LogFAQs > #974412113

Im not sure if anyone is reading this but I must dutifully record the events of my Super Mario journey all the same. Its going to be a long one.

Game #1 - Super Mario Bros. (1985)

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Super Mario Bros. is the first video game I ever played. I was born in 1992 and started gaming in 1996 at the age of four. My dad owned an NES, which had been stored away in our home for god knows how long. When he brought the NES out of storage with Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge and a zapper light gun, it kicked off a lifelong hobby that has brought me a lot of joy, and also led to my discovery of GameFAQs, a website on which Ive spent an ungodly amount of time.

I remember I sucked at first. Naturally. I couldnt get past the first goomba on 1-1 without dying. On my second day of playing, I got past the very first goomba, and when my dad called home on his lunch break (we used land lines then lol) to speak with my mom I proudly told him of my achievement. Some time soon thereafter, I was sharing with him that I had beat 1-1. And so the journey continued.

I honestly dont remember the first time I beat Super Mario Bros. but it was well after I first played it. Im guessing it was sometime during my teenage years, playing it on Wii Virtual Console. I also owned the GBA version of SMB, which, along with far too many video games, I regrettably no longer have. I also played SMB Deluxe on a cousins GBC, but never owned it; thats a game Id like to do a proper play through of one day since it seems to have enough new content to merit doing so (Yoshi eggs, red coins).

Anyway, its still a lot of fun to play, and its importance cant be overstated - both its personal importance to me and to the entire medium.

Lets talk about this run. I decided the only thing that was important to me was beating every level, not using any warps and not even using bonus areas or in-level shortcuts. I did not go down a single pipe that wasnt required. I plan on using this same approach for the other NES games, not using warp whistles etc.

I was in the zone at first despite not having played in a while (probably 1-2 years). I died once or twice before world 8, one of which being 2-3 lol. I just cant ever seem to finish those cheep cheep bridge levels without getting hit at least once.

Then world 8 happened. Dont know why I choked so hard. I had six lives when I entered and got a damn game over. I never missed the tricky jumps in 8-1, but I had some deaths in 8-2. The first time I got to 8-3 I almost cleared it and
I was Fire Mario which meant Id be in great shape for 8-4, but I MISSED THE FLIPPING ENDING OF 8-3. I never do that!! So then I lost 8-4 a couple times, including getting hit by a damn fire bar in the underwater section right before the final room of 8-4, at which point I felt good about my chances of abusing I-frames if I needed to. My first and only game over came at the very end of the game, which was quite annoying. I held A and pressed start to begin at 8-1 and proceeded to beat world 8 without losing a single life. Fun game, decent run to start with an annoying finish. What can you do? I know play hard mode and avoid getting a game over this time. Thats what I plan to do later today.