Tiny Games

April 24, 2012 9:26 AM

A Super Mario Summary is Johan Peitz's entry to the 23rd installment of the Ludum Dare competition, in which contestants work by themselves to create a themed game in 48 hours. "I tried to recreate every level in the original Super Mario Brothers game, but on a single screen each. The result is a puzzle platformer where you need to combine reflexes, timing, and clever thinking to succeed." All 1401 entries can be viewed here.
posted by alynnk (23 comments total)

Pretty damn great. Goodbye to the rest of my afternoon.
posted by ColdChef at 9:34 AM on April 24, 2012

How do I plug my SNES controller into my ... keyboard? :(
posted by heyho at 9:41 AM on April 24, 2012

I just played Super Mario Summary, it's brilliant. The physics could use a bit of tweaking but the level design is really terrific.

With Ludum Dare's recent bounty of new games this is a good time to be reading the Free Indie Games blog: they're doing a great job showcasing obscure indie games with a very simple presentation.
posted by Nelson at 9:42 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

How do I plug my SNES controller into my ... keyboard? :(

Like this
posted by delmoi at 9:48 AM on April 24, 2012

How do I plug my SNES controller into my ... keyboard? :(

You can either buy a premade USB clone or you can buy an adapter if you still have a controller.

You can also do it through Arduino with a bit of modification of the linked code. If you actually want to do the latter, send me an email or something and I can send you my modified version of the code when I get home.

Admittedly, I just wanted to brag about pulling that off and this is the best chance I'm going to get.
posted by griphus at 9:49 AM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

I forgive you.
posted by shakespeherian at 9:52 AM on April 24, 2012

Thanks! I've never gotten the hang of using my keyboard to play games. This changes things...
posted by heyho at 10:01 AM on April 24, 2012

you need to combine reflexes, timing, and clever thinking to succeed

oh no
posted by two or three cars parked under the stars at 10:03 AM on April 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

I really like this game, but agree that the physics are a little off. Momentum is an important component of Mario movement, and the implementation just feels weird.

If you want to use real controllers, there's also this open source NES/SNES USB project built around an ATmega8 microcontroller. I recently built a box that adapts two NES controllers and two SNES controllers to USB at the same time using the 4 player version from the same author.

It is the best. There's something about a rectangular controller that just makes games more fun.
posted by helicomatic at 10:12 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thanks! I've never gotten the hang of using my keyboard to play games. This changes things...

You may also need Joy2Key to use it to play Flash games, which don't tend to support controllers natively.
posted by griphus at 10:19 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

On a casual playthrough I got a perfect score on 17/32 levels. I think it'd be cool if, at the end of a game like this, the game added up how many coins you collected relative to the number of deaths you had, to figure out how much each life is "worth."

There were places (especially in 8-4) where you might end up having to wait for a minute or so for various obstacles to sync themselves enough for you to run through, which is a bit annoying.

Some hints, if you want them:





Plants are not prevented from emerging from pipes if you're standing over them.
Underwater enemies can be stomped.
Hammer Bros. can be killed by walking into them from the side.
posted by JHarris at 10:21 AM on April 24, 2012

I was shocked when the piranha plant came out of the pipe I was standing on and killed me.

I quit playing* when I found out there's no warp zone.

* Until after I get done with work
posted by aubilenon at 10:36 AM on April 24, 2012

(An easier option for those with a Mac and no interest in soldering/hot gluing: Wiiji, which is a clever driver for Wiimotes which operate using Bluetooth. I'm sure Windows/Linux solutions are available as well.)
posted by tapesonthefloor at 11:31 AM on April 24, 2012

Some other games that I've quite enjoyed:

Copulous
Cows and Stuff
Boing Smash
posted by pmcp at 11:46 AM on April 24, 2012

in addition to the aforementioned freeindiegam.es, indiegames.com is also picking out highlights.
posted by juv3nal at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2012

Boing Smash

Loved the easter egg/shoutout in that one.
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:22 PM on April 24, 2012

To me this played like Super Mario Bros with all the fun taken out. YMMV.
posted by rikschell at 7:08 PM on April 24, 2012

Memento XII has some a little bit of pixel hunting and I think the title is kind of poor but otherwise is pretty great.
posted by juv3nal at 12:06 PM on April 25, 2012

juv3nal - Did you figure out what to do with the broom?
posted by pmcp at 2:57 PM on April 25, 2012

Yeah, but if you're stalled at where I was when I thought I had to use the broom, it is probably not the broom you need to use at the moment. It is pretty obvious when you need to use the broom and if you are thinking you need to use it because it was the last thing you picked up, you probably aren't at that point.

There is an in-game hint system which should direct you where you need to look.
posted by juv3nal at 4:09 PM on April 25, 2012

Ah, it was the hints putting me off - got it. I must have clicked on that ring box 20 times last time I played without choosing use...
posted by pmcp at 4:56 PM on April 25, 2012

Another Mac solution if you have a controller that can connect via USB: ControllerMate. It's a bit daunting to set up, and it's not free, but it's ridiculously powerful and I've been using it successfully with many different games for quite some time.
posted by valrus at 7:52 PM on April 26, 2012

Rock Paper Shotgun has got 'round to picking 11 of their faves.
posted by juv3nal at 10:27 AM on April 30, 2012 [1 favorite]