[Toups]

I came across this while cruising youtube. Apparently in the Famicom Disc System version of Super Mario Bros, the minus world is dramatically different. Click the link, watch the video, and behold: the Princess Toadstool sprite bookends mushroom platforms as mario swims by through the air. Mario runs at unusually high speeds across a drawbridge, and bloopers swim through Bowser's castle. It really makes our puny American minus world seem quite blase and banal by comparison. All this just goes to show you that, yes, everything is, in fact, better in Japan. Even glitches.

Anyway, I realize this is old news but it's new to me!

While you're looking at strange mario-related youtube links, may I point you to an awesome speedrun of the cracked out, impossibly difficult, and at times poetic romhack of SMB known as air (thanks dessgeega!), as well as this meticulously detailed, nearly pixel-perfect recreation of SMB's first level done in line rider? Speaking of Stage 1 of Mario Bros. being where it doesn't belong, here's a video of the ship from R-type obliterating that iconic stage, thanks to the magic of Mugen. Speaking of Mario and Mugen, here's a video of Mario and Luigi taking on Captain Caveman and Fat Albert, set to the FF7 battle theme which has been making the rounds of the forums of this fine website. Can't remember who originally posted it, but you're credited deep within my heart and maybe in this post later on.
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[another coma]

Ah, and since we're at it, don't forget Super Mario Bros Special.
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[Toups]

[luvcraft]

[haze]

that version of minus world seems to have influenced World 9 of SMB2, don't you think?

[L]

So, this Minus World is just an underwater 1-3, followed by a perfectly normal 2-3, followed by an underground 4-4, followed by the title screen.

Well, it beats a single recursive 2-2 at any rate.

Hardly frontpage material, though.

[CubaLibre]

[Mr Mustache]

How is that pedantic? Seems reasonable.
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The people are like wool to me

[Toups]

[Six]

Man! This is news to me too, Toups. Minus world envy.

It's a little on the technical side, but this doc explaining the Minus World is a pretty interesting read.

Super Mario Bros. Special is painful to watch, but I think it'd be awesome to see it backported to the NES, weird palette and Hudson wackiness and all.

[CubaLibre]

[another coma]

The thing about SMB Special is that, looking at it (and I've spent quite a bit of time looking at videos of gameplay), it seems like the level design is actually pretty thoughtful throughout. It's hard to say, of course, whether the game would flow well with actual scrolling and not-bizarrely altered mechanics, but what's there looks pretty interesting from a design standpoint. I wonder if it's just the pure elements that make up the SMB universe/gameplay that lend to this looking neat or if Hudson actually worked pretty hard on it.

If you want to try it yourself, look no further than here. I haven't made it past the first stage.
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[Max Cola]

How on Earth would you play Air? It looks like a sadist's wet dream.
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Everybody hurts sometimes

[CubaLibre]

[L]

[Toups]

[extrabastardformula]

[Levi]

Select Button:
it's like an autistic professor of Gothic linguistics, or something.

[Jeff Garneau]

[Screwtape]

When I first read about Air, I thought it was a genius idea. Basically, Super Mario Bros. has two sets of rules: there's the things the game is designed to allow you to do (jump, move, shatter blocks, stomp monsters) and the things the game actually allows you to do because of bugs in implementing the first rules, like jumping off walls, walking through walls, and so forth. Air is simply a game designed around the second set of rules rather than the first.

Then I found out that Air is hacked to allow you to jump at any time, even in mid-air, so it doesn't actually follow either set of the original SMB rules after all. Rather spoils the symmetry, to my mind. :/
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私はガラスを食べられます。それは私を傷つけません。

[Lick Meth]

So, Air Mario.

What the fuck?

Just... fuck.

Also, I now feel massively disappointed by the original "Minus World", but intrigued by the disc system one. But they should have put one in Super Mario All-Stars, just for shits and giggles. Even if they didn't make it (the Minus World(s)).
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[Koji]

Toups, this is pretty cool! Though I'm not sure what's more mysterious: going through those three eerie stages and 'finishing the game,' or reaching the end of the water stage and looping back to the start, appearing from some bubbles.

[nothingxs]

Hm. Speaking of Mario hacks like Air,

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/iz4pdXMAVVA/
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select button
i've gotta let go. i've gotta get straight. why'd you have to make it so hard? let me get away.
3DSFC 1736-1476-0518

[haze]

that one's just CRUEL

AIR has this pleasant psychedelic feel to it.... (when watching it)

[extrabastardformula]

That was hilarious in the way Life of Otawa was. Bravo.
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[psiga]

Perhaps the most intellectually violent work of art that I have ever witnessed. Comically divine tragedy.
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[schild]

[skelethulu]

wow, I've never been so happy and scared at the same time.

[Broco]

He just gives up at the end :(.

[psiga]

Yeah, by the 20 minute mark you can just tell that he is being broken.

I wonder how long the hack goes on for.
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[L]

[NGKrush]