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Super Mario 3D World Impressions

01/02/15

A Ramble on Nintendo

Nintendo upsets me. Like, if they just made games I didn't like I wouldn't care. But they make games that are so close to games I would love, but have all these features that make me hate them instead. And what's really crazy is they used to make games that didn't have those infuriating qualities. I love those games.

That's just a few, I really love a lot of Nintendo games. As time went on, though, I found myself dealing with more and more nonsense to get to the content I wanted to actually play. I also found the rules of the game less engaging leading to less replay value, and worse risk/reward setup for playing.

A Ramble on Lives

Death in games... or failure, really, isn't as thought-out as it was. I mean all games, but with Nintendo you can see it happening to one company. The infuriating thing about this is that people notice death isn't well-implemented in games, but instead of looking at how older games did it better, they talk about lives and such being an outdated mechanic that should die.

Argh!

Lives are a great mechanic. Sometimes they aren't necessary, and the game would be better without them. Sometimes they're implemented poorly. But sometimes they can greatly improve the game.

Lives are next to pointless in the new Mario game. Just like every Mario game since Super Mario World. What purpose is there for lives if every level you've beaten both stays beaten and stays playable after you beat them?

I wonder if the problem is that they're called lives. If they were called fortitude, barricades, or some sort of resources. Something that implies that losing in a level is allowing the enemy to beat you back and gain their ground back. The game can look like it's winning instead of just slowly losing.

But, you know, this is a problem that lots of games have, and I'm rambling a bit about something that angers me so much about so many games, and something I've even blogged about before. Though, I definitely should blog about it again, but right now, let's talk about Super Mario 3D World.

Super Mario 3D World

This game, like all Nintendo games, starts me off so happy. Nintendo games just have that polish. Everything is as it should be. The controls are crisp, the game looks great. Things are imaginative and engaging.

Then I start to notice things and the magic fades. The good just isn't enough for me to ignore the bad. The bad exists in such a way that I just can't ignore it. In fact, this is the first Mario game where I'm literally not allowed to ignore it to beat the game.

The Collectibles

Collectibles are a thing I've grown to hate in games. Like lives, though, I'm sure they're just done in an especially annoying way. I believe I still like how Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel did it, but I find myself liking Super Mario 64 less and less as time goes on, and that's the best of the Mario collect-a-thons.

3D World pretends to be a 2D Mario game, but with 3D levels. However, it maintains its collect-a-thon 3D heritage in an incredibly obnoxious way. Each level has three hidden green stars to find. This isn't new; New Super Mario Bros. started it, I believe. But in those games, you can ignore these collectibles and still play most of the game. Past me's obessive complusiveness didn't let me do that, but current me ignored it this time.

No dice. Turns out, you need a certain amount of green stars to enter the boss levels for each world. So, I'm forced to replay levels for no adequately explained reason.

I greatly wish to write down certain vulgarities here.

No seriously, this isn't explained or justified anywhere. Now, cool things don't need explanation, but tedious nonsense requires it. There better be some cool narative explaining why these stars both 1) exist in the levels I'm playing through, and 2) are necessary items for my quest.

This seriously pisses me off.

Like, if this flaw wasn't present, I'd overcome the other flaws, which I will cover more below. I'd love this game. I mean, it wouldn't be a favorite, but I would recommend it to others. I'd consider it a powerful incentive to get a Wii U.

More Rambling: The Wii U

I didn't expect to like the Wii U at all. That the system had to update for over an hour during its first boot-up did not help my opinion.

But after those updates, I started to fall in love with the little machine. The handheld controller is light and surprisingly comfortable. Also, it brought me back to the days where I had two TVs setup in the living room so I could play games while others used the main TV.

Nintendo is basically the only gaming company still properly interested in local multiplayer, and all the games my nephew started with is a testament to that.

The problem is, however, that these local multiplayer games aren't better than the local multiplayer games that Nintendo has provided in the past. They aren't new, either, they are rehashes of those games. Now, Nintendo takes its rehashes seriously, so much so that many consider them remakes or sequels. But that doesn't change the fact that their new games aren't new, and they aren't really better.

So, why bother spending premium prices on such content? I feel the same about the PS4 and the Xbox One. The games aren't better and they aren't new. The better tech has worse operating systems, debatably worse software, and controllers that are more or less the same. What's the point?

Back to Mario

Why is it that every Mario game follows the same themes over and over again? Eight worlds, same worlds in the same order. Grassy or plains world, desert world, ice world, poison/giant world, rocky world, sky world, lava world. More or less.

Those are the games I'm sure follow this formula. Why? This wasn't how Mario sequels used to work. The first four 2D Mario platformers all were considerably different from each other. Different powerups, animation, art, worlds, and even mechanics.

Now, I understand that Super Mario Bros. 2 is not really a Mario game. Well, more accurately, it was not originally released as a Mario game. Reskinning Doki Doki Panic as a Mario game, however, works perfectly and was brilliant. It might have also shown Nintendo that exploring Mario more deeply was a more profitable path than their failed rehash that was Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan.

And up until Super Mario World, every game was different, and yet distinctly Mario somehow. And then 2D Mario was abandonned in favor of 3D Mario, which itself had each game be a collect-a-thon for stars.

Disappointing.

Why is 3D Mario Pretending to Be 2D?

Seriously, why does this need to exist. 2D Mario is more popular than 3D Mario! Just make it actually 2D and be as clever as you're being, but in 2D! You can still mess with the user with 3D tricks, because the game is rendered in 3D. The tricks could be even cooler with forced 2D playing, I think.

Seriously, the clever 3D is only sometimes novel, and then the rest of the time when I notice it, it's annoying and getting in the way.

And why is this game, pretending to be 2D, getting way more cool stuff than 2D Mario games are getting? Peach as a playable character? The characters play like they did in Super Mario Bros. 2? A wicked-sweet cat powerup?

Does Nintendo just hate real 2D Mario?

This Game is Not Worth It

The good in this game does not outweigh its bad. The bad just annoys me. Maybe even angers me a bit. I'm a little bitter about it, even. I want Nintendo polish without the Nintendo nonsense. Those are my favorite games. Why do I have to dig through the indy gaming scene to find new Nintendo-style games, Nintendo?