Hi there Malstrom,
After having read your entry on mythos, i was just wondering how you feel about the New Super Mario Bros on the Wii.
Not from a business point of view but that of your own personal taste.
For me it looks a little bit to much like New Super Mario Bros on the DS but after having seen the trailer I have to say i’m quite excited.
Yeah, NSMB DS was utterly forgettable. However, it was the only major new 2d platformer released. Unlike 1992, it has no competition.
I was greatly relieved to see the Koopa Kids back in NSMB Wii. Bowser Jr. is very annoying. However, I have some concerns about NSMB Wii:
1) The music looks like the same drivel from NSMB DS. It is amazing how Galaxy gets full orchestra music that is inspired and all while NSMB Wii gets the most phoned in, uninspired music. They could remix the music from the old 2d Mario games and we’d be happy. But nope. No one likes the music in NSMB DS. I don’t mean that NSMB Wii should have a full orchestra (though that would be awesome), but surely the developers at Nintendo can put out something more inspired, something less elevator music.
2) The levels seem uninspired and flat. If I had to ask one question to Miyamoto today, it would be: “When was the last time you played Super Mario Brothers 3 or Super Mario World?” The levels in those games had so much more character. And, no, this isn’t a complaint of nostalgia. In SMB 3, for example, we had worlds like Giant Land or Pipe Land. Even though most of the worlds were based on the typical elements (desert land, water land, ice land, sky land, etc.), the worlds and level ideas were all very interesting done (with the exception of Ice Land perhaps). Super Mario World also had levels full of character. Then, of course, there were the brilliant airships of SMB 3 and Koopa actually having an army, a navy, a flying fleet of airships. One of the tricks to making a good game is to have a good nemesis. This fell a little flat in Super Mario World with Bowser riding around in a silly clown mobile. But in SMB 3, you felt like you were fighting a powerful force. NSMB DS is so bad that I cannot recall any of the levels or tell any difference from any of the worlds.
3) On the showroom floor at E3, people have remarked that when someone dies in NSMB Wii, the game temporarily freezes. This is unacceptable. If I buy the game and it freezes like that, well, it gets returned. Freezes are unacceptable on consoles. This should be fixed ASAP. The freezes somewhat indicates to me that NSMB Wii hasn’t been in development long, that it seems somewhat rushed. This isn’t bad as Super Mario World was rushed. But it is distressing that such a massive glare is still in the game when it was being demoed.
Don’t take these as complaints, however. A man in thirst in the desert is not going to complain about the color of the canteen or if the water tastes a little odd. Any 2d Mario, after twenty years of nothing, is good 2d Mario as far as I’m concerned.
Also, i’d like to know the same thing about WiiSports Resort.
It’s nice reading about your articles in a business sense. But i’va become increasingly curious if you, as an old Atari veteran, thinks about stuff like WiiSports.
Wii Sports reminds me of Pong. Wii Play, with the tanks, reminds me of Tanks! that came with the Atari 2600. Wii Fit reminds me of World Track Meet of the Power Pad of the NES. Wii Gun games remind me of the NES light gun games. Wii Sports Resort reminds me of the Commodore 64 big hit of ‘Summer Olympic Games’ from Epyx (which is available on the Virtual Console I believe).
Everyone says Nintendo’s success is NEW. I see it as OLD. I do not see the DS. I see a modern Game and Watch. I do not see a Wii controller that is new compared to the fourteen button analog stick controller. I see a NES controller that is new compared to the old joystick.
However, Super Mario Galaxy does NOT remind me of Super Mario Brothers. Twilight Princess does NOT remind me of Zelda I or Zelda II. (Can you imagine a 1:1 sword combat centric Zelda game? It would seriously rock.)
NSMB Wii is getting much warmer to the original Super Mario Brothers feeling than Galaxy ever was. However, I won’t know this until I’ve played it.
Much of the early third party support on Wii reminds me of the horrible third party support NES had… its first few years. In 1988, three years of being on the market, the third party games got REALLY good.
Anyway, keep up the good work. In a few years, when the Wii disruption is complete, people will find you wrote a lot more(and better) articles than “Birdmen”(my favorite being Disruptive storm) and all of gaming journalism will start to crumble!
Greetings from a reader out of the Netherlands
Thank you for the kind words! But remember, the disruption is never complete. The idea is for Nintendo to turn into a Wheel of Disruption. It is not uncommon for a company to disrupt its industry. It is extremely uncommon for that same company to disrupt… again… and again… and again. Off the top of my head, I know of only two companies that have ever pulled that off.
Google and Sony.
Nintendo wants to become a Wheel of Disruption where it can define the rules of the industry instead of the competitors.