Mario and Story

Picture source: Nintendo

In the last days I had an interesting discussion with one of my friends about story and gameplay. I'm more a gameplay kind of guy. My game of 2014, for example, was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. I think that a Story should never impact the Gameplay in a negative way, so I'm quite happy with Nintendo games. My friend however is a fan of great stories. He loved the ending of The Last of Us or Batman: Arkham City and said that these made the game really worthwhile. They enhanced an already great experience even further. And he criticized Mario heavily because it's the same story since nearly 30 years.

Well I don't see a problem with that, because Mario, for me, is the purest form of gameplay driven game. It doesn't matter if Bowser kidnaps Peach, Sprixies or a bowl of Marios favorite spaghetti. It's simply there to give you a reason to face all the challenges ahead. Even if it's not really a compelling one.

So should Mario have a story? Well I would say it depends on which Mario you are talking about.

2D Mario:

These kind of games don't need a deeper story than they actually have. It serves the needs of the game perfectly well without being unneeded baggage. The whole point of 2D Marios is that they are easy to pic up. There is nothing in this games that detracts from their true stars. The great level design.

The whole reason of New Super Mario Bros. is to be a throwback to the Mario games of old. Simple, easy to pick up and fun. Nothing more. And these games don't need to be anything more. They great they way they are.

3D Mario:

Then what's about 3D Mario? Well baring 3D World all of them had a much bigger scope than the classic 2D games. Especially Galaxy 1. This game didn't have much deeper story than previous Marios (but it was deeper), but it had an interesting lore. We learned many things about Rosalina and the Lumas in passing. Rosalinas history and the ending are memorable pieces that I won't ever forget. And I think Nintendo has been on the right path with this. It's a shame that they threw it out of the window with the sequel and 3D World. But that doesn't mean that they can't pick up this thread once more and one game I'm thinking of, when expanding this kind of storytelling would be Dark Souls.

Dark Souls has a very light story, but a extremely rich and deep lore. After the opening video, which explains the creation of the world and gives a glimpse at the lore, the player is directly thrown into the game. From there on he only receives small tidbits and hints from varying NPCs, while wandering Lordran. One can complete the game without ever looking deeper into the surrounding world and that is totally fine. But if you keep your eyes open you'll realize the connections everything has with eachother. Listening to NPCs you find during your journey, reading the information tidbits every weapon and armor has, keeping your eyes open to the world surrounding you. A player can lose himself in this rich world, if he wants. And that is the great thing with this kind of storytelling and world building. It isn't forced upon you. It's not: Hey look at me, but instead you can discover everything at your own pace, which makes everything so much more fulfilling. If you're interested I recommend checking out VaatiVidya on Youtube for more Dark Souls lore. Or discover it for yourself.

But back to Mario. If the next big Mario title once again has big Worlds, that you want do discover like in Super Mario 64, this kind of approach would be great I think. Keep the groundwork of the story classic and simple, but give people who want to discover more something to discover. For example make it possible to collect the pages of a storybooks similar to Rosalinas in the first Galaxy. Also add some sort of sidquest to collect figurines that give a deeper lore to the whole world. Let us talk to some inhabitants of the worlds Mario visits. Such things make a world feel alive and I think it would suit 3D Mario games.

Also it would freshen the series up a bit and one series which definitely needs this is Mario. Plus this could increase the appeal to veteran Mario players, who are in their 20-30 right now without loosing the series charm and appeal to a younger demographic.

But what do others think about this? Would you prefer everything staying the same or a huge epic story? Is Mario still Mario then? If you want, let me know.

And as always

thanks for reading

PS.:Has anyone noticed that they totally spoil world Bowser in that Super Mario 3D World picture?