Super Mario 3D World: Mario's two arch nemeses

Title Super Mario 3D World: Mario's two arch nemeses
Author Tom Chick and Scott Dobrosielsky
Posted in Game diaries
When December 18, 2013

Tom: So, okay World Six, not bad..

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Kinda off topic, but have you guys played Puppeteer? How does it compare to the platformers mentioned in this article?

I haven't played it, but I'd love to hear more about it. Isn't that a Move tie-in? I seem to recall it felt like Sony's last-ditch effort to make Move relevant.

Very well written Scott but I wanted to post to disagree: it doesnt take a lot of "balls" to continue with the same 1 pony trick for decades on end....it takes a Corporate--and indeed National--culture and approach to game design that is entrenched, conservative and unadapting to the competitive landscape. One could call it lazy at first glance but that would be mistaken: its ultra-conservative to the point of self-excluding to only video game anthropologists and a niche demographic of adults with superior long term memory abilities or the currently disappointed and disenfranchised

Not really. A second player can use the Move controller to interact with the world and collect stuff, but you can also do it yourself with the right analog stick. You can use the Move controller as well if that's your thing, but you'd probably need a third hand for that. It's the game's girlfriend mode. Hardly a standout feature. As for how the game compares: I haven't played SM3DW, but compared to Rayman it's pretty tedious and a bit clunky. It's also chock full of lengthy and insanely verbose cut-scenes. A platformer infused with the spirit of Metal Gear. Drop dead gorgeous, though.

I don't know, I played both of the recent Rayman titles and found them good but kind of overrated. In particular the frustrating do-it-again bosses that made Dark Souls' bosses seem positively trivial in comparison.

And Rayman is every bit as soulless as Mario, it's just using a different art style. What's the story of Rayman Origins? Ugh, they woke up the dead but they end up fighting a wizard or something instead? Legends was something about wizards, too. How about the world design? Oh, a boardgame and a disconnected (and irritating to navigate) series of paintings.

Actually, let's talk about Legends: the addition of that little guy who cuts stuff was horrible. Admittedly I only played on the PS3 where it was just tapping buttons, but I somehow doubt that having to wrangle with a huge touchpad would have made the experience less flow-breaking. And the scratch-off tickets and the weird collectibles that awarded lums? I could never shake off the feeling that I was playing a repurposed free-to-play title, and it bothered me.

And it's not that I'm a Mario fanboy, either. I'm not a particular fan of any of the 2D Mario titles, though I have a nostalgic love for Mario Bros. 3, and I outright detested Mario 64 to the point I skipped Sunshine and almost skipped Galaxy. I'm certainly more interested in the next Donkey Kong game than in anything with the words "New Super" at the front. But Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are easily my favorite platformers and it's weird to see somebody saying there are so many better platformers when, for the life of me, I don't see them.

Maybe you need to do a list of "Platformers that are Better than Mario" so we can all appraise your perspective.

I have neither superior long term memory nor am I "currently disappointed and disenfranchised." I'm actually curious about what that's supposed to mean. How does disappointment and the right to vote relate to game design?

Yet despite my memory issues and ability to vote, a majority of my gaming time the past year has been spent with the 3DS and Wii U. It's not from a sense of conservatism, and not from a sense of nostalgia (I never had a NES, SNES, or N64). It's because they continue to put out games of high quality that are worth playing and don't waste my time. What part of your pseudo-anthropological assessment of the "Japaneseness" of Nintendo explains that?

Just out of curiosity, have you played Super Mario 3D World?

Hey, Tom, did you play the Vita version of Rayman Legends?

I did! The Vita and Xbox 360 version. I'd be playing the Wii U version now if my local Gamestop wasn't staffed by morons.

Corrections:
"Rayman[:] Legend[s]"
"all the bizarro creature[s] and characters"

What happened to World Five?

Oh, on the Wii U version the Murphy levels you don't even get to control your character. Only Murphy. The AI takes over meaning it's REALLY easy to miss secrets if your playing solo because the AI WILL not U-turn at any time.

It also felt like Legends was soulless. Like, more soulless than the New Super Mario Bros series and Sonic 06. That's how bad it was to me.

I'm glad someone else agrees that Legends felt soulless. Very, very few of the levels were memorable (but I'd pay good money for a game that was nothing but the musical levels). I think that's the difference between the franchises. Rayman believes that a distinct art style is enough to make the game special, and who cares if most of the levels blur together. Mario believes that unique levels are what matter, and who cares if the art style has been done to death.