Yeah. I'm thinking of the SMB3, SMB2, SMW, SMB1 worlds, the star road door hub, the iconic levels like Pwnhammer and the Invasions... and I'm just thinking why? Why does this episode make more of an impression on me than other episodes? What's there or missing?
The Invasion 2 is literally a very good Game made by the Developer and this is why it is on our Memorable Standards since it is a lot of Fun discovering Areas for secrets and such clever Level designing. I even made a full playthrough of this Game:
8bitmushroom wrote:Remember that secret level in TI2 where Redigit's face was spammed everywhere.
No. Don't tell me that it is in this SMBX Episode since I never ever find such a Room like this. It is just an average Mario Game so why would be there something like that. In the first The Invasion was the same that there are no "Joke" Areas or something.
As I see it, the Invasion 2 (perhaps even both) retains a sense of charm that few other episodes manage to replicate. It's by no means original by today's standards, but there was always something different from level to level. One minute you're exploring a cave that takes you in every possible direction, the next you're navigating a complex pipe structure, and after that you're just traversing a short linear grassland. Even the latter will usually have enough landscape variation, careful enemy placement, and detail to keep things interesting.
The episode does just about everything that SMBX provides, and does it right. Name just about any tileset or NPC that comes with the game, and chances are TI2's used it properly at least a couple of times. The items that are scarcely used by the community due to being dismissed as overpowered (boots, Yoshis, Toothy/Billy Gun, Hammer Suit, etc.) are all implemented in probably the best ways they can be. For instance, there's that part in the desert world where you have to bring a Podoboo's Shoe into a lava cave from other levels to reach a secret that's meant to be that difficult and rewarding (but hinted at kindly and subtly enough), or finally breaking the gray bricks in the cave of that snow level with a Hammer/Tanooki Suit. The items involved are never given excessive focus, as while they certainly can make levels easier, you also have to concentrate on maintaining those items until you can fulfill their purpose. That provides a good balance in itself, because it's slightly challenging never to take that extra hit at all, but a level meant for a powerful item is still able to be traveled without. And sure, Toothy and Billy Gun are arguably overpowered, but that's the idea behind them. Nothing wrong with placing the destructive powers of absolute mayhem in the hands of players for a few minutes every so often. =P I mean, you don't want to make a whole game out of that, but it's a good addition in moderation.
Despite everything that's included, though, nothing in the game overstays its welcome. Here's a gimmick, enjoy it for a bit, move onto the next thing. Here's a level, it's never too long, move onto the next one (which is great for finding the super well hidden secret exits or stars in multiple attempts). Even the longer ones feel significant because after the shorter ones, the distinct challenge provided by those levels is clearly visible, and you know it's meant to be an important milestone in the game. This is especially apparent in the consistently-themed end-world levels like the Dungeon of Whatever series, Invasion levels, and the Pwnhammers (which weren't end-world, to my recollection, but you get the idea). They were all clearly meant to stand out, and they certainly did. The Dungeons would be long gauntlets of various traps, the Invasions would be lively mixes of ominous grassland and airship fleet with practically every enemy under the sun without being spammy, and the Pwnhammers are basically "here's a godly powerful weapon, how long can you survive with it?", which are all memorable in different ways. This is definitely a game made by someone who understands how to spread out multiple ideas evenly across various levels.
All of this manages to take place in a game that's very graphically modest. Caves would often have little-to-no decoration without feeling empty, and the levels that do have scenery have just the right amount. Sometimes a non-Mario background will be used with an otherwise-Mario set of graphics and still look nice together in their context (the Waluigi trick level comes to mind as an example). Even the custom graphics are still fairly vanilla, consisting of little more than the occasional recolor, restyle, or main series background/enemy that isn't natively included with minor changes. Nothing's ever shoved in your face too much, the presentation's just as solid as the design.
Overall, this is why I find TI2 to be so memorable. It has a great overall balance in every regard that other episodes usually don't have. It's good in such a way that, even to this day, is still incredibly unique. I would argue that Invasion 1 does this as well, because for a version of SMBX with extremely limited capabilities, it manages to do a lot of the above with a similar level of quality.
8bitmushroom wrote:Remember that secret level in TI2 where Redigit's face was spammed everywhere.
