I prefer being Small Mario.
I didn’t use to be this way. I used to love having Mario all powered-up, Mushrooms, Fire Flowers, Cape, what have you. But Mario’s time as a powerful plumber never lasted long. I always got careless and lost it.
But then something would happen. I would tense up, focus and suddenly become twice the gamer I was before. Being one hit away from death made me better. I enjoyed the tension, the finesse it required knowing I was skirting the precipice of doom. It got to the point that I would ignore power-ups and stay vulnerable because it made the game more exciting and made me a better player. Also, there is the fact that Small Mario is less of a target than Super Mario.
This happens with other games at times. For instance, there may be a section of the game that is built up to be very hard, so I go in very focused and end up beating it handily. This will occur on everything from RPG’s to FPS’s. I mentally psyche myself up and it translate to major pwnage of the game, sometimes leading myself to wonder what the big deal was about that section.
Am I alone in this phenomenon? Or does this happen anyone else out there? Let me know in the comments!