Super Mario Brothers where you can play Megaman, Simon Belmont, Bill from Contra, Link, or Samus from Metroid? Simon whips and throws axes? Bill can shoot in any direction? Samus LAYS MINES? Yup. It’s an instant addiction (and now WIRED’s got me worried it won’t be around for long.
I played a couple times last night. It doesn’t seem to have the highest replay value. Maybe it’s because it has become just utterly mundane to jump to world 4 in the second level and get killed right away because you’re not used to avoiding those spiky things AS MEGAMAN. OK, calming down again.
But the weaknesses are the best and most surprising part. When you’re playing as dinky Mario who can’t even throw a punch, at least you’ve got up to 25 years experience avoiding obstacles and jumping on enemies. You may finally be able to shoot in this game, but you have to remember that most enemies in the Mario universe are pretty short. You end up shooting right over their heads. You can duck and try to shoot as Samus, but that just lays a mine and leaves you vulnerable. Link’s short, but his sword sans power-ups only extends a few pixels in front of him, and he has to hit even the smallest guys a couple times before they finally die. Beginners, be ready for a quick and frustrating grayscale demise.
I have yet to see if I can put hours into this. Even my most addict-like gaming phases tend toward playing 45 minutes at a time at most, then getting mad and finding solace in forms of media saturation that belittle me less. I am certain I’ll be coming back in 15-minute spurts for the next few evenings, though, just to explore all the possibilities.
