World 1-1

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World 1-1 on a Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom)

World 1-1 (English for World 1-1 ) is the name of the first level in the video game Super Mario Bros. , which appeared in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The level was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto as a form of tutorial for new players to introduce and teach them the basic game elements of the game. World 1-1 is arguably the best known and one of the most iconic levels in video game history and has been largely imitated and parodied.

design

philosophy

At the time Super Mario Bros. was released, tutorials in computer games were uncommon. The opening sections in NES games like Metroid , The Legend of Zelda, and Super Mario Bros. are all designed in such a way that the player is forced to familiarize themselves with the basic game mechanics of each game in order to advance further in the game.

With a few exceptions, all levels in Super Mario Bros. after World 1-1 consist of variations of the elements that have already appeared in the level at least once.

In an interview with the British online computer game magazine Eurogamer , Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he designed World 1-1 to contain everything a player needs to "gradually and naturally understand what they're doing" ("gradually and to understand, of course, what he's doing ”) so that he can quickly understand how the game works. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, once the player understands the mechanics of the game, they can play more freely, and the game they are playing becomes "their game".

construction

Schematic structure of the first screen excerpt from World 1-1. The gumba (red) runs towards the player's spawn point (far left) and must either be skipped over or killed to advance. The mushroom (light green) appears after the player activates the second question mark block from the left and moves to the right until it falls off the platform and ricochets off the tube (green) and is directed to the player spawn point.

At the beginning of World 1-1, the player who takes control of Mario comes across a Gumba slowly approaching him. According to 1UP.com , this first opponent is likely to kill a new player, although this can easily be avoided by jumping over it.

After that first opponent comes a series of blocks, some of which are question mark blocks. If the player jumps against one of these question mark blocks from below, a coin comes out of each one. According to Miyamoto, the coming out of a coin will "make [the player] happy" and will cause the player to want to repeat the action. When the player does this for the second question mark block, a mushroom comes out, a power-up that the player is not aware of. The player learned from the Goomba that mushroom-shaped beings are hostile. Therefore, the player tries to jump over the mushroom to avoid possible death, but it moves to the right until it falls off the platform and hits the tube and is directed towards the player. The blocks are arranged in such a way that a player who tries to avoid the mushroom by jumping is immediately directed from the blocks over him down onto the mushroom, whereby the player collects the power-up. When Mario is touched by the mushroom, he grows in size, another positive effect on the player.

Schematic structure of the first third of World 1-1. To recognize: The tubes, between each of which there is a pit.

This block formation is followed by a row of four vertical tubes, between each of which there is a pit that has to be jumped over. Each of these tubes has a different height and so subtly teaches the player that the longer he holds the jump button, the higher his jump will be. When encounters with pits of different sizes, the player can determine how he uses his means to run up, since a longer jump over the pits is possible with run-up. In addition, Miyamoto has made sure that some pits have floors and can be easily jumped out of them so that the player is not forced to try the entire level again.

World 1-1 also contains some secrets like a war tube that leads to a bonus room and a hidden block that contains a 1-up that players can discover mainly through repetition. The warp tube enables the player to skip a large part of the level, so that players who are already familiar with the game can advance faster when playing the game repeatedly.

reception

World 1-1 is considered by many to be one of the most iconic video game levels. Chris Kerr of the computer game magazine Gamasutra described it as "legendary" ("legendary").

Game Rant's Boston Blake rated it one of the best levels in video games ever. The level "ignited a love for gaming in the hearts of gamers around the world" ("ignited a love for gaming in the hearts of gamers from all over the world").

Jon Irwin von Paste described the level as a "master-class in teaching players how to play" ("master class in teaching players how to play").

1UP's Jeremy Parish judged that "much of the game's success arose from the fact that it equipped players with the tools to master it from the very beginning" ("Much of the game's success comes from the fact that it has players from First equipped with the tools to master it ”). He also sees this as one of the reasons for the success of the game. He named World 1-1 by Super Mario Bros. 2012 as "the most widely imitated, referenced, and parodied single level of a video game".

Far-reaching effects

The game design philosophy introduced in Super Mario Bros. known as "learning through play" has been implemented in all of the video games Miyamoto has worked on since. World 1-1 has greatly influenced later Super Mario games like the first level of Super Mario 3D World .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Learning Through Level Design with Mario from 1UP.com. August 18, 2012, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Martin Robinson: Video: Miyamoto on how Nintendo made Mario's most iconic level. In: Eurogamer. September 7, 2015, accessed on February 22, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Chris Kerr: How Miyamoto built Super Mario Bros. ' legendary World 1-1. Retrieved February 22, 2020 (English).
  4. ^ Rollin Bishop: The Design of Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 Explained. September 8, 2015, accessed February 22, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Audureau, The History of Mario, 2014, pp. 241–244.
  6. ↑ Watch Miyamoto explain how he designed Super Mario Bros. World 1-1. In: VG247. September 7, 2015, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  7. ↑ The Top 10 Opening Levels in Video Games | Game rant. Retrieved February 22, 2020 .
  8. ↑ The 20 Best 2D Mario Levels of All Time. September 4, 2015, accessed on February 22, 2020 .
  9. ^ How the spirit of the original World 1-1 carries on in today's Mario games. Retrieved February 23, 2020 (American English).