Hudson's other two Mario games
I was reading the "Hardest Mario Game" thread, and it occured to me most people probably haven't seen or even heard of the the three Mario games that Hudson developed for a few early 80's computer systems in Japan. Super Mario
Bros. Special is somewhat well known, but Mario Bros Special and Punch Ball Mario are still quite obscure even
among classic gamers. So here are some screenshots of the two games, as well as a little summary of the gameplay.
Here are the two boxes and the cassettes the games are on. I'm not sure how many computers the games were released for, but these are the Sharp X1 versions. I know there's versions on the PC-6001, but I bet there's versions for the FM-7 and PC-8801. It looks like the cover art was modified from the original Mario Bros.
The title screen for Punch Ball Mario. As you can see, there are one and two player modes.
Basically, in Punch Ball Mario you chuck this red ball at enemies rather than bumping them from below like in the original. Throwing the ball at an enemy knocks him over, and running into him kills him off just like in the original. After throwing the ball, you have to run into it to pick it up before you can throw it again. The game only uses one button, pressing it while moving makes you jump, and pressing it while standing still makes you throw the ball.
The first couple of levels look like this. The first one just has turtles, the second one has crabs to. Unlike the original, there's really no difference between the two enemies. Both die after just one shot.
On the third level, you have the coin collecting bonus stage, just like the original. The only difference is that the coins move up and down. There's no ball on this stage since there's nothing to throw it at.
The next couple of stages are like this. Just like the first stage, except the platforms move back and forth.
This game sort of sucks. The whole "tossing the ball around" gameplay lacks the strategy of the original, and it gets boring real quick. Having to come to a complete stop to throw the ball is frustrating as well.
Mario Bros. Special, on the other hand, is a bit better.
There's no dumb ball gimmick in this one, it's more or less just the original game with different levels and more dumb gimmicks.
The first level has platforms with moving holes in them, but no enemies of any sort. Your goal is to make it to the top and flip all the switches so the exit doors open. You flip them on by bumping them when you jump, but they slowly move back to the off position so you've got to quickly set all of them before they revert to off.
Next level has these trampoline platforms, and your standard turtle enemies. To kill them, you've got to jump on the platform while a turtle is standing on it, thus flipping them over. After killing a fistful of them, you go on to the third level.
Nothing too interesting about level three except for the moving conveyor belts and the little platform moving up and down. Turtles come at you as usual, but this time the only way to kill them is to jump over them when there's a platform directly above you. If you just leap over a turtle
with nothing above you, you don't kill them. For whatever reason, you've got to bump your head on something or they won't die. Little dollar signs show up in random spots in the upper half of the screen, and touching them gives you bonus points. Once you kill all the baddies, it's back to level 1!
Unlike Punch Ball, this game is actually fun! Neither is half as good as the original Mario Bros., but enjoyable none the less. Not only is the gameplay more enjoyable, it's technically superior to Punch Ball. The graphics look more like the original, and the animation and gameplay is much more smooth. For all their flaws, both are far more playable than Super Mario Bros. Special. That game was just broken. There's nothing particularly wrong with these two games, they're just not as good as the original.
Here's some links with pictures of the PC-6001 version of Punch Ball Mario and Mario Bros. Sepcia, which looks like more of the same: http://www.retropc.net/hashi/emupmario.html and http://www.retropc.net/hashi/emumario.html. I believe Hudson also made a version of Excite Bike for some home computers, but I've never seen any screenshots or gameplay descriptions. Who knows if it's just a port of if there's changes to it.
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Originally Posted by blue lander
If you remember the old episodes of Gamespot TV or Extended Play or ran into him at the Metreon then you'd have a totally different view.
