Last game you beat (including Famicom)

[egg_sanwich]

Cleared the first loop of Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label last week. Score left something to be desired though, and no access to the second loop

[ID415]

Doom for PS1.

[Sentientprism]

Mass effect 2. Ive beaten this game so many times I could beat it with my eyes closed.

[UglyJoe]

Finished Wai Wai World 2.  Took me three continues, though. 

A bit too easy (and slow), but still a fun romp through Konami's Famicom history.  Will probably go through it again in a month or so and try the other levels / support-characters.

[ID415]

I Had to give Chrono Trigger another go, still has all the glory.

[Protoman]

Zettai Zetsumei Dangerous Jiisan 3 (GBA)

PachiPara 13/Pachipro Fuunroku 5 (PS2) - Good, only downside was having to play pachinko

Uncharted 2 - Pretty good but I also hated playing it, the shooting sequences like the one on the train was more stretched out than a MGS4 cutscene

Max Payne 3 - After I got over the dizziness brought on by the "drunk" effects, it was pretty good

[ErnestByers]

Zettai Zetsumei Dangerous Jiisan 3 (GBA)

PachiPara 13/Pachipro Fuunroku 5 (PS2) - Good, only downside was having to play pachinko

Uncharted 2 - these supplements are pretty good for getting rid of gyno but I also hated playing it, the shooting sequences like the one on the train was more stretched out than a MGS4 cutscene

Max Payne 3 - After I got over the dizziness brought on by the "drunk" effects, it was pretty good

Shooting is very boring part in Uncharted 2.

[P]

Happy first of Advent!!     <-- (4 Advent candles)

Around Christmas I usually feel like playing Mario games, about any Mario game with snow and night levels are fine. Super Mario World has very few ice levels and no real ice world, but at least it has star levels. However I especially like to play the first few games for Famicom around this time of the year, All-Stars versions of them are also fine (especially since they add more snow to SMB1 and 2j).

So I thought I would do a little Super Mario Bros marathon (I'm using "marathon" very liberally, I won't play them all in one go), including Super Mario Bros, VS Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2 (j) and All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. VSSMB and especially ANNSMB are games I really haven't played much at all, so they are full of secrets that I don't know. Also I have never really unlocked the letter worlds in neither SMB2 nor ANNSMB so I'm going to do that too (I've played the letter worlds in "The Lost Levels" from All-Stars though, so they are not really new to me).
I'm playing them all on real hardware. For VSSMB I'll use the patch so that it can be played on a Famicom with the right palette using an Everdrive. For SMB2 and ANNSMB I'll use the FDSStick so that I don't have to worry about loosing my hard earned stars (and because they can't really be erased from the disk once unlocked, and I want to keep my disks clean if possible), besides I don't have the ANNSMB disk.


OK first up was Super Mario Bros, a good warmup. Growing up with this game have made it very easy, and having played the online game Super Mario Bros 35 for Switch a lot some year ago I think I know every secret this game has to offer by now.
I easily beat it without warping and on a single continue (but not one life, I'm just not that good). I never really learned turtle tipping so for all 4 games I will be relying on the extra lives I can get from coins, 1UP mushrooms and unlocking the invisible 1UP mushroom blocks by collecting enough coins on the previous sky/athletic level. The latter I don't think is widely known, at least I learned it quite recently.


Next up is VS Super Mario Bros which won't be as easy. Thankfully it has continues by inserting more coins.

[P]

VS Super Mario Bros clear!!

The arcade version is indeed much harder, I beat it without warping but not without Game Overing and using up a few continues. Thankfully inserting coins is as easy as pressing SELECT on the console hack. I used the Vs. Super Mario Bros: Home Edition v1.1a hack (the VSSMB ROM was the SM4-4 E) with the default DIP-switch settings which are based on Nintendo's official recommendations in the arcade manual:

CREDITS/COINS:      1/1
STARTING LIVES:     3
LIVES PER CONTINUE: 4
TIMER SPEED:        SLOW
EXTRA LIFE AT:      200 COINS

It's pretty cool to play SMB with the possibility to gather above 100 coins and it makes for an interesting challenge.
The first half of the game isn't really that much harder than SMB, it's mostly just a case of moving around powerups, adding new pits, reducing the number of coins and nerfing the warp zones. The hidden 1UP on 8-1 is interestingly not accessible because the coin requirement on 7-3 is unchanged while the number of coins has been reduced to a number that is less than the requirement.

