My thoughts on the difficulty in games like Mario Bros 3...

I have it on my Wii's virtual console, and I don't understand why Nintendo was so cruel back in the day, those games were so unnecessarily hard it is unbelievable.

The enemies are so unpredictable, it seems that they don't have any patterns of movement i.e. the bullet bills, the cheep-cheep that jump out of the water... they just attack at random... and when I hit an item block and a mushroom comes out, it always travels in the direction OPPOSITE to the direction I'm going to pick it up. I have tried the same level several times and no matter which direction I go, it goes the opposite direction, meaning I have to fake a direction and quickly turn around. WHY?!?? Why would Nintendo do this?

Why is it that every time you die, mario moves to the beginning of the map? You'd obviously want to play the same level again, heck you can't even re-play levels you've previously beaten, so why does Mario go to the beginning of the map so that you'd have to waste time and patience walking all the way back to the level?!? Absolutely unnecessary! And they had to make Mario's movements so slippery that when I have to jump on a tiny platform I have to make sure he lands perfectly still on it. Jeez.

There are barely any checkpoints so that when you get game over you have to re-play the levels that were so difficult to beat. I really don't understand why Nintendo made such a long and difficult game back then when you couldn't even save the game, did they expect someone to beat the game in one sitting?!?? I know there are ways to save now, but that's aside from the point.

The differnce between the difficulty of the games back then and now is obvious; back then games like Mario Bros. were cruel and unreasonably hard, now some Mario games are still hard, i.e. Mario Galaxy prankster comets, which are really hard, but not anything like this. I've quit playing this game, I hope it's not just me who sucks at it, but it's making me furious a lot more than it is fun.

What do you guys think of this game?

It's not so hard tbh. The Japanese Bros. 2 was hard.

I think that if you think "Super Mario Bros.3" is difficult, you haven't played many difficult games.

play the original "Mega Man".
try to find your way through "Legacy of the Wizard".
beat "Contra" or "Super-C" without the Konami code.
then, if you'r a saddist, throw "Silver Surfer" into your NES.

Super Mario Bros.3 was a cake-walk.

I think that if you think "Super Mario Bros.3" is difficult, you haven't played many difficult games.

play the original "Mega Man".
try to get through "Legacy of the Wizard".
then, if you'r a saddist, throw "Silver Surfer" into your NES.

Super Mario Bros.3 was a cake-walk.

TheKungFool

Yeah, this. But the last couple of levels in SMB3 does suddenly ramp up in difficulty.

[QUOTE="TheKungFool"]

I think that if you think "Super Mario Bros.3" is difficult, you haven't played many difficult games.

play the original "Mega Man".
try to get through "Legacy of the Wizard".
beat "Contra" and "Super-C" without the Konami code.
then, if you'r a saddist, throw "Silver Surfer" into your NES.

Super Mario Bros.3 was a cake-walk.

Emerald_Warrior

Yeah, this. But the last couple of levels in SMB3 does suddenly ramp up in difficulty.

How old are you OP? Not trying to bash your age or anything but mario bros 3 is not a very hard game it was just a pain in the ass you had to beat it in one sitting. The mega man games now those were just unfair.

I found it to be one of the easist games I played on the NES.

That being said, let's just say that there is a reason there is such thing as "NES Hard".

* Waits to see all the proud people saying the game is a piece of cake *Rod90

I think they beat you to it.

* Waits to see all the proud people saying the game is a piece of cake *Rod90

It really wasnt that hard thou, and I've never seen people complain about it.

[QUOTE="TheKungFool"]

I think that if you think "Super Mario Bros.3" is difficult, you haven't played many difficult games.

play the original "Mega Man".
try to get through "Legacy of the Wizard".
then, if you'r a saddist, throw "Silver Surfer" into your NES.

Super Mario Bros.3 was a cake-walk.

Emerald_Warrior

Yeah, this. But the last couple of levels in SMB3 does suddenly ramp up in difficulty.

I have it on my Wii's virtual console, and I don't understand why Nintendo was so cruel back in the day, those games were so unnecessarily hard it is unbelievable. ... back then games like Mario Bros. were cruel and unreasonably hard

Nintendo was really "hard core" back in the NES days (SNES also) these games are most fast reflexes and quick reaction times. The games of the NES are more skill based. Super mario Brothers 3 is a great challenge. But that was how games were back then. "hard Core" punishing difficult.

The original version of SMB 2 was too difficult for western audiences and was not released for the NES in North America/PAL regions.

Super Mario Brothers 3 is one of the easiest Mario games they ever made...

It can get a little tough toward the end but I never found it to be a difficult game.

I personally found the US version of NES mario 2 harder, or maybe just more confusing...

its challenging but definitely beatable unlike many other games where you cant get past the first level.

It's definitely not the hardest, but it does get very difficult towards the end, like others have said. If you want an extremely challenging game, get Super Star Wars. I've only beaten the first four levels of the game out of god knows how many...

