The ‘drop the bomb’ guy wants to send Nintendo a message. He is ‘prophet’ tactics because he knew… even back then… of Nintendo adopting 3d. Here is Prophet Tactics below…
…I have to tell you something. I have never been simultaneously this
happy and this depressed in my life. I know how you feel about
fan-games, and I understand… but this… this is both a miracle and
a tragedy.
I assume you’ve heard about this already. Super Mario Bros. X 1.2
Malstrom… It is *ridiculously* fun. The level design is imperfect,
but extremely well done for a bunch of amateurs… and the 2 player
w/split-screen is spot-on. It is absolutely FANTASTIC.
Why am I so depressed? I can’t shake the feeling, while I play this
game, that Nintendo has completely blown it. Why are Nintendo
developers so far up their own asses that they didn’t make this game
first (and instead waste their precious talent and resources on
Star-finder Mario Expansion Pack)? This game is absolutely brilliant–
and it takes a bunch of “kids” (I assume the developers are our age)
to make this game– and they will never be paid for it.I am absolutely
blown away by the level of quality they’ve presented here.
I’m playing it– frustrated– laughing– smiling– screaming at the
television, having an absolute blast… All the while, though, I’m
thinking: “What the hell Nintendo? Why didn’t you come up with this?”
You simply MUST try this game. If you don’t already own a Super
SmartJoy, I suggest making the investment for this game alone.
Also in the news is that CNBC is reporting that Mario 5 has outsold Modern Warfare 2 worldwide. While Modern Warfare 2 is a huge game, Mario 5 is… bigger.
Now, with this news from CNBC, I want you to imagine Miyamoto and other developers saying, “Make another 2d Mario? Nah. We don’t feel like it. Let’s make something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.” Then comes in the N64 and Gamecube where ‘something completely different’ has never ignited on the same scale. Even though it has been over a decade, with four 3d Mario games, Nintendo will keep making them because they don’t like making 2d Mario.
Is this not the most insane thing you have heard? Forget the Virtual Boy. The decision not to continue 2d Mario ranks up with the worst decision ever in Nintendo’s history. Mario 5 could have appeared on the N64 or Gamecube. It would have changed the consoles’ momentum.
Tactics, the video you put up is what I imagined Mario 5 to be on the SNES (minus the Metroid and Zelda areas, of course). Super Mario World was good but not that great. This is understandable as it was a launch game. I couldn’t wait to see Mario 5. Instead, I got a platformer about monkeys made outside of Nintendo. Donkey Kong Country saved the SNES, but it wasn’t the same as Mario 5.
Nintendo developers obviously do not like making 2d Mario, or we would have seen another one in 18 years. What is entertaining for the consumer is often not entertaining for the developer. Remember how they said making the older Zelda games was ‘like torture’? And after every 2d Mario game, Miyamoto said that the developers say, “And this is the last Mario game!” They almost made Mario 5 nothing more than Super Mario World with four players which is… a true slap in the face. Can you imagine after waiting 18 years and only getting Super Mario World with four players?
Based on Nintendo developer logic, since going to my job is not fun, I guess I should tell the boss that I am going to do whatever I want. The Entertainment Business is all about entertaining the audience, not entertaining the developers! You know why there are many plays going on that no one watches? It is because actors want to entertain themselves.
There is a collision with the Nintendo mission statement of ‘expanding gaming’ and ‘Nintendo developers embracing their creativity’ (e.g. making the games they want to make like countless 3d Mario games). I wouldn’t be surprised if there is such a mutiny that Nintendo abandons their ‘expanding gaming’ so Nintendo developers can keep making games for themselves. When they first adopted the ‘expanding gaming’ mission, I am sure they thought it would apply only to the games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit and games like 3d Mario would just be made “more accessible”. But the same ‘expanding gaming’ values should extend across all games.
I think a simple fix to 3d Mario would be to eliminate the ‘missions’ for stars and make the entire game be about platforming. You should be able to beat the entire game as small Mario and power-ups are only a supplement, something to help you out. There would be no puzzle gameplay. And the game world would actually make sense like have a 3d exploration of Super Mario World complete with the Butter Bridge or Vanilla Dome all in 3d. That would be fun to play. (But it would not be fun for Nintendo to make. How can they show us their ‘creativity’ then?)
The reason why Nintendo stopped making 2d Mario is the biggest mystery in gaming. Nintendo had the most popular and best selling game ever made. And they suddenly decided to stop making it.
I believe 2d Mario is so popular, Nintendo could make yearly incarnations of it if they desired. Though, that would be hard to do.
Here is what I want. I want every Nintendo console, both home console and handheld, to launch with a new 2d Mario. Then, midway through that console’s lifespan, they come out with another 2d Mario. The first 2d Mario would joyously launch the system while the second 2d Mario would fully explore the hardware capabilities.
There is so much demand for 2d Mario. And there is so much Nintendo can do with it. How about a return to the Doki Doki Panic world of Sub-Con? It would be very fun with four players each with their own unique traits. Just imagine four people digging in those sand filled rooms or four people trying to kill Birdo. But there are other ideas. How about 2d Mario online with the Internet somewhat like how Mario Kart Wii can be played online?
One idea I thought was cool for a hypothetical Super Mario Brothers 6 was instead of having ‘worlds’ or ‘areas’ for Mario to go through, Mario would go through Time (not unlike Ocarina). Bowser would have messed up the timeline and remade it so that he rules from the future. Mario, of course, has to save the day. The first world (or Era) would be Dinosaur Era which is like the first area of Super Mario World with tons of Yoshis and lots of dinosaurs. The last world would, of course, be futuristic with the Doomships and laser beams (laser beams were in Bowser’s castle in Mario 3). Normally, the game would be very hard but you could go ‘back in time’ to previous Eras and change things which would make the future Eras easier. For example, if the Sixth Era was flooded (such as Wind Waker) and overrun by evil Cheep-cheeps, you could go to the Fifth Era and do something to make sure the Six Era wasn’t flooded. It would be similar to the Switch Blocks in Super Mario World. (Regular Mushroom Kingdom would be somewhere in the middle.) This could give the game more replayability. What if there was a level where the blocks you destroyed would remain destroyed in future Eras? What if deciding to destroy all the blocks early on hurt you in later Eras on that level? Or vice versa?
Above: Mushroom Kingdom of 1-1 in the future where level 1-1 is dusty and falling apart. Brawl gives us a peek of such a content possibility.
We have never explored the Mushroom World through time before. It could give us new creatures and things we had never seen before. It would be an example of ‘adding new content’. It would flesh out the Mushroom Kingdom even more.
The point is that Nintendo has not begun to scratch the surface of all the possibilities that 2d Mario present.
2d Mario returns as his role of King of Killer Apps! While the Industry had orgasms over Modern Warfare 2 sales, watch the silence as no analyst will mention Mario 5’s sales performance.
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