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New Super Mario Bros. 2 |OT| Coins!

B

Boogiepop

Member
Gah, screw it. Can someone just tell me what level I should be looking for secret exits in in World 1? Not where to find it, just the level.
 
D

daakusedo

Member
I found the third star coin in 1-A, the thing is I didn't even know I missed it, quite surprised when I thought I entered a new pipe just for coins.
There was a new invisible block too in that same area, that flying koopa troopa was not here for nothing, will be useful to know for a next coin rush.
 
W

Wizpig

Member
Why does the background for World 1 (blue sky) look like a low quality .jpg, with artifacts and stuff?
Both in 2d and 3d.

eESJv.jpg


I assure you that's not the .jpg, it's the same as in-game.

Blur effect (unrelated) is actually nice, by the way.
Just bought this today as it comes out tomorrow in Italy (retail version, we had the dd version on the shop as of last week but... lol dd)
 
J

jarosh

Member
BGBW said:
Well I don't know what his opinion is but I feel the credits tune in this managed to surpass the already catchy Wii version.
Click to expand...

Well, the arrangements are all pretty much exactly the same, so I have no idea what he's talking about. The instrumentation is what's changed ever so slightly, and 90 % of it consists of additional tracks of awful synth voices.


Wizpig said:
Why does the background for World 1 (blue sky) look like a low quality .jpg, with artifacts and stuff?
Both in 2d and 3d.

eESJv.jpg


I assure you that's not the .jpg, it's the same as in-game.

Blur effect (unrelated) is actually nice, by the way.
Just bought this today as it comes out tomorrow in Italy (retail version, we had the dd version on the shop as of last week but... lol dd)
Click to expand...
I noticed that some of the background assets seem to be be low-res bitmaps that are being upscaled. That's what you're mistaking as compression. Very sloppy work by Nintendo, for sure.
 
H

hachi

Banned
jarosh said:
I noticed that some of the background assets seem to be be low-res bitmaps that are being upscaled. That's what you're mistaking as compression. Very sloppy work by Nintendo, for sure.
Click to expand...

I have a feeling (though no evidence) that Nintendo was trying to keep the download size as small as possible for this debut of retail of games on the eShop.

Anyhow, I love the 3D and blurring effect, so the pixellated backgrounds aren't a problem, but I can see how they'd annoy anyone who prefers 2D mode.
 
J

jwhit28

Member
I'm enjoying single player much more than NSMB and NSMB Wii (mostly because the propeller hat is gone). I guess I'd much rather play the worst 2D Mario platformers (which I still think is NSMB) than the best of the majority of other game series.
 
L

Lord_Byron28

Member
UncleSporky said:
I have no problem with partially duplicated powerups. Ice Flower/Penguin just mirrored the old Raccoon Tail/Tanooki setup, I thought it was a nice throwback.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I caught that throwback but I wasn't really a fan of it back then either. SMG1/2 and NSMBW had a more SMB3 like powerup system with a lot of different powerups thrown out you which for the most part were all pretty novel but some were limiting, redundant or annoying outside of the intended level. I'm more of a SMW kind of guy and prefer powerups that are practical, fun and useful for almost all levels. I'm not opposed to a lot of powerups or new powerups by nature just how they usually end up being used in Mario titles.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
Somnid said:
Not that I don't have some agreement but the way you present it is flawed:

Your 90-95 trio is not only an arbitrary date grouping but contains a non-Mario game. There were basically 6 2D Marios prior to NSMB. SMB, SMB:LL, SMB3, and SMW. There was also Mario Land 1 and 2 on Gameboy. I think if you really wanted a comparison it makes most sense to choose SMB1-3 (specifically since we're talking about the first 3 NSMB games) rather than windowing on a particular ones. And that argument would mostly be on the strength of 3 (since 1 and 2 reused almost all assets) which while immense doesn't really demonstrate much.

