Category: Nintendo News

Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. in 1985, making a lot of people very happy due to the superb platforming action it provided and selling a lot of NES systems in the process. Numerous sequels have followed, but that first game has remained available on various machines over the years, sometimes adding things like updated visuals (SNES) and extra modes (Game Boy Color). The original NES version has seen release on Game Boy Advance, GameCube (Action Replay permitting) and all three Virtual Console services. Now you can buy it on Switch, but VS. Super Mario Bros. is a bit different to what has come before.

Arriving in arcades the year after the home console release, VS. Super Mario Bros. at first appears to be the same as regular Super Mario Bros. with the same tight controls, visual appearance and Koji Kondo’s awesome music playing in the background. As an arcade release some changes were made to provide a tougher challenge and to gobble up more money from players – although for this eShop release credits are simply added at the press of a button. Unlimited continues does not make the game a pushover, however, as using one sends you back to the first level of the current world.

Continues functioned the same way in the original version of the game (albeit hidden behind some button holding), but with its added difficulty VS. Super Mario Bros. features more moments of frustration. Sure, starting from 6-1 may be preferable to starting from 1-1, but if you’d struggled through to 6-4 and then got stomped on by Bowser, it’s disheartening to be thrown back a few levels that must be replayed before you can get your revenge.

There are some small changes that create some of the added challenge with a few extra enemies, less powerups and in some cases smaller platforms for you to land on. Towards the end of 3-1, the Koopa Troopas on the staircase have been replaced with Goombas and consequently the famous 1-up trick is impossible. Another change is that some bricks have been removed above the exit pipe in 1-2, making the minus World inaccessible and the warp zone slightly trickier to reach; misjudge your landing and your momentum will carry you off the ceiling and towards the regular way out. Find your way to the later warp zone that previously granted access to Worlds 6 to 8 and your inner speedrunner will be disappointed to discover that only the sixth World is accessible.

Other changes include World 2, where levels 2 through 4 are the harder versions that originally appeared in Worlds 6 and 7. A few other levels have also shifted around including the castles to Worlds 4 and 5, which have now switched places. A more significant change comes with the first castle that has been replaced with a new tougher level, featuring extra lava pits to jump and firebars to avoid. In fact there are six new levels in the game that feature tough platforming challenges; one particularly tricky moment requires you to bounce off a Koopa Paratroopa at just the right moment to reach the platform. Oh, and you can’t see the Paratroopa when you begin your run-up.

It should be pointed out that these new levels would go on to feature in The Lost Levels, a game that despite initially only seeing release in Japan has since had numerous western releases, and so they are not the fresh challenges they originally were. These new levels and other changes also make things a bit disorientating when an expected level turns out to be something else, or a jump has to be approached differently to what you’d do in other versions of the game.

If you’d like to make things a easier for yourself, the only thing you can do is adjust the lives you get when continuing; increase from three to four. The other options in the settings menu all make the game tougher: decrease your starting lives to two, require up to 250 coins for an extra life and speed up the timer. Elsewhere there are HAMSTER’s usual options for remapping buttons and adding scanlines to the image should you wish.

Two player mode operates exactly as you’d expect (players changing upon loss of life, player 2 is Luigi), but the Hi Score and Caravan modes are fun alternative ways to play. A standard feature of HAMSTER’s retro releases, these give you one credit to try and get as high a score as possible, with the Caravan mode also limiting you to five minutes of playtime. There’s online leaderboards for you to try and move up and trying to improve your score makes for a different gaming experience.

Play through intending to just clear the game and fireworks are a fun celebratory moment you sometimes trigger, but go chasing after a highscore and there’s disappointment when you hit the flagpole a second too late and miss out on the points bonus. During the rest of the level do you try and collect everything and stomp every enemy? Do you rush through, collecting what you can but aiming for a bigger time bonus? Then there’s the bonus rooms. You can drop down the pipe to collect plenty of coins, but does it compensate for the part of the level you’re skipping? There’s a lot to consider as you contemplate how best to go about pushing that score up.

