So I was ’round at Rabbit0’s, going for a combination nostalgia-trip / procrastination binge in the form of a SNES I picked up from a local car-boot style market, and the one cartridge which came with it, “Super Mario All Stars” which contains a collection of Mario games. (i.e. Super Mario bros through to Super Mario 3).
Now, on this cartridge is an installment of Mario known as “The Lost Levels”, which was billed simply as Mario 2 in Japan, but was deemed too difficult for the US market, and so instead “Doki Doki Panic” was rebranded as Mario 2 for this market; a few sprites changed, and a rather strange and fairly un-mario-esque game billed nontheless under the moniker of our favourite inexplicably heroic plumber.
The point being, whatever name you played the thing under, that it’s not only bloody difficult in comparison to the original SMB, at which I am fairly competent, and Rabbit0 (having had rather more exposure in his youth) is more than competent; but is difficult in ways which it appears to me (and I believe is backed up by Rabbit0, judging by his joining my chorus of loud expletives) are in fact contrary to the spirit, and unwritten rules of platform game design.
To provide an example; there is an underground level where you can bypass the end-of-level exit, and go on to an extended section of the level. In this extended section, there is a hidden entrance to a yet-further extended section which when completed dumps you back to a previous point of the level. This is offensive because it punishes the investment of time and acquisition of skills required to get to an unusual point of the game. It undermines the very concept of ‘bonus’ levels which is one of the most charming features of the Mario dynasty.
The idea of hidden ‘bonuses’ be they areas to be explored, or more simply hidden collectibles in the form of power-ups or some other in-game currency, is one which rewards deeper knowlege of the game, and thus increases replayability. This is especially true for games of the era of SMB and its ilk, which unlike more recent offerings in the platform sphere like Skullmonkeys, Abe’s Oddyssey or some of the Crash Bandicoot series relied wholly on being fun to play, as opposed to pretty to look at. (Not to denegrate any of these other titles, which are all actually quite good examples of the genre). In fact while I’m going on about Crash & Abe, they both (at least in a couple of the Crash games) contain alternate endings depending on the amount of bonus areas in the game which have been successfully explored. Since SMB has no such ending alteration, the only real reward for excelling at the game is getting to see all the extra bits, or getting to know the tricks which let you bypass the tiresome, easy bits at the beginning. This being the case, it is doubly irritating to have the bonus areas backfire, and, for example lead to a warp which goes backwards several levels in the game with your only option being to take the retrogressive warp, or wait for the time to run out so that you will die.
Now granted, it might be said that to have negative bonuses as well as positive simply introduces another level on which the game may be mastered. The concept of a ‘meta-bonus’ if you will. There is a limit to the amount of difficulty which one may reasonably add to such a game, however. A platformer in which the player is the only visible element on screen, with all other pitfalls, advantages & pathways invisible, and discoverable only through trial and error would certainly reward exploration and “re-play” but would likely be so difficult as to bore most gamers before they discovered enough of its secrets to make much progress. I believe that in ‘The Lost Levels’ that the Nintendo crew overstepped the mark somewhat; not so much on the level of difficulty, as the way in which they implemented it.
Other than the retrogressive warps I have mentioned, the game has been made difficult by doing things like placing invisible blocks in areas where they will impede what looks like a normal jump such that the player is more than likely to die on the first attempt at this section. It is this sort of thing which I find annoying. I suppose what I’m saying is that I am behind the concept of obscured reward, but obscured difficulty seems somehow unfair; while hidden bonuses encourage players to explore, and look closer at the game, pitfalls that are impossible to predict until one has encountered an area at least once before are just frustrating. One should, I think, be given a reasonable chance to survive on skill at the game, and twitchy reflexes, if not to be rewarded beyond the standard, linear, path of the game by such.
Beyond this, I reckon that the bonus room also serves as a chance for the player to relax, and mess around a bit within the strictures of the game-world without much risk of loss; take for example the eponymous bonus wave in Galaga, or a segment of the bonus-room music from Skullmonkeys;
“Here’s a little bonus room, ’cause I know you’ve had it tough, And here’s a little bonus tune, ’bout collecting real cool stuff. There are no monsters here, you don’t need to worry. Take your sweet time, you need not hurry…” etc.
But then, maybe I’m just crap at Mario. 
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Posted by BonusWavePilot