That Miyamoto interview was painful to watch. It confirmed everything you were saying about how he’s trying to destroy 2D Mario completely. I thought it was just him being an artist who wanted to move forward with his creativity (I can appreciate that as an artist myself) but it goes further than that. He wants everyone else in the world to “move forward” as well and forget the existence of 2D Mario. The sad thing is, the idea is sound. Make a game with 3D graphics that plays somewhat like 2D Mario, making stomping easier, etc. It almost looks like it has arcade action (but I’m not fooled). I tolerated Mario Sunshine long enough to beat Bowser so I can see myself trying Super Mario in 3D Land (except I wasn’t crazy enough to buy a 3DS…now waiting for the redesign) but the problem with the game is that it just looks like standard Mario stuff put in 3D. There’s nothing new. There’s just new stuff with a 3D coat of paint. I was thinking the other night how Mario could do so much more than just rescue the princess. For example, my six-year-old son started watching the old Super Mario Bros. Super Show on Netflix (he loves it, and he also loves SMB3 for the record) and I was just thinking about how that show had such diverse plots, often with the Princess Toadstool/Peach, and Toad, participating along with Mario and Luigi (since the show was based on the US version of SMB2, it made sense) and she wasn’t always kidnapped. If some cheesy 80s show can come up with more interesting plots and settings than the company that produced the game in the first place, that’s a real problem.
That confirms another thing you’ve been saying: Nintendo is caught in a content paralysis. They say Mario is about stomping turtles and rescuing the Princess, but in SMB2 Mario (and the others) did neither. All they seem to be able to do now is keep trying to remake elements from Super Mario Bros. 1-5 with a 3D coat of paint. The funny thing is Mario Sunshine was the closest Nintendo came to creating new content for a Mario game in many years (which, along with the unique water pack, is why it was the only 3D Mario game I really liked). They think bringing back the flagpole is going to resolve the problem. To me, the content problem is a bigger problem than the 2D/3D divide. Bringing back old ideas with a 3D coat of paint won’t work…they need to learn how to design for the medium.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they simply agreed that both 2D and 3D Mario should be here to stay. Make your 3D Mario games. Fine, whatever. But make the 2D games as well, and give them equal amounts of attention. Trying to eliminate something that’s loved by all, sells better than any other video game, and leads the console to unprecedented success every time…that’s just…stupid.
The point I wanted to make is that I see myself losing interest in Nintendo’s products for the first time. Your blog made me realize why I didn’t care about the N64, why I supported my PS2 more than my Gamecube, and yet why I loved my Wii more than my PS3 (or used to anyway, my Wii no longer gets much play in my house–just used for Netflix). I find myself wanting to embrace Sony now. The PS3 is no longer overpriced, the Vita is coming (I’m really excited about it), there are great games available for PSP, and Nintendo isn’t doing anything interesting anymore. The only thing I have to look forward to is the possibility that Nintendo will wise up and rethink the direction of the Wii U (since it’s BC with the Wii and uses the Wii Remotes, they can turn it around once they see how bad it’ll do with the touch screen controller, perhaps removing that thing entirely) and just make stronger versions of the games that rocketed the Wii to heaven like Wii Sports and a true 2D Mario sequel (not that Super Mario Mii garbage). But I’m not holding my breath.
Ahh, the Mario 3 show.
I always smile when watching that intro. It just feels so right. That is the Mushroom Kingdom.
The people behind Paper Mario have attempted to try to ‘explore the world’ behind Mario. They even used the old Mario novels and all. But the problem is that video games are image based mediums. No one wants to read a bunch of words. And quality writing is extremely hard to find even though everyone thinks they can do it. The reason why so much media revolves around ‘special effects’ is because the writing is so weak.
I suspect the reason why Nintendo thinks content is not important is because they bought into McLuhan’s nonsense about the medium being more important than the message. This could explain why Nintendo feels it must change the medium with every game console instead of focusing on the content.
The 3DS and Wii U demonstrate the possibility that Nintendo does not understand why the Wii and DS were successful. But there is another possibility. Nintendo does understand why the Wii and DS were successful and are in outright rebellion against it. The rest of the Game Industry hated what made the Wii and DS successful, why would Nintendo be any different? The Wii and DS success points out that the actual definition of video games, and what the market expects them to do, is very different than the conventional wisdom for the past twenty years. The actual definition of a video game console points more to the arcade and to the roots of the market such as the Atari Era and NES Era.
Miyamoto’s war against 2d Mario is really a war against a certain philosophy of gaming. What Miyamoto wants gaming to be is where developers come up with ‘surprises’ and ‘innovations’ that cause the market to stir and go crazy with excitement. But what console gaming actually is a lineage that goes back to its arcade roots, back to a tactile type of gaming. When Nintendo breaks away from this lineage, disaster strikes.
Nintendo was once an arcade game company. Super Mario Brothers, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Super Mario Kart, Star Fox, and others were originally designed for the arcade or were descendants from the arcade design.
Imagine two mothers of gaming: the arcades and PC gaming. Console gaming was originally arcade games at home. Sony and Microsoft came at console gaming from the PC gaming angle. Sony and Microsoft cannot divorce themselves from the spirit of PC gaming no more than Nintendo can divorce itself from arcade gaming. Wii Sports and Wii Fit are the perfect arcade games. They are tactile centric games.
Miyamoto’s war on 2d Mario is his war against arcade gaming, of a past he cannot transcend. My question: why transcend it? Why not make the games people want? Why fight it? Because if Miyamoto capitulates, he confirms that he is not the ‘innovator’ or ‘Game God’ or ‘legend’ that has been falsely described to him over the past decades. This is about his ego, and Iwata is his wet nurse. Miyamoto plays his ego while Nintendo burns.
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