Normally, I make a post when I beat a game, but I’m making an exception for a game I’ve already beaten. You see, even though I grew up with this game and beat it 100% on two different occasions (because I lost my original cart and had to buy another one), I only recently found out that…
…has hidden e-reader levels! So, of course, I had to play through them myself. Also, this will just be my thoughts on these levels, not a full review. Also also, if you consider this a puzzle game, maybe don’t read this post ‘cause I’m gonna spoil some of the “solutions.” Really, this is more of an action-platformer with minor puzzle elements.
e-1: A simplistic vertical level where you hop over two of those living flame enemies, then hit a switch that activates the next platform, but deactivates the previous one so the flames fall down and you have to jump over them again. You do this three times (once for each of the bonus present collectibles), then all of you finally reach ground level where you can kill the flames with a hammer and unlock the exit. The only thing you need to watch out for in this level is that the flames will sometimes turn around before they reach the edge of the platform instead of at the edge proper, throwing them off-sync and forcing you to do some acrobatics to get past them (unless one changes direction when you’re trying to jump over it, in which case you’re pretty much dead).
e-2: A more horizontally-oriented level where there’s blocks in a sort-of house shape, and you have to make your way over the roof to hit the blue switch so you can get the key to the door. This one’s a bit tricky since the ropes you need to grab to get on the roof are a bit too high to reach normally, so you need to hit the yellow switch, then bring the key up the platforms on the left side so you can use the key as an extra ledge. The presents in this level are a bit out of your way, but they don’t take much effort to grab. Also, oddly enough, this level is one of the few e-reader levels with a 1-up in it, but the e-reader levels give you infinite lives, so it’s kinda pointless.
e-3: This was just a bunch of trailers for then-upcoming games, followed by grainy footage of someone coming out on a stage to talk about the games some more.
Just kidding. It’s another simple vertical section. The only things you really have to watch out for are the platforms leading to the blue present, which disintegrate after a second, so you have to be quick for that part, but otherwise, you just need to be patient since you’ll be waiting on NPCs to move to get the other presents (they’ll trap you if you’re too impatient).
e-4: Another level that only scrolls vertically, and only slightly. There are some vertically moving platforms over spikes near the bottom and basic gaps between platforms at the top, but other than that, you’re just avoiding the crap getting dropped on you by the birds that spawn in this level (and yes, both the birds and the crap will kill you; every hazard kills you in one hit in this game). There are two birds’ nests, so you’ll be dealing with around two at once, though they spawn another bird just before their first one leaves. As long as you remember to bait the birds into throwing their crap somewhere that isn’t in front of the ladder you need to climb to get to the top and reach the key, you’ll be fine.
e-5: This is the worst of the game’s e-reader levels, and possibly the worst level in the whole game (it’s been a while since I played this, so I can’t say that for sure, but this level is pretty bad). Aside from spikes and fall damage, the only thing that can kill you in this level are the gator enemies that can climb on ropes. There are four two-unit wide platforms in the middle of the level with one-unit wide gaps between them and with a rope extending down from each one, and there’s one gator (one unit wide) placed on each platform, except the second from the right; that one has two gators. However, it’s randomly determined whether or not they climb the rope or continue walking on the platform, and even then, it’s random how far down they’ll go on the rope before turning back up. In other words, this level is essentially just you waiting for an opening to show up randomly and let you through. Sure, you can just barely jump over a gator when there’s only one on the platform, but there’s little you can do about the platform with two gators on it other than wait. Plus, you can’t be too hasty since there’s always a chance the gator will turn back up after only going down the rope by one unit. Ah, but what happens when you make it past them? You activate the yellow switch, which activates a yellow platform so you can climb to the top of the level, where you have two more gators on two more ropes to get past, but the yellow switch also activates a wall that forces you to circle around and get past the four platform gators again! And when you finally get past the second loop and the last two gators to get the key, you can’t climb on ropes anymore, so you’re forced to cross the platforms a third time, each time having to sit there and wait for the gators to move out of your way, and waiting = boring = not fun. Oh, and did I mention that all levels have time limits?
e-6: Yet another simple vertical section, although this one seems more empty than simple. There are only three enemies, only two of which pose a threat, and said two can easily be bypassed if you’re willing to wait a couple seconds for their flamethrowers to turn off. There are disintegrating platforms, but the regular blocks and chains are close enough together that you don’t have to worry about messing up. Plus, you start at the bottom, and since the key and door are both right there, you only need to scale the level if you want the present collectibles (which only increase your total score in the e-reader levels). Then again, it doesn’t take much effort to do so.