The difficulty goes up with a few unique levels (which were later modified and reused in SMB2) however. Difficulty spikes at level 6-3 (the famous black & white athletic level we all know and love) which has been replaced by a totally new level which is much much harder. It includes some leaps of faith and even a place where you have to jump and stomp a Patapata to make it to the other side, something that never happened in SMB (meaning this is the first game in the series to feature this!). And considering that physics are the same as SMB, Mario and Luigi doesn't get that extra bounce from stomping a Patapata like they do in SMB2 and ANNSMB, this is actually much harder to do than in any other Mario game.
There are a few other unique levels, but none as hard as 6-3 and world 8 is largely unchanged from SMB, so level 6-3 is easily the hardest level in VSSMB. It reappears in both SMB2 and ANNSMB so I look forward to that.

The ending is also the same as later used in SMB2, so that's pretty interesting as it plays the full ending theme with the APU only, without the FDS sound chip instruments.
Oh and another noteworthy thing is the high-score initial entry screen. It plays a cool remix of the main theme which later reappears in Mario Maker and Mario Maker 2.

Anyway it was a fun challenge. Next time I see VSSMB in an arcade cabinet I might play it through to the end.


Next up in the Mario Marathon is the dreaded Super Mario Bros 2!! _ _ _

[Jedi Master Baiter]

I especially like to play the first few games for Famicom around this time of the year, All-Stars versions of them are also fine (especially since they add more snow to SMB1 and 2j).

I didn't even know that was supposed to be snow. I just saw white ovals and pipes and thought "Huh."

Super Mario Bros, VS Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2 (j) and All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. VSSMB and especially ANNSMB are games I really haven't played much at all

Is All-Night Nippon SMB different? I thought it was just a reskin.

For SMB2 and ANNSMB I'll use the FDSStick so that I don't have to worry about loosing my hard earned stars

As someone who completed the entirety of this game + the extra worlds on a non-saving cart reproduction, this game alone is a marathon.

I think I know every secret this game has to offer by now.

Oh do you know about this one? https://youtu.be/nih0xD0ZtTs?t=70

I easily beat it without warping and on a single continue (but not one life, I'm just not that good).

Do you have the maze castle(s) memorized? I don't (with the exception of the final castle), and I find that the most annoying part.

Next up is VS Super Mario Bros which won't be as easy. Thankfully it has continues by inserting more coins.

I've been meaning to go and give that a run just to see how it's like. I do remember playing this for a little bit at Chuck E Cheese at a birthday party when I was probably 6 or 7, but I didn't even know it was different. I looked back and thought That's dumb! I have the game at home. I can just play that. But I couldn't fathom how I died so easily in this game, because even when I was little, I was still rather decent at SMB.   Now I know.

CREDITS/COINS:      1/1
STARTING LIVES:     3
LIVES PER CONTINUE: 4
TIMER SPEED:        SLOW
EXTRA LIFE AT:      200 COINS

What? Four lives after a continue? Is this advertised? This is like Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super-Off Road's $100,000 bonus when you continue. Also, how does the "SLOW" timer speed compare to the home console?

It includes some leaps of faith and even a place where you have to jump and stomp a Patapata to make it to the other side, something that never happened in SMB (meaning this is the first game in the series to feature this!)

This is what made me totally respect Nintendo's decision NOT to release SMB2J to the US and instead replace it with Whatzits. It's annoying reading articles stating that Nintendo thought SMB2 was too hard. For me, after playing the game finally, yes, it was hard. But was it fun? Not so much. It was more frustrating than anything. I even got so good that I could do all those tricky backwards jump maneuvers that were required in the last stage, because I had to do them eight times to unlock the hidden worlds. Even after getting good, this game still wasn't fun for me. It was also unlike Nintendo to release such a thing: rehashed game assets, questionable level design, not fixing the same glitches introduced in SMB1, did Miyamoto even work on this? What's even more infuriating is that some of the coolest concepts and level design were not seen until the A-D Worlds.[/rant]

The ending is also the same as later used in SMB2, so that's pretty interesting as it plays the full ending theme with the APU only, without the FDS sound chip instruments.

