necessary propulsion from running. The Tanooki Suit transforms him into Tanooki Mario, which is basically the same as the Raccoon Mario with the added bonus of being able to turn into a statue for damage and defense.

Other items such as The P-Wing yields Mario the abilities of the Raccoon Mario with the added bonus of not having to worry about getting impulse, it lasts for only one stage though. The Frog Suit allows Mario to become Frog Mario and make swimming incredibly easier. The Hammer Suit transforms Mario into one of the hammer throwing guys, allowing him to also throw hammers. Marking a comeback from previous games there’s also the Starman, which grants temporary invincibility to Mario.

Power-ups can be acquired within the levels themselves, especially the more common ones like the Mushroom or the Super Leaf, but some can only be obtained in very specific situations inside the stages themselves, if ever, being therefore pretty rare. All of these power-ups also exist in the form of items which can be selected and used from the world map though. So saving a good power-up for a tough stage is never a bad move.There’s an inventory which can hold up to 28 items.

There are other ways to receive items other than within the stages, you can get them by performing certain actions, by defeating roaming opponents around the map, or visiting Toad Houses scattered about the map. These Toad Houses let you pick one of three treasure chests, each containing some item, whichever you choose will yield the item contained inside. Toad Houses can only be visited once.

Certain items actually have a usage in the world map. Like the Hammer — not to be confused with the Hammer Suit — which can be used to break boulders and reveal secret areas and shortcuts; or the Music Box, which puts wandering enemies to sleep, allowing you to skip them. A very important item are the Magic Whistles, which can be used to warp to later levels, sort of like how the secret pipes worked in the original.

Mario has a gauge called P-meter, as in Power Meter, or simply “P”. As you start running it starts filling up, if you keep the momentum for a short while, you’ll reach full speed. At full speed you not only move at Mario’s maximum speed, you can also take flight if you have a flying power-up.

The game still uses the lives system. If you run out of them and get a game over you can start from the beginning of the current world you’re playing. Let me remind you that it wasn’t the case with the western version of Super Mario Bros 2, where you actually had continues and after you ran out of them you had to start all over. As the game gets decently challenging from the third world forward, it’s a welcome feature.

When you reach the end of a certain level, you have the chance of touching a spinning roulette with three different card outcomes, mushroom, flower or star. If you manage to get three of any of them you get a certain amount of lives, with the star being the preferred one, yielding 5 extra lives for those who get three. That’s one of the few ways to collect extra lives aside from the well-known green mushroom found in certain spots, but you can also play a spinning mini-game in certain spaces of the overworld, trying also to get three pieces of mushroom/flower/star.

You’ll have to traverse through 8 worlds in total, seven worlds in the Mushroom World and the Dark World, Bowser’s domains. I find that Mario games before Super Mario World had less impact when it comes to individual levels, meaning that while the first few levels will probably become somewhat memorable after constant playing, the same can’t be said about all of them. They’re better remembered as a part of the thematic group within the worlds. The stages are brief, but very intense, which is always a great thing.

Super Mario Bros 3 might be one of the less dynamic Mario games out there. It prizes patience and elegant execution performing movements rather than sheer intensity. It ultimately forges a style very unique which no other Mario even comes close to emulating.

The graphics received drastic changes as well. The better familiarity with the hardware system and the introduction of the MMC3 mapper chip built in cartridges helped create much more expansive graphics. The game also manages to scroll in two different axes as well, horizontal and vertically. Super Mario Bros 2 (western release) also featured the MMC3, but to perform the axis shift the screen had to freeze for an instant, something that Super Mario Bros 3 didn’t have to. Overall, the graphics are much more vibrant and detailed, with a more clear sense of depth and better outline techniques.

The sound was composed by now well-known Koji Kondo and also takes advantage of better knowledge of hardware intricacies. The sound in Super Mario Bros 3 feels more layered than previous releases, allowing for much better immersion. The tracks seem to feature a mellower, more serene vibe at less intense moments, while retaining the heart-pounding tunes for climaxes, like sub-boss battles. An excellent soundtrack all around.

