Celebrating 35 years of Mario continues with Super Mario Bros. two weeks after the release of the acclaimed Super Mario 3D All-Stars compilation on Nintendo Switch . 35 . This is a battle royale set in the universe of the first Super Mario Bros. - 35 players compete against each other, passing classic levels. The idea is great, and it is implemented better than in the free and now closed Mario Royale (the development of the new item, by the way, began even before the fan game appeared). But if you compare Super Mario Bros. 35 with a similar Tetris 99 , the second seems a little more fun.
The last Italian
Comparison with Tetris 99 is more than appropriate - the engine is the same, the developers are the same, and the interfaces are similar. Like the original, this version of the famous platformer is played in 4: 3 format, only here you can see 34 small screens on the sides. In them, other match participants try to survive and drop out when someone "kills" them or they themselves die after falling into an abyss or unsuccessfully jumping into a crowd of goombas.
All levels from Super Mario Bros. have been brought into the game ., leaving all the blocks, secrets and opponents in place. Unlike the collection of 3D Mario games, emulation is not used here - the game was literally rebuilt. Therefore, the plumber is controlled a little differently than before - muscle memory will fail more than once if you try to play the same way as in the original. But getting used to it is pretty simple, and the veterans of the series will have a clear advantage, since they know the location of all the mushrooms and hidden blocks by heart.
On the other hand, they will not be able to run through all the levels with a bullet - since this is a royal battle, then there must be some ways to ruin the lives of rivals. And they are here. Every enemy you kill, be it a goomba, a koopa-corpse, a chip-chip or even a Bowser, immediately after death is sent to the world of another user. He is paler than the rest of the enemies, but the danger is exactly the same and can appear in the most unexpected places - even at the edge of the platform, on which the player must jump to advance further. After a few minutes, there are many more such ghosts than ordinary opponents.
However, eliminating them is not so difficult, because the bonus items have not gone anywhere. The mushroom still increases Mario in size and grants him extra "life", and the flower allows you to shoot balls of fire, killing anyone they hit. Because of this, there are problems with the balance - no one forbids using the flower, and there are no penalties for this (or rather, there is one, but about it a little lower), so it’s foolish to give it up and run "naked". As a result, you meet at least one gumba, at least fifteen at once - there is no difference.
The only thing that should make the fiery Mario less attractive is the reduced bonus for killing an enemy with shooting. As in the classic platformer, here the player has a timer, and the counter increases every time you eliminate a monster in any way. If they did it with a ball, they would add only one second, and for a jump from above they would give two or even three. If you consistently jump from one enemy to another without touching the ground, the bonus will be even greater.
But you can only increase the time by other methods: for the repeated capture of the flower, they will give about 15 seconds, and for the jump to the top of the flag at the end of the level - another 15. So in most cases you don't even remember the timer, and this is also true for the final parts of the match when only five players remain and the music accelerates. Time starts to melt faster, but still not fast enough to have to jump in a hurry on all monsters in a row.
Battle without a fight
As a result, you die in the finale not because the timer has expired or the enemy has sent too many enemies. Often you lose because of a fall into the abyss or an unsuccessful jump, and this does not depend on the actions of your opponents. So what to call Super Mario Bros. 35 battle royale is not entirely correct. In the same Tetris 99, the matches are much more intense - when your opponents throw additional horizontal lines at you, and you fight off them with the help of successfully dropped sticks, you get much more pleasure. Here, there is no feeling that you are somehow influencing the opponents' play, and therefore the matches seem to be slightly prolonged.
Gameplay Saves - Super Mario Bros.that several decades ago, that today it is played equally pleasantly. No wonder this platformer has become legendary. The novelty is more suitable not for those who like to jump carefully on platforms, collect coins and break every block - first of all, it will appeal to those who like to kill monsters jumping over their heads. It's always nice when you jump on a kopa-corpse, and then on its shell, so that it rolls to the side and knocks down three goombas. And here there can be more than a dozen goombs, and the sensations are especially cool when such a combo also adds time.
Coins are also useful - when a player collects 20 coins, he can take part in a simple lottery and get one of four prizes: a mushroom, a flower, a star (Mario becomes invulnerable and kills enemies with one touch) and a POW block that eliminates all opponents on the screen. Plus, the coins are transferred to your personal bank - before the start of the next match, you can choose with which bonus to start it. Obviously, you choose a flower between a mushroom, a flower and a star, and they give out too much money to have to save.
The main problem of Super Mario Bros. 35is connected with the fact that there are very few cards on which the player falls during the first few hours. Level 1-1 is great, of course, but after 30 races even it starts to get boring. At 1-2, you can run across the top of the map to three pipes leading to random levels, but even there you often see maps from the first world. Later stages, apparently, are unlocked by accident - the game will just suddenly want to throw you into some 3-1.
Open levels become available in the match start menu, but when you select them, you do not start your journey on them - they are probably just entered into the pool of possible cards within a particular race. The further you go, the more dangerous enemies are encountered - the hummer bro is much more dangerous than ordinary goom, and if in the original Super Mario Bros.you try to avoid them, then you must kill them in order to send them to one of the opponents. It's the same with Bowser - it's better not to jump over him, but to throw fireballs. Perhaps in a few days, when many users unlock at least half of the levels, the game will become chaotic and more difficult - it is difficult to make predictions, since at least this mechanic is not explained here in any way. At first, many generally thought that the strength of the sent enemies depends on the number of coins, but this is not very similar to the truth.
Well, another drawback can be considered the fact that after March 31 the game will not be available. If in the case of Super Mario 3D All-Stars this can still be explained somehow (although this is an absurd decision), then the reasons are not clear. But here, statistics are kept, and there is a table of records (or rather, a pyramid of records) with those who have collected more coins, and there is a progress system - for reaching new levels you will unlock random icons for your profile. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on a multiplayer game, which will disappear after a few months - it will suddenly be very captivating, and then you will have to grieve.
Conclusion
But that doesn't change Super Mario Bros. 35 is not a bad attempt at realizing a Mario battle royale . It is not as exciting as Tetris 99 - the attacks of other participants and the dangers that appear because of this are better implemented there. But this game is once again reminiscent of how beautiful the original Super Mario Bros. still remains . Plus, it's free for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Perhaps the developers will fix the balance and improve map rotation with patches - then everything will become much better. But will they waste time on a game that will disappear in six months?
Pros: funny idea and good implementation; all levels from the original Super Mario Bros.transferred in their original form; timeless gameplay; "Fighting" with a bunch of opponents is quite fun, especially if you use shells; the game is free for subscribers of the online service.
Cons: the influence on alien worlds is not very noticeable, even when you kill monsters in droves; disputable balance; you have to play at the same levels for too long; the game will disappear after six months.
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