Super Mario 3D World

[tegan]

So I guess everyone else picked up Zelda on Friday, huh? 

 

For what it's worth, this might be my favourite Mario game now. It keeps throwing crazy curveballs at me. I just did a stage where I got to explore an open area until I found five token thingies that would lead me to the second half, which the game previously hadn't done yet. While I was there I got to try out the boomerang suit for what I think was the first time, I found a Goomba disguise for the first time, spent a loooot of time climbing inside of Koopa Shells and throwing myself around the stage (best) and then capping it all off with a ride on a dinosaur set to the Mario 64 slide music. Such an incredible, crazy game.

 

I'm taking the time to 100% each stage before moving on, too, which isn't really something I'd normally do. Although the game's not a walk in the park, the only really frustrating stage so far was one that made me use cherry clones in tricky platforming, with the idea being that you can't get some goodies without a requisite number of clones surviving, which is a bit of a cheap trick.

 

Also, I found the golden train from that trailer, accidentally threw myself under it and died, and then it just disappeared. Is it gone forever or what?

[dartmonkey]

From the outside, it appears that they've boiled game down into a furry, cynic-sucking fiesta that makes everyone from grouch to toddler want to play. I mean, I want this. I want that multi-coloured case. That boxart is beautiful. Is this not game? All I know is I've changed my wallpaper to Cat Mario FFS. I want to be playing THIS on Christmas morning!

Re. Sunshine, I should really go back to it. I sold it years ago without finishing it. Something else to head to ebay for.

[Sno]

Honestly, i don't think it's anything worth going back to, it is the weakest of the core Mario games. (Excepting, perhaps, the NSMB games.) I think Sunshine is just drowning in pieces that feel like they needed a few more passes before being shipped, it's really clunky and frustrating in a way that virtually no other Mario game feels.

Maybe people will disagree with me? Surprise me, internet.

[Thrik]

I wasn't a big fan of Sunshine, although I can't say I actively disliked it. I think it was more the overall theme of the game that turned me off, I know some people loved the 'Mario on holiday' angle but it just didn't feel that much like propo' Mario to me. Also some parts of the game were artistically quite rough IMO, which is a surprise for a Nintendo game and especially so against what seemed at the time like an impossibly slick Mario Kart. Mario is necessarily abstract and crazy, which is why Galaxy was such a splendid comeback and it looks like this has continued the trend.

[Merus]

Re: hub levels, after having to scramble around in order to get to each set of levels in Galaxy, I started getting bad Santa Destroy flashbacks. The point of a good hub world is to set the tone going into a level, which Peach's Castle did (in some cases better than others) and many of its imitators managed as well. Delfino didn't do that, in favour of trying to make level entrances surprising, which goes against the job of a hub world. Rosalina's Starship got even worse, where not only did the hub not contribute to the tone of the levels (other than the last set), but it didn't even have secrets to reward poking about.

[lobotomy42]

I remember enjoying Sunshine at the time, but I also remember finding a couple of the stars insanely frustrating.

 

The best part, as I recall, was using that water thing as a way to extent your jump for a couple of seconds and nail the landing.  And then also those levels without the water thing at all.

[Jake]

I liked Sunshine because parts of it were just hard as fuck. I also liked the Fluud thing although it's not something I'd ever want to see return again. My favorite parts of Sunshine were when the game was at its most abstract and crazy (which was usually when it was at its most difficult) and those parts seem to be what most clearly informed Galaxy and other post-Sunshine EAD games.

[Roderick]

I think my love for the psychotic experiment that is Mario Sunshine is well-known around these parts.

[Professor Video Games]

This many years removed, the only part of sunshine I can still remember being frustrated with was a level where you had to use the flud to get a watermelon past those duckbilled things on some beach and the slightest impact would break it. It was way more interesting to use as a jetpack than to spray stuff.

[RubixsQube]

It's interesting how Nintendo's 3D (non side-scrolling) Mario games kind of take two forms. In the first, Mario is tasked with doing something, like, delivering a Watermelon, or washing dirt, or defeating some enemy, or fixing some large craft of some sort. The second form is much more straightforward, with platforming segments where Mario's only task is to get to some established area. I've always loved Sunshine, because it just looked and felt so different than any other game that was being released at the time, which made the portions of the game where Mario was cleaning, or fighting enemies, or racing really pop. The game just blew me away with all of the small F.L.U.D.D.-less platforming segments, and you can tell that Nintendo realized how much people were responding to them with Galaxy 1/2, and 3D Land. Those games are very platform heavy, and with Nintendo's ability to just nail character movement and response, they're incredible to play. So, I salute Sunshine for doing so much, including lay the groundwork for the next few generations of 3D games. 

