Super Mario 3D All-Stars (RIP)

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Anyway, 74 stars collected in Mario 64. I've stayed up all night, but now sleepiness is starting to set in, so will probably finish that when I wake up.

Holy hell, you completed Super Mario Sunshine and more than half of Super Mario 64 in a day?

How many hours have been glued to the screen yesterday?

[Rummy]

2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Holy hell, you completed Super Mario Sunshine and more than half of Super Mario 64 in a day?

How many hours have been glued to the screen yesterday?

Super Mario 64 can be quite easily done in a day imho. I recall many years ago when the DS was out heading up to Nottingham on a coach from London with Marcamillian - I suggested a SM64DS off and tbh had about 50 of the stars just in a few hours  I've never tackled it in a 'speed' way other than that but I don't think theres more than maybe 15-20 actually difficult starts if even that? Bit dirtier than warps also are a few cannon tricks in places that can really get you about too.

[Aneres11]

2 hours ago, drahkon said:

Holy hell, you completed Super Mario Sunshine and more than half of Super Mario 64 in a day?

How many hours have been glued to the screen yesterday?

I'm sure H-o-T got through all 3 in his lunch break. 

[EEVILMURRAY]

3 hours ago, drahkon said:

Holy hell, you completed Super Mario Sunshine and more than half of Super Mario 64 in a day?

How many hours have been glued to the screen yesterday?

If it makes you feel any better, I've not even started my copy yet, gonna complete Xenoblade Chronicles first.

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

If it makes you feel any better, I've not even started my copy yet, gonna complete Xenoblade Chronicles first.

No, you playing that garbage JRPG doesn't make me feel better.

Edited September 19, 2020 by drahkon

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Not, you playing that garbage JRPG doesn't make me feel better.

Makes me feel better.

I know Mario 64 like the back of my hand so it's not too surprising that I can rocket through it. Once I check out Animal Crossing and update the N-Europe Games thread, I'm gonna get back on that.

I did use a blue coin checklist for Mario Sunshine, but I was still surprised how quick I got through that. I have to assume some of the more notorious Shines were a bit of a fluke, especially the pachinko machine.

But it really speaks volumes about how good Mario's athletic abilities are in these games. Take some risks and there's all sorts of shortcuts to exploit.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Glen-i

[EEVILMURRAY]

3 hours ago, drahkon said:

No, you playing that garbage JRPG doesn't make me feel better.

In honesty I could easily put this down, but I know I'd come back to it and forget 90% of stuff, and I'm only just starting to get used to the awful combat.

[Ashley]

Played Sunshine a bit more and got two more shines. At this rate it'll take me 60 days to complete. 

Did the cut scenes always have a weird painted effect?

[Glen-i]

14 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Played Sunshine a bit more and got two more shines. At this rate it'll take me 60 days to complete. 

Did the cut scenes always have a weird painted effect?

Yeah, it's better suited for standard definition, so it looks odd when upscaled. Especially when you compare it to the gameplay, which looks much crisper.

That's SD FMV's for you.

[Ronnie]

I forgot how fun FLUDD was to use, the game is pretty similar to Odyssey in the movement options

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

Did the cut scenes always have a weird painted effect?

I was too focused on the... voice acting... to notice.

  

[Glen-i]

5 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

I was too focused on the... voice acting... to notice.

  

It really goes to show that the Toads in the intro have the best voice acting in all of Sunshine.

Mario Sunshine has OK voice acting... for 2002. (Except Bowser, who is hilariously horrendous)

Anyway, there's a good reason why future Mario games backtracked on full voice acting.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Glen-i

[Ronnie]

18 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

It really goes to show that the Toads in the intro have the best voice acting in all of Sunshine.

Mario Sunshine has OK voice acting... for 2002. (Except Bowser, who is hilariously horrendous)

Anyway, there's a good reason why future Mario games backtracked on full voice acting.

Oh sure for its time it's obviously fine. It was more the Piantas I was commenting on. Toadsworth isn't too bad either

[Glen-i]

7 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

Oh sure for its time it's obviously fine. It was more the Piantas I was commenting on. Toadsworth isn't too bad either

I assume you mean when they're talking full sentences? Because I quite like the random noises they make during actual gameplay.

