The last week I've been busy playing
the shit out of Mario Kart 8 and it's truly a blast. The courses are
really imaginative and rich in variety. And that got me thinking. Why
doesn't Nintendo stretch this variety onto the Mario Jump'n'Run
Titles.
The New Super Mario Bros. Series,
although excellent in quality, has been stagnating since basically
the first game. Also Super Mario 3D World suffered from the same
problem. Now don't get me wrong. 3D World is an excellent Game, a
perfect Jump'n'Run and the levels are filled with creativity. But to
me many of the still felt bland. Artistically speaking. We always
have some Ice levels, desert levels, grass levels, etc... and they
use the same basic set for all of them. All the ice levels feel the
same. Maybe this is a problem of the smaller courses mentality of 3D
World, but for a next 3D Mario in the Spirit of Mario 64, Galaxy or
(the underrated) Sunshine I wish for the same sort of creativity and
diversity as in Mario Kart 8.
First of all I hope they go back to big
courses like in Mario 64 and Sunshine. Galaxy was great, but many of
it's Course were basically just obstacle courses with a star at the
end. 3D World was even more of a step in that direction, so I hope
they go the opposite with the next big tittle. I want courses where
you can run around and explore. And also I hope they go away from the
drawing board approach of the generic forest, sea, desert, etc.
levels.
So again. What does this have to do
with Mario Kart 8? Well many Mario Kart 8 stages with their
background details and lively atmosphere got me thinking about how
they would look if they were courses in a 3D Mario and that thought
got me rather excited. Take Mount Wario as an example. It's one of
the biggest courses in Mario Kart and it displays an amazing variety.
You have an icy mountain summit, an ice cavern with a river running
through, a damn for creating electricity, a winter forest and a ski
resort. Each part could house amazing puzzles, adventures and a power
star if Mount Wario were a course in a 3D Mario. And it doesn't stop
there. Dolphin Shoals is a standard tropic beach course at the first
glance, but it also houses an extended underwater cavern with a sea
monster and rapids. What I want to say with that is, that even when a
course may seem like something generic you can still find a fresh
twist. Bone Dry Dunes is a standard desert, but through the different
lightning and bones it didn't bother me.
Of course this is all about the
aesthetic, but to me this is the only thing that needs to freshen up
with Mario Games. Mechanically wise they're always near perfect. Give
me levels like waterpark, sweet sweet canyon or cloudtop cruise as
Mario 3D courses. Todays game industry is mostly build on hype. That
is a sad fact, but it's the current reality. With the same levels as
always you can't make peoples jaws drop. 3D World was an awesome
game, but it was also just 3D Land 2. The Wii-U deserves a truly
unique and full fledged Mario Jump'n'Run. I just hope that the
creativity and variety of Mario Kart spills over into the development
of that title.
So, to put it short. Give me big levels
with lots of things to explore, give me excellent Jump'n'Run gameplay
(that fact is a given), and give me creative, fresh and diverse
courses. That is what I want from the next 3D Mario.
What are your thoughts about this? What
do you expect/want from the next 3D Mario Jump'n'Run? Do you want
Galaxy 2, 3D World 2 or something completely new?