Also another way to look at it is times have changed, as has the franchise and these comparisons are going to be weighted to the early franchise because they ignore those changes. The expanded Mario series has also seen NSMB Wii, SMG 2 and SM3DL in a span of less than 3 years. Essentially it's gained so much variety it's being split into sub-series (and really sub-sub-series since handheld NSMB is actually different than console NSMB).
Click to expand...
1. It isn't arbitrary. Those were the three most recent 2D Marios before the NSMB series*. I didn't "window in on particular ones".
2. If you want to use SMB1-3 instead, fine! My point remains exactly the same since those three games are completely different from one another in every aspect.
---------- If you want to refer to The Lost Levels instead, that gets kind of muddy since Nintendo had been planning Doki Doki Panic as the actual sequel initially (NoA honoured this), not to mention that Nintendo hadn't really sorted out its philosophy on what a sequel would be. But OK. So there was a time (1985-1986..) when Nintendo did something similar to what they're doing now.

*As for what qualifies and what doesn't, for this conversation I thought it only made sense to draw the line at 'Mario team developing 2D Mario platformer' which excludes R&D1 and Artoon-developed games (none of which I've ever really played, apart from a little Super Mario Land). So, Nintendo EAD. Whatever direction they take the series, those are the guys who have ownership over what diversity the series gets. Whether it's plenty (90s), or very little (nowadays). I include SMW2, yes. It's different, but that's the idea. The Mario team was willing (or allowed by Yamauchi, Miyamato) to try different things. That's the point. Nowadays the 2D Marios (fundamentally different to the 3D ones) have been forced into a very safe, formulaic domain. That's disappointing to many of us.

Kaijima said:
3D Mario didn't exist during the era you cite. Things are different now.

Instead of NSMB, NSMB Wii, NSMB 2, it's actually:

NSMB, Mario Galaxy, NSMB Wii, Mario Galaxy 2, Mario 3D Land, NSMB 2 - a little more variety there.

Some people can't seem to accept that NSMB is its own sub series. It is not the be-all, end all of Mario, or indicative of the nature of the franchise today. In addition to the fact that Nintendo only makes one NSMB entry per platform, and other Mario entries on the same platform are different.
Click to expand...
What does that even mean? Can't accept? Obviously NSMB is a sub series. That doesn't mean we have to be apologists for it.
 
B

Boogiepop

Member
Before I drive myself mad trying to figure out if I'm correct:
In World 2, when looking for the secret exit, is the solution to
Fly to the area over the exit door in the "big ghost is chasing you" section?
That's the only place I'm seeing the makes sense right now, but it's also a huuuuuuuuuge pain so I don't want to destroy myself trying to do this only to find out I was barking up the wrong tree.
 
D

dkeane

Member
Boogiepop said:
Before I drive myself mad trying to figure out if I'm correct:
In World 2, when looking for the secret exit, is the solution to
Fly to the area over the exit door in the "big ghost is chasing you" section?
That's the only place I'm seeing the makes sense right now, but it's also a huuuuuuuuuge pain so I don't want to destroy myself trying to do this only to find out I was barking up the wrong tree.
Click to expand...
That's not it. It's extremely random and annoying to find.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Jesus, the section before the final boss is a pure nostalgia hit
koopa kids in the clown copter, statue mario

So good.
 
B

Boogiepop

Member
While I'm thinking of it: they didn't do anything insane like put an exit/star coin in what looks to be a pit unless you take a leap of faith, right?
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Socreges said:
2. If you want to use SMB1-3 instead, fine! My point remains exactly the same since those three games are completely different from one another in every aspect.
---------- If you want to refer to The Lost Levels instead, that gets kind of muddy since Nintendo had been planning Doki Doki Panic as the actual sequel initially (NoA honoured this), not to mention that Nintendo hadn't really sorted out its philosophy on what a sequel would be. But OK. So there was a time (1985-1986..) when Nintendo did something similar to what they're doing now.
Click to expand...

Not really. They were extremely limited by the technology and were essentially forced to re-examine their approach each time. They were learning new programming tricks, developing new methods for scrolling the screen or using color palettes more effectively.

The question becomes, if they weren't constrained by the hardware at all and had previous experience in what worked and what didn't, would they still have made games with the same amount of difference between each other? And of course nobody can answer that question.

There's simply a massive difference between all surrounding circumstances of that era and this one, and you can't compare the two effectively.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
UncleSporky said:
Not really. They were extremely limited by the technology and were essentially forced to re-examine their approach each time. They were learning new programming tricks, developing new methods for scrolling the screen or using color palettes more effectively.

The question becomes, if they weren't constrained by the hardware at all and had previous experience in what worked and what didn't, would they still have made games with the same amount of difference between each other? And of course nobody can answer that question.