Super Mario Bros 3 is a one-of-a-kind video-game. It can boast about the privilege of being called the first game in the Mario series of many long-lasting features that are now seen as mandatory for any new installment in the series that comes out. It successfully set itself apart from previous Mario experiences and crafted a style that can be instantly recognized, carefully tuning the gameplay to a pace that feels comfortable, and setting coherent obstacles within the stages that fully grasp what this game’s soul is all about. Super Mario Bros 3 is a masterpiece and an experience to be remembered.

Gradius

Gradius was already rocking the Arcades when it debuted on the NES. It wasn’t a perfect port, some concessions had to be made though. The graphics suffered a bit, some patterns were changed, enemies were removed, gameplay elements scratched, but overall the result is pretty satisfactory for the technical limitations at the time. Gradius managed to offer the primordial shooter experience on a console.

Gradius is a horizontal style shooter. It is composed of 7 different courses with boss battles at the end of them. Thematically, there is very little difference between them aside from occasional theme-specific enemies, or some unique elements that compose the actual stage itself. You’ll basically be flying in the blackness of space with different types of hazards in the forefront. It changes a bit at the end, when you enter some kind of gigantic machinery corridor, rushing toward the evil brain that’s seemingly controlling all this space havoc, but that’s about it.

You’re in charge of the Vic Viper spaceship. At first, your ship is horrendously under-powered. You’re slow, your shots seem like they wouldn’t take down a fly, and any contact with basically anything will blow you to bits instantly. Occasionally, items can be dropped by enemies, like a blue booster thingy that completely wipes out all the enemies on-screen when you get it. Things get better as you’re also able to collect orange boosters as you destroy certain enemies.

These orange boosters will move a gauge toward the right, passing through several types of upgrades, going one by one in this order: speed up, missile, double, laser, option and “?”. Each upgrade can only be “bought” if the gauge is on the upgrade you want, if you somehow get another orange booster and pass the one you were willing to buy, bad luck.

Speed up will speed up your ship, which is pretty important. You can use it up to five times, though I’d suggest not using it more than twice or, for really good players, thrice, as the ship gets too unwieldy after that, and it starts working against you. Missile will engage a downward missile launcher that will periodically fire, helping you keep enemies at bay.

Double and Laser are actually the two upgrades that can only be attached exclusively, either one or the other. Double engages a secondary shot that travels upwards at a 45º angle, giving you some spread reach, which is good for high quantities of weaker enemies, but bad if you need sheer power. While Laser will actually give you a faster, more powerful frontward shot, but without any spread. Which one is better will depend on the situation.

Option hands you a secondary attacking pod that is invincible and will follow you shooting frontward alongside your ship. You can maneuver the ship so your shots can take more vertical space, allowing for easier management of enemies coming on-screen, or to all shoot one specific spot. The original Arcade version allowed for up to 4 extra firing pods, but due to technical limitations, the NES version allows only 2. The “?” gives you shielding capability, able to withstand a couple of shots before it is destroyed, leaving you once again completely prone to being torn apart.

This system somehow fits the game well, and deciding what to buy first and what can be saved for later is something that players will soon want to think about. As I’ve said before, the stock ship in Gradius is severely underpowered, so in many cases, it all comes down to whether or not you can beat the game front to back in one sitting or not, as is often the case with legacy games, especially Arcade ports, whose primary focus is to deplete the player of as many quarters as it possibly can.

To help players out, there’s the famous Konami Code, which actually debuted in Gradius. It’s an interesting piece of gaming history. A developer working on the port of the game was having problems enduring the game’s obtuse difficulty, when he created the code to make things easier and give him many of the power-ups right away. They didn’t remove the code when the port was done and it somehow made the game a bit more manageable — it also made history, as it became the most famous code in gaming.

Still, the Konami Code is limited, you won’t be able to cheese your way through the game using it. It really doesn’t go easy on the player, as depending on where you lose, restarting can make the game horrendously difficult to recover from. It does feature checkpoints during stages, but you’ll lose all your upgrades. There are better suited checkpoints, with easier enemies dropping boosters before things get ugly, allowing you to at least buy a few upgrades back, but even then, it’s pretty difficult to recover. Your best bet is to become so good that you won’t even have to worry about that. Yes, legacy gaming can be cruel.

