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Super Mario Bros 2 vs Katamari

Which is weirder? Yes yes, I know SMB2 was another game entirely, but pretend it wasnt. Its pretty fucked up. As a child I couldnt comprehend it to the point of outright hating the game.

Now the music brings on a flood of nintendo nostalgic that is both offensive and comforting. The bullet shoot snakes, egg shooting dinosaurs and giant hawk heads I climb into are all fucked up and make no sense, but in the end I think SMB2 is the most memorable mario game for me. Which is hilarious.

But everyone says WOW KATAMARI is KOOKY WACKY! Is it enough to topple SMB2?

Oh, and SMB2 rocks on GBA SP. Forever, the end. Hearing toads deathcry is ultimate satisfaction.
 
Have you played either Katamari game? Your wording (or lack thereof) implies you haven't, but I wasn't sure.

Katamari is pretty weird, but intentionally so. I don't really think SMB USA meant to be so "weird" but I may be wrong. It's drastically different enough from SMB to make people think it was, but I don't think quirkiness was one of the main objectives.
 
Sorry I saw Katamari and thought, too short a game bullshit collectathon and I saw Mario and thought, wow awesome, I can eat shrooms and fight a giant rat with sunglasses.
 
i'd say SMB2 was weirder. u remember thinking WTF when i first saw birdo. most fucked mario ever.
the whole thing being a dream
made it all make sense in the end tho. was that in doki doki panic or was it just the story in mario 2? those flying faces were crazy too.
 
i think this is as good a place as any to celebrate the genius of nes manual authors and translators. birdo as a transsexual? they're responsible. birdo is female in the japanese version. the lying, libidinous, totally fucking cracked townspeople that ruined simon's quest at the time but now make it so fascinating to play? inspired translation; the japanese version is sane. in the us version of metal gear, they named big boss "vernon CaTaffy." which as far as i'm concerned remains canon, kojima be damned. the villain of metal gear 2 was "ayatollah cockamamie." you don't get satire that sharp on your fancy television programs, folks.
 
drohne said:
i think this is as good a place as any to celebrate the genius of nes manual authors and translators. birdo as a transsexual? they're responsible. birdo is female in the japanese version. the lying, libidinous, totally fucking cracked townspeople that ruined simon's quest at the time but now make it so fascinating to play? inspired translation; the japanese version is sane. in the us version of metal gear, they named big boss "vernon CaTaffy." which as far as i'm concerned remains canon, kojima be damned. the villain of metal gear 2 was "ayatollah cockamamie." you don't get satire that sharp on your fancy television programs, folks.
here here.

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It was always weird that it was Clawglip and they swapped Birdo and Ostro during the credits (and didn't it stay like that in All-Stars?).
 
come to think of it, the villain of snake's revenge was called "higharolla cockamamie." it's such an awesome name that it BROKE MY MEMORY.
 
Kobun Heat said:
I really wanted that Famicom Mini. But it's like superduperrare.

Same here. I can't find anywhere online that has it in stock, and I have no contacts in Japan who are willing to do my bidding.
 
I don't think SMB2 was that cracked out... maybe because I was really young when I played it (6 years old) and didn't have experience with what's normal and not in a game. There are certainly weirder NES games - remember Stinger (a US port of one of the Twinbee games)?
 
I'll bet John TV has one of those minis coming his way.

Also, remember that SMB was anotehr game, reskinned. Some weird turban character platform game on the Famicom disck system. My friend had an original copy. I wonder how much that's worth nowadays...
 
MrAngryFace said:
Which is weirder? Yes yes, I know SMB2 was another game entirely, but pretend it wasnt. Its pretty fucked up. As a child I couldnt comprehend it to the point of outright hating the game.

Now the music brings on a flood of nintendo nostalgic that is both offensive and comforting. The bullet shoot snakes, egg shooting dinosaurs and giant hawk heads I climb into are all fucked up and make no sense, but in the end I think SMB2 is the most memorable mario game for me. Which is hilarious.

But everyone says WOW KATAMARI is KOOKY WACKY! Is it enough to topple SMB2?

Oh, and SMB2 rocks on GBA SP. Forever, the end. Hearing toads deathcry is ultimate satisfaction.


I'll say that removed from anything that Mario2 is much more 'kooky-wacky' ---- unlike many people here, I don't have a hard time removing Mario2's cultural impact from my brain.

Katamari --- kooky and wacky, yes ... but expected, it's entirely Japanese silly-time and looks completely Japanese.... Never really took it as strange, in fact it's almost predictable in its Japness...... "Dancing panda, yay --- rainbow, yay"
Nothing in it tripped me up, it's just quality... but even to this day Mario2 makes me feel a bit dirty and wierd.