[Glen-i]

And that's Mario of the 64-bit era done.

The removal of the Backwards Long Jump is unfortunate and means you won't be seeing any speedruns on this version. But it does look a lot clearer. (Also nice to play it with Rumble. The HD rumble is surprisingly good)

Spoiler

Had a bit of a mind-blown moment in the next one. Didn't expect to learn something new about Mario 64 today.

Makes "Quick Race Downtown" a lot easier.

 

 

[Ashley]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

I was too focused on the... voice acting... to notice.

  

I was distracted from that distraction with this:

On 18/09/2020 at 7:05 PM, Ashley said:

Playing Sunshine in Italian and the voice acting isn't dubbed which is hardly surprising but what is surprising is that Delfino, which means dolphin in Italian, is called Delfinia 🧐

If you wanted to make it sound a bit more exotic perhaps don't have the voice actors say Delfino!

The courtroom scene though. That was rough.

[BowserBasher]

Just started on 64, wow it’s not like I remember it control wise, seems so sluggish. Nintendo really did polish the controls with later games and it makes me wish this was just completely remastered instead of just how it is. Did all of Bob-bomb battlefield minus the red cap for now. 

[Glen-i]

16 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

Just started on 64, wow it’s not like I remember it control wise, seems so sluggish. Nintendo really did polish the controls with later games and it makes me wish this was just completely remastered instead of just how it is. Did all of Bob-bomb battlefield minus the red cap for now. 

See, it's stiffer than Sunshine, but I think that Sunshine can feel a bit too twitchy at times. Movement is really sensitive there.

Momentum is key with Mario 64. Get the hang of maintaining Mario's movement and it feels a lot more fluid.

[Julius]

Finally got the chance to put a few hours into this and start Super Mario 64 for the very first time earlier this evening. 

I'm really enjoying it, and am pleasantly surprised at just how well it plays over 20 years since it was released. The camera definitely took a little while to adjust to, and my instinct to move the right stick to look around while running with the left hasn't fully gone away yet, but the camera generally holds in a good position with a good viewing angle, which was what shocked me the most. Tight areas, like a lot of games from around that time (had the same issues with Metal Gear Solid and it's sequel), are probably where the camera is at its weakest. 

But it's hard to not love the context that there is a Lakitu as your cameraman 

Took a little while to adjust to the controls too, but now find myself just roaming around, jumping and gliding across the screen with a pretty good handle on it. It is inherently fun to move Mario in this game, and I've spent some time in each level so far just tweaking the way I jump and run around. 

I've got 22 Stars so far, honestly have got stupidly lucky in finding some, but I'm not complaining  

Most annoying one so far without a doubt was Frosty Slide for 8 Red Coins. The location of the red coins weren't really an issue, but rather the layout of Cool, Cool Mountain; I was constantly finding myself falling down when long jumping across to retrieve the Star after collecting all the red coins, coming close to death getting back up there, and yeah...you know how that probably went. Took a while but I got through it! 

Most fun I'm having so far is with the races and slides. The race against Koopa the Quick was a fun and fast way to test my knowledge of the level's layout (and how quickly I could traverse it), and yeah, those slides feel real good. Having a lot of fun so far. 

Just about to move on from collecting all of the Stars I think I can get right now from Jolly Roger Bay, but wanted to quickly highlight my favourite tracks so far, because the game has such a diverse soundtrack: Bob-Omb Battlefield, Slide (now you know why I love the races so much), Piranha Plant's Lullaby, and Snow Mountain. 

Such a jolly time 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Julius

[Glen-i]

38 stars in Galaxy now.

The amount of times I've seen the name of a star and thought "Oh man, I love this song!" Only for me to realise it's the version from Galaxy 2 I'm remembering is staggering.

Case in point, the Speed Run music.

Galaxy 1 definitely has an amazing soundtrack, but holy crap, 2 blows it out of the water.

6 minutes ago, Julius said:

Most annoying one so far without a doubt was Frosty Slide for 8 Red Coins. The location of the red coins weren't really an issue, but rather the layout of Cool, Cool Mountain; I was constantly finding myself falling down when long jumping across to retrieve the Star after collecting all the red coins, coming close to death getting back up there, and yeah...you know how that probably went. Took a while but I got through it! 