There is some variety of enemies throughout the gameplay, but the variety of patterns isn’t all that abundant. Most of the time, the game will basically try to overwhelm you with sheer quantity over offering differing enemies to fight. This is even more evident when the boss battle occurs. The boss battles for most of the stages are the same, some mechanized thing that shoots bursts of lasers every now and then and moves up and down. You need to destroy the barriers to its core and shoot it. You fight increasingly faster versions of this same boss several times throughout the game, and only the last two bosses are different.

There’s a two player mode, but each player has to wait for their turn. If somehow it were possible for two players to play this in cooperation mode, it would make things easier and more fun for those playing alongside a friend. But it’s not the case at all. I’m guessing enough technical concessions had already been made, we should be happy to be playing Gradius on home consoles after all. For instance, taking in consideration the purely technical aspects of Gradius, it does its job, but the NES doesn’t allow for much more than that. The graphics are stripped to the bare minimum, and the music isn’t all that adrenaline-pumping, even though it does fit the “lost in space” vibe.

Something that didn’t please me very much was the fact that it doesn’t feature auto-fire. You have to keep tapping the fire button the whole time. It just gets annoying and wears you down way quicker than it would, had it been possible to just hold down the fire button for a continuous burst of shots. If you hold down the firing button in Gradius, the shots will have such an immense delay between them that it’s not even worth it, even with the Laser upgrade. I believe there’s a “trick” that you can perform to allow continuous fire, which involves getting an orange booster to move back to the first upgrade exactly when you have a certain digit of your score as a certain value or something. But frankly, it shouldn’t be required to go through the hassle for something like that.

To ultimately triumph, you must endure the whole game and emerge victorious. There are some shortcuts you can use, like warp zones that allow you to skip some of the stages, but even so, the difficulty is quite stark. If you manage to go through a complete loop, you’re eligible for another, with increased difficulty. Not much is different though.

This is the first Gradius game and the one moment when shooters started to really take form. Games that ultimately led to this were cool and all — stuff like Space Invaders, for example — but Gradius already showcased many of the genre’s characteristics that up to this day are copied and mastered. Sure, the game might not have topped what the genre was capable of right off the bat, but it does feature a primordial shooter experience that was quite groundbreaking at the time.

Donkey Kong

There are classic games, but some games can’t be called just classics. What makes a classic? Is it just sheer quality? Is it quality along with historical significance? What about games that aren’t exactly good per say, but are so historically significant that even calling them classics seems a bit underwhelming? Donkey Long might just be one of these games. This is primordial gaming in its finest. Primordial with a capital P.

You control Jumpman trying to save Rosalinda from the clutches of the evil Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong keeps scaling higher and higher, taking the princess with him, until his own scheme becomes his undoing. While controlling Jumpman the player goes through 3 different levels. The first one features Donkey Kong throwing hazard balls down while the hero tries to reach the top. The second one is a bit more interesting but still pretty barren. Moving platforms are used to reach further toward the evildoer while any mistake, even a slight miscalculated jump, could result in death. A few other hazards are present like a flame thing that can climb stairs and a sort of spring with predetermined path that will instantly take Jumpman down.

The last level is the more interesting of the bunch. You’re in the highest section of whatever it is you were climbing and you need to clear the bolts holding the central structure intact. To do that, simply walk through the yellow sections of the floor. They’ll disappear and provide a source of instant death in case you’re not quick enough to jump. Other flame thingys will spawn and make your job harder as time passes by. If you successfully release all 8 bolts Donkey Kong will fall down, getting defeated, and love will prevail between Jumpman and Rosalinda.

After that you simply restart the courses in versions a bit more complicated, but not at all more interesting. In the Nintendo Entertainment System version up to two players can play two scenarios. Scenario A and scenario B. The B scenario is harder. What you or other players will be aiming for is basically a highscore, something pretty common back then. Video-games were highscore based to the core. It keeps track of the highest score of the session while players try to beat each other’s best scores.

