Improved Platform Sequels

[Mark]

For better or for worse, we live in an industry ruled by sequels, where taking risks on brand new IPs is becoming rare, replaced more and more often by regular iterations of established franchises. At least, this is the case on the “AAA” level, and Nintendo is certainly not excluded from this observation. However, I’m not going to get on a soapbox and rant about sequelitis; I’ll save that for another day. And the simple fact is, at the end of the day, developers wouldn’t make sequels if consumers weren’t buying them. When you truly love a game, it is hard to not want more.

Same platform sequels (sequels that appear on the same piece of hardware as the previous game) are interesting to me in the sense that they (generally) give developers a chance to focus less on making their core game engine work, and more on polishing the gameplay and adding new ideas. Because of this, you often find same platform sequels that outshine the originals in many ways. However, in most cases this results in a sequel that has refined many elements of the original, but has not really taken the franchise to the next level. That kind of leap is often reserved for a sequel on a brand new platform.

Here are a couple of mine for now:

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is a unique game on my list because it is the only one that I chose which I do not necessarily think was the best in the series up to the point of its release; I’d probably reserve that spot for the original Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on the Game Boy Advance. However, Bowser's Inside Story is right up there, and clearly superior to the first DS game in the series (Partners in Time) so it makes my list. Bowser’s Inside Story was such a unique take on the formula, making Bowser the star of the show as the main playable character, while the Mario brothers still played a strong supporting role, getting swallowed and exploring the inside of his body (which had some of the best platforming / puzzles in the series.)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest I’ve gone back and played both the original Donkey Kong Country and its sequel, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, many times now, and I have to admit, a part of me wonders what exactly I saw in the original at the time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fun game, but it’s not really quite the spectacular game that it felt like at the time, and when you take away the awesome graphics (which haven’t aged well) and awesome music (which has), the game behind them is a fun but fairly basic platformer. Some people make this claim about the original trilogy as a whole, but I have to disagree; Diddy’s Kong Quest is still excellent to this day. It’s tough to quantify exactly what it does that the original did not, but it feels vastly more nuanced and a lot more complex. Pretty much everything good about the original comes back kicked up a notch, while a bunch of new stuff (including some awesome animal buddies like the spider) is added to the mix. And the already great soundtrack somehow managed to get even better for the sequel.

 

[Ver-go-a-go-go]

I've always found the vast, vast majority of Mario platformers to be incredibly enjoyable. Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 seem to get all of the love, but I don't think it's fair to discount what the rest of the sequels have done in terms of quality. The terms "uninspired" and "stale" are thrown around, but I've always played the sequels like New Super Mario Bros BECAUSE I wanted more of the same, and it had been a while. I would go out on a limb and say the New Super Mario Bros U is just as fun as Super Mario World. Blasphemy? Well, I don't have a history with Super Mario World, since I never actually owned a Super Nintendo, so I actually think I can approach it from a more objective viewpoint. NSMBU feels like an incredibly tight platformer, with A LOT of content in it, and finally having Mario in HD really makes the experience more enjoyable since the TV I usually play games on is quite large, and Wii games really start to show their graphically inferiority on it.

But I do think the master of improvement from game-to-game with Mario is, barring Super Mario Bros 3 I suppose (which is obvious), is definitely Super Mario Land 2. After the rather bizarre Super Mario Land, that one felt like a true Mario experience. I actually did have access to both of these as a kid, because my best friend (who's actually still a very good friend of mine today) has a Gameboy Color that we would play all of the time. I ALWAYS liked Golden Coins better as a kid because... I dunno, it was a bit easier, and everything wasn't so cramped and tiny. I've actually downloaded both on the 3DS virtual console recently, and I can even confirm that Mario Land 2 is a vastly superior game in both design and curbing difficulty. Both are still rather short, but that's the nature of Gameboy games. And it's just awesome abusing save states to finally get that 99-up I wanted from the slots for so long.

 

[The Jade Fist]

I've always found the vast, vast majority of Mario platformers to be incredibly enjoyable. Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3 seem to get all of the love, but I don't think it's fair to discount what the rest of the sequels have done in terms of quality. The terms "uninspired" and "stale" are thrown around, but I've always played the sequels like New Super Mario Bros BECAUSE I wanted more of the same, and it had been a while. I would go out on a limb and say the New Super Mario Bros U is just as fun as Super Mario World. Blasphemy? Well, I don't have a history with Super Mario World, since I never actually owned a Super Nintendo, so I actually think I can approach it from a more objective viewpoint. NSMBU feels like an incredibly tight platformer, with A LOT of content in it, and finally having Mario in HD really makes the experience more enjoyable since the TV I usually play games on is quite large, and Wii games really start to show their graphically inferiority on it.