Conclusion

Super Mario Bros. being playable on a Nintendo system is not particularly surprising, but that it should first appear on Switch in its VS. incarnation is a welcome bonus. The excellent gameplay, catchy music and a large chunk of the levels are still present, but the new stages make for a different feel that muscle-memory won’t get you through. Those levels may have since appeared in The Lost Levels, but their inclusion here alongside changes to existing levels (including a different solution to a multi-path puzzle) make for a still enjoyable but tougher alternative way of playing, with highscore chasing also adding to the fun thanks to the online leaderboards. Even if you can play through the regular version of the game in your sleep, VS. Super Mario Bros. is an excellent – and challenging – choice for platforming fans.

Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. in 1985, making a lot of people very happy due to the superb platforming action it provided and selling a lot of NES systems in the process. Numerous sequels have followed, but that first game has remained available on various machines over the years, sometimes adding things like updated visuals (SNES) and extra modes (Game Boy Color). The original NES version has seen release on Game Boy Advance, GameCube (Action Replay permitting) and all three Virtual Console services. Now you can buy it on Switch, but Arcade Archives VS. Super Mario Bros. is a bit different to what has come before.

Arriving in arcades the year after the home console release, VS. Super Mario Bros. at first appears to be the same as regular Super Mario Bros. with the same tight controls, visual appearance and Koji Kondo’s awesome music playing in the background. As an arcade release some changes were made to provide a tougher challenge and to gobble up more money from players – although for this eShop release credits are simply added at the press of a button. Unlimited continues does not make the game a pushover, however, as using one sends you back to the first level of the current world.

Continues functioned the same way in the original version of the game (albeit hidden behind some button holding), but with its added difficulty VS. Super Mario Bros. features more moments of frustration. Sure, starting from 6-1 may be preferable to starting from 1-1, but if you’d struggled through to 6-4 and then got stomped on by Bowser, it’s disheartening to be thrown back a few levels that must be replayed before you can get your revenge.

There are some small changes that create some of the added challenge with a few extra enemies, less powerups and in some cases smaller platforms for you to land on. Towards the end of 3-1, the Koopa Troopas on the staircase have been replaced with Goombas and consequently the famous 1-up trick is impossible. Another change is that some bricks have been removed above the exit pipe in 1-2, making the minus World inaccessible and the warp zone slightly trickier to reach; misjudge your landing and your momentum will carry you off the ceiling and towards the regular way out. Find your way to the later warp zone that previously granted access to Worlds 6 to 8 and your inner speedrunner will be disappointed to discover that only the sixth World is accessible.

Other changes include World 2, where levels 2 through 4 are the harder versions that originally appeared in Worlds 6 and 7. A few other levels have also shifted around including the castles to Worlds 4 and 5, which have now switched places. A more significant change comes with the first castle that has been replaced with a new tougher level, featuring extra lava pits to jump and firebars to avoid. In fact there are six new levels in the game that feature tough platforming challenges; one particularly tricky moment requires you to bounce off a Koopa Paratroopa at just the right moment to reach the platform. Oh, and you can’t see the Paratroopa when you begin your run-up.

It should be pointed out that these new levels would go on to feature in The Lost Levels, a game that despite initially only seeing release in Japan has since had numerous western releases, and so they are not the fresh challenges they originally were. These new levels and other changes also make things a bit disorientating when an expected level turns out to be something else, or a jump has to be approached differently to what you’d do in other versions of the game.

If you’d like to make things a easier for yourself, the only thing you can do is adjust the lives you get when continuing; increase from three to four. The other options in the settings menu all make the game tougher: decrease your starting lives to two, require up to 250 coins for an extra life and speed up the timer. Elsewhere there are HAMSTER’s usual options for remapping buttons and adding scanlines to the image should you wish.

Two player mode operates exactly as you’d expect (players changing upon loss of life, player 2 is Luigi), but the Hi Score and Caravan modes are fun alternative ways to play. A standard feature of HAMSTER’s retro releases, these give you one credit to try and get as high a score as possible, with the Caravan mode also limiting you to five minutes of playtime. There’s online leaderboards for you to try and move up and trying to improve your score makes for a different gaming experience.

Play through intending to just clear the game and fireworks are a fun celebratory moment you sometimes trigger, but go chasing after a highscore and there’s disappointment when you hit the flagpole a second too late and miss out on the points bonus. During the rest of the level do you try and collect everything and stomp every enemy? Do you rush through, collecting what you can but aiming for a bigger time bonus? Then there’s the bonus rooms. You can drop down the pipe to collect plenty of coins, but does it compensate for the part of the level you’re skipping? There’s a lot to consider as you contemplate how best to go about pushing that score up.