There’s a bonus score counter on the right top of the screen which will go down as time passes by. The quickest you’re able to wrap things up the better your bonus score will be. Jumpman has a few lives which he can burn through before the game over screen pops up. The statistics on-screen also tell how many restarts were performed, namely which level of the playthrough you’re at.

Over the course of the playthrough a few items will appear. Two of them merely count toward scoring, the umbrella/parasol and the purse. By getting these items you only get score boosts. A third item is the more interesting of the three, it’s the now famous hammer. By acquiring this hammer Jumpman is able to attack enemies and things thrown by Donkey Kong for bonus score as well, clearing the path in the process.

There’s barely anything note-worthy for players these days. If you add in a competition scene you might get something out of it. Then again, anything can be taken in consideration if competition is aggregated. For a 1981 release it’s pretty interesting, though. At one time, it was probably one of the best, most engaging games ever released. For today’s standards, even the challenges it presents aren’t really worth it.

This is the first appearance of character that would become pretty important for Nintendo. Jumpman would eventually be called Mario while Donkey Kong would learn the errors of his ways and become a hero as well. Rosalinda also has a striking resemblance to Princess Toadstool, Peach. Other games also took some inspiration here like the hammer used in Super Smash Bros, both how it is done in game and with the same sound effect.

Many gamers actually had contact with this when Rare decided to include it as a cameo in Donkey Kong 64. The soundtrack is pretty memorable as well, all beeps and bleeps, but very historically important nonetheless. I’d argue that most gamers, even through third party sources, have already heard some of the sound effects used in this game.

Is it fun to play nowadays? I’d say no, but its historical significance is not to be taken lightly. This is gaming so primordial that even challenges that we took for granted in the NES days aren’t actually found here. It’s definitely worth checking out for those who want to know more about the past, and have a glimpse at how video-games were in the early 80’s. Even finishing the brief 3 levels is worth doing because of that. It shouldn’t take long and won’t cause much trouble. I don’t see any more reason to go further, but then again, people always find reasons to go beyond. Donkey Kong is so classic that even classics feel a bit uneasy next to it. It demands that much respect.

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros changed the way gaming was seen. It all came down to what the red-garbed plumber so meticulously wrought. There’s barely any story, there’s barely any sense; it is just pure gaming joy, made possible by clever use of limited technology at the time. The movement would be tuned to perfection in time, but there it was, everything that made this game the phenomenon it was meant to be. It was fresh, it was innovative. We can hardly tell the industry’s history and explain how things are made today without taking a severe look at how things were done in the first Super Mario.

You have Mario, a guy that must rescue the princess. To do that he must endure a total of 32 courses featuring all kinds of traps, infested with minions up to any length to stop him and make Bowser, the evil kidnapper, succeed in his evil plans. It features 2D platforming from when 2D platforming was basically what could be had. There are 8 worlds each containing 4 courses. As Mario advances the difficulty increases. If he runs out of lives then it’s game over, everything must be restarted.

The game keeps track of the best score but scoring isn’t really important. No one really cares about scoring, what players want is to beat the game’s stages, beat the final boss and save the princess. That in itself is quite a task. The adventure features that kind of 80’s difficulty because that was basically what could be done. Video-games were a source of challenge, not highly thought-out experience, not deep complex stories.

Tackling the whole set of courses in one sitting is a pretty arduous task. Since Mario starts with only 2 extra lives, and getting spare ones requires them to be collected during courses from ingenious hiding places or by collecting 100 coins, it might not be all that forgiving for brave adventurers. Getting everything done with no major setbacks, especially in later courses, is not something to be taken lightly. The lives found throughout courses are pretty well hidden, and the ones which aren’t, are pretty limited in number. Getting 100 coins is also not reliable at all.

To circumvent that slight problem they came up with the warp pipes system. Hidden in a few courses lie pipes that teleport Mario all the way to later worlds. You could theoretically play only a few courses and reach the end of the game. You’d still need to know the locations of these warps, so it wasn’t a walk in the park even so. Back then, only mouth to mouth worked for players. It indeed makes the game much more pleasing to play than having to redo everything just because you failed one measly jump. You could try to reach the fourth world by following the natural path, then, if you get a game over, simply teleport back to the fourth world for an easily accessible saving system or password mechanism, without actually having them.

