Mario Gameplay Analysis

[@CarlosHerrera-cg9pr]

A point about the way levels end in Mario games: Super Mario Bros. = Jump as high as you can. Mario 3 = Jump with timing Super Mario World = Jump as high as you can with timing.

[@craigmcpherson1455]

I watched a video of Miyamoto explaining the design of the first level of Super Mario Bros. He explained the mushroom making Mario bigger triggering a positive feeling in the player. The same for squishing the first goomba. There was also the placement of the tall pipes "tricking" the player into learning about the run button. This was the first level was designed last during the development process. Very interesting stuff.

[@daltreywaters]

+Craig McPherson I saw that video as well, it's pretty good. Kojima mentioned the same thing in his interviews as well, where he develops the first stages last.

[@lobrundell4264]

This is so goooood! : D It's like brain massage! I feel like this is the tenth analysis of the old Mario games that I've seen, but you still managed to give me more than one "oooooooooh now I get it!" moment! : D

[@daltreywaters]

+Lo Brundell Thanks! =)

[@wesofx8148]

I never thought about Mario getting bigger as a clever UI element in disguise. That's really good!

[@daltreywaters]

+Willy Goat =)

[@stevenpinto5462]

Simply Awesome! Pls continue to make such videos :)

[@daltreywaters]

+Steven Pinto You bet! =)

[@mattstuckintime]

Second video that I watched so far, these are great. Looking forward to what you put out in the future.

[@daltreywaters]

thanks!

[@aikidoboynj]

Nailed it on the end of stage discussion. Those Mario ones were the Cherry on top.

[@efilwv1635]

Brilliant!

[@alienrenders]

Consider a young boy who picks up the game for the first time and plays the first level. He notices an enemy and knows he can jump by trying out the buttons. He tries to jump over the enemy, but hits the bricks, falls back down and is hit by the enemy and dies. So he knows that touching enemies will kill him. He tries again. So he now knows to wait for the enemy and then jumps over the first enemy. He then sees a mushroom, backs up, does the same and escapes these enemies. He then continues playing and finds it VERY hard to advance as more invulnerable enemies appear. He thinks to himself, "This game would be SO much better if there was actually a way to defeat the enemies because right now, this game sucks." So yeah, while some can admire the first level, it had the opposite effect for me. Friends had to explain it to me afterwards. They had a good laugh though. I was never a fan of the series until much much later. Nice video about the spatial pro/cons of each axis. I'm gonna have to see if I can use that in my game.

[@MazaJesi91]

Very interesting video! I have a question: does the presence of a map in Mario mean that other solutions like direct level selection (e.g. in Ratchet and Clank from a written list) are worse? :) I personally enjoyed the idea of choosing levels from that list once jumped into the spaceship! :)

[@mennovu3372]

Very well done. I'd love to see more game analyses.

[@imismael]

I appreciate the amount of effort put into this. At around 3:00 you forgot to discuss how you could actually slide under small passages when you have the mushroom on :P But good work all in all.

[@tasoganedude]

Yoshi is also a power-up that you can retrieve again when you take a hit.

[@JerryNixon]

Super interesting to watch

[@alexanderwesterstahl]

Awesome, thanks!

[@yenomeerf]

very interesting

[@daltreywaters]

Thanks!

[@Galomortalbr]

Love your vídeos 10/10

[@daltreywaters]

=)

[@drunknmonk12]

Another good video, hopefully you get noticed more.

[@daltreywaters]

Thanks!

[@bricksmartfilms]

I agree with a lot of your points of analysis but I think the comparisons to the hypothetical "green glove of power" and "green boots of power" are out of place. Comparing Mario's design choices against a hypothetical and bad design choice doesn't really make Mario's design seem all that better. I think you could have better highlighted the cleverness of Mario's design by contrasting it with similar mechanics of other games that don't work as well.

[@daltreywaters]

+bricksmartfilms I took your feedback and experimented avoiding the "green of power" on my latest video. Let me know what you think.

[@Gilpow]

bricksmartfilms I thought the same! :)

[@VarunJetty]

helped me a lot thanks :)

[@NEWDOR1A]

I want a green glove of power

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool

[@j.felipe3549]

Do an analysis on cat mario. 👍