Since you’ve been talking about Mario so much lately, I’m curious in knowing something, as a fun exercise. Let’s say you were given complete authority over a new Mario game. How would you make it? I’ve already got a rough idea, based on what you’ve been saying, but I’d be curious in hearing any details you can come up with.
If you have a rough idea based on what I’m saying, why do I need to say it again? I thought about doing a long post outlining details and all but I figured no one really would want to read all that. Besides, I may end up in a position to make such a 2d game one day and it makes no sense to publicize my ideas beforehand.
People say, “Everything that has been done with 2d Mario has already been done. There is nothing more to add except user generated content, more multiplayer participants, levels, and power-ups.”
I want to give a precise example that will nuke that statement.
I think a fresh 2d Mario could be made by incorporating elements of… Animal Crossing. It would be a 2d Mario game, with maps not unlike SMB 3 or SMW, but there is no real ending. You can beat all the levels, but then what?
Animal Crossing is a brilliant game. Unfortunately, the gameplay is horrible. Who wants to spend their free time paying off imaginary mortgages unless you were a pre-teenage girl? Real mortgages are bad enough, and I have real life Tom Nooks to deal with (BTW, Tom Nook is a business inspiration of mine. I wish I could play the game as Tom Nook instead of the leveraged villager.) Animal Crossing has great things where the game matches the system clock and events seemingly spontaneously happen. Real life time is real life time within the game.
When you replay SMB 3 and SMW for the thousandth time, imagine if you went back to Yoshi’s Hut or so and discovered something new, as if a change was made. What if a new level appeared? What if new Toad houses appeared? What if the enemy wasn’t static and would slowly begin to retake the levels you ‘beat’ (and make them different levels)?
What if it was night time in 2d Mario as it is night time outside which would make some levels easier and some levels harder? What if there was random weather and it could affect gameplay? (This was achieved in a brilliant SMB 3 rom hack.) What if you never stopped discovering new power-ups? What if Bowser could rebuild his castle and, over time, his forces return? And what if you don’t play the game for over a year and have, on that save file, Mushroom World completely conquered and you have to start with a steep uphill challenge?
An advantage 2d Mario has is that the stages are very simple to generate. A simple GUI editor could be made (and probably is made) that can whip these stages into action. It is so simple that even a random stage maker might be possible. Regardless, this game would call for lots of content but it would simple to generate.
In this, user generated content might actually be put to use. Once you beat ‘Bowser’, you get to design your own levels. You can, of course, play your own levels and share them, but they also upload and appear in other 2d Mario’s game worlds.
As for power-ups, Mario has had MANY powerups. Which powerups should he have? All of them. Throw them all in there. But space it out where the more rare ones appear in a rare way. Some powerups may or may not appear.
The game could be made that the more levels you initially clear, within a few days or so, more Toad houses would ‘move in’ and each would have an item for you. This would help the player take on the later levels. Once those are cleared, more Toads move in. And then there is the opposite. Don’t play, and conquered levels become new levels. The more the land shifts to being Bowser’s, the more Hammer Brothers begin coming back. If you really want a challenge, don’t play for a long time and come back to that save and face a conquered land!
There are times when Nintendo needs to be hit with the ‘clueless’ bat. Not making a 2d Mario for decades is one of them. Not using the unique Animal Crossing elements into other games is another. Animal Crossing sells fantastically. Everyone understands the concept. 2d Mario sells fantastically. Everyone understands that as well. So combine the two. Or, rather, put Animal Crossing elements to make 2d Mario a new experience.
This 2d Mario Crossing is very doable. The only challenge is the large number of levels which should not be difficult due to how simple it is to make them. 3d Mario could never do this because it is too difficult to make so many levels so quickly.
I am sick of replaying SMB 3 and SMW to find that the games never change. How I wish it were not so static! How I wish the world would ‘evolve’! How I wished it wouldn’t feel like Bowser’s forces just sit there waiting for me to destroy them. They should be burning down Toad houses and the ‘levels’ marching forward if I stop playing for a while. Only a 2d Mario Crossing could do such a thing.
Seeing how NSMB DS and Animal Crossing are the only two DS games to have crossed 5 million units in Japan, the marriage between the two is obvious.
I would probably enjoy such a game.