Mario is able to jump and run. The momentum system is still pretty clunky but shows its potential. The enemies that cross Mario’s path can generally be taken down by jumping on top of them, some of them use special attacks like the hammer bros who throw deadly hammers in erratic patterns at Mario, making his life a living hell. Other enemies hide inside their shells after getting attacked, making the shell jumpable, sending them sliding across the course; deadly, both to other foes and Mario himself.

A few power-ups can be used by Mario, they can be picked up after smashing special blocks around the stages. One of them is the star, by getting a star Mario is invincible for a short period of time, he still cannot withstand falling down a pit, though. The other is the mushroom which transforms Mario into Super Mario, he gains stature and is able to take damage once at the cost of having to watch out for his heightened body, since hazards that wouldn’t normally be able to reach him as tiny Mario are now dangerous in this taller physical state. If Mario is big already when he summons the mushroom power-up, then the mushroom becomes a fire flower, handing him the ability to throw fireballs onto enemies, taking them out instantly. These fireballs travel in arcs across the stage so it helps when trying to make them reach places a bit far from Mario. By allowing the first hop the fireballs can get more horizontal distance.

After playing for a while you get a general rule for courses. The first one in each world always feels like some kind of plains. Then we have a more hybrid type, generally an underground level or a water course. Water courses still didn’t slow Mario down at all so it’s less of a pain to play them here — they’re pretty rare though. Then we have a third that ofttimes is a “pit level”, large portions of certain death while Mario traverses over the higher grounds. Then the fourth course is always the same, a Bowser castle. Since the princess is always in another castle, with the exception of the last which she’s actually there, there will be 8 Bowser levels and 8 Bowser fights.

The fights against Bowser follow an escalating degree of difficulty. At first he sporadically throws fire-breaths at you, they can fly through large portions of the whole level but are quite slow and easy to avoid. Then Bowser gets frantic and equipped with hammers as well, other elements will debut in later levels like blocks or hopping lava. To beat Bowser you need to go through him and reach the hammer on the other side of the room, or by beating him using fireballs.

Most courses are pretty fun to play, but finishing the whole set of 32 is a little over the top. Nintendo probably wanted to give players an ultimate challenge and included the hammer bros. These foes are no small task and end up breaking the game a little bit. It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll be able to get through the level just before the final one without a fire flower power up. There’s a succession of 4 of them and their attack patterns are completely random. Randomness is never a good thing in games like this.

This design flaw is pretty apparent today, but it was probably what was expected in the 80’s, the grinding difficulty was what they had in store to make games appealing. Mostly all of the levels won’t even make you break a sweat, but the last ones might take a toll, especially because of the limited time available to conclude levels. It all comes down to replay the same few levels to beat the final boss once you get the hang of it. There’s no way to continue playing so game overs are fairly frequent.

The controls are somewhat strange in this first installment. Mario has a few degrees for building momentum while running, and they’re not as fluid as one might have hoped. Take the process of starting to move for example: the first move takes a bit too long to register, while the last degree overwhelms with the sudden change of pace. It’s common to experience some kind of “lashing” forward because of that, which is always pretty frustrating. It’s often difficult to preview how Mario will behave after a brief movement running. This is a problem that one might expect from primordial gaming anyway. Still, ever since gaming was created, it was meant to provide good moments of fun, and that’s hardly it.

Two players can play taking turns on the action. After the game is beaten, Nintendo made the right choice of letting players choose whichever world they want to play. Maybe having worlds available as they get beaten would have been preferred but not a deal breaker. Some courses that get left behind once you go through them, especially after finding out about the warp, are pretty fun to play, and are unfortunately obscured by the intended path the warps lead you. I can completely understand why they had to make warps in the first place, since the game is incredibly frustrating even with them, but losing some of the best levels in the process seems a bit weird.

Super Mario Bros is probably much more historically important than it is fun to be played. Mario games would become much better optimized, and the controls would get much better tuned. There’s some nice courses during the playthrough, but if you attempted to beat it chances are you had to play a handful of levels over and over. All in all, this is probably one of the most important games in existence, and that really counts for something.