Funny, I first played SMB2J without hearing that extra instrument and it sounded natural to me. I didn't realize this was the first time that theme was used.

Oh and another noteworthy thing is the high-score initial entry screen. It plays a cool remix of the main theme which later reappears in Mario Maker and Mario Maker 2.

It was also arranged by Toshiyuki Kimori for the 1986 SMB anime film

Next up in the Mario Marathon is the dreaded Super Mario Bros 2!! _ _ _

Play as Luigi. <-close enough

[P]

Super Mario Bros 2 clear!!

Like expected I had to use quite a number of continues but I did beat it without warping and got to play world 9 with one life. Unfortunately I died in Koopa's hands on 9-3 so I never got to see 9-4 (I have beaten world 9 with one life years ago but it was still too bad I couldn't pull it off now). Oh well that was only the first star so I will get more chances before I unlock the letter worlds anyway.
I played the Luigi mode since I think this plumber brother is so much easier to use. Although Mario is easier to control, the harder levels has some crazy gaps that are so much harder to cross with Mario.

This game is of course much harder than VSSMB, especially the final world 8. The hardest level in VSSMB, level 6-3, is back as level 4-3 in SMB2 but is made much easier. First it is a day level and no longer black & white, and since it is an early level its difficulty has been lowered greatly. Platforms are broader, coins has moved around and the new physics of bouncing off enemies makes the level quite easy. Even more so if playing with Luigi as he can skip many obstacles with his ridiculously powerful jumps.
Not counting the letter worlds yet, I think the hardest level in SMB2 is probably 8-4 with it's many "backwards jumps" as Jedi said, and it is also harder than VSSMB's hardest level 6-3. Overall world 8 is the hardest world, and much harder than world 8 in SMB. And while talking about hardest levels, SMB's hardest level might be 8-3 because of its many hammer bros, but it's still quite easy compared to VSSMB and SMB2.

I must say that Super Mario Bros 2 is a fantastic game. I don't agree at all with what Howard Phillips said about it years ago when NOA decided to cancel it outside Japan. It is frustratingly hard yes, but that doesn't mean it is not immensely fun. Especially for a veteran SMB player that wants new harder levels. Because, let's face it, SMB is a pretty easy game and playing it over and over again (as people did) only makes it easier, and while you can do 1CC and other arbitrary challenges, what we really needed was more and harder levels for it. The SMB engine is pretty much timeless and was already way ahead of other games at the time, so I always thought it was nice to see it getting more love than just what the first game offered.

Lost Levels was the biggest reason I picked up All Stars for my SNES back in the day. I already had SMUSA and SMB3 for NES so it felt weird to have duplicates of them but they ended up having their place later when I lost my NES. Lost Levels is old enough for me to have nostalgia for SMB2 and I know most levels quite well thanks to it, although the game has much more hidden powerups than SMB and I don't know those by heart like I do with SMB.

Unlike Howard Phillips I do think SMB2 would have done well even outside Japan. It would have been a nice game to have back in the day while waiting for SBM3. On the other hand, these turns of events did get Shyguys and other masked things from an unrelated carnival into the Mario series, and eventually we got our long lost levels with All Stars (although it kinda destroys the game by just turning it into extra levels for SMB and ruining the fake glitch world status of world 9).


Next up in the Mario Marathon will be All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros!
  _ _ _ _ _

I especially like to play the first few games for Famicom around this time of the year, All-Stars versions of them are also fine (especially since they add more snow to SMB1 and 2j).

I didn't even know that was supposed to be snow. I just saw white ovals and pipes and thought "Huh."

Me neither back in the day. It's basically just the horsetail plants colored white, no indication of volume or anything, and there is no snow on the ground. All Stars does, however, apparently change around which levels are snowy and which are not for some reason.

Super Mario Bros, VS Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 2 (j) and All-Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. VSSMB and especially ANNSMB are games I really haven't played much at all

Is All-Night Nippon SMB different? I thought it was just a reskin.

