Experimental42 said:
Mario 64 is the perfect example of what an open world Mario game could be. Simply remove the hub and add worlds from SMW and SMB3 reimagined in 3D and situated seamlessly into one sprawling world. The design of the world is already somewhat planned out thanks to previous overworlds, simply arrange them all in nice positions relative to each other.
In Mario 64 you were able to attack platforming in several different manners, and it certainly didn't hurt the game in the least considering how consistently it's ranked the greatest of all time. To get a bit of what I'm imagining:
Imagine you're in an HD, upgraded version of Bob-omb Battlefield, now you climb to the top and you see the changes that were made. Instead of a boxed off area, the battlefield is now surrounded by rolling hills. Depending on which direction you look you see familiar areas. To the North you see a mountain range, with one mountain in particular above them all: Tall,Tall Mountain. To the South the hills give way to the Donut Plains. If scale Tall, Tall Mountain you could procede onwards to Snowman's Land or you could use a cannon that you find on the summit. With a well aimed shot, Mario can reach a suspicious pole dangling from a cloud that's passing by. Shimmying up this pole reveals Sky Land. Alternatively, if Mario visits the Donut Plains he could opt to tackle one of Bowser's strongholds or dive into the lake. Inside the lake you could find a hidden underwater path into the Vanilla Dome, which houses the Dire Dire Docks.
Now obviously not all of this is consistent with the SMW maps, but it's just something I whipped up on the spot. Open 3D exploration was the theme of half of these areas and it didn't hamper the platforming. There's also no real empty space between these areas either as one level from a previous game leads directly to another.
The game play would revolve around exploration, finding coins and Power Stars as seen in Mario 64, and stopping all of Bowser's plans by destroying his castles in each of the different kingdoms. Coins can be used at Toad Houses, now modified into shops or minigame areas, to purchase supplies like fire flowers, feathers, or mushrooms. You could also have cosmetic changes in exchange for coins, purchasing alternate mario outfits like the red overalls and blue shirt from SMB1.
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While some MK style connected-ness would be interesting (being able to see different levels from the one you are in), I don't see how making the game open would make it better.
Like I said before, Open World games tend to have a Mission based structure, and there is good reason for that. Just saying, "go explore this huge land", isn't good enough motivation for a player and it can get frustrating to wander around without much direction. Exploration is usually the secondary focus...
Basically, what I'm saying is that I don't see how the open world structure would be better than the SM64 style leveled structure.... In fact, it still seems worse to me. I wouldn't mind Nintendo giving it a shot, but in general, open worlds are really easy to do badly and really REALLY hard to do well. In fact, I'm playing through Red Dead Redemption right now and I can really only think of how the open world isn't interesting...
Experimental42 said:
What I don't get is how being open world magically destroys the platforming like some people think. If you're chasing stars then you still need to go through that platforming obstacle course, it's just that the starting point begins from wherever you happen to be in the world atm. I don't see why it can't play like every other amazing 3D Mario and be open world at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive. |
Its because in open worlds, you can typically approach a problem from all sides, and you wouldn't necessarily know what your destination is, unlike with level based games where you progress through a level from the direction the game designers tell you to, and you are directed to your destination just by simply moving forward. While there are larger, open regions in even SMG1/2, they tend to be more focused on exploration instead of platforming...Yeah, there are platforming challenges spread throughout but the ratio of running around to platforming sways heavily from one side to the other. That is perfectly fine for some levels in a game, but for a whole game? I'm not so sure...
