@bryanee1983

Thats cool! Again though, why wouldn't games in all regions have this? One would think the game is probably processed at the same place for all regions and even if its not, why would Nintendo decide to have a reversible cover for one region and not all of them? It little things like this that boggle my mind. And I am easily boggled!

Ok, yesterday I think I mentioned that I made it to world 8! I started playing the game earlier today and I made it through each level and finally got to the Bowser level. Now, i was thinking that this Bowser stage would have a bigger battle at the end and.....

I couldn't believe that once I actually completed the level that EVEN MORE LEVELS opened up in world 8!!! ARRRRG! Don't get me wrong, I am actually really happy about this, but I was really hoping to complete the game at that moment in time cause, well, I was at work and I had other stuff that needed to be done. So, now I am home and here soon I will have to continue on with the game. I want to at least complete the main part of the game before the podcast in the morning. But I was hoping to be able to collect all the stars so I could open the special stages and play a few of them as well.

Anyways, here are my stats and I am in the middle of world 8..or at least I am assuming thats where I am at.

Total Play Time: 11 hours 19 mins
Time Died: 205 **Actually, its more than this cause sometimes I would quit the game after dying alot and I would be almost out of lives and I didn't want to see a game over screen.

I will be honest, if everyone is being honest in how fast they completed the game, I feel like I must suck at videogames, or maybe I just suck at Mario games. Seriously, the first dude who completed the main challenge stated it only took him around 4 hours and I think that was even getting all the star coins. Seriously, I know there is no way in hell I could beat the first part of the game in 4 hours and collect all the star coins and even after playing the game, I doubt I could still beat it that fast. How, I already had to ask for help finding the last star in one of the levels. And hell, just in one of the levels in world 8, I went through the whole level and didn't even see a star coin. It was the one where all the green platforms rotate and floor part is yellow.

So, Im not even done the main quest and Im over 11 hours into the game. I still need to complete it, and then collect all the star coins for the special levels to open up. And still yet there is alot of flags that I need to go back and conquer those as well. Hell, I will probably have over 20 hours just getting completing everything with Mario. Like I mentioned, I would rather have the game take me longer to complete, but I really feel like I must suck when some people are completing this game in like 4-8 hours and its probably going to take me 20 hours.

Found something cool.

On 5-2 in the first room on entering the stage, if you stand on top of the coin boxes and jump, it produces the the most pop out 3D effect I've yet seen on the 3DS. It works best if you have the pop out 3D view selected on the d-pad, and the 3D slider at max. Mario looks like he's over inch out of the screen.

I'm not sure if that's the same level I was on when I did something similar but it is pretty cool. But as with any other 3D pop out effects, I've noticed that it really screws with my eyes when I try to focus on whatever's popping out, depending on how intense the effect is.

@achhibbar
Will check it out.

@VofEscaflowne
Definitely know what you mean. That stuff makes me bug out. Hard.

@achhibbar
Haha, I spent a good minute or two just jumping on that box. Pretty nifty indeed.

@gamewizard65
Nothing wrong with finding the game more of a challenge than others do. Heck, you get more bang for your buck!
I had just over 300 1-ups when I was done with everything, but I also grew up playing Mario games over and over and over and over. You probably had other, more important priorities at the time.

ploot said:

To clear some things up, you can see if you beat levels with Mario, Luigi, or both by looking at the bottom-right of the top screen.

Is this only after you beat all of the special levels? Because I beat the main game and have Luigi unlocked but I sure ain't seeing it. All I see is whether I got the golden flag or not.

@Zero
There should be a little M next to the golden flag.
Hmm, I'm checking a new game and you're right. The notification must show after you beat everything once. Well, it's only really useful then anyway.

@ploot In theory you might want to know beforehand, like say if you're switching between the two once you unlock Luigi and are going back to get more coins/flagpoles and such and forget who you already beat what with (obviously you beat all the main levels with Mario but you might not remember if you played them with Luigi yet, and then there are the special levels.)

But yeah I guess ultimately it doesn't matter too much until you have beaten everything.

I tried to buy this game at K-Mart today, and they were sold out. Yep.

@Zero
Guess you could finish up the special levels with your choice of bro. Odds are you haven't beaten the original set with Luigi, so... Yeah.

ANYWAY, I started a new game just to check that thing and I ended up running through the first two worlds. Addictive!

@ploot

Dude, Ive been playing Mario games since the very first one. Quit trying to make excuses for me sucking. I will be honest, I always get nervous when playing videogames, and for some reason esp Mario games. Its usually when I am getting to the end of a world, level or even the last boss of a game I get really, really nervous. I never beat shit like this on the first try. I've learned to accept it.

I haven't been keeping up with this entire thread, but just wanted to say I beat the game and am amazed by the post-game content! Awesome stuff, this'll keep me going for a long time indeed!

@gamewizard65
Hehe, well I tried.

I used to get really nervous during boss battles too. I hear ya. I still do to an extent, but Bowser just doesn't instil fear into me anymore. He's more of a goof nowadays.

@ploot

Its not that I am afraid of him, its just wanting to beat the game. Actually, I was never afraid of Bowser, I was like 20 when the very first Super Mario Bros hit the arcade.

@gamewizard65
I seriously know what you're talking about. I was just being silly.

Well, the final level is just as frustrating as the final level Galaxy 2... and, once again, hard for all the wrong reasons. Super long and repetitive, without any checkpoints or power-ups.

@Hinph
Remember you can run across tiny gaps like in 2D Mario games. When you get to the part with the spaced blocks in the first section, just long jump to it and hold the run button.

I quite enjoyed it, though I was frustrated for my first few lives.

@Hinph
I died about 20 times on the last level, but I still really enjoyed it, I love the epic feel of the final showdown.

Now I'm on Special World 2 playing as Luigi, man the goodness just keeps coming! Love this game.

PS: This is the first 3DS game I've played entirely with the 3-D on, I may have turned it off for a level or 2 when I was riding the shaky subway, but other than that I've suffered through the unfcomfortableness of holding the sweet spot for hours on end, the 3-D effects add so much to the game I felt cheated with it off!

@ploot

Ah, I didn't realize that. Will be very helpful, I'm sure.

@deathly_hallows

Yeah, I think I've died more than 20 times already. haha... I'm finally going to bite the bullet and go collect 2 tanooki suits. Shouldn't be too tough then.


On an unrelated note, I'm sort of bummed that this level didn't make the cut:


Total Mario 3 love.

@Hinph

I'm not sure if that exact area is in the game, but those blue arrow blocks definitely are. They don't operate in the same way that the Mario 3 platforms did though--you hit them from below and they nudge up in place and stick there.