I enjoyed your comments regarding Iwata’s recent statements. One thing I find to be particularly interesting is Nintendo’s focus to get their users
on-line. I think they have something very “unique” up their sleeves. There
was an interview with Reggie at Forbes where he really made it sound like
they were working on something.
Also, I was translating a Japanese site via google – it had Miyamoto’s
comments from the Media Arts Festival. A rough translation had him saying
“Perhaps something was lost when Mario made the transition to 3d.” Don’t
quote me on this though as google did the translation. This is good news
IMHO because it shows that they have learned from a business perspective
and also on a personal level that there is value in 2d Mario.
I really hope they can do something dramatic and new with 2d Mario soon. :)
Perhaps something off the wall like SMW. :)
All the best.
For the next 2d Mario, one thing is for certain is that they cannot rely on the old worlds anymore. Ice World, Desert World, Water World, Sky World, etc. are all so boring. Aside from Grassland and the last world (of Hell), I say there needs to be something different.
I also believe the ‘elements’ as themes are greatly stale. It was cool during the 80s. But the themes of earth, wind, water, and air are extremely tired. This is one reason why I think the Mega Man games got so dull. All the robot masters are based on elements (as well as speed/quickness). Mega Man 1 was a mix of robot like features (Elec Man, Bomb Man) and elements (Fire Man, Ice Man). Mega Man 2 was all elements. Mega Man 3 was a ton of robot like features (Magnet Man, Spark Man, Gemini Man, etc). But ever since then, Mega Man games keep throwing in a water robot master, an air robot master, a fire robot master, and so on. And they wonder why people get bored. They wonder why we keep saying, “We’ve seen this boss before!”
Zelda seems to have this problem too. All the dungeons have a theme and that theme is one of the elements. I don’t think I am the only one who is sick and tired of the first dungeon being a forest temple. Twilight Princess felt more tired than it should have because the dungeons had very old themes (water temple, underground mine with lava, ice mansion, etc). Note that the dungeons that players were most excited by were the Temple of Time (what element is that? Can’t say!) and the City of the Clouds. While the City of the Clouds may be seen as ‘air element’, I don’t think that is how consumers experienced it. City of the Clouds had the theme of technological and ancient than just ‘air’. It was a very haunting place. Even though players admit how boring the gameplay was, they still love the environment.
There was a ‘City of the Sky’ moment in Metroid Prime 2 of which players remember very vividly. Unlike the elemental themes of areas before, the Sanctuary Fortress was technological which felt very fresh. It wasn’t the typical ‘earth, wind, fire, water’ themes we have always seen.
Of the Mario worlds you remember fondly, note how they are never the ‘element’ ones? Gamers remember Giant Land very well! Or even Pipe Land! But gamers do not find Ice Land or Water Land as memorable. Why game designers keep re-using the elements as themes, I have no idea.
Aside from that, a new Super Mario Brothers could bring back the raccoon suit. They could return to Dream Land with the Shy Guys and Birdos and keys and vegetables that was Doki Doki Panic / Super Mario Brothers 2.
Internet play could be explored in the next Super Mario Brothers. How I would be addicted to playing that Mario Brothers battle game (that was in Mario 3) over the Internet!
Having characters of different abilities such as in Super Mario Brothers 2 (Japanese or American version? Yes.) would greatly increase the replayability. I think tons of people want to play as Peach and ‘float’ around.
How about the map becoming larger and more diversified? What if it was more non-linear in that Mario didn’t have to go one direction but could go other directions? But that would be putting Mario into the direction of Zelda and Metroid but it is an idea.
There are so many things that can be done with Super Mario Brothers. But out of anything, the ‘elemental’ worlds need to be retired. We are sick of them, and they are not memorable. We want lands like Giant Land.