I don’t even know what to say anymore.
I’m laughing. You can smell the desperation.
Why do people assume Miyamoto understands why Super Mario Brothers was a success? It is often that an entertainer doesn’t understand why a novel, a comedy skit, or a song becomes so popular. They think they might know, but they do not.
The fun of 2d Mario largely depends on the feel of the momentum and precision of the platforming. 3d Mario, by nature of it being in 3d, ‘slides’ because only an X and Y nature can give that momentum. No matter what fancy tricks Miyamoto tries to use, the X and Y will always feel superior to an X, Y, and Z. You don’t ‘slide’ in X and Y by nature of the lack of the Z axis.
I’ve spoken much about how PC gaming tended to be cerebral (RPGs, strategy games, adventure games, etc.) while console gaming was a direct descendant of the arcades. Arcade games are not cerebral. They rely on… the best phrase to call it would be ‘body intelligence’. It is a tactile experience.
You are in an arcade racer. There is a steering wheel in front of you and pedals. This is not an intellectual exercise, it is a tactile one. You play the game more by ‘feel’ than by ‘thought’. The arcade is full of pulsating lights that rival Vegas. It becomes a somewhat trippy experience in the end.
Children gravitate to the arcade/consoles and do not play with PC gaming until around the age of 13 because children understand the tactile experience. Children are not developed enough to understand the cerebral experience. A child will understand Super Mario Brothers. But a child cannot understand Civilization.
And how did children understand it? It was never explained to them. How did Super Mario Brothers originally sell? It sold by putting the controller in people’s hands (much like Wii Sports).
Is Wii Sports a cerebral exercise? It is most certainly not. Wii Sports is a tactile experience. You don’t “think” when playing Wii Sports Tennis. You “feel”. It is a type of body intelligence. You practice over and over to improve that body intelligence.
While games like Zelda and Metroid had their thinking parts, they mostly revolved around that body intelligence. Sakamoto tried to do away with that tactile experience people love about Metroid and replaced it with a cerebral experience he called ‘maternal instincts of Samus Aran’. Aonuma, who likely has no natural athletic skill in real life, cannot play classic Zelda. Therefore, he sees no value on the tactile experience and tries to push the cerebral experience found in adventure games (e.g. puzzles and narratives, which is not what Zelda is about).
What I’m trying to say is that the reason why people are die-hard fans of 2d Mario and not 3d Mario has nothing to do with gameplay mechanics and formulas but everything to do with that body intelligence… it is what causes Aonuma to say he cannot play Super Mario Brothers. You don’t “think” when playing Mario… at least not in the intellectual way. Videos like the above are a waste of time because 2d Mario FEELS right for the same reason Wii Sports FEELS right.
You don’t educate the customers. The customers educate you. You cannot shove a square peg down a round hole.
In the False Reality that Nintendo lives in, they believe that Super Mario 3d Land is a ‘mix’ of 3d Mario and 2d Mario, and that 2d Mario fans will begin playing 3d Mario. This is hilarious because only a few years ago, Nintendo did not differentiate 2d Mario or 3d Mario but it was just ‘Mario’. Prior to Super Mario Galaxy’s release, Fils-Aime wondered how he would market the game to a generation grown up on Grand Theft Auto games that was the ‘successor to Super Mario World’.
“So what’s the actual reality?” asks the reader.
The actual reality is that Super Mario 3d Land will not be thought of as a ‘mix’ but as an entry in the 3d Mario series. 2d Mario fans will not consider this a game for them. But here’s the rub: 3d Mario fans will really, really like this game. The closer and closer 3d Mario gets to 2d Mario, the better the game gets. After all, what is 3d Mario but an offshoot of 2d Mario?
The question is not why 2d Mario fans refuse to go to 3d Mario. The question actually is why 3d Mario fans have refused to go to 2d Mario. The obvious answer is that 3d Mario fans tend to revolve more around atmosphere and graphics. If they despised 2d gameplay, they would hate Smash Brothers and handheld Nintendo systems.
When Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, 3, and 4 were released, they were using all the graphical and audio power they could muster at that time period. We forget this because we are constantly looking back from our vantage point in the future. Graphics, sound, and all can only look ‘old’ from our nook in time. But once upon a time, these games did use cutting edge production values.
NSMB and Super Mario Brothers 5 were not given cutting edge production values. There was a bland art style (although this is preferable to the artsy fartsy creative crap we see plaguing all these modern 2d platform games that no one buys). The music was not memorable or well done. One of the most powerful things about Super Mario Brothers was the world theme, was the music. The orchestra themes were given to the Mario Galaxy games, but NSMB and Super Mario Brothers 5 were given ‘wah wah’ mediocrity.
I believe NSMB and Super Mario brothers 5 sales were depressed and could have been better had a modern day production budget gone into the games (as opposed to their budget cost in production values). The reluctance of many 3d Mario fans to get into the games is likely due to the lack of modern day production values.
Nintendo thinks 3d Land will make 2d Mario fans appreciate 3d Mario. What will happen instead is that 3d Land will make 3d Mario fans appreciate 2d Mario. This game will create more interest in 2d Mario.
“Is that Darth Vader I hear?” asks the reader.
No. It’s just Miyamoto realizing this game is backfiring on his 3d obsession.