Conclusion

Super Mario Bros. being playable on a Nintendo system is not particularly surprising, but that it should first appear on Switch in its VS. incarnation is a welcome bonus. The excellent gameplay, catchy music and a large chunk of the levels are still present, but the new stages make for a different feel that muscle-memory won’t get you through. Those levels may have since appeared in The Lost Levels, but their inclusion here alongside changes to existing levels (including a different solution to a multi-path puzzle) make for a still enjoyable but tougher alternative way of playing, with highscore chasing also adding to the fun thanks to the online leaderboards. Even if you can play through the regular version of the game in your sleep, VS. Super Mario Bros. is an excellent – and challenging – choice for platforming fans.

Playing Bloody Zombies put us in mind of another Switch eShop game that launched recently in Guns, Gore & Cannoli. Just like that game Bloody Zombies mixes old school side-scrolling action, cartoony yet hyper-violent graphics, waves of undead opponents and a smattering of broadly drawn national stereotypes.

Whereas Guns, Gore & Cannoli is an ode to Metal Slug and other classic shooters, however, Bloody Zombies tips its blood-stained hat to Final Fight and Streets of Rage. It’s the kind of brawler that used to pack out arcades in the early ’90s.

As the action edges its way to the right you can move your chosen character in all directions using the left stick. Executing a double flick to either side will set you dashing in that direction; Y and X handle your standard light and heavy melee attacks respectively, with various sequences of the two yielding a range of damaging combos.

You can also combine those attack buttons with the jump command (assigned to B) to initiate jumping kicks and punches, while A enables you to interact with switches and pick up items. As with any self-respecting beat-’em-up, there’s nothing more satisfying than picking up a sword, shovel or iron bar and using it to wail on your opponents.

On the more subtle side of things, tapping ZL will make your character perform an evasive dodge in the direction you’re holding. This is nigh-on essential if you want to survive the game’s punishing boss battles, or even some of its tougher foot soldiers. 

Those are the basics of combat, but there are also various special attacks you can initiate once you’ve collected the appropriate power-up. With that done, a quick movement combination followed by X will initiate a powerful move that eats into your limited energy bar.

There’s an undeniable visceral thrill to Bloody Zombies. The game’s moody post-apocalyptic London setting feels fresh despite its familiar zombie protagonists, and both justify the lashings of cartoon violence and free-flowing red stuff. 

It’s also nice to see a number of secret areas to uncover. Don’t get us wrong, there aren’t lots of secrets to found in every area, but finding a hidden stash of items and bonuses behind a breakable barrier provides a welcome diversion from the intense slog of combat.

Which unfortunately speaks to the general tone of the game. It feels an awful lot like hard work at times, with repeating waves of enemies that take a considerable beating before going down. 

The action in Bloody Zombies feels somewhat sluggish, while unpredictable contact points often leave you flailing away at thin air because your character and the enemy are on slightly different 2D planes.

There’s also no getting away from the fact that Bloody Zombies is a button masher in the classic sense of the term. Its cel-shaded graphics might make it look a lot sharper and more sophisticated than the arcade beat-’em-ups of old, but it’s barely any smarter, and pummelling zombie heads soon becomes repetitive.

That’s not helped by the fact that each of the four playable characters controls and moves identically. The animation and vocal lines might be different between lithe punk Rei, sharply dressed hipster Teller, hulking biker Mick and extreme sports type Eddie, but they essentially have the exact same roster of moves.

It’s a particular shame in relation to local multiplayer. With everyone stomping around doing the same basic things with no scope for specialisation, it can all become a little rote and repetitive.

Still, local multiplayer remains the best way to play Bloody Zombies. We were pleasantly surprised to see that there are options for playing online, but games like this are always at their best when all participants are sat in the same room.

You’ll need all the help you can get, in truth, because this game poses quite a challenge. Enemies aren’t particularly smart, but they do pose a large threat in combination. They tend to attack in repeated waves of fours and fives, each chipping a little more from your health bar. With an old school lives limit it’s tough to make progress, though you can restart from the beginning of the last level you reached.

