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RolStoppable said:
SMB has always been gimmick-based. A wide range of power-ups combined with plenty of things that are unique to only a select few levels, that's how it has always been. Regarding target demographics, I wonder if you've ever seen kids play 2D and 3D Mario games. They die a lot less in 3D Mario, because they are inherently easier games due to being 3D. |
3D Marios were designed so you die less (all the way back to Mario 64, which introduced a life bar and auto-completes jumps) but that doesn't mean 3D games are inherently easier. In fact, I think that makes a case for the opposite because the developers knew players would fail a lot. The recent Yoshi and Kirby games, the franchises aimed at really young audiences with very easy games, were all 2D bar the Forgotten Land.
Since gimmicks tend to mean shallow gameplay mechanics that aren't repeated again in the game, they usually indicate easy. I just hope Mario hasn't been too Kirby- or Yoshi-fied. But who knows, maybe this will be a real challenge despite all the changing mechanics, like a DKCR game.