There's simply a massive difference between all surrounding circumstances of that era and this one, and you can't compare the two effectively.
Click to expand...
You've gone into more detail, but I'm not sure what you're rebuffing exactly. Of course the contexts are different. That doesn't change what we're talking about, though.
 
R

ryushe

Member
You know what, after really, really disliking NSMB on the DS and kinda' feeling apathetic towards NSMBwii (That game did have fantastic level design, though), I gotta' say, I'm enjoying this game a lot more than I thought I'd be. I still think it's an uninspiring coin grab, but it is a well made one and I think I'm alright with that.
 
S

Silver_DNA

Member
I just had a "Wow, I'm dumb" moment. I held the jump button while swimming and Mario kept kicking his legs and I could control him with the D-pad. Was this a thing in all the NSMB games?
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
Socreges said:
You've gone into more detail, but I'm not sure what you're rebuffing exactly. Of course the contexts are different. That doesn't change what we're talking about, though.
Click to expand...

For example, it's well known that Miyamoto wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur even in the earliest SMBs. Perhaps if he hadn't been constrained by the technology, Yoshi would've been in all the games, and they wouldn't be all that different from each other.

I'm saying that they reinvented the wheel because they had to, and not necessarily because "old Nintendo was better," "they were so much more creative back then," etc. I don't think they've lost anything, and honestly I'd even say that, setting aside tech leaps that changed things like the graphical style, each game in the NSMB series thus far feels about as different as the early games did.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
Glass Joe said:
Hmm, I think trying to convince you would be a wasted effort -- you'd come to the conclusion you have after going through the first 3 worlds (only 1/3 of the game) - if not before. And of course those are the simplest courses, as Mario gets progressively harder by design.

But a lot of the mini-mushroom stuff was pretty cool. Some of the medals have been clever. Spider web stuff is alright as is the rope swinging. I like the coin head and gold flower. But it's more about good level design, coupled with the already tried & true.

But if you were looking for NSMB 2 to reinvent the wheel or something, you probably should have researched your purchase, since the screen shots & hype all pointed to what you're complaining about. I won't argue that there could be some variety or innovation behind the game, but this has been a lot of fun and certainly not something I'd want to try to refund.

Plus... It is a portable game. I've always looked at consoles to be the main-line Marios, so actually getting "new" levels on a portable is a nice thing. Maybe that's not an excuse (especially since NSMB started on DS), but it's nicer than simply getting an NSMB Wii port.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know as a gamer no one is going to convince me to enjoy it, but as a game designer I'm interested to see what this secret sauce level design is that is creating all of these people here to say they really like the game.

Like 1-1 in NSMB, 1-1 here is a straight forward level with a lot of secrets and some of thier new stuff.

Like 1-2 in SMB1, 1-2 here is a level with a lot of distructable blocks with a more straight edged blocky layout. It has a very segmented low path and a high path. It also throws in those constently rising or lowering elevators.

Like 1-1 and 1-2 in SMB 3, 1-3 here is a hilly level with tons of goombas and koopas, with a coin trail to take you up to the sky with a raccoon tail where there is a platform in the middle of nowhere you can fly between

Like 1-4 in SMB1, 1-4 here is a level where the platforms are more randomly laid out, there's often a high and a low road to take, but its more free flowing between the two then the segmented 1-2.

The unnatural man-mad maze type layout of 2-2, the rocky layout with enemies on smaller platforms and quicksand of 2-1, the vertical climbing towers with moving platforms or chain saws, the standing ontop of a moving platform as you avoid hazards. I can keep going.

Its all been done millions of times before. Those stage layouts were fun when i first played them years ago, but they are no longer fun, they are predictable. Predictable isn't fun. What about these level designs makes this game worth playing?
 
B

Boogiepop

Member
Also have to say how neat it is to notice all the little examples of how the game will first throw something at you in a safe environment, and then start trying to kill you with it. Heck, even on the final level the first
stretch where they can statue you is harmless.
Just a neat little thing.

Forgot to mention that I found the final boss pretty disappointing, especially coming off of NSMBWii and 3DLand. I mean
visually it looked cool with Bowser in the background and the idea wasn't awful, but he's just so non-aggressive that I just spent the whole time doing little hops from one side of the screen to the other and did it on my first try.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
UncleSporky said:
For example, it's well known that Miyamoto wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur even in the earliest SMBs. Perhaps if he hadn't been constrained by the technology, Yoshi would've been in all the games, and they wouldn't be all that different from each other.

