The Bell Jar (SMM2)

Name: The Bell Jar
Code: RYF-PF4-SXF
Description: I took a deep breath and listened to the brag of my heart. I am I am I am.
Bookmark: https://smm2.wizul.us/smm2/level/RYF-...
SMM1 Version:    • Hold Your Breath  

Though I have no plans to actually play SMM2, now that Nintendo has fully killed SMM1, I've decided that I'm willing to port some of my levels over to the lesser game by special request. This level was requested by ‪@NobleD4‬.

This level needed layout adjustments to account for not being able to place anything in the 6x3 starting region in SMM2.

Track mechanics are also subtly different. Most notably, things now hesitate slightly before falling off tracks, which forced a few changes:

• I had to find a new starting configuration that would position the podoboos correctly.

• I had to open up the bottom of the level a bit to allow Mario to escape before the bottom podoboo reaches the end of the track.

For whatever reason, in SMM2 it's much easier to reliably unpause then immediately pause with minimal time passing, so the level seems quite a bit easier to me than it was in SMM1. I think the podoboos are also slightly farther apart in this version, but I just got tired of trying to find a way to get the podoboos spaced correctly. I'm pretty sure swimming is still invariably fatal.

Lastly, something about being underwater, and the steady but syncopated rhythm of unpause-pause, unpause-pause, unpause-pause, reminded me of a famous line from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: "I took a deep breath, and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am. I am. I am." So I included a compressed version of that quote in the description, and changed the title of the level to match.

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FAQ

Q: What the heck is even going on?

A: In NSMB, holding a jump button makes Mario flutter his feet underwater, causing him to sink more slowly. Mario normally sinks faster than a tracked podoboo, but while fluttering, the podoboo is faster.

Thus, if you do nothing, you will catch up to the podoboo below you. If you flutter the entire time, you will be overtaken by the podoboo above you. You must carefully alternate between fluttering and not fluttering to maintain your position between the two podoboos.

But wait, there's more! The flutter button, the swim button, the jump button ... that's all the same button! The way you start fluttering is by pressing (and holding) the jump button, which causes you to stroke once upwards. In this level, the space between the podoboos is so tight that even a single stroke sends you careening into the podoboo above. Then how is it possible to start fluttering without first swimming upwards? Enter pause buffering.

If you pause the game, you're free to press most buttons without the game registering anything. As you pause, you're free-falling and holding nothing. But in the pause menu, you press and hold A. Nothing happens. Then you unpause. Now you're holding A, your feet are fluttering, and the game never registered a *press*, so you don't stroke upwards. (I actually use B, which also unpauses, but nonetheless doesn't register a press outside of the pause menu.)

The reason I originally made this level in SMM1 was because there were a bunch of pause-related techs that people erroneously called "pause buffering", which as a simple matter of fact didn't involve buffering any inputs while paused.

So with a "WORDS HAVE MEANING!!!" and "GET OFF MY LAWN!!!" sort of sentiment, I devised this tech which forces you to truly buffer inputs while paused (even a TAS would need to pause), and doesn't simply exploit the pause menu to enhance timing, precision, or to frame advance, or whatever.