e-7: There’s one Boo and one of those charging enemies that can push you under one-unit-high gaps in walls while you’re ducking. Other than them, the only thing that can kill you in this level is fall damage, but it would almost take effort to die that way here. You ride a couple platforms up, grab the key, ride another one down, and you’re done.
e-8: Now here’s a tricky level. First, you have to climb up a vertical area while avoiding a Thwomp, then hit a switch while the Thwomp is in the middle of coming up so you both trap it in the middle of its ascent and can bypass it from above and below. This will also deactivate the wall that was blocking your progress. After that, there’s a horizontal section with a row of Thwomps right next to each other, but the blue present is in their danger zone, so you have to bait them down, then get the present while they’re going up before running backwards so you can get the key and progress. It’s a nice little level.
e-9: A level that’s two-units-vertically and one-unit-horizontally away from being only one screen large. You have to hit switches at the right time to get a bouncing candle out of your way, but the candle’s position can only ever be in the way of at least one path. That candle is the only hazard, though, but at least this is one of the levels that makes you think for a few seconds before you figure out how to progress. It’s also a neat little level, except for one problem:
Did you figure it out? Here’s what’s wrong: THEY FORGOT TO ADD THE PRESENTS! All levels in the game are supposed to have three present collectibles, and all of them do have them except this one.
e-10: This might be the hardest of the game’s e-reader levels, but unlike that garbage gator level, this is a fun kinda hard instead of an annoying random kinda hard. The red and yellow presents are quite possibly placed in areas where the developers never intended them to be so easy to collect (at least not without hitting a switch or changing the direction of the conveyor belts, but you don’t have to do either of those things). However, that helps alleviate the stress caused by the actual difficult part: after you get those two presents and the key, you can bring the key up to right before the last conveyor belt, at which point you’re blocked by both a red barrier and a reverse-moving conveyor belt. The only way to get past is to drop the key on the one block that isn’t a conveyor belt or switch-activated platform, then do some acrobatics to get over a spike wall so you can hit the button that reverses the conveyor belts (all three colored switches are also there so you can deactivate the red block at the same time), then jump back over the wall without re-activating the red switch, grab the key, and proceed to the exit. That may not seem like much, but the process of leaving the key, reversing the conveyor belt, and getting back to the key takes about twelve seconds, and do you know how long you can leave the key idle before it returns to its spawn position? Twelve seconds. Yup, you gotta do that part quickly or the key is gone, but since the level is short enough and easy enough until that point, it’s like Super Meat Boy in that you can just restart and try again quickly.
e-11: One unit away from being another completely vertical level, this one has you avoiding piranha plant projectiles. Said projectiles move slowly, and there aren’t any tricky jumps or other enemies to worry about, so it’s another simple level. However, this level demonstrates one of Mario’s special powers, a power considered too great to be used in the rest of the game: the ability to walk over spikes harmlessly!
Of course, that’s actually just a graphics bug resulting from messed up code: Mario’s supposed to enter from the left, not the right.
e-12: One more vertical section! Again, it’s fairly simple: you have hammers to take out the living flames, and the blue and red switches activate the left and right sides of the map, respectively (you switch between them to get all the presents; you don’t have to do it if you just want to beat the level). When you reach the top, you can hit the yellow switch which lets you get the key and take a quick trip back down to the door.
e-13:
I beat the level in three seconds.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! It turns out there are a few exclusive e-reader levels in the Japanese version, so I had to check them out as well.
j-1: Identical to e-12.
j-2: Identical to e-1.
j-3: Similar to e-2, but now it’s trickier to get the blue and red presents. If you get the red present while the red switch is pressed (the one that adds a platform below the red present), you’ll end up having to cycle around the top to get back to the center. As for the blue present, it’s just high enough that doing your highest jump on the conveyor belt isn’t high enough, and placing the key on the conveyor belt will move the key away before you can use it as a platform. What you have to do is throw the key onto the blocks just under the conveyor belt so it gives you a platform half-a-unit higher, allowing you to reach the blue present. I enjoyed these trickier-to-reach presents, though the ropes are lowered enough that you don’t have to do the key trick like in e-2, which was something I also thought was kinda neat.
