Current Events > What's the point of time limits in Mario games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I mean some stages in certain games make it a thing where e you have to beat a low low limit but those are the minority. In Super Mario World you're given so much time per stage its almost pointless, for instance.
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It's just a chance of pace.
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it was such a new experience in 1985 it literally took people 300 seconds to get through world 1-1
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To encourage the player to move.
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It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.
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Philoktetes posted...

it was such a new experience in 1985 it literally took people 300 seconds to get through world 1-1

Isn't there a hack that gets you through it in 5 seconds?
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The time is more there to give you a feeling of urgency, as to bring you into the head of the hero. Also serves as a counter for comparison if you have competition with a friend or something
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it keeps a sense of pace & tempo in the games.

I think this is most obvious in SMB3's airship levels, where the screen is scrolling and the time limit is going, which forces the player to keep moving, even though the most logical way to deal with traps in those levels would be to just sit there and observe patterns.

Both of these functions force you to react, which is where a lot of the fun of Mario games comes from IMO.
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the later levels you do hear the time running low sound quite a bit. just gives you that sense of urgency.

To piss off really little kids
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Romulox28 posted...

I think this is most obvious in SMB3's airship levels, where the screen is scrolling and the time limit is going, which forces the player to keep moving, even though the most logical way to deal with traps in those levels would be to just sit there and observe patterns.

yeah I think the obvious answer is that it prevents a player from just sitting on a screen and waiting to memorize everything and/or wait for the perfect timing to jump

doesn't matter in most maps though
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Yaridovich posted...

I mean some stages in certain games make it a thing where e you have to beat a low low limit but those are the minority. In Super Mario World you're given so much time per stage its almost pointless, for instance.

I suppose time limits started out in the first game because it was an arcade game and they wanted to make sure players didn't find a way to just fuck around at the arcade and never give anyone else a turn by standing in the same spot jumping up and down.

SMB2 didn't have any time limit.

They were brought back for 3 and W, but some levels had particularly hard to reach secrets where you could run out of time if you failed too many times, it was rarely an issue, though.
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time limit challenges in galaxys
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ChromaticAngel posted...

I suppose time limits started out in the first game because it was an arcade game and they wanted to make sure players didn't find a way to just fuck around at the arcade and never give anyone else a turn by standing in the same spot jumping up and down.

the original SMB had an arcade port but its first release was on console, not arcade
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Sunhawk posted...

It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.

This. It's a relic of quarter-munching arcade machines.

I know some Mario games gave you points for time remaining. Was that feature in the first one?
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SGT_Conti posted...

I know some Mario games gave you points for time remaining. Was that feature in the first one?

Yes, but score is irrelevant in Mario.

Sunhawk posted...

It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.

heck, even things like "lives" and "game over" are arcade hold-overs that are pointless in console games
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HylianFox posted...

Sunhawk posted...

It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.

heck, even things like "lives" and "game over" are arcade hold-overs that are pointless in console games

I don't think that is the case at all. They're game design elements in addition to being used as cash grabs. Like if you're playing super punch out, not having infinite continues forces you to learn the games patterns by sending you back to the beginning of the circuit instead of lucking out by mashing buttons after trying enough times.
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Balrog0 posted...

HylianFox posted...

Sunhawk posted...

It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.

heck, even things like "lives" and "game over" are arcade hold-overs that are pointless in console games

I don't think that is the case at all. They're game design elements in addition to being used as cash grabs. Like if you're playing super punch out, not having infinite continues forces you to learn the games patterns by sending you back to the beginning of the circuit instead of lucking out by mashing buttons after trying enough times.

even if you just replayed the fight from round 1, you will never beat punch out by just randomly mashing buttons and it's a tossup if you can even beat Glass Joe that way.
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Balrog0 posted...

HylianFox posted...

Sunhawk posted...

It was probably for the arcade games, so people didn't play for too long, and now it's vestigial in the 2D games.

heck, even things like "lives" and "game over" are arcade hold-overs that are pointless in console games

I don't think that is the case at all. They're game design elements in addition to being used as cash grabs. Like if you're playing super punch out, not having infinite continues forces you to learn the games patterns by sending you back to the beginning of the circuit instead of lucking out by mashing buttons after trying enough times.

Fake longevity.

ChromaticAngel posted...

even if you just replayed the fight from round 1, you will never beat punch out by just randomly mashing buttons and it's a tossup if you can even beat Glass Joe that way.

I got to that bald bull guy w/o learning anything just the other day and was stymied by this exact thing
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Questionmarktarius posted...

Fake longevity.

lol what's fake about it? if you think about this too hard you'll realize that all of the obstacles in a game can be construed as artificially lengthening the game for no reason because there is no reason to play a game. the challenges are literally artifical
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Balrog0 posted...

Questionmarktarius posted...

Fake longevity.

lol what's fake about it? if you think about this too hard you'll realize that all of the obstacles in a game can be construed as artificially lengthening the game for no reason because there is no reason to play a game. the challenges are literally artifical

It's roughly the same sort of design decisions that lead to "threepeat" zelda bosses or every Sonic hack ever adding a zero or two to the bosses HPs.

You've already "solved the puzzle" - redoing old puzzles because you didn't figure out this puzzle doesn't really teach much. Especially so for Punchout, where past matches have very little relevance (if any) to the next one.

Questionmarktarius posted...

You've already "solved the puzzle" - redoing old puzzles because you didn't figure out this puzzle doesn't really teach much. Especially so for Punchout, where past matches have very little relevance (if any) to the next one.

it's just preventing you from brute forcing it, which I guess you can debate if that's possible (I'm sure it would be based on past experience, even though it would take a long ass time), not about teaching you anything

You can also say its bad design, but I just don't see how that's any more artificial than making it so mario can only take 1-3 hits before you restart the level or get a powerup
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