Article originally written by Luke for Super Mario Portal (marioportal.com) on 20th of November 2003.
Quite good actually, as 2D side scrolling Mario did sort of return MANY years after writing this in the form of SUPER MARIO ALLSTARS 25th anniversary edition!
This one isn't written by Wind' surprisingly, as he is the resident ranter,
but anyway
I actually have my own subject to ramble about! Anyway better start...
Remember the days of the classic Mario/Nintendo masterpieces? Not the most
powerful of machines nor the