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Nintendo What's Something 2D Mario Still Does Right?

After the release of NSMBU Deluxe last Friday, I've been seeing so many YouTube videos either saying they regret buying the game or warning people to stay away with it. I'm a bit perplexed by that as I find it the best package in the NSMB series to date.

I think people are burned out on the 2D Mario experience when so little has changed since 2006. Also, a lot of indie platformers as well as other Nintendo games, like Tropical Freeze, have the NSMB games beat.

But the NSMB games still do some things right. For example, they have very well hidden secrets that are rewarding to find. The levels are also made to be larger and are thus more accommodating for multiplayer than other 2D platformers on the market.

So what's something you think 2D Mario still does right?
 
The problem is with the New series is that four of them came out in rapid succession, it didn't help that they all looked the same and played very similarly.

If you take the four New games and put them against the original Mario Bros, the western Mario 2, Mario 3 and Super Mario World, you can see why people got bored of the New stuff so quickly. At least original to World were different in significant ways.

You're right that there have been some great indie platformers and that DKCTF has put most 2D Mario games to shame, so New U being a six year old game at this point does feel dated and uninspired.

A lot of people didnt play it originally either and are probably getting hung up that they're playing a six year old game and paying full price.

Plus in a world with Mario Odyssey, much like in a world with BotW, no one wants to play the 2D counterparts of those series.

Anyway, for things Mario does right... well he doesn't have the conceptually flawed level design of Sonic for a start.

Mario still does platforming like a pro. People just want something more inspired from him.
 
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Princess Niki

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What the series needs if they ever create a new one is new original power ups. I think the current newer ones are getting stale with the general audience.
 
What the series needs if they ever create a new one is new original power ups. I think the current newer ones are getting stale with the general audience.

Yes, but...

latest


I dont know how people would get bored of this :p
 
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The thing that 2D Mario's really do right, is that - no matter how tight a jump is - you never feel it's the game's fault if you miss it and die. The controls are really good.

I agree with @Spirit that the nsmb games were released too quickly after each other, whilst the first game in the series was good but nothing special. I.m.o. This game does not deserve to have so many sequels, and if they have to port a Wii-U Mario game, then please let it by Super Mario Maker.
 

Shroom

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I think the level of consistency you get going into a Mario game still speaks volumes. You know going in that you're gonna have some tight controls. Another thing that I don't think gets enough credit is the smaller touches in the 2D Mario games. Recent ones I can think of are the little dance moves that koopas and other enemies do to the music in NSMB, but little character animations, things like aesthetic changes in World after the star road, etc. are great, and you can count on little touches like that to be incorporated.

I think the games lend themselves to multiplayer. I can't really see myself going in to the "New series", other than the handhelds, alone. It's odd because I can easily pick up Super Mario World or 3 and be totally content playing them by myself, but I think the New series feels a little hollow to me without a friend or two. The games are very easy to understand and pick-up and play, but it let's players be good and explore their movement options, and things like the spin jump as an addition, along with the triple and wall jump, give you enough options for getting through levels.

Like you said though, I think DKCTF was probably the best platformer I've played recently, and indies are just nailing the formula, so it's hard for me to get as excited when it comes to Mario. I love the series, I love the characters, Mario is among one of my favorite designs, but the 2D games would likely have to take another World approach with a world map and multiple exits, or at the very least, a variation of 3 for me to get back into it as a single player experience. I wanna fall in love with the new 2D games the series offers, but the "New" games just don't appeal to me as much right now, and there's only so much you can do in a Mario game besides run and jump, so how do you keep making run and jump from left to right interesting without extra mechanics like a game like say, Shovel Knight has? I dunno, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze managed to do it for me, so I'm hoping Mario can do the same soon.
 
@Shroom Thanks for the detailed reply.

I personally would love to see a more Super Mario World-esque game myself with a more connected world map and multiple exits. New Super Mario Bros. U worked towards this, but SMW did it better with a plethora of secrets and levels with alternate exits clearly marked so you weren't left guessing. One more thing I'd love to see return from Super Mario World are the different colored Yoshi's with their own unique attributes.

