Extra Lives are Over Rated.

quote Epsalon X

Something else I've noticed...in Super Mario 3D Land, and ESPECIALLY in NSMB2, is that it is becoming easier and easier to collect lives. NSMB2 makes the Green Mushroom Houses a complete joke. Its virtually impossible to hit game over without intentionally trying to. Makes one wonder what the point of having the extra lives is anymore. Even if you do hit game over, you can always continue. At least Mario 64 had gave you a reason to care about lives.

I am using my post from another thread. Seriously though...what is the point in collecting lives anymore in most Mario games. Its become so easy. In Mario 3D Land, they gave you extra coins to replace the score system. NSMB2 allows the collecting of thousands of coins in a single level, and you still get a 1up for every hundred coins. Thoughts anyone? Who likes/dislikes this direction? It kinda takes away the challenge in my opinion. There isn't even a penalty anymore for a game over other than a score reset.

You're right, there really isn't a penalty for game overs. Too many lives is pointless.

I don't really see the point in game overs in either of those two games. What would the penalty even be? Starting at the very first level of the world, last save point, etc.? When a good portion of the game emphasizing on collecting star coins to unlock new worlds, it'd be pretty ridiculous to have to start at the very beginning after all that collecting. The current save feature makes it harder for there to be any real "penalty".

That being said, I was almost certain that they would get rid of the whole 100 coins = 1 life thing in NSMB simply because you can collect tons of lives just by running through a level. I don't think we'll see a "difficult" Mario side scroller for a very long time.

I don't mind it, since game overs don't even mean "game over" anymore either and that applies to all games these days, since they all have save functions and having game saves is a good thing. I personally like collecting extra lives. Not that I need to, but I just do so for fun.

I kinda disagree on the notion that Super Mario 64 gave you a reason to care about lives. If you did happen to lose all of them then the only penalty is reloading the file with a fresh stock of lives (providing you were saving, which you probably would be doing). Same with Sunshine. That isn't much of a reason to care.

Even if life collecting has become easier in the newer games, I don't think much has really changed in regards to how players perceive lives. For a long time it's been a counter that's been meaningless, though maybe Nintendo should stop pretending and just remove lives altogether. Link gets by just fine with a death counter, for example.

quote Epsalon X

Also...in NSMB2...I've managed nearly 8,000 coins in the first level. That is EIGHTY lives gained.

Wow, how did you do that? I never got anywhere near that many coins in the first level of NSMB2. Are you sure you didn't mean the first World in the game?

Okay then. I'll have to try that.

Its not perfected quite yet. I have yet to break 8,000...but I am sure it can be done. I'm no good at making videos though. The trick itself however, was extremely easy to figure out.