Look at it…the radar, the overhead/3rd person view, switching into first person, hanging off edges, the obvious emphasis on cutscenes and a doubtlessly ridiculous plot.  I know you haven’t played Metal Gear Solid much if at all, but Sakamoto clearly has.

It is because Mario Galaxy Expansion Pack stole it.

For Mario 5, what we got instead was a generic mountain level or a generic ice level or something else like that. In my Parody section (which only has two posts), Parody #2 is about how 3d Mario and 2d Mario co-exists. They co-exist by having 2d Mario delayed for eighteen years and when it finally appears, the game and its consumers are treated like second class customers. The 3d Mario gets the big budget, it gets the orchestra, it gets the graphical bells and whistles, and it gets to be delayed so “it can be perfect” (both Galaxy and Galaxy Expansion Pack were delayed). And it even gets all the cool 2d Mario worlds like Giant World. What’s next? Bringing back the Tanooki Suit in 3d Mario while giving 2d Mario something lame like a propeller suit?

Giant World in 3d Mario doesn’t make sense anyway. You can easily walk around the giant creatures. In 2d Mario, Giant World changes the gameplay in that Mario has to make higher jumps to jump on a goomba or jump on a block. A giant koopa troopa in 2d Mario takes up almost a quarter of the screen. But a giant koopa troopa in 3d Mario can easily be sidestepped.

Everyone has asked for over fifteen years, “Why does Nintendo not put out what we want? Why is there no Mario 5? Why did they take out the Tanooki Suit? Where is Giant World?”

Nintendo knows what you want. Miyamoto knows what you want. But they have stated they don’t want to do it. It is no other way to explain why there has been no true sequel to Super Mario World for eighteen years. You would think that with the N64 and especially after Sunshine, Nintendo would realize the failure of 3d Mario. But no, Nintendo’s software developers are interested in only what they want to do. Don’t like the art style of Wind Waker? Too bad. They’ll just use the art style in the handheld Zelda games. Wondering where Giant World went to in Mario 5? That is because it was put in Galaxy Expansion Pack. 3d Mario still gets priority over 2d Mario despite how much the market prefers 2d Mario.

Why? It is because Nintendo software developers believe they are creative masterminds (despite not having made anything ‘creative’ in terms of an imaginary universe since the 1980s). This is why we are getting titles like ‘Other M’. If you do not like ‘Other M’, then you do not understand the genius of Sakamoto!

Remember, when Miyamoto says 2d Mario and 3d Mario co-existing, he means 2d Mario being delayed for decades while giving ridiculous budgets of full scale orchestras to 3d Mario. And when 2d Mario re-appears, the only advantage it has over 3d Mario is that it is wrapped in red plastic. Whopee. I waited 18 years for this?

In one of your latest post you brought up the thesis, that Nintendo is dumping their “Super Gamecube” games, to get finally started making games, that use motion controls.

While I absolutely agree, that we need more than just WiiSports and WiiSports Resort to be games, which actually make proper use of the WiiRemote, I cannot agree with you on these “Super Gamecube” games.

I know, they do not push hardware sales. But I just don’t care. I am a customer, not a business person at Nintendo. I love Fire Emblem, Smash Bros., Metroid Prime and Super mario Galaxy (even though I grew up with 2D mario, prefer the 2D games over 64 and Sunshine anytime, and see Super mario Bros. 5 (as you call it) as a true sequel to Super Mario World). I do love WiiSports as well, don’t have WiiFit and hate WiiPlay (seriously, it’s just bad versions of Atari games, which make you wish you were playing actual Atari games. OK, except for the billiard game, that was actually good).

I would be sad, if any of these was missing, I love both Nintendo’s old games, as well as Nintendo’s new games. Wouldn’t abandoning “Super Gamecube” games, only because they do not use the console’s capabilities, be just like what happened to 2D games on 3D consoles?

Why should Nintendo get rid of “Super Gamecube” games? I can imagine how one can add Motion controls to a game like Zelda, but adding Motion controls to Fire Emblem? It’s a turn-based tactical RPG; motion controls would be like “epic” cutscenes for every level in a Mario game. What about Metroid? You seem to like the old Matroid games? How could you make suck kind of games, without having the be “Super Gamecube”, or rather “Super NES” games?

Maybe I did not understand, what you were trying to say, so please explain your opinion on this topic.

PS: I did not include Zelda in my list of games, I like, since the Zelda games are in serious decline and I have completely lost interest. And that’s quite an accomplishment, considering that Zelda: Link’s Awakening was the very first game, that really blew me away (and the fourth game I played in my life)

3d games are inherently broken because they use a 2d interface. Motion controls are finally completing 3d games by matching the 3d game with a 3d interface.

Gaming has been using two analog sticks to simulate a 3d interface (such as in a FPS where one analog stick moves while the other analog stick looks around). It is now time for the real thing.

People shouldn’t be scared. With a proper 3d interface, you won’t want to go back to a 2d interface or a quasi-3d interface. The old tennis and golf games now seem absurd now that we have a real 3d interface for those games. For example, a Zelda with motion plus could equal a true 3d Zelda.

But another problem with Super Gamecube games is that you already have them. With Galaxy Expansion Pack, you are now getting sequels to Super Gamecube games. The problem is that they are not Wii games. And they are not doing the Wii any good. It would be as if Nintendo continued to make 8-bit games on the Super Nintendo.

The reason why Motion control games are getting such flack from Core gamers is because there are no well made Motion Control Core games especially from Nintendo. Once they start appearing, you won’t want to go back.

I also believe that the Super Gamecube games is the reason why ‘lack of HD’ keeps getting thrown at the Wii. If these games were using the Wii properly, people wouldn’t be complaining about ‘lack of HD’ on Wii but would be complaining about ‘lack of motion control’ on the other systems.

Remember, the Wii was resisted from many people inside Nintendo. Nintendo has a serious problem about their software developers making games they want and putting their own eccentricity in games. This is why we are getting bizarre titles like Other M and Spirit Tracks.

Third party developers don’t want to work with motion controls, so why are we surprised that Nintendo developers don’t either? It is much, much harder to make a game with motion controls than with the standard 2d interface. So far, good motion control games have only been very simple games like Wii Sports. But as soon as someone makes something more intricate, it is going to cause a sensation. Imagine a meaty game like WoW with some basic motion controls. And I do not mean motion controls as replacing a button but in re-engineering the gameplay.

Wii Sports was a thrilling game despite how the gameplay was as basic as PONG. Now imagine if it had the gameplay of something meatier. We could be witnessing another entertainment phenomenon.

The bottom line is this: Super Gamecube games no longer create entertainment phenomenons (if they ever did). A motion control core game has the potential to create an entertainment phenomenon. If Nintendo wants the Wii to remain relevant, it is time to transition the Core games to the values of the Wii or risk their competitors doing it first (which they are on the edge of doing).