Mario Bros 2 ---- Just looks completely wackball and doesn't reflect any culture, it's just Wacky-Kooky on its own.... Just look at it... plumber, mushroom dude, princess... birdo..... mouse, vegitables etc. etc. ---- it all hurts at times, and I can only play it for short bursts.
 
It wouldn't be the same, but I'd still take a Famicom faceplate for my micro.
I'll never forget reading the SMB2 manual while on the ride home from getting the game. Even then I thought it was weird shit.
 
boutrosinit said:
I wonder how much that's worth nowadays...
Pretty much nothing*. I have a sealed copy of the FDS disk and I got it for free when I bought my FDS. (It's called Doki Doki Panic, by the way.)

* About $30-40 on eBay.
 
That hawk used to scare the shit out of me. I was watching my dad play one day, and he got to the level where it comes to life and attacks you, scary shit. :lol
 
SMB2 didn't seem all that weird to me when it came out. I mean, SMB1 was totally out there when it first came out too. I guess I just expected kookiness from Nintendo.

But nothing can properly prepare you for the intro to the first Katamari...
 
But nothing can properly prepare you for the intro to the first Katamari...

:lol

So true. Even though I read a ton about Katamari Damacy when it was coming out, and bought it based on what I had read, the intro still made me drop my jaw with a WTH look on my face. So awesome!
 
Zeo said:
SMB2 = easily the worst in the "normal" Mario series, not that it's bad.

Shit. Its the best! Fucking pedestrian SMB3-loving crackwhores!

SMB2 was so different from the others, its just pure CLASS.
 
I'm gonna just jump in here real quick and agree that of the Super Mario Bros games, SMB 2 is the best of them all. Four playable characters, and it itroduced SO MUCH to the series that, without it, would be completely different. (ie, Peach floating, Luigi being taller than Mario, Bob-ombs, Shy-Guys, Birdo, Ninji, etc)

I'd really like Nintendo to make a "Super Mario Bros: Return to Subcon" for something. Be it a new GBA game with the same engine, or a DS game using the Super Princess Peach engine, or a Revolution game. Whatever. Shame that Miyamoto hates revisiting ideas, unlike every other Mario developer. (Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario come to mind).

However, Katamari's intro sequence is fucking insane and has the coolest theme of this gen. I have it on my iTunes mix, it's so awesome.
 
The Famicom version isn't rare. Retailers got a new shipment in yesterday/today. Check all the usual places. They are all shipping within 24hours. Although the price has gone up on a couple of sites.
 
Katamari is supposed to be weird. Mario was supposed to be somewhat of a cartoon character, but with the second game, it was much more than just cartoon weird. So in conclusion, I don't know.
 
WordAssassin said:
I'm gonna just jump in here real quick and agree that of the Super Mario Bros games, SMB 2 is the best of them all. Four playable characters, and it itroduced SO MUCH to the series that, without it, would be completely different. (ie, Peach floating, Luigi being taller than Mario, Bob-ombs, Shy-Guys, Birdo, Ninji, etc)

I'd really like Nintendo to make a "Super Mario Bros: Return to Subcon" for something. Be it a new GBA game with the same engine, or a DS game using the Super Princess Peach engine, or a Revolution game. Whatever. Shame that Miyamoto hates revisiting ideas, unlike every other Mario developer. (Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario come to mind).

I'd like to take this moment to point out that Donkey Kong on the Game Boy featured many SMB2/USA elements as far as the gameplay was concerned. It's sort of mix between SMB2/USA and the original arcade Donkey Kong... and one of my favorite Mario titles. The unofficial sequel, Mario vs. Donkey Kong lacks of of the gameplay refinement, but many like it as well.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is interesting in a few different ways... it introduced Mario's triple jump, was the first "standard" Mario game to use the SMB2/USA "hurl your enemies" gameplay, and is one of the few Super Game Boy titles with SNES chip music (if you beat the game and are using a Super Game Boy, the ending credits are played via the SNES sound system with samples instead of 8-bit noise).
 
To me no matter what oddness in terms of baddies are in Super Mario 2, in Katamari you are rolling up matter composed of people/pets/buildings/mountains/snack food to form into stars that your father knocked from the sky in some sort of cosmic drunken haze.

Katamari is weirder by far.
 
If SMB2 had a level where a sumo eventually starting eating animals and people, it'd win hands-down.

Birdo the transvestite and Wart the vomitous meanie were freaky, but Katamari just throws cannibalism into the mainstream. Not to mention all of those spare underpants just sitting around.
 
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