I'm saying that they reinvented the wheel because they had to, and not necessarily because "old Nintendo was better," "they were so much more creative back then," etc. I don't think they've lost anything, and honestly I'd even say that, setting aside tech leaps that changed things like the graphical style, each game in the NSMB series thus far feels about as different as the early games did.
Click to expand...
OpoQQ.jpg
 
R

redcrayon

Member
The other way is to find a P-block that turns blocks into coins for a short time, but I didn't see one nearby on that level.

Best thing to do is wait for a gold toad house to turn up, or just head back there once you pick up a gold flower elsewhere.

I'm 12 hours in and still finding secret exits and new levels- finished all the worlds hours ago, but it's still holding my attention the way they always do. Good stuff.
 
E

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
I finished the game with about 700 lives, so two times through at the end with the infinite 1-up trick finished off that ridiculous requirement.
 
B

BooJoh

Member
XrNaq.png


16:30 on the Activity Log, and I looked up a few of the secret exits/coins. Doesn't seem too short to me. I also thought the final boss was just fine. Not nearly as epic as NSMBWii or SM3DL, but still pretty cool.

I've still barely touched coin rush, and that's probably where the real coins are.
 
Alex

Alex

Member
I don't think they've lost anything, and honestly I'd even say that, setting aside tech leaps that changed things like the graphical style, each game in the NSMB series thus far feels about as different as the early games did.
Click to expand...

Yeah, no, not even close unless you're just counting SMB and SMB2 JP, and not even then, really.

It's a good game, so I'm not going to bag on it, I like it almost as much as the Wii version, but creative in any way it is not.

16:30 on the Activity Log, and I looked up a few of the secret exits/coins. Doesn't seem too short to me. I also thought the final boss was just fine. Not nearly as epic as NSMBWii or SM3DL, but still pretty cool.
Click to expand...

The raw content, especially for a recycley game is fairly low, but the actual play time for star coins, etc, is pretty solid. I always have the most fun with those, too.
 
T

The Mana Legend

Banned
It's amazing what verticality and some exploration in this game did to help my enjoyment of this game.

The presentation still sucks, but I am enjoying this game way more than the last two NSMB's.
 
S

Snowden's Secret

Banned
Just beat World 6 for the first time, that was a really awful last boss. If they'd reversed the order from
fight-->platforming to platforming-->fight
it would have been a lot better.

It was even worse when I thought
AW SHIT I'M GOING TO THE ROOF TO BATTLE THE CLOWN COPTER IN A THUNDERSTORM FUCK YEAH
to that shit.
 
S

Socreges

Banned
I really wish they'd included more vertical parts that required the tanooki suit. Those were some of the most interesting levels.
 
K

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
After playing some more, I will say that the actual art is better than NSMB Wii. If you're sick of it may just glaze over you, but it *is* much better. Backgrounds are richer, there are more sets of visuals and props for courses. Stuff like ghost house interiors are more whimsical.

I think it's a good send-off for the original NSMB style before we get to NSMB U with its apparently more complete theme overhaul.
 
Alex

Alex

Member
I'm a bit warped, and dislike 3D most of the time, I very rarely use the function in my 3DS games but do I actually like the 3D in this one and the specific way it layers it and even the contrast with the over DOF'd background.

It looks really good in water stages, for some reason, to me.
 
S

Snowden's Secret

Banned
Also, while I remember: that Bowswer model is incredible, I'm not a graphical gourmet but the fact that Bowser was capable like that in 3DS game blew me away. Maybe I have low standards.
 
J

Jo Shishido's Cheeks

Member
Beat Bowser.
The lead up to the fight with the SMB homage and the music was great!
Enjoyed the credits too, although they sent my brain into a frenzy with imagining an Ico-esque Mario platformer where you have to transport Peach around the place...

All in all, it's comfortably the second best Mario handheld game.
Whilst acknowledging everything it isn't, I still managed to have a great deal of fun with it.


Handheld Mario Series

Great:
Super Mario 3D Land

Good:
New Super Mario Bros. 2

Average:
New Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Land 2
Super Mario Land
 
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