As for changing up things completely, a return to some ideas from Super Mario Bros. 2 might be cool. Perhaps add the ability to pluck and throw vegetables as well as some bosses that require throwing their own projectiles back at them.

Also, a simple idea that surprisingly hasn't been explored in 2D Mario is adding Peach as a playable character. Peachette is the closest we've gotten.
 
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You're right that there have been some great indie platformers and that DKCTF has put most 2D Mario games to shame, so New U being a six year old game at this point does feel dated and uninspired.
Personally I think DKC - Tropical Freeze is a game that looks great and plays well but has many many flaws. In my opinion The three SNES games by RARE are better in every way except graphically. I played DKC - Tropical Freeze on the WiiU and I was hugely disappointed. I expected this amazing game that everyine was praising. Seriously many people claim Tropical Freeze is better than DKC2. That's talking big. Sadly all that talk was for naught.

All of the basics like music, level design, map design, the secret world, power up placement, bosses etc etc all a huge let down. None of the polish the 3 SNES games had is present in Tropical Freeze. One example of this? The stage music actually being representative of what the stage is all about. DKC 2 nailed this perfectly. DKC1 did that but used a more ambient style that mostly worked too. Tropical Freeze on the other hand just didn't care and pretended this is not needed and didn't do it. All these things, the polish jsut not there.

If you can handle the SNES graphics I easily recommend the SNES trilogy over Tropical Freeze. I will say the only good thing about Tropical Freeze, the graphics are very well done, quite pretty.

New Super Mario Bros? For a DS game it was pretty good. Fun for DS owners. But on the big screen? Not even close. The NSMB games on Wii and WiiU do nothing to push the envelope. Nothing to firther the genre in new and fun ways. SMB3 improved on SMB1. SMW did improve on SMB3 too and it's actually a different game. The original concept for SMW was more like SMB3.5 and Nintendo put a stop to that and redesigned almost everything into the SMW we have today.

NSMBU does have more content and is not a bad game in itself. It's just not pushing the envelope in new and amazing ways like the decades old 2D Mario games did.

So what's something you think 2D Mario still does right?

I didn't answer the question and I guess I should. I think the best thing it's doing right now is existing. It's filled the void on WiiU and now Switch as there was no other 2D Mario games on both consoles at the game's launch. It is selling because it's not a bad game, not great either and there's nothing else out there for people to purchase. Super Mario Maker which did push the envelope is new and interesting ways, if that was released on Switch, NSMBU on Switch would die over night. Nintendo know this, that's why it's ported on Switan and Mario Maker is not. Mario Maker is one of the onlly WiiU games still getting serious game play and game stream time.

Super Mario Maker will sell Switch consoles. Nintendo is missing out on a huge opportunity by not porting it.
 
Super Mario Maker will sell Switch consoles. Nintendo is missing out on a huge opportunity by not porting it.

To be honest when I saw NSMBUD (jeez) get announced as a Switch port, the first thought in my head was 'Super Mario Maker for Switch confirmed'.

Mario Maker is a game that allows us to make the 2D levels of our dreams... why port that first when you have a 2D game that you know will sell millions.

Yeah we could (mostly) make the NSMBUD levels in Mario Maker but if Mario Maker were to be ported first then I think its existence would sink NSMBUD, because why buy that when we can make more and better levels than one in that game?

I honestly believe Mario Maker will get ported but I think Nintendo will release the Mario Wii U games on Switch in the order they originally appeared. I think we'll see a 3D World port before Mario Maker but both will definitely be ported. Nintendo are just doing it in the way ad to cannibalise their other money makers.
 
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DarkestLink

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Oct 28, 2012
Best 2D platformers I've played but...I think the 2D platformer genre is dying. NSMB keeps trying to evolve, but there's not much room left for it. I would love to play 2 player where you don't have to share the same screen though.
 

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