Yeah, definitely not the toughest Mario game by a long shot but definitely not the easiest either. I don't know how it is on VC but on an actual NES it is problematical to me if I don't want to play it all in one sitting, esp. if I don't want to race through w/ warp zones. You might try the GBA version. I think you can save your progress whenever you want w/ that.

If you find that hard you should stay well away from Gradius III and Super Ghouls'n Ghosts.

It has cheap level design in ways, but then that is typical of the genre in those days and the cheapness in some ways is charming. Gradius III? If you touch anything you die and on the hardest difficulty it's darn near impossible to avoid that.

Super Ghosts'n Ghouls is even worse. Not only does everything that moves kill you, so do quite a few things that don't, along with the fact that you're slow, not particularly agile, and the bosses and level design just take cheapness to a whole different level. That is especially true for the last level (and I think anyone who is familiar with the franchise knows why).

[QUOTE="Guovssohas"]I never beat it :( Level 7 and 8 was insanely hard for me. Still one of the best games ever :)Cloud_765

However if you get that crazy metal weapon in mega man 2 the game becomes terribly easy (the easiest of series). This proves because the users prefer that game and elevate it as the best of series, if you want true challenge stick to first but when you meet cyclops boss don't use any cheat, :)

"Waits to see all the proud people saying the game is a piece of cake"

About a year and a half ago an old childhood friend and I got out the NES and played through every single level on every world of Mario Bros 3, completing a childhood dream of mine. I won't say it was all that easy ... but we did it in a few hours and had a blast doing it. Games used to be difficult ... in some cases nearly impossible ... ever played battletoads or ghosts n goblins? Then you'll know what I mean lol.

I was like what, 5 or 6 when I finished it on the it? Uh, yeah... extremely hard... *sarcasm*. I played it on the Super Mario All Stars Collection so I am praying, for your sake TC, that the NES version was some how intensively hard compared to the SNES version. Honest to God I miss the when Nintendo actually offered a challenge in their games... I am one of those who LOVE hard games and always play on the hardest difficulty whenever possible. Want a hard Mario game? Play Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels! I never really understood or the hate for that game, sure its horrifyingly hard but I loved it like that! It didn't even get released outside of Japan because Nintendo of America thought their little ol' Americans couldn't handle a challenge. Then, when everyone got a chance to play it! Complaints! TOO HARD!!! D: Its SUPPOSED to be hard. Its called: A challenge. :l simomate

No saving your game in the NES version, which does make a big difference. At 5 or 6, there was no way I could beat the NES SMB 3 game. That's when I was first starting gaming and I was still working on the original Super Mario Bros. But by the time I was 9 or 10 I could beat NES SMB 3.

I seriously thought I was reading a troll thread until I got to the point where I thought to myself that this is a younger kid posting this... either way my take is this. It isnt that SMB3 was or is to hard of a game, it is that over the years games have been simplified to satisfy the mass and casual gamer as long as it has a pretty "coat of paint." Back when the NES was king of the jungle, graphics were NOT top priority, it was all about originality, gameplay, and challenge. Games were a lot shorter back then, (even SMB3 if you take the 3 whistle route) so game developers "lengthened" the play time by actually adding a bit of trial and error and a scale difficulty, which is not present in a lot of games today... Anyways though, I would go as far as saying that SMB3 is one of the greatest platformers ever made. Go back and give it a chance with a slower approach.

Super Mario Bros 3 isn't a very difficult game. Considering you can get a whole bunch of lives from the first world if you know what you're doing and on top of that you can get the two flutes and defeat the first boss to receive a P-Wing and you're basically set for the entire game. If you want to go through every level then you can just rack up your lives by running to the slot at the end of the level and if you do it correctly you'll always get a star which will lead you to getting 5 lives for getting 3 stars at once. If anything SMB 3 was way too forgiving.

[QUOTE="simomate"]I was like what, 5 or 6 when I finished it on the it? Uh, yeah... extremely hard... *sarcasm*. I played it on the Super Mario All Stars Collection so I am praying, for your sake TC, that the NES version was some how intensively hard compared to the SNES version. Honest to God I miss the when Nintendo actually offered a challenge in their games... I am one of those who LOVE hard games and always play on the hardest difficulty whenever possible. Want a hard Mario game? Play Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels! I never really understood or the hate for that game, sure its horrifyingly hard but I loved it like that! It didn't even get released outside of Japan because Nintendo of America thought their little ol' Americans couldn't handle a challenge. Then, when everyone got a chance to play it! Complaints! TOO HARD!!! D: Its SUPPOSED to be hard. Its called: A challenge. :l Emerald_Warrior

No saving your game in the NES version, which does make a big difference. At 5 or 6, there was no way I could beat the NES SMB 3 game. That's when I was first starting gaming and I was still working on the original Super Mario Bros. But by the time I was 9 or 10 I could beat NES SMB 3.