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Denver, 2:53 AM
Sun Nov 22
21 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/21/09
My favourite misbehaving moment was when I was driving a Warthog in the original Halo. My partner was in the passenger seat. We were driving along a ridge of some sort. Seeing the opportunity, I floored it, then leaped out at the last second, watching as the Warthog (and my buddy) went sailing off the edge of the cliff.
What can I say, I am an easily-amused man.
11/21/09
Sure could of used that glitch though, we never saw over 12 lives. I used 12 continues and she used 18. Ha.
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11/21/09
Jesus at least take better care of your videos YouTube dude (Seriously, a generic title and extension to it? Haven't seen those in a while...)
And fucking shit man you could have told me about this sooner you bastard instead of sticking my fate in a fake grail GWAAAARGHH—
*poof*
11/21/09
You chose... Poorly.
11/21/09
11/21/09
Lives were to NSMB what Rupees were to Zelda TP.
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11/21/09
The game is rather easy and sparse, but becomes difficult to play when other people are bumping into you, and freezing the game randomly, whenever literally anything happens.
Did they get a power up? Time to throw your jump off by pausing for a second!
Even then, that's not as much "difficult" as "poor game design".
11/21/09
11/21/09
Secondly, I think it balances out. In single player, you're bound to die alot less; but in multiplayer, dying doesn't matter. As long as 1 player is alive, the level continues. Also, it is a hell of alot easier to get the Star Coins in multiplayer -- because you can bounce off other players to reach areas you can't in single player, and because one player can just kill themselves to get a Star Coin, and the level still continues, and the coin still counts as obtained.
11/21/09
Far as infinite lives, 8-Boat is my strongest case for easy farming.
11/21/09
#speakup
01:32 AM
In singe player, the con is that there's only you, so you can only take 0-2 hits before having to restart a level. Also, you can't bounce off of other players to get high Star Coins, or let one player jump down suicidally for a Star Coin that normally would require much greater skill/timing (incidentally, in case everyone hasn't figured this out, when you make such a suicide dive in multiplayer, you can press A to put yourself in the bubble manually, as if you'd died and respawned; you don't lose your powerup, you don't lose your life, and this can save you from all sorts of failed jumps).
In multiplayer, the con is that PLAYING THE GAME AT ALL IS HORRIBLY DIFFICULT, BECAUSE YOUR TEAMMATES CONSTANTLY INTERRUPT YOUR ATTEMPTS TO BUILD SPEED, AND THEY CONSTANTLY BOUNCE OFF OF YOUR HEAD MIDJUMP. Plus, that split-second pause when a teammate gets an item or gets hit throws off everyone's timing, leading to more jump cockups, which screws up everyone's timing, leading to more jump cockups, which...
I'm glad that they did something to counteract how easy the game would be with 4 people playing, leading to 4 times as many possible lives. And I do enjoy the game. But good god, when you have multiple people playing, it greatly overcompensates because I swear that nobody can hold onto lives whatsoever. I don't see how that can be avoided unless you and your 3 friends happen to have the coordination and discipline of an army platoon.
4 players: I'm not sure any one player ever had more than 10 lives, and I believe every player had at least 1 or 2 continues used per hour. Plus, any level that has narrow platforms is hellish, because they can't fit more than 1 or 2 players, so the other players either have to wait (and possibly die), or all 4 of us scramble for the platform and we're lucky if 1 of us makes it. For example, in the fortress in World 5, there's a part where 2 spiked walls move side and to side, and you have to ascend small platforms while avoiding these spikes; this section is literally IMPOSSIBLE with 4 players, because all 4 can't be on a platform at once, and the spikes move fast enough that you don't really have time to take turns, so at best maybe 2 players can actually do the jumps, while the other 2 get left behind to get spiked (though if they're smart they will just put themselves in bubbles).
2 players: The day after the above example, we replayed a section, looking for Star Coins. Even just reducing the players by 2 showed a dramatic improvement, as we had less "teamkills", and pretty much gained lives at nearly the same rate as singe player (we each started with 5, after 30-45 minutes we had something like 18-19 each).
1 player: Zero "teamkills", and it's far easier to get extra lives when using stars, or when trying to hit a lot of enemies with a shell or Yoshi fireball, instead of having teammates muck it up somehow. A couple levels are challenging and take some lives, but in a given half hour, it's pretty much guaranteed that I end up with a life surplus, and near the end of my first pass through the game, I reached 99 lives, and pretty much hovered around there until the end.
Overall, the multiplayer aspect of the game is enjoyable, as long as you don't take the game too seriously while you're playing it, akin to a Mario Party state of mind. But if you have even one friend you're playing with who prides himself on his platformer competency, prepare for nonstop rage growls, because NSMBW's multiplayer is nearly chaos theory, given how many different ways your teammates can inadvertently throw off your precise timing or directly cause your death on a jump you could most certainly make.
At times, it becomes almost indistinguishable from a Luck Based Mission.
[tvtropes.org]
01:49 AM
#speakup
11/21/09
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12:03 AM
11/21/09
Say what you will about Penny Arcade, but their Greater Internet Fuckwad theory was dead on.
11/21/09
..er..nevermind?
11/21/09
More so than that, it's a perfect encapsulation of nearly every boy who lived in the early nineties. It is the story of us all.
11/21/09
Online, this problem is worse since there's no "getting punched for acting out of line" option available.
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11/21/09
@Bizzenya: I was hoping more for something like this...
#speakup
11/21/09
11/21/09
It's just that the "for the lulz" folks seem to do it more as a side attraction, rather than the primary reason for their involvement.
#speakup
11/21/09
This is why it's so disappointing that most new games are either A) Without splitscreen, or B) Not conducive to that sort of mayhem.
11/21/09
11/21/09
I, on the other hand... had some great fun playing RE5 and GoW2 with a friend - Split Screen. Listening to your buddy's disembodied voice over speakers just isn't the same.
11/21/09
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11/21/09
I 100% this game with my roommate and it was a blast. We're both really into Mario games though and we work well co-operatively. I can definitely imagine it being frustrating depending on who you play with. I've also yet to play it with more than 2 players at once.
11/21/09