Hello Mr. Malstrom:
Sorry for the email because you must flooded by emails right now. But, I got this in my head and I have to tell you about it:
With a Conference full of Fail, I got thinking in Mario Mii. “Maybe it’s the only good thing they will do” I thought. Well, I went to see some screenshots, if I’m correct, it’s just Mario W… I mean, Mario 5 with the Toads replaced as Miis, First impression.
And, considering Nintendo hates 2D Mario, the content is probably the same as the old New Super Mario. New Levels but the same worlds. (Mario 5 was different from New Mario DS because it was a Multiplayer game, which is a whole new experience).
The Difference from the DS Version and the WiiFa… I mean, Wii U version is the fact we are not starving of Mario 2D. We are hungry for more, but not starving. It’s going to sell decent for the platform, but I don’t think is going to actually sell platforms because, it’s there it’s Mario 5, with Miis. Whoa, great difference. At least some sequels of other franchises try to make up more stuff, even if it’s just fail.
Anyway, thanks for the readings of today. I needed it.
After 18 year absence, 2d Mario didn’t need to be content rich. People were just dying for the gameplay (this would be the same story if a New Legend of Zelda came out). Now that we have the gameplay, the next game has to have content. It must actually be a fleshed out world. It must have character. Something like Mario 3 or Super Mario World (or even Doki Doki Panic). Nintendo cannot get away with ‘Desert Land’ and ‘Water Land’ and Sky Land’ again. They are going to have to put some more thought into it and rely less on the cliches.
My advice to Nintendo is to call it ‘Super Mario Adventure’ and make the land somewhat like Super Mario World (not worlds like in Mario 3 or 5). OF course, it would not be Dinosaur Land but another land. And this new Mario adventure needs to be very interesting. My suggestion is to have the ‘areas’ be the Mushroom Kingdom divided into eras of time. The most ancient era would have dinosaurs. Modern era would be like normal Super Mario Brothers. But futuristic Mushroom Land could be very interesting (we have seen lasers from Mario 3 and other weaponry from Super Mario Land). Remember the electrical level from Donkey Kong Jr? Notice the charm that level had? Think of that.
Remove the Miis. They do not belong. This is not Mario Kart. Super Mario Brothers depends heavily on the integrity of Mushroom Land. This is why when something is in there, it doesn’t feel right. Think Charging Chuck from Super Mario World who seemed out of place.
Instead, do a Doki Doki Panic of different characters the player could choose that had different abilities (such as the Princess floating). This would be great fun.
You know, I think I have figured out why so many people love Ocarina of Time and why I don’t fully ‘get it’ after coming to it much later. Ocarina of Time is the most fleshed out coherent Nintendo game world ever made. But after playing later games and seeing Nintendo doesn’t believe in the concept of ‘coherent universe’, I could only experience Ocarina of Time in a mechanical standpoint as its ‘game world’ meant nothing to me (how could it after Wind Waker?). Another favorite Nintendo game, Super Mario Brothers 3, also has a strong coherent game universe. So does Super Metroid and Metroid Prime.
Unfortunately for us, Nintendo does not believe in content. The producer of Dragon Quest does believe in content and references the term correctly. But apparently that is not enough to persuade Nintendo (even though they got Spotpass from him).
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