Topic: Super Mario 3D All-Stars

@RR529 It's funny, because I remembered finding that star hard as a kid, but I just jumped into the level, grabbed the flying cap, and took it instantly this time.

Honestly, that's been my experience with Super Mario 64 overall (I'm about 2/3 through, about to finish the basement.) Beating everything first try. Only died twice I think, and that was to the camera locking up on me. I thought this game offered challenging platforming but it... Just doesn't. Honestly, it's been a breeze, and I'm kinda bored. Hoping Tick tock clock might be enough to challenge me again, or Rainbow Ride.

Makes me appreciate how good Odyssey is all the more though, I'll say.

Anybody else hate hazy maze cave? I generally can't stand mazes in any game but this level was all kinds of annoying! People say swimming stages are awful. Nope it's mazes!

@status-204
Lord help you if you wanna get 100 coins in that damn level! If you mess up collecting the blue coins in the poison cave you gotta exit the stage and do it all over.

@BlueOcean for sure! On the swamp stage I got the last coin on the roof wire just by the other star (that you go through the poison area) and the 100th coin star ended over the ledge and unreachable (you could jump there with a triple maybe but there is not much room and if you fail you just die...)

@Balta666 Yep, when getting the 100th coin in Super Mario 64 you have to make sure that it's a safe place to collect the star.

@BlueOcean The 100 coin shine in Sunshine appears in a fixed location, so you don't have to worry about which coin you get last.

@Octane good to know. I did not try 100 coins in sunshine but it appear to me that are less obvious coins to grab (also because blue coins do not count instead of 5x each)

@Slowdive personally I’d say no. Galaxy, Galaxy 2 and 3D World are all better than Odyssey. They all get far more to the core of the Mario experience better than Odyssey IMO. That is tight: inventive obstacle courses packed with secrets that reward observant/skilled players. Collectathons were novel in the mid 90’s but I’ve never personally seen the appeal in that format.

Odyssey does do some things very well. When it does briefly go “full Galaxy” for short sections it’s just as good. It also scales across a broad range of difficulty better than any of its predecessors. It just seems aimless to me at times though (especially end game). I do think the witty wry but sometimes subtle sense of humour of the Mario team is better realised in Odyssey than Galaxy.

@Slowdive Nah. In my opinion Galaxy is everything a Mario game needs to be, plus more.

@Balta666 That's because blue coins disappear when you collect them. Otherwise it would be easier to go for the 100 coin shine if you haven't collected any blue coins yet.

Opinions, opinions.

Galaxy is very linear, and it lacks the freedom and exploration 64, Sunshine and Odyssey have. So it all depends on your preference. Galaxy is also the easiest of the 3D games IMO.

@Octane I’d say the easiest of the 3D games was Odyssey. Galaxy was easy too, but had its moments that’s for sure. I don’t remember a time I had rage-quit in Odyssey, aside from the Darker Side.

@Slowdive I know you’re not asking me, but I think I’ll answer anyways. I agree that 3D World is the best linear 3D Mario game. Something about it just feels good to play.

Sunshine is my favorite non-linear one. It felt like the only 3D game to come to an actual story, and everything just feels connected. Maybe it’s because you can see other worlds in some locations.

Yeah that’s probably it.

Lol only just figured out you can go back to the airstrip in Sunshine. No wonder I couldn't find 100 coins in Delfino Plaza

They're fairly equal to me. Galaxy (or Galaxy 2) is the best of the linear games and Odyssey is the best of the exploration games. I appreciate both aspects.

@Apportal 100% Odyssey run is definitely more difficult than Galaxy. Maybe only because of the stupid rope jumping minigame. I never managed to complete Odyssey.

@Slowdive Probably Sunshine. Best world building and good amount of challenge. 64 is good too, but it's dated and the physics are broken. Galaxy has an amazing atmosphere (story and music are good), but it's a little too linear. Galaxy 2 felt more like a level pack to me. It's very good, but it doesn't lacks any coherence. 3D World is more like a 3D version of 2D Mario, so I find them difficult to compare. And Odyssey, while good, is sometimes a bit too much. Some levels are too big, too many moons, etc. I wasn't a big fan of the rabbits either.

@Dezzy You CAN find 100 coins in Delfino Plaza easily. Most of them are in the sewers, but you can also obtain them by spraying open windows, birds, Mario posters, and those small hanging signboards.

@Octane

Obviously not easily, given that I hadn't figured out you can spray birds or signs. I did figure out open windows and posters though! Although I didn't spray in open windows, that would just be rude. I tried to jump in.

@Dezzy Yeah like Octane said. The sewers are going to be your biggest help since they probably hold 90% of the coins. I just go into the ocean to retrieve the rest.

I tried to jump in the open windows too. Imagine my disappointment

@Slowdive I think the abundance of moons (sometimes just lying on the floor) is both great and a mistake. It gives a meaningful reward for exploration but at the same time the reward is almost too much sometimes because collecting them feels essential. Tiny secret nooks in a level that normally only a handful of players would ever see are firmly “in the guidebook”.

A 1-up or a bug cache of coins in other Mario games still gave a reward but they were purely optional ‘bragging’ points to make you feel clever/skilled. In a kind of paradoxical way it has far more secrets but it has no real secrets at all.

All that said - the structure makes it easier for anyone to get through the game (this is a good thing). It does integrate the moons as collectables into progression more elegantly than 64 or Sunshine IMO.

I’d like to see Odyssey 2 - I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there - but I’m hoping that the Bowser’s Fury expansion is really substantial because I thought 3D World was a bigger hit of “pure undiluted Mario” and I’d like to see them make more courses like those towards the end of that game.

I noticed in Sunshine that if Mario dies while ramming into a wall with the Blooper, you can see him start crying before you get sent back to isle Delfino. I noticed it on accident while dying in that level 50 or so times.