Mega Man 6

And finally the last game of the original hexalogy arrives. It is year 1993 and we’re halfway through the 16-bit generation, two years away from the release of the first Playstation console. It’s late, way too late for a NES/Famicon release, but Capcom doesn’t seem to care.

It’s pretty clear to see why these last two Mega Man releases have been obscured by everything else going on in the industry at that moment since the lifetime of the original Nintendo had long since passed. Unfortunately for us all, this is a pretty great release of the Mega Man franchise which was obscured by the awful timing. If you were one of the people who felt a bit disappointed with Mega Man 5 because it felt too similar to Mega Man 4, you’re in for a treat because this one actually carries enough punch to go the extra mile.

The gameplay overall stays pretty much the same, Mega Man controls and feels like the last few releases, nothing really groundbreaking introduced in terms of movement or the way Mega Man controls. The most impacting difference is actually how the utilitarian items are used. In the past we got used to Mega Man’s robot dog Rush performing actions like catapulting and jet-planning us around. This time Rush morphs into an upgrade and gets implemented into Mega Man’s own suit.

You have normal Mega Man, without any upgrade. You have the Jet Suit, which uses Rush’s power to give Mega Man the ability to fly for a short while. You also have the Power Suit which makes Mega Man become ultra strong, capable of knocking out even highly armored enemies that would be completely immune to damage otherwise. It’s nice that they decided to make the usage bar for these upgrades recoverable in time, so it’s less of a pain to use. 

Another new feature are the secondary pathways you may take within stages. Some stages feature secondary paths that upon reaching the end and defeating the Robot Master once again you might get cool new items. You’re informed of the stages which still have exits to be found in the stage selection screen, the stages marked with Mega Man’s face are complete, while the ones that have a blank space still have something to be found.

The series continue to deliver its intensive difficulty level all around, the last two castles are a hell on earth while the stages provide the right amount of headaches. No Mega Man game is complete without a few tough-as-nails stages that make the whole adventure all the more worthwhile. 

There’s the two recovery items that can be used in times of despair. The E-tank, up to 9 of them can be collected at any point and completely recovers your health; and the M-tank, also known as the Mystery Tank, and completely recovers all your special weapons’ power. You can only carry one M-tank, so use it wisely.

The presentation is basically the sharpest in the classic series. The stages are pretty well constructed, the Robot Masters are all pretty interesting and the new weapons are as imaginative as they can be. There’s also a new intro information card at the beginning of each level detailing the stage, the Robot Master of said location and a few other interesting info like the original purpose of the locale and the Robot Master’s health, weight, attack and defense stats, etc.

The soundtrack once again blows everyone’s mind. Each Mega Man has had its share of incredible music to go along the adventure and this one is no exception. The Mega Man series can be easily mentioned as having taken the rudimentary sound pallet of the original Nintendo console to lay foundations to incredible high-class compositions. They’re easily recognizable, pretty satisfying to listen to, and ultimately adds incredible depth to the atmosphere found in each of the levels.

The environment you’ll encounter in this sixth chapter range from a ski station to an old west kind of location, full of pistoleros shooting as soon as you enter their line of sight. New gameplay objects can be found throughout the adventure, stuff to control the wind and currents, springs with differing stages of impulsion, or the possibility of swimming at the bottom of a lake that floats in the air, making the lower portion of the stage the one with land and the top one with water. Everything very Mega Man-styled, full of machines and killer robots. There’s also the return of Beat, a cool little cybernetic bird that accompanies Mega Man, helping him out in his adventure if you ever need a wing.

So this game is pretty solid from start to finish, a true Mega Man experience that shouldn’t be forgotten in favor of other more well-known titles like the ones in the golden age of NES/Famicon game releases. Sure this is pretty late in the console’s lifespan, everyone should have moved on by now, but the game itself has everything a great game should have, especially what a great Mega Man should have. Capcom made a decent job in trying to make the series stay fresh for all its releases. Now that we swallowed the hype, had a taste of what modern gaming is all about, we can finally feel the need to revisit old classics we might have missed from the old days, this one should be on everyone’s list.