But I do think the master of improvement from game-to-game with Mario is, barring Super Mario Bros 3 I suppose (which is obvious), is definitely Super Mario Land 2. After the rather bizarre Super Mario Land, that one felt like a true Mario experience. I actually did have access to both of these as a kid, because my best friend (who's actually still a very good friend of mine today) has a Gameboy Color that we would play all of the time. I ALWAYS liked Golden Coins better as a kid because... I dunno, it was a bit easier, and everything wasn't so cramped and tiny. I've actually downloaded both on the 3DS virtual console recently, and I can even confirm that Mario Land 2 is a vastly superior game in both design and curbing difficulty. Both are still rather short, but that's the nature of Gameboy games. And it's just awesome abusing save states to finally get that 99-up I wanted from the slots for so long.

Off topic, Mario in hd wasn't unexperianced before the wii u. You could and still can play New Super Mario Bros Wii, in HD on dolphin, with re rendered graphics and anti aliasing that actually still looks better then the WII U game. Granted the WII U has much better back grounds and other stuff going on to be seen in HD, the NSMB W on dolphin ends up having extremely smooth edges on everything, if you look at NSMB U you can still see jagged edges around the characters and other models.


On topics of Sequels, its really a matter of safety, both for the publisher and the consumer. If you like Gears of War, and Gears of War 2 comes out, you have a pretty good idea you're going to enjoy that game, vs some other new title you know little to nothing about. Game makers and publishers don't want to sink alot of money into something only to not sell enough to be profitable.

And its kinda bad at the same time because this attitude from both sides, doesn't really give new games the fair chance they maybe deserve. Like Bioshock Infinite, could have just as easily been its own game by the same people, with out the word bioshock on the cover.

Also Donkey Kong Country 2 was the best in the series. The biggest thing holding back Donkey Kong Country was Donkey Kong himself, same with DKC3 you had the baby kong, both played way too slow. Where as DKC2 both characters were fast and nimble, it gave the game a certain faster pace, and you never had that feeling, crap I gota be donkey/baby now. DKC2 also had the whole Lost World aspect, and other things to promote you to want to 100% the game. DKC kinda well didn't. DKC2 really took everything from DKC and made it better. The same can't be said about DKC3, its not a bad game, but it wasn't really as good as its previous ones, along with the art style change.


Nothing wrong with sequels and more of the same can be good, but there does come a point you gota change things up enough to remain fresh. But the real trick is how to remain fresh with out taking away something good from a series or doing something worse then previous titles. And thats something difficult to do consistently over a long period of time.

Even Zelda suffers from worse then previous entries sydrome. TP and SS removed the core aspect of rewarding exploration. As far as games go they are both good adventure games, but not exactly good for what made zelda zelda in the past. Don't get me wrong both games were quite beautiful games, and absolutely wonderful music, but that sense wonder and exploration was simply lacking, because the game punished you for it, or made you go back to the same area 5 times, that you no longer cared about what was behind that rock the guy was standing in front of earlier.

A link between worlds on the other hand, hopefully a sign of things to come, really brought back that freedom and exploration back. And I'd love to see the huge open worldness that Wind Waker tried to bring come back on the Zelda U.

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I think another big problem is, in attempts to make games fresh, a loss of vision happens. Where core aspects of a game are removed/ streamlined, and your sequel just feels like a watered down and Inferior game. This happens in alot of sequels, because they want things to be more accessible when they were just fine before. Its like whats a good example...Dues Ex, the first game had tons of options for specializing your character, Human Revolution, it felt like there was no point because you could have virtually every augment, and they weren't even specialized. (DX HR was still a great game, but it was the first example I could think of)

edit: But DX and DX HR weren't exactly same platform, unless you count PC from 1999 the same as PC from 2011.

 

[Ver-go-a-go-go]

Off topic, Mario in hd wasn't unexperianced before the wii u. You could and still can play New Super Mario Bros Wii, in HD on dolphin, with re rendered graphics and anti aliasing that actually still looks better then the WII U game. Granted the WII U has much better back grounds and other stuff going on to be seen in HD, the NSMB W on dolphin ends up having extremely smooth edges on everything, if you look at NSMB U you can still see jagged edges around the characters and other models.

I don't tend to give credit to games that were adjusted by third parties and then released on a third party emulator, mainly because it's just that - a third party adjustment. Wind Waker could have also been played in HD before its' HD remake, as well as Twilight Princess. But credit doesn't go to those Gamecube games for being the first HD iterations of their respective series just because they could be edited and adjusted for gaming on another device. Regardless, I don't think HD in any shape or form necessarily gives specifically a Mario platformer any substantial advantages, hence why Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World are still so revered to this day. I just had a pleasant experience with the first official rendition of it, because like I mentioned, the large TV I use to play games on really makes any Wii game's standard definition age show.

 

[The Jade Fist]

No i mean get what you're saying, but I feel the selling point of NSMB IN HD!!!!! feels slightly more mute when, I've already been able to kinda do that. Its just like, come on nintendo you this giant corparation has been out down by guys with way too much time on their hands, and you're trying to claim it as a selling point.