[Twig]

Yeah see I fucking love Super Mario Sunshine, but when I went back to play it again a couple years ago, the FLUDDless levels were complete garbage. FLUDD is what makes Super Mario Sunshine great. Take that away and you've got a Mario game that controls terribly and doesn't feel right.

[tegan]

I also liked the Fluud thing although it's not something I'd ever want to see return again.

 

Mario's F.L.U.D.D. move is conspicuously back in the new Super Smash Bros. after being absent in Brawl, so I've been kind of thinking that either Super Mario Sunshine is getting a 2014 remake like Wind Waker or, less likely, that Nintendo wants to revisit the F.L.U.D.D. concept at some point in the near future.

 

EDIT: wait I guess it was in Brawl and I'm just an idiot. NEVER MIND.

[Zeusthecat]

Super Mario Sunshine was an awesome game primarily because you got to fight bowser in a giant bathtub with crazy dangerous bath toys.

[Professor Video Games]

Also a crazy dangerous frame rate if I remember correctly.

[Merus]

I seem to recall that the development team had more fun developing the FLUDD-less levels in Sunshine, which is why it informed Galaxy so much. The difficulty of Mario games definitely went up once they started introducing the super guides, as well.

[miffy495]

I bought it, Tegan! Honest! I'm just waiting on Amazon to deliver it! I will almost definitely be playing it this weekend, and we can go apeshit over it together. In the mean time, I went back and beat the final world of NSMBU, because I needed my Mario fix. I bought it with my WiiU back in March, but got bored of it. All this Mario talk made me want to finish it, so I did. That game sure does have some moments of brilliance wrapped up in a lot of turd. The brilliance is really good, but holy crap can that game be frustrating. Can't wait for 3D World!

[Jake]

Mario's F.L.U.D.D. move is conspicuously back in the new Super Smash Bros. after being absent in Brawl, so I've been kind of thinking that either Super Mario Sunshine is getting a 2014 remake like Wind Waker or, less likely, that Nintendo wants to revisit the F.L.U.D.D. concept at some point in the near future.

 

EDIT: wait I guess it was in Brawl and I'm just an idiot. NEVER MIND.

Ugh the FLUDD stuff is still in Mario's character in the upcoming SSB games? That made him unplayable for me in Brawl on the Wii, when he was my go-to in Melee and N64. I ended up switching to Luigi for my Mario Bros needs (as one should) but I will probably be forever bummed about Mario's move set post-Melee.

[Twig]

It's all right, Jake, at least they didn't entirely remove your Mario character of choice

 

...

 

That's Dr. Mario for the uninformed.

 

The best doctor. The best Mario. The best Doctor Mario.

 

...

 

That aside, I am also not a fan of FLUDD in Brawl.

[tegan]

By the way, this game has the best Boo House theme of any Mario.

 

[Jake]

It's all right, Jake, at least they didn't entirely remove your Mario character of choice

...

That's Dr. Mario for the uninformed.

The best doctor. The best Mario. The best Doctor Mario.

...

That aside, I am also not a fan of FLUDD in Brawl.

Dr. Mario is in the house! His prescription: K.O.s.

[Thrik]

By the way, this game has the best Boo House theme of any Mario.

 

 

Sold.

[Thrik]

Also, that art in the video really just makes me want to dive right into that shit. This is exactly the kind of game that makes me wish I had kids to lavish this experience upon.

[Thrik]

It's funny how I feel right now. I'd pretty much written the Wii U off, and while I still question some decisions Nintendo made I would actually go ahead and buy one right now if there were one more price drop. My excitement for the PS4 and XBone has almost immediately dissipated now that they're out, because as expected the catalogue of games is paltry and it's going to take at least a year or two before things really pick up. That's time I could be playing sweet-ass Nintendo games!

 

And as long as I don't actually own a PS4 or XBone, it just feels like extending the current generation a bit longer. I'm perfectly OK with that considering that I'm yet to even get round to games like The Last of Us. The fact the other consoles are borderline impossible to get hold of only reinforces this, and avoids me doing any impulse buying — which I've been tempted by and would have almost certainly regretted.

[Twig]

Dr. Mario is in the house! His prescription: K.O.s.

Too good. ):

[Thrik]

Jesus Christ. Not a day after my earlier post, Amazon UK is now doing Black Friday deals with the Wii U Premium being £50 off — and with a time limit. I expect similar deals will appear during the day but I'm feeling some serious pressure right now.