Super Mario Bros 35

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Anyone playing Super Mario Bros 35 for the Switch?
I'm having a blast playing it. Although I was able to get good enough at Tetris to be able to get top 10 quite frequently in Tetris 99, I have yet to win in that game. I'm much better at SMB, and with only 35 players it's actually quite easy to win if you know this game well.

It seems to be a remake based on the Mario Maker-engine rather than some kind of emulation, but it feels a lot like the original SMB. It has mostly Mario Maker rules rather than SMB rules though. For example you can jump on goombas and turtles under water (something which is expected in all Mario games after SMB2j), taking a hit as Fire Mario only reverts you to Super Mario (non-Japanese SMB3 rule), blocks can be hit from the side with a shell (I don't think this worked in original SMB), taking a flower as small Mario skips directly to Fire Mario and so on.



I had problems unlocking new courses though, because almost everyone seems to only pick the first 2 courses over and over again.
From what I have gathered online, new courses are unlocked by either beating a course you haven't unlocked yet as it shows up in a game, or by beating every unlocked course before a locked course at least once (shown as a star-flag symbol and a number when you pick a course in the normal mode). So to unlock new courses, it's best to always pick the latest course you have unlocked but haven't beaten yet, and hope for it to show up so you can beat it.

The course each player picks ends up in a list of 35 courses which is shuffled and played in order. Earlier courses seems to get priority though, so if you pick a late-game course, it might not show up until you have played through almost the whole list. It gets easier if you take warp zones and pick the leftmost pipe, since that pipe advances the list by 4 (the flagpole/axe goal advances by 1 and the rightmost warp pipe by 2). Also don't pick the Counter strategy as it quickly will multiply enemies like Lakitu back at you. Picking opponents in a pinch makes the match longer because you send them enemies that they can use to increase their timer with. That way the game might not end too early so you won't see your course.

If you are looking to win as fast as possible, Counter is a good strategy though as it makes the game harder for other players as well quickly.

[adori_12]

SMB 35, I've heard good things about the game (and some calling it a Fortnite ripoff) but I haven't tried it.
I've been very busy lately and whenever I have some free time I always end up playing Mario 3D All-Stars, my copy just arrived some weeks ago and I have lots of stages to play (never played any of the games there except for the DS port of SM64). My Nintendo Switch Online Subscription very recently expired which of course doesn't help.
But judging from what you're saying it seems like a quite fun game. I'm good enough at SMB to at least not die within the first 15 seconds, hopefully I can get to play it soon.

[P]

I don't know how Fortnite works, but SMB35 is basically just a Super Mario Bros 1 variant of Tetris 99. And Tetris 99 is just multiplayer Tetris with 99 players at the same time, and the possibility to choose who to attack. It's like the Game Boy version of Tetris with the link cable, you send garbage blocks for any extra lines you make. I seriously doubt Fortnite has anything to do with it other than being another competitive online game.

In SMB35 you play SMB1 courses, single player just like in real SMB1, but any enemies you defeat will be sent to the player you choose to attack (this parallels the garbage blocks in Tetris). This means each player will play a game of SMB1 but courses don't come in order (it's a list of the courses chosen by each player at the start) and there will also be a lot more enemies if you are attacked by many other players. Enemies sent by other players are white to distinguish them from regular enemies, but they can also be sent to other players by defeating them. This could quickly multiply enemies and soon there are tons of enemies that are sent back and forth between players. I think ignored enemies disappears though.

You gain time by stomping enemies, and most enemies are Goomba and Koopa Troopa, so it's not really as bad as the garbage blocks in Tetris. The problem is if you get flooded by Hammer Bros, Lakitu and Bowser.
Gathering lots of coins and time early on is the key to victory. Another is to know SMB1 courses well. 1UP mushrooms will give you 20 coins (no extra-life in this game), and there is a hidden one on the first course in each world. In real SMB1 these will only appear in invisible blocks if you have gathered a number of coins in stage 3 of the previous world, but in SMB35 the invisible block will always appear when you hit it (as the course order isn't linear).

People LOVES the first two courses though, so you will be playing those two over and over many many times.