General Mario Thread

The only collectables I see for a Mario game usually are power-ups, coins and stars, and the first two are usually optional, so I don't see a DK64 situation happening.

Hmm... what if the next Mario let him combine Power-Up abilities?

We kinda got a taste of it with the double cherry being compatible with other power-ups. Now imagine the whole sort being mix-and-matched together!

• Metal Cap + Fire Flower = Searing Metal Mario
• Blue Shell + Ice Flower = Frozen Shell Mario
• Boo Mushroom + Cat Bell = Ghost Cat Mario
• Cape Feather + Cannon Box = Flying Cannon Mario
• Kuriboh Shoe + Superball Flower = Stomping Superball Mario

and so on and so forth...

So a la Kirby 64 The Crystal Shards, right?

I think I beat Galaxy the day I started it.

I loved it. The Comet Observatory was so much fun. I loved the theme. Made the hub look like a great place to throw a ball.

I think Rosalina's shoes are even made of glass.

The one weakness of SMG2 is losing the Comet Observatory for Starship Mario and Rosalina for Lubba.

edited 6th May '16 7:43:23 AM by Pulse

Yes, the sequel felt kind of like a big game of DLC. I still liked it, but it didn't have as much emotional kick as the first.

Oh, Rosalina's storybook. I liked that too.

I prefer the actual levels in Galaxy 2, I just found the hub less pleasing. So I mean, 97% of the game was improved.

Don't forget the lack of a quite developed side plot. Having some worldbuilding along your game can really improve the experience. Case and point: Splatoon.

edited 6th May '16 7:51:47 AM by Elbruno

Yeah, that's a very unusual case- Splatoon's lore is very clearly a long series of jokes, but it does make the world seem a bit more alive anyway.

It was because Miyamoto didn't like the idea of having a "deep plot" in a Mario game. Some of his table upends have been questionable, if you ask me.

I don't like criticizing Shiggs Mapone himself, but yeah, some of his recent ideas have been somewhat questionable.

Miyamoto is a creative man who's had a lot of great ideas but I think his influence on Paper Mario in particular has not been that good in the last few years (assuming what i've heard about sticker star is correct).

On the note of Rosalina:

Her little sidestory was cute and I appreciated it, but I didn't really think SMG 2 lost much by not having anything like it.

I'm of a seemingly minority opinion that I didn't like SMG 1 that much but loved Galaxy 2. I can't really explain it other than I felt that SMG 2's levels were better designed and offered more variety. Wouldn't say Galaxy 1 was a bad game by any means though.

edited 6th May '16 1:48:59 PM by wehrmacht

I have a mild preference towards Galaxy 2 as well, though like I said before I've enjoyed all Mario games I've so far (not to the same extent Lost Levels, but still).

I do sorta kinda respect Lost Levels for inventing the Platform Hell subgenre, even if said subgenre is mostly trash.

What are general opinions on Lost Levels? Difficult but fair? Fake Difficulty? etc.

It's a case where knowing what the new-from-SMB1 mechanics are make life easier. It's pretty bullshit hard if you go in unprepared but is a good deal better if you know what a Poison Mushroom is and how the trampolines and wind behave- Albeit still a bit excessive.

It's pretty leaning.

Leaning on the side of Fake Difficulty.

There's nothing fair about Lost Levels.

The invisible blocks over pits is pretty unfair.

As for Galaxy 1 and Galaxy 2's hubs, I actually didn't care much for the Comet Observatory. It just felt bland and empty. The Faceship is smaller, but that's fine since there's nothing much to do on it anyway and at least there's more NPC's to talk to.

Delfino Plaza is better than both of them and Peach's Castle, though.

Delfino Plaza is undoubtedly the best Hub World in any video game I've ever played. I really liked the Comet Observatory, though. While there wasn't much to do there, it had a really peaceful and pretty atmosphere.

I like the Comet Observatory. Nice atmosphere, a surprising amount of little secrets, and it only takes about a minute to get wherever you need to go.

Why does this work?

Because the SMW soundfont already has a lot of goofy-sounding instruments.

I'll be honest, not the biggest fan of Galaxy. It has some good levels, Rosalina as a whole, and that intense ending, but it's pretty meh for me. Never got too far into Galaxy 2 before I somehow managed to lose my copy(To this day i still don't know how it just vanished. Normally I don't lose console games), but I do remember liking it more then 1. Probably cause of Yoshi.

@Lost Levels Fuck that game. Seriously, fuck that game. Best thing it gave us was Billy MC's let's play of the SNES port. So glad we got that Doki Doki Panic reskin over that game.

@Delfino Plaza Love that hub world. It rivals the ones from Banjo Kazooie and Spyro for me.

I think one of the things I really loved about Sunshine were the level designs(Excluding Corona Mountain, the "Secret of" levels, and some of the bonus levels in the hub). They feel a lot more interesting then the ones you see in games like 64 or Galaxy.

Didn't Miyamoto put the kibosh on Galaxy 2 having a story hence the lack of Rosalina?

edited 7th May '16 11:02:11 AM by Mizerous

Maybe? It's not as well-documented as what happened to Sticker Star.

It's a shame, since, y'know, Galaxy didn't even really have a story beyond "Bowser kidnapped Peach and also is a galactic emperor now I guess." Rosalina's storybook was entirely optional and entirely background on her.

I really don't care about story in the mainline Mario games. Rosalina's storybook was a nice bonus, but the game didn't lose much by not having it.