General Mario Thread

Strange; I'd read about the history of SMB 2 and never knew that until now.

So...Why is it that Mario never ran into the Polygon Ceiling? Every single one of the 3D Mario games has sold and been critically received extremely well. :S

edited 12th Jun '13 12:59:39 PM by CassidyTheDevil

Because Nintendo.

Mario 64 was considered the ideal of 3D platforming for its time. Aside from the wonky camera it made the transition into 3D very smoothly.

edited 12th Jun '13 1:00:41 PM by Anomalocaris20

We don't even really see 3D platformers anymore. I really want to see some get made, and it's like the genre is dead or something.

It's unfortunate that the 3D Mario games of recent have gone in the opposite direction of what 64 did.

I have to ask something so that I can release some of my dislike of the Galaxy duology: Is the explorational type of 3D platformer dead? Can someone point me to that kind of 3D platformer, 'cause I just realize now that I don't know of any recent 3D platformer that goes in the exploration direction.

Only ones I can think off are platformers made during the N64 and maybe early Game Cube era. Otherwise, no.

Sorry, I meant that kind of platformer in the Seventh Generation, or even Eighth if there's something like that.

No.

Linear platformers prove to be the most appealing kind of platformer, I guess.

Not to mention that Donkey Kong 64 kind of killed the exploration platformer genre.

I really hate seeing an entire genre die like that. 3D platformers in general, exploratory or otherwise, seem really hard to find. I don't know of any in this generation!

I know that Sonic attempted an exploration element with some games. None of them were largely well-received, so Sonic Team ditched that completely.

Lost World seems to be taking a non linear approach. If anything, it looks like a 2D Sonic game, in 3D, like 3D Land was to the 2D platformers.

As for 3D exploratory platformers, this game on Kickstarter seems to be coming along nicely.

Sonic Lost World is no different from the other Sonic platformers in that the main goal is to get from point A to point B, but there are a lot of paths that lead to shortcuts and secrets for 100% completion.

We'll see how the Kickstarter game will work, but I'd be happy with any collect-a-thon! Any collect-a-thon!

As for Sonic World, non-linear in this case just means differing paths that all get you from A to B with some secrets thrown in, pretty much reminiscent of how Mario does things now.

But Mario has no secrets thrown into the linear 3D games.

I wouldn't mind having a sequel game to DK 64 that addresses the key issues (losing track of what you've found and trying to find the Last Lousy Point, too many collections being mandatory to beat the game, and a few other flaws unrelated to the genre) while still being about collecting stuff. I really like the game even though it has some flaws.

edited 12th Jun '13 6:58:39 PM by Anomalocaris20

What secrets were in 64 and Sunshine exactly?

Blue Coins and other nozzle attachments in the case of Sunshine.

It depends if you call the Secret Stars and Shine Sprites that or not.

You don't need them all to beat the game, and not all of them are blatant. Like the two stars from Peach's Secret Slide.

The nozzles are Mandatory to complete the game. Blue coins, point yours. What about 64, huh.

Extra lives and bonus rooms. Some Star Coins are also out of the way.

Uh, what? That's not true. There were like secret rooms with goodies stashed away if you explored some levels in the Galaxy games. 3D Land had a few secrets too. Some side paths, or shortcuts with some goodies. Heck, 3D Land had warp zones. (only 2, and only advanced you to the next world, and weren't really that useful, admittedly..)

Also, I hate the Blue Coins and am glad Nintendo didn't use that concept again, and hope they don't return. And if they do, come back in a much less annoying form. Those really dragged down Sunshine.

For 100 coin missions? Like the ones in 64, that made collecting all the coins less of a hassle.

edited 12th Jun '13 7:18:14 PM by randomness4

The Castle Secret Stars were very non-obvious, with the only ones easy to figure out would be the 6 Red Coin ones. The 100 Coin Stars weren't terribly obvious either. That's 26 different non-obvious stars.

Super Mario 64 didn't have any non-Star based secrets, admittably. Funny glitches, I guess, but that's it.

The Toad on the second floor tells you that, its a small thing but its there.

That's why I said it wasn't terribly obvious. It's easy to eventually figure out, but it's not entirely put out there for you.

Anyway, the real thing is whether you consider them secrets or not. I mean, yes, they're "named" Secret Stars, but names aren't everything.