A bit late, but there is actually a way to quickly get back up to the top.

Spoiler

Remember that Red coin at the bottom? The one near the broken bridge that leads nowhere? Try standing stil near the edge of it.

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Glen-i

[Rummy]

On 19/09/2020 at 2:33 PM, drahkon said:

No, you playing that garbage JRPG doesn't make me feel better.

First the Mario RPGs you've never played and now this?! I swear...

 

[Glen-i]

77 Galaxy stars now.

Spoiler

Playing this again, it's very easy to see why Rosalina garnered such a big fanbase. Here we have some mysterious space queen riding a comet, which is pretty cool in itself, but she also has a surprisingly good backstory.

It's a simple story, but it's so effective. Mostly because it's in a Mario platforming game, the last place you'd expect something like that.

Since the last time I played through Galaxy, my Mum passed away. So that one chapter where Young Rosalina breaks down in tears because she'll never see her mum again hit way harder that it ever did before.

And that's the one thing I think Mario Galaxy does better than it's sequel.

Anyway, the fact that Mario Kart 8 decided to just make up Baby Rosalina instead of using a slightly older Rosalina based on that storybook section is a crying shame.

 

[Julius]

Didn't get around to playing yesterday, but played some more 64 this evening. Grabbed another 15 stars, taking my total to 37 now; so far, I've just been going so far as getting the star for the red coins before moving on, because it feels like a good point where I know the level well enough to move on - and if I have to come back at some point for more, it's no big deal! 

Today it was Big Boo's Haunt, Hazy Maze Cave, Lethal Lava Land, and I'm just at the end of Shifting Sand Land getting those red coins. Big Boo's was honestly really charming, with a lot of character, and some fun puzzles. Hazy Maze Cave looked a little bland, but had some fun Stars to get, and an area you can only traverse with a Long Jump was really cool (love the Long Jump!). Lethal Lava Land could get a little annoying as it's quite easy to find yourself falling in the lava, but got used to it after a couple of tries. 

But screw Shifting Sand Land. So. Much. Sinking. Sand. It honestly felt a bit too much at times, especially when it came to traversing outside of the pyramid. And I've lost a lot of 1-Ups there too...

Oh, and the camera has been pretty tough to handle, and on a couple of occasions I feel like I've been fighting the Lakitu for control. It is what it is, and probably the worst part today (as a newcomer) of a game that had aged really well in its mechanics and level design. 

Still having a great time so far 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Julius

[Scratch]

Alright, I just saw the ending of Galaxy (haven't got EVERY star yet though).

Edit Edit: Nvm, I was confused by the ending but I got it now lol. xD

Think I'll get back to getting the remaining stars.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Sckewi

[Glen-i]

120 Galaxy Stars now.

Spoiler

Won't bother with the Luigi run right this second. I still have Octopath Traveler to finish off and other stuff.

But I will get back to it and go for the 362 stars/120 Shines and get absolutely no acknowledgment for doing so.

Honestly if Mario 3D All Stars actually gives me a basic "Good job" for doing that, I'll eat my non-existant hat.

 

[Scratch]

Just wondering if other people's interpretation of Galaxy's story ending is the same as mine. I found the cutscenes a tad confusing but I think this is how I see it.

Spoiler

Basicaaaally the game describes that eventually the entire universe resets, but I don't think this is what actually happens, at least in the normal way in Galaxy's ending.

I think what happens is Mario taking the Grand Star causes that supernova/black hole, but since this black hole was created before the universe's natural end, the Lumas and Rosalina intervene and reverse the process before it's too late and everything is restored as it was. I guess the Grand Stars are all put back in their proper places, and the universe continues on. Mario has stopped Bowser's plan. Everyone celebrates and the rest of the universe's natural timeline happens. It's a happy ending.

I haven't played Galaxy 2 but I've read about its story and I suppose it's an alternate story. Perhaps it's what happened instead of Galaxy 1 after one of the universe's natural resets, since when that happens the universe comes back but things are slightly different, which explains why Mario+co don't seem to recognise Rosalina+co in Galaxy 2 even though it's supposed to be a sequel.

Or maybe I'm thinking too much and it's just a Mario game where they just made a bunch of cutscenes which loosely connect with each other but don't really make sense. xD