SMB is the better game
AKIMW is the better game
So close I can't pick one
I haven't played AKIMW enough to vote
Things aren't always how they appear. Like I said, if anybody has played the hell out of both games (as did I) and prefers SMB as the better game, by all means that's cool. After all, some people still say SMB 2 US is the best, and Zelda 2 the best Zelda, heh. I disagree with those by a mile, but to each their own, no flaming because they don't agree.
I wasn't trying to be rude either, although my post did come out that way and I apologize for that.
It just seems that you aren't willing to accept that most folks like SMB better than AK.
Maybe I am biased because I played SMB back when it came out and didn't play AK until a few years ago. Its awful hard to judge games like that, but I still play SMB and hardly ever play AK anymore. I think that says a lot.
I am in the same boat, having played through every Mario countless times as a kid and only to finally play Alex Kidd for the first time last year. In many ways that made me appreciate it even more, since I came in with expectations for another SMB variant, but was surprised at the depth, creativity and overall uniqueness of the game. Considering there are so many SMB clones out there, this was really refreshing. Just the idea that money could be used other than just for point acquisition was a real nice change (and something the later Wonder Boy games really perfected). SMB does have tighter control and better collision detection though, I'll give it that, but otherwise I think AKIMW is every bit the better game.
If you look at how Nintendo evolved the franchise proper with SMB 3, you can see they definitely amalgamated a lot of the Kidd's pioneering concepts (menu accessible power-ups, flight power-ups, odds matches with all the mini-games, a visual map of the outer world, etc.) to their generic formula. There's no question SMB 3 is a better game than the first, and I'd argue it is largely because of the influence of Alex Kidd.
"Enduro" is a symbolic journey through life via the media of a race.
Since I never saw any porn cut scenes, I'd imagine he means more sophisticated in that to get full use out of it you need to be able to activate power-ups from a menu, read to be able to understand the Jenkin matches and have a keener eye because of the smaller sprites and the larger tiered environments. The first Mario is pick up and play all the way, no explanation required.
"Enduro" is a symbolic journey through life via the media of a race.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (U.S.A.) is my favorite out of the original trilogy. Super Mario Bros. is my second favorite.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is good too, but it takes too long to complete in one sitting without warping and gets ridiculously difficult toward the end. If Nintendo had included a save feature, I would've enjoyed it much more.
A very hard choice to make. They are both so special to me. In the end, they are both fabulous games that are pretty much on the same level of excellence. SMB started it for me, but AKMW started a different thing for me.
Great topic.
It's all good. Did you ever beat AK? When I first got the game, I was an 8th grader in late Spring, 1987. My friends would come over and we would play for hours. Game was quite challenging. Around the same time, we were playing a lot of Wonderboy. AK was my favorite game by far on the SMS, until Phantasy Star game out.
So true. If only Sega had evolved the series so a future AK game could have been like SMB 3.AK: The Lost Stars wasn't anything like the first, and not really a good game. However, I did like AK: High Tech World a lot. Never did play AK In Shinobo World though. But, I loved AK: Enchanted Castle on the Genesis. Sega was wrong to have dropped him in favor of that stupid hedgehog. I'll never forgive Sega for this.
I agree with swlovinist that Super Mario and Alex Kidd are fundamentally different types of platformers. That doesn't mean that you can't compare them to one another, of course, but I think any judgement is tentative. Because they're so different, sometimes I'll prefer one and sometimes the other. Just depends on what kind of game I want to play.
Most of the time, though, I definitely prefer Super Mario Bros. As others have said, it has much more fluid and fast-paced gameplay. In fact, it's so fluid and fast-paced that it almost descends to the level of instinct. That's great and it's what I'm always seeking out in a video game.
Alex Kidd's gameplay never gets to that level of intuitiveness because its gameplay is just much more complicated and precise. Sometimes that's the kind of gameplay I'm looking for, though, and then Miracle World is my preferred game.
As for Wonder Boy (which I agree is a lot better on the SMS than Adventure Island on the NES), that's definitely a more similar style of gameplay to SMB, but if anything it's a little too fast-paced. It often ends up feeling frantic and out of control. Sometimes I like that, too, though.
...word is bondage...
No, that game gets very hard and at my age I don't have the patience anymore.
You really should if you get the chance, one of my all time favs. You could also try Dragon's Curse for the TG-16, its basically the same game with better graphics.