How many times you’ll actually wish to do that depends on your enthusiasm for old school brawlers and your appetite for attritional button-pounding combat. Even then, Bloody Zombies doesn’t quite manage to live up to the same heights as its influences.

Conclusion

Bloody Zombies brings a fresh visual style and a couple of interesting touches to the classic scrolling beat-’em-up. Unfortunately it doesn’t flourish where it matters most – the quality and scope of its combat.

There’s still a fair amount of mindless fun to be had in local multiplayer, even if Bloody Zombies lacks the fluidity and variety to become a true regular on your co-op Switch game roster.

Travelling to different planets, the stretchy-armed Roddy and Cathy move left to right employing a variety of skills as they bash the bad guys. Available to tackle alone or co-operatively with a friend, Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy includes some neat features that add to the fun of the action across nine stages.

One such feature is that the action takes place on two planes, with you able to hop between background and foreground at the push of a button. This allows you to jump out of the way of a rolling bolder, sneak up on someone from behind or just take an alternate route should you feel like it. Enemies can also hop between planes, so you need to keep an eye on them to make sure you don’t get clobbered with a surprise attack.

There’s a cartoon-like look but with lots of detail in the visuals, and variety is provided by the planets visited. Much like a galaxy far, far away each planet has a single climate, with the four here being jungle, ice, fire and wind worlds. As well as visual differences the locales can have an effect on gameplay, for example with slippery ice and winds blowing you back. One good effect is the way the background plane is at some parts obscured by the path in the foreground. Potentially annoying, this nevertheless succeeds as it doesn’t throw out enemies you can’t see, although you may find a partially glimpsed bonus or two.

Cathy and Roddy have a number of skills to get them through their adventure, the most obvious of which are their stretchy arms. Useful for punching enemies at a distance, they can also flick switches and pull cords to open doors or release bonuses. Sometimes switches and cords release bombs to dodge, and other times they will drop a heavy object, crushing anyone underneath.

Other offensive options are available too, including a throw, and you can pick up a dropped gun to just start shooting at people. Walking battle suits can be hopped into on occasion and these are satisfying to stomp around in – once it’s destroyed you can even pick up parts of the wreckage to throw at the bad guys. In addition to those options you can also perform special moves (using typical one-on-one brawler inputs) to dispatch attackers with the likes of rushing attacks, projectiles and jumping uppercuts.

There are moments of slowdown should a lot of activity be occurring onscreen, but it’s not too distracting and the varied action allowed by your different moves keeps events entertaining. There’s some good design too, as you make use of the two planes to move around obstacles. One memorable moment has you walk behind a large agitated monkey in a cage that watches as you pass.

Each world has two stages – with a boss at the end of each – and an occasional foe who is tougher to dispatch than the regular thugs. The first stage of each world ends with a fight against a cape-wearing pirate, whilst the second stage bosses pilot large metallic constructions. These fights entertain with plenty of hoping between planes as you avoid attacks and try to get in some shots of your own. After clearing the four worlds (which can be tackled in any order) there’s a final stage that ends with a tricky multi-phase boss battle.

Despite the many skills you have at your disposal, you can quickly find your energy depleted should you be attacked from multiple directions or be struggling to find opportunity to attack a boss when they’re vulnerable. Dive into the options and you can make things easier for yourself by increasing your number of lives or adjusting the difficulty. Or you could remember that as an ACA Neo Geo release, you can just add another credit with the tap of a button and continue from where you fell. This is a good way to get to the end of the game, but if you’d like a challenge the usual one credit Hi Score mode is present. The five-minute Caravan mode is also available and with a choice of four starting levels there’s some experimenting to be done as you seek to improve your placing on the online leaderboard.

Conclusion

Working through levels bashing bad guys and boss characters is an idea that often works well, and in Top Hunter it works very well thanks to the various ways you can dispatch your foes. The two plane setup also adds to the entertainment, being used to avoid dangers and providing some quick back-and-forth jumping as you and the thugs try to smack each other in the face. There’s not a  lot of immediate replay value from the arcade mode when cleared, but the usual Hi Score mode is a fun way to try and improve; whenever you do return to Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy, it should provide an enjoyable adventure.