Side note: the key in j-3 is under a ceiling and can’t be jumped on top of. At first, I was worried the level might be impossible, but then I pressed the grab button while standing in front of the key and found out I could grab the key that way as well. Heh, that would’ve made e-9 and e-10 quite a bit easier.
j-4: Practically the same as e-3, only now the game promos are in Japanese yellow present was moved next to the blue present, and the key was placed where the yellow present was in e-3. In other words, it’s marginally more difficult since what once was optional is now mandatory.
j-5: Similar to e-4, but now there are three birds’ nests instead of two and the presents were rearranged slightly since the door is where the yellow present was (and the yellow present is where the blue present was).
j-6: Remember how I said that e-5 was the worst level in the game? Well, that’s only because this level (which is a slight variation of e-5) wasn’t in that game. The bottom half of the level is the same, except the left-most platform doesn’t have a gator on it. Great, right? After all, that’s one less gator to worry about. Well, not exactly. You see, the ropes in the top half of this level are lower, so when its time for you to get the key, you have to jump across platforms again to get the key rather than just across ropes, but that’s not the worst of it. You see, since the platforms are lower, the ropes also extend lower, and they’re low enough that the top gators can climb down and get in your jumping path when trying to get past the lower gators! In other words, that’s more crap you have to wait for (and no, the ropes aren’t low enough for you to grab them early, so you’ll still have to hit the yellow switch and go through the loop).
j-7: A UNIQUE LEVEL! About darn time! The only similarities it has to e-6 is its vertical nature and the fact that it’s the only lava-styled level among its respective e-reader levels. This one starts off much trickier right off the bat by having the disintegrating blocks make up most of the bottom platform, and if you want the red present, you need to throw one of the flamethrower shy guys onto the spike bed below the disintegrating blocks. After that, the level drops in difficulty, but it still forces you to be conscious if you want to get the rest of the presents and beat the level.
j-8: This is almost the same as e-8, except slightly taller and the Thwomps in a row are spaced out more, making that one present easier to get since you can stand between Thwomps without getting hit. One of the other presents is also below a Thwomp, but again, it isn’t as tricky to get due to the aforementioned space between the Thwomp row.
j-9: This is basically the same as e-9, only now the room is bigger for no reason (it’s not like e-9’s compressed space resulted in any sequence breaks, at least, from what I could tell). However, it does get points for remembering to include the present collectibles.
j-10: This is more or less a rearranged version of e-11, but slightly wider. The biggest difference is that the yellow present is off to the side and requires a bit of acrobatics to collect, but it’s still fairly easy.
j-11: The only e-reader level to use the colored lasers! I had forgotten about them until now. They turn off and on in a set pattern, so you have to time your movements to get past them while they’re off. Once again, there’s one present (the blue one, in this case) that requires some tricky acrobatics to get, but otherwise, it’s an easy level as long as you’re patient.
j-12: A short vertical section where you have to climb and jump across ropes to get to the key while avoiding bats and piranha plant projectiles. The bats are unique since, rather than kill you outright, they’ll just stun you for a couple seconds, as if you fell from a mid-range height (and if you’re on a rope, they’ll knock you off). You also have to be a little careful once you get the key since it’s too high up for you to survive the fall, so you have to throw it off the ledge, then grab and descend a rope before jumping off.
j-13: A level where the only enemies are the ones that push you under gaps in walls. You need the blue switch activated to get the key, but you need the red switch activated to reach the exit, and per the game’s mechanics, only one switch can be active at a time, so you have to figure out how to do that. Easier than it sounds.
j-14: Nearly identical to e-7, except this one’s slightly wider and has the blue present on the left side (over some springboards) instead of the right side.
So that’s, what, four proper unique levels? TCRF said “several”! I feel a bit cheated. Oh well.
Overall, I had fun with these levels. Sure, quite a few of them were a bit too easy, and sure, e-5 and j-6 were surprisingly terrible, but there were a few that provided a decent challenge, and there were even a couple that were almost puzzles!
If there’s one thing to take away from my post, it’s this: we all have our own personal e-5s to deal with, but the important thing to remember is that the pain is only temporary. Whoever you are, whatever situation you’re in, remember these words: as long as we’re still alive, we have hope; hope for a better future, for a good life, for finally getting past the erratic gators blocking our way to the key and once again being able to experience happiness. Even if you find yourself going through the same pain again, remember that things are changing; you hit that yellow switch, and you just have to deal with those gators one more time to reach the key, and maybe once again to get the key to the locked door.
P.S. When you beat an e-reader level in the Japanese version, the cursor stays on the level you beat, but in the U.S. version, the cursor goes back to “Add Level” each time, so you have to scroll over to the next level each time. It’s a little annoying.
P.P.S. e-5’s official name is “LATER GATOR.” Not only is this a play on the phrase “see you later, alligator,” but it also perfectly reflects how the level plays since the gators force you to wait until later to get past them. It’s genius.