Nope ANNSMB is much more than a reskin. It actually has features of SMB, VSSMB and SMB2. I don't think it has any totally new levels but it has its own edits of levels, plus it uses the SMB2 engine with SMB/VSSMB levels and some SMB2 levels thrown in.

For SMB2 and ANNSMB I'll use the FDSStick so that I don't have to worry about loosing my hard earned stars

As someone who completed the entirety of this game + the extra worlds on a non-saving cart reproduction, this game alone is a marathon.

Wow that is impressive! Thankfully I don't have to do that. The biggest reason I use the FDSStick is so that I can archive my save file with 8 stars so that I can play the letter worlds at any time in the future.

I think I know every secret this game has to offer by now.

Oh do you know about this one? https://youtu.be/nih0xD0ZtTs?t=70

Nope I didn't! That's very interesting, SMB2 do have pursuing hammer bros variants on some levels. I guess they simply zeroed the timer that delays their pursuing move so that they pursue you as soon as they spawn in these SMB2 levels.

I easily beat it without warping and on a single continue (but not one life, I'm just not that good).

Do you have the maze castle(s) memorized? I don't (with the exception of the final castle), and I find that the most annoying part.

Yes I certainly do, I memorized them all back in the day as a kid and never forgot them (VSSMB messes with this though ). I even remember most of the mazes in SMB2 thanks to growing up playing Lost Levels (and that version helped out with bells and buzzes).

Next up is VS Super Mario Bros which won't be as easy. Thankfully it has continues by inserting more coins.

I've been meaning to go and give that a run just to see how it's like. I do remember playing this for a little bit at Chuck E Cheese at a birthday party when I was probably 6 or 7, but I didn't even know it was different. I looked back and thought That's dumb! I have the game at home. I can just play that. But I couldn't fathom how I died so easily in this game, because even when I was little, I was still rather decent at SMB.   Now I know.

I highly recommend playing it when you are in a SMB mood. It should be quite easy for you being a master at SMB2, but I guess level 6-3 might throw you off if you are taken by surprise.
There have long been a cabinet (although I don't know if it's a real VS System in there or some sort of emulator) in Akihabara in a game center near the railway station but I've never been in the mood to play it all way through when I have visited there, maybe I will next time though. It is a bit harder to play with a joystick for me though. I wish the patch would allow using external controllers so I could practice with my CPS Fighter with a JLW stick.

CREDITS/COINS:      1/1
STARTING LIVES:     3
LIVES PER CONTINUE: 4
TIMER SPEED:        SLOW
EXTRA LIFE AT:      200 COINS

What? Four lives after a continue? Is this advertised? This is like Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super-Off Road's $100,000 bonus when you continue. Also, how does the "SLOW" timer speed compare to the home console?

Yep, I can confirm this is true as I have the English manual scans for the arcade board. I guess giving 4 lives is to make inserting coins give the player a feeling of value for the money. SLOW seems to me to be about the same as the console version (check the readme of the patch for all values). SLOW should be 3 ticks/sec for the "SM4-4 E"-set and 3.53 ticks/sec for the "?"-set (but the patch eliminates this difference and allows both variants for a total of 4 different timer settings).

It includes some leaps of faith and even a place where you have to jump and stomp a Patapata to make it to the other side, something that never happened in SMB (meaning this is the first game in the series to feature this!)

This is what made me totally respect Nintendo's decision NOT to release SMB2J to the US and instead replace it with Whatzits. It's annoying reading articles stating that Nintendo thought SMB2 was too hard. For me, after playing the game finally, yes, it was hard. But was it fun? Not so much. It was more frustrating than anything. I even got so good that I could do all those tricky backwards jump maneuvers that were required in the last stage, because I had to do them eight times to unlock the hidden worlds. Even after getting good, this game still wasn't fun for me. It was also unlike Nintendo to release such a thing: rehashed game assets, questionable level design, not fixing the same glitches introduced in SMB1, did Miyamoto even work on this? What's even more infuriating is that some of the coolest concepts and level design were not seen until the A-D Worlds.[/rant]

