It's a-me! Again!

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/eh ... Du5_TdrXhw

So...New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS. I didn't care at all for the original, but the Wii version was pretty good, and this one has the return of (proper) Raccoon Mario. No other details for now. It drops in August worldwide.

[Esrever]

Augh! Why are they using the same level archtypes and near-identical visuals AGAIN? That's three in a row!

I just don't understand it. The galaxy games have style coming out of their ears! They clearly know plenty well how to make new visuals that still evoke the classic Mario "look". Why not do that with the NSMB series?

[Green Gibbon!]

Sales indicate they don't have to.

[Gaz]

Usually I'd be quite excited about a new Mario platform game but that just looks really lazy. They could have at least given the game a new art style. If it plays as well as the Wii game then I guess it won't matter.

[Green Gibbon!]

In Nintendo's defense, laziness probably has nothing to do with it. Mario appeals largely to the casual market, and that crowd is incredibly sensitive to change. The more familiar the better. (New Mario Wii far outsold Mario Galaxy, didn't it?) That's a big fat slice of pie that Nintendo can't afford to lose, and I can easily see artists being shot down at every junction by a (justifiably) paranoid marketing team. This is a fine line they're walking and they know it.


And honestly, for all the flak it gets, I thought New Mario Wii set a high water mark for the series in terms of level design if nothing else.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

And honestly, for all the flak it gets, I thought New Mario Wii set a high water mark for the series in terms of level design if nothing else.

I completely agree. It's why I'm looking forward to New Super Mario Bros. 2 as much as I am.

[Crisis]

New Mario Wii was pretty good! Normally I complain about Mario games being too easy (like both Galaxies), but New Wii was a bona fide challenge.

Are they abandoning the multiplayer mode? That was a lot of fun, but I guess it makes sense to cut it out for the sake of streamlined level design.

[Tsuyoshi-kun]

So this game is out now...in Japan. Any plans on buying it soon, GG!? What I've seen so far looks a bit more inspired than the last two games (even graphically).

[Team Mecha]

All of the damns I have to give are being reserved for the Wii U entry. The 3DS one looks more like a fan-hack than game & is coming out WAY too soon after 3D Land.

[Esrever]

The funny thing is, it sounds like the 3DS game is pretty much exactly what it looks like. A bunch of younger developers were trained very specifically in the art of Mario level design and then allowed to build a whole game's worth of stages. The result is a game constructed -- possibly very skillfully, possibly not -- almost entirely out of existing concepts and assets. No one got to create any new pieces. They probably don't even have the authority to do so. They just got to arrange the pieces as creatively and inventively as they could. New Super Mario Remix.

The Wii U game looks a lot more interesting, probably because it's being made by people with the authority to mix things up a little. (Hopefully they actually use it!) But man, you take one look at a game like Rayman Legends -- a game with screenshots that look like they're paintings ripped out of a Rayman Legends concept art coffee table book -- and it's hard not to feel like even the Wii U entry just isn't trying very hard.

[Radrappy]

you're telling me this is an ingame screenshot?

[Neo]

Rayman plays like shit, though!

[Esrever]

I disagree completely! I was never much of a fan of the original 2D Rayman, but I thought Origins played incredibly. The latter half of the game -- where, with a little bit of practice, you can pull off insane, seemingly impossible jumps through tiny crevices and over giant moving animals and between microscopic bits of debris hurtling through space -- that was some of the tightest and most enjoyable pure platformer design and gameplay I've ever seen anywhere. It was certainly miles ahead of the pedestrian level design of the original NSMB and much of the Wii version. There was definitely a time I'd say, "NSMB may look like balls but at least it still has the tightest platforming level design around", but after Origins and Meat Boy I just can't give it that pass anymore.

(And yes, that is an in game screenshot of Legends. They all look like that... it's nuts! You can view it in motion here, albiet in 720p: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52gwzOHXSTQ&t=1m45s .)

[Segaholic2]

fart

[Ritz]

The death knell.

[FlashTHD]

I dunno, i'm not sure i'd mind if my farts killed spambots.