Super Mario Bros Z

So the first episode features a fighting tournament, not a kart race. Interesting.

...my cynicism grows deeper.

Whatever, it's being continued.

Wait, what do you mean? The Kart Race start I always thought was lame.

It is to start a series about people fighting eachother with fighting....because you just can't get enough of it.

Myeah, if that's an indication of all the other changes he's made to the series, then I'm not sure if it's a change for the better.

I mean, the Kart Race made thematic sense, considering the source material, and the transition to super-powered brawl was handled well. Starting with a fighting tournament instead seems a bit lazy in comparison, even if it does mean we get to "the good bits" sooner.

I did like the kart race, but starting with a fight makes more thematic sense to me. Give us a nice, normal battle before the gimmicky Bowser fight.

I mean, all the needs to be done to make it contextual is call it a "Super Smash Brothers" tournament or some variant of such.

That.

What I like about this series is that even though its similar to Dragon Ball, it maintains elements of the Mario universe. Mario's never been in a fighting tournament. Kart-racing is probably one of Mario's most popular exploits, this made sense.

Now... Mario's going to fight Bowser in a tournament?

It's not like Bowser hasn't gone Karting With Himself before, but it's weird.

Putting up Twitter updates is a pretty smart move for him. General maturity is what's ultimately going to have to keep him going, but considering all the bitching that made him lose interest came from his Schedule Slip it's a good attempt at a counter-measure.

I'm impartial to changing the kart race to a fight tournament. Fight choreography is a massive strength that Alvin's got, and he seems to be aware of that. And it's going to be a minor event regardless.

I was actually getting a little worried that with my maturing sense of humor I wouldn't find the series as enjoyable as I once did. Thankfully, I don't have to be, because this gem right here is fucking amazing.

edited 30th Sep '15 9:51:03 AM by Watchtower

Goddamn. I completely forgot about Paper Mario. Never mind, fighting tournament, okay, I'll roll with this.

There's a FAQ now. It even explains the origins of the name "Alvin Earthworm".

I'd like to point out that if he would do kart racing again, wouldn't people complain about rehashing stuff? And if he just did it with some mario sport game thing, then that wouldn't really be much different either I guess

"Rehashing things" is sort of the entire point of a remake. To do things again, except better. There's plenty of stuff in the old SMBZ that can be improved, but I don't feel this was one of them.

Of course, that's just based on what I've heard so far, which is not much. It's just a tiny thing that worries me slightly.

edited 30th Sep '15 12:40:05 PM by Kayeka

Amusingly, Alvin changing the opening means he's possibly averting the textbook opening Sonic/Mario crossover series tend to always have because they're copying him in the first place.

edited 30th Sep '15 1:27:26 PM by KnownUnknown

Its not like Mario hasn't done fighting before kappa.

It is kind of a Catch 22

The Kart race makes sense, because when has the Mario series been about crazy combat?

But then because you stick with the race, it comes out of left field when they go into the crazy combat.

Make it a Kart-race Fighting Tournament.

They fight each other while racing on Karts.

Problem solved.

edited 30th Sep '15 5:32:11 PM by HandsomeRob

Yeah, Take a Third Option, Jak X did it.

Or like in Mad Max!

I remember Jak X. I loved that game back in it's day.

But then again I loved Jak And Daxter in general....

edited 30th Sep '15 6:16:07 PM by Bleddyn

Jak X also takes place in a setting where everyone and their mother has guns of every energy color in the rainbow, and even then needed an Excuse Plot involving poison to kick it off.

You'd need Crash Team Racing levels of batshit for Mario. Or at the very least Diddy Kong Racing levels.

I wouldn't call it out of left field. I mean, the clue is in the title and is practically the main selling point of the series. That alone is good enough to change it from "left fielder" to "engaging twist", in my mind.

edited 1st Oct '15 3:45:50 AM by Kayeka

On the plus side, Jak X was able to fix some of the mistakes made in Jak 3, up to and including assigning the wrong character as Jak's love interest.

Like, that's not even a shipping thing.

• Jak 1 - Jak and Keira have a lot of Ship Tease.
• Jak 2 - Jak and Keira have more Ship Tease, finally attempt to kiss at the end, but are interrupted.
• Jak 3 - Jak and Ashelin finally get that kiss they've been building up.
• Jak X - More romantic fluffiness from Jak and Keira.

Someone at Naughty Dog screwed up the two Canon Ships, Jak/Keira and Torn/Ashelin, somehow crossing them in Jak 3.

edited 1st Oct '15 8:13:51 AM by TobiasDrake

Yeah, I remember thinking that was really weird at the time. I've heard that the voice actor for Keira changed in Jak 3, and because they weren't confident that she could pull off the voice, the character had very little dialogue or interaction with Jak.

I'm guessing the developers thought it would make no sense for the protagonist to hook up with someone he never really talked too.

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