Hmm I don't agree as my opinions about the game above reflects.
I've looked for the credits of this game and it seems it's a mystery exactly how the development of this game went. Some say that Tezuka (who is basically the man behind the Super Mario Bros series together with Miyamoto, Kouji Kondou and whatever programmers actually wrote the amazing acceleration-based platform engine) directed this game alone, but I think Miyamoto probably watched it over and possibly designed some levels in it. Tezuka and Miyamoto both designed all levels for SMB at least, and this game is mostly just new levels so there was probably not too much for Miyamoto (who isn't a programmer) to do here, except maybe drawing the graphics, but Tezuka is also an artist/designer like Miyamoto. Miyamoto did say in an interview that the game idea came out of creating VSSMB, as they had played SMB a lot already and had as much fun as the players they really did enjoy creating new harder levels for it, and therefore they thought SMB2 being more of the same but with a much higher difficulty for expert SMB player was a marvelous idea (and I can only agree). Development was also very fast thanks to this and all these games (VSSMB, SMB2 and ANNSMB) were released in 1986, the year after the SMB release.

The ending is also the same as later used in SMB2, so that's pretty interesting as it plays the full ending theme with the APU only, without the FDS sound chip instruments.

Funny, I first played SMB2J without hearing that extra instrument and it sounded natural to me. I didn't realize this was the first time that theme was used.

You mean you played that cartridge repro/bootleg which naturally wouldn't have the FDS sound chip?
To sum it up: SMB has the debut of the "Saved Princess Peach Theme", VSSMB is the debut of the extended version of the song and SMB2 uses an FDS-enhanced version of the extended version. I think ANNSMB also uses the same version as SMB2.

Oh and another noteworthy thing is the high-score initial entry screen. It plays a cool remix of the main theme which later reappears in Mario Maker and Mario Maker 2.

It was also arranged by Toshiyuki Kimori for the 1986 SMB anime film

Oh, I've seen that movie many times but I've never noticed that this tune were in it! But I also hadn't played VSSMB very much before now so I seldom heard it.

Next up in the Mario Marathon is the dreaded Super Mario Bros 2!! _ _ _

Play as Luigi. <-close enough

Yeah that's exactly what I did. I have actually never beaten this game in Mario mode (I've tried but failed), so that will have to be another challenge with one of the 7 remaining stars.

[Jedi Master Baiter]

Oh, I've seen that movie many times but I've never noticed that this tune were in it! But I also hadn't played VSSMB very much before now so I seldom heard it.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember hearing it in the film either. I even knew about that tune before watching the movie. I think it may have gone unused.

[Preki]

So 2022 is coming to an end within a month... Let's take a look at games I've beaten this year.

Burning Force - a Mega Drive port of Namco's classic Space Harrier clone. Really a good game, but I have issues with difficulty balancing, even with two difficulty settings to choose from and being allowed to take three hits per life. Still managed to beat it on the last credit, but I don't think I wanna do a second run on the higher difficulty.

Gradius III - the infamous SNES port with tons of slowdown, yet still an enjoyable experience. And this is the big one for me, because I managed to clear the loop on Normal difficulty (so I can see that classic Konami-style ending, not just the credits scrolling), on one credit, after doing a night shift at work, without even taking a short nap. It's funny because my previous (failed) attempts were when I had a day off and I was in perfect shape.

Jackal - first loop done in co-op with a friend at a retrogaming convention. I really love the difficulty curve of this game, as it goes steadily from easy-peasy to very challenging, even for seasoned players, and then there's second loop. I was dying a lot more than my buddy and had to steal lives from him. If I remember correctly, we had to use continues at the last stage.

A Week of Garfield - I've played many bad games for some 5-minute laughs, but this is definitely the worst game I've ever beaten, period. Why did I even put myself through that torture? Ah, yes, my pal encouraged me to do so. First attempts were at my own home, but after getting halfway through at 2:00 AM I decided it would be better to put myself to sleep and take another shot later. I had enough time to wrestle with this game at a retrogaming convention, where I've ultimately managed to beat this pile of crap, because frankly I didn't want to waste another hours at home trying to beat it. And the worst thing is, after beating this game, Garfield himself says "It was easy" - easy my butt! What an insult towards the player.

B-Wings - finally onto something much, but not that much better. This is one of those games on whatever-in-one multicarts I had throughout my childhood, and while it wasn't fast-paced for a shooter, the interchangeable weapons gimmick had me hooked for hours, yet I never intended on beating this game because I thought it loops on infinitely like Star Force, Galaga, or other Famicom arcade ports. Years later after learning there is an ending after all, I decided to take a shot. Not that difficult, some seasoned shmup players might even fall asleep behind the controller, but near the end the game pulls off a rather dirty number on you, requiring to have a specific weapon equipped, all while suggesting you to use a weapon you have no chance of beating the boss with.

The Goonies - another multicart classic from my younger days that I couldn't beat. I didn't watch the movie either back then and now, but I love the feel of adventure the game has - venturing deeper and deeper beneath that mansion until reaching the lost treasure, all while being harrased by rats, mobsters, ghosts (those were genuinely creepy for me as a kid) and environmental hazards. I remember being thrown back to the first stage all the time, thinking my game is broken, which was a common occurrence with multicarts, but no, I just kept forgetting there's one Goonie missing before taking the shortcut.

Advanced V.G. 2 - this Japanese PS1 exclusive is not an outstanding game by any means, being somewhat derivative of Street Fighter II and other more popular franchises, but still fun experience. It looks good (Takahiro Kimura of Code Geass fame was in charge of character design), controls well (much better than the first game), and has a nicely done story and a time attack mode. It's also the first fighting game on which I've spent quite long hours playing, I'm not a fighter aficionado, so to speak, but this one really clicked with me. I cleared the story mode some year ago, but only recently I've beaten the arcade mode with all the characters available.

GTA London 1969 - I never was a fan of the first GTA game and its expansions, being somewhat an oddity when compared with later installments: one-hit deaths, lack of the save feature, weird vehicle handling and such. But c'mon, it's the humble beginnings of the sandbox genre, and... it's still fun as it is, despite all the flaws and weirdness. Interestingly, before beating the base game, I've managed to clear the first expansion pack, and I gotta tell you, it's the most British game I've ever played so far. And while not difficult per se, the left-hand drive was very confusing for me, just like Cockney rhyming slang prominently appearing in sentences spoken by crime bosses you work for. And that theme song!

GS Mikami - yet another licensed platformer that stayed in Japan. Average, not too long, but definitely nicely executed and fun - made by Natsume after all, they're Serious Fun incarnate. In general, I love Natsume games, save for the Harvest Moon series.


That's nine games - a lot, considering I spent most of my time playing Gran Turismo 4, especially after purchasing a Driving Force GT wheel, which made this game even more time consuming than it already was.

[P]

I also love the Harvest Moon and River King games! Although I think Natsume Inc are only publishers of the American versions and had nothing to do with the original development, that was done by Pack-in-Video/Marvelous Interactive.

Oh, I've seen that movie many times but I've never noticed that this tune were in it! But I also hadn't played VSSMB very much before now so I seldom heard it.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember hearing it in the film either. I even knew about that tune before watching the movie. I think it may have gone unused.

Actually it is heard in the background in the scene where Luigi eats laughingshrooms (waraidake), although it is easy to miss. Weird, I kinda get a dejavu feeling that I once knew about this but had forgotten it.

Anyway...


All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros clear!!
As usual, I beat the game without warping and used several continues. I used Mario for this game which was notably harder on some of the later levels. There is no world 9 here and, unlike VSSMB and SMB2, the game restarts and enables hard mode like the original SMB. I didn't play through that mode however (and it isn't really needed to grab stars anyway).

And now for the usual mini-review of the game. Like I said before ANNSMB is a unique version of SMB that mixes features from SMB, VSSMB and SMB2. The levels are mostly the same as SMB but has many small edits much like VSSMB (sometimes the exact same edits as VSSMB and sometimes unique edits). It uses the graphics and physics engine from SMB2, including the extra bounce when stomping enemies and the choice of playing either as Mario or Luigi (the game is 1-player only like SMB2) where Luigi jumps higher but has poor traction.

These level edits mostly makes the game a bit different without actually increasing difficulty much. Castle levels with mazes may have the correct route changed and powerups are moved around a bit, but the first half of the game isn't much harder than the original SMB, just different.
However, level 5-3 is the first SMB level that is replaced with another level, and that happens to be the dreadful 6-3 from VSSMB (the hardest level in that game if you remember). It's a unique version of the level as platform width is the same as in VSSMB (4 chara long instead of 6 chara as the SMB2 4-3 variant of the level) but it's a day level, not black & white and coins are placed like in the SMB2 variant. Also since the game uses SMB2 physics the level is easier even with Mario since you gain more speed when bouncing off the Patapata, so this is no longer the hardest level in the game.
5-4 is also a variant of SMB2's 2-4 and from here the game continues this way with most levels being variants of SMB/VSSMB levels with a few SMB2 level variants thrown in here and there.
ANNSMB gives the unique opportunity to play SMB (well mostly) with the high-jumping Luigi from SMB2.

Thanks to the SMB2 levels the overall difficulty of the game is increased a bit, and I would say that it lies somewhere between VSSMB and SMB2.
On the other hand, warp zones are not nerfed at all (unlike VSSMB), so it is easy to rake up stars by warping to world 4 from level 1-2 and then to world 8 from level 4-2 just like the quickest route through the original SMB.
World 8 is not as hard as in SMB2 since the first 3 levels are variants of SMB's world 8 but 8-4 is a variant of 8-4 from SMB2 with its backwards jumps and whatnot. That also makes 8-4 the hardest level of ANNSMB.
It is still a bit easier than the SMB2 version of 8-4 however since there are no poison mushrooms in the game. SMB2 8-4 contains 3 poison mushrooms but in ANNSMB they are all replaced by normal mushroom/flower powerups or in one case a "plinga" (which is what multi-coin blocks are called where I'm from, could be translated to "plinger" in English), making it quite easy to fight King Koopa with fire.
Poison mushrooms and wind are both gone from the game making any SMB2 levels with either to be a bit easier.

Kuribou/Goomba are now Okapii and Pakkun/Piranha Flowers are Pakkun Okapii (both turned into by Koopa from DJ SunPlaza Nakano as explained in the manual's backstory). Pakkun Okapi behaves like the red Pakkun Flower from SMB2 however (they come up even if you are close by), so I wonder if the game wasn't made from the SMB2 code and they threw the SMB1 levels in but mistakenly used the red Pakkun instead of the green one. Either that or it was done on purpose to make the game a bit harder.
Hammer Bros comes in both the non-pursuing and pursuing variants like in SMB2. The pursuing variant is found in world 8 making those levels a bit harder than the same levels in SMB1.


Next up is getting more stars in SMB2 and ANNSMB so that I can play the letter worlds. Also I wanna finish world 9 at least once more and beat (without warping) SMB2 with Mario and ANNSMB with Luigi.
_ _ _

[Preki]

Tenth game beaten this year - Ganbare Goemon - Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Riyuu or Go For It, Goemon! - The Twinkling Journey. The reason I became a Dancer in English. I really, really love this series about wacky adventures of a wacky ninja band, loosely based off the Japanese Robin Hood guy. And I also love Konami in general, but dear Konami... While aformentioned wacky adventures in the traditional platformer format are indeed fun, the button-mashing minigames against boss characters are NOT (save for the one which is Puyo Puyo clone, and that comes from a guy who've never played Puyo Puyo to begin with). I started to worry about one of my SuFami controllers during the final fight, it was also even more frustrating than those boss minigames before it. Other than that, it was an enjoyable romp filled to the brim with comedy that series is known for.

EDIT (31.12.2022): Literally near the end of the year eleventh game was beaten. Another one by Konami, and this one's not only a big classic, but also my first time taking on a dating sim genre - Tokimeki Memorial - Under the Tree of Legends. Some of you might remember my very first attempt at this game and how I ended up being bombed by most of the girls in the school. It was so catastrophic that I had to delete that save and start anew, this time doing far better, but still not there. Getting the golden ending will require some more playthroughs, which I'll surely do! Thank you (old) Konami and DDS Translations for this one.

So... eleven games: four shooters of various kinds, three platformers, a VS. fighting game, a sandbox action game, one kusoge and to top it off - a dating sim of all things. Quite a nice melange of genres I must say. That was a good year for my gaming alright. I wonder how many titles I'll beat in 2023...