haxxiy said:
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. |
All this sounds like you are bending definitions to make them fit your argument, in particular the slight that games are designed for young audiences.
When you call DKCR (and presumably its sequel Tropical Freeze) real challenges, then there isn't a significant difference between them and all the other 2D games mentioned. The games don't get difficult until the postgame content. Even for Forgotten Land that's true where things culminate with a coliseum boss battle series. There's some variation in just how difficult things get in any of the games, but the conclusion that the games were made for kids doesn't hold water.
As for 3D Mario games aside from 3D Land and 3D World which are different (also more difficult, hence why especially the latter got hate from the hardcore 3D Mario fans, including the complaint about time limits), the inclusion of life bars and the like doesn't change anything about the significantly reduced amount of instant death hazards and the fact that the vast majority of enemies can be conveniently ignored by simply walking around them.
Lastly, it should actually be obvious that 2D Mario games are made for a broader age bracket than 3D Mario games, hence why they sell better. The common belief on the internet may be that 3D Mario is grown-up Mario, but there just aren't reasonable arguments to make that case.
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