I'm pretty sure you made this up, I've never heard of anything like this.
Anyhoo, yeah, it's the default episode, of course it's memorable. It had interesting levels, interesting ideas, good use of NPCs, and used virtually everything that SMBX has to offer (except for the non-flamethrower propeller block, interestingly).
As I see it, the Invasion 2 (perhaps even both) retains a sense of charm that few other episodes manage to replicate. It's by no means original by today's standards, but there was always something different from level to level. One minute you're exploring a cave that takes you in every possible direction, the next you're navigating a complex pipe structure, and after that you're just traversing a short linear grassland. Even the latter will usually have enough landscape variation, careful enemy placement, and detail to keep things interesting.
The episode does just about everything that SMBX provides, and does it right. Name just about any tileset or NPC that comes with the game, and chances are TI2's used it properly at least a couple of times. The items that are scarcely used by the community due to being dismissed as overpowered (boots, Yoshis, Toothy/Billy Gun, Hammer Suit, etc.) are all implemented in probably the best ways they can be. For instance, there's that part in the desert world where you have to bring a Podoboo's Shoe into a lava cave from other levels to reach a secret that's meant to be that difficult and rewarding (but hinted at kindly and subtly enough), or finally breaking the gray bricks in the cave of that snow level with a Hammer/Tanooki Suit. The items involved are never given excessive focus, as while they certainly can make levels easier, you also have to concentrate on maintaining those items until you can fulfill their purpose. That provides a good balance in itself, because it's slightly challenging never to take that extra hit at all, but a level meant for a powerful item is still able to be traveled without. And sure, Toothy and Billy Gun are arguably overpowered, but that's the idea behind them. Nothing wrong with placing the destructive powers of absolute mayhem in the hands of players for a few minutes every so often. =P I mean, you don't want to make a whole game out of that, but it's a good addition in moderation.
Despite everything that's included, though, nothing in the game overstays its welcome. Here's a gimmick, enjoy it for a bit, move onto the next thing. Here's a level, it's never too long, move onto the next one (which is great for finding the super well hidden secret exits or stars in multiple attempts). Even the longer ones feel significant because after the shorter ones, the distinct challenge provided by those levels is clearly visible, and you know it's meant to be an important milestone in the game. This is especially apparent in the consistently-themed end-world levels like the Dungeon of Whatever series, Invasion levels, and the Pwnhammers (which weren't end-world, to my recollection, but you get the idea). They were all clearly meant to stand out, and they certainly did. The Dungeons would be long gauntlets of various traps, the Invasions would be lively mixes of ominous grassland and airship fleet with practically every enemy under the sun without being spammy, and the Pwnhammers are basically "here's a godly powerful weapon, how long can you survive with it?", which are all memorable in different ways. This is definitely a game made by someone who understands how to spread out multiple ideas evenly across various levels.
All of this manages to take place in a game that's very graphically modest. Caves would often have little-to-no decoration without feeling empty, and the levels that do have scenery have just the right amount. Sometimes a non-Mario background will be used with an otherwise-Mario set of graphics and still look nice together in their context (the Waluigi trick level comes to mind as an example). Even the custom graphics are still fairly vanilla, consisting of little more than the occasional recolor, restyle, or main series background/enemy that isn't natively included with minor changes. Nothing's ever shoved in your face too much, the presentation's just as solid as the design.
Overall, this is why I find TI2 to be so memorable. It has a great overall balance in every regard that other episodes usually don't have. It's good in such a way that, even to this day, is still incredibly unique. I would argue that Invasion 1 does this as well, because for a version of SMBX with extremely limited capabilities, it manages to do a lot of the above with a similar level of quality.
Whoa. that's deep. I play this episode with my brother and we never get bored of it. I like the concept of having some stages inaccessible without the necessary power-up or item. Most of the people expects episodes with good graphics and non-linear levels. It doesn't has to be that way. I find it enjoyable in every way. TO be honest, I don't know what word to say about TI2. It's just fun and nostalgia I suppose .
It had good design. It had memorable levels. It was made by Redigit. It had no custom music to hide flaws. It didn't use too many custom graphics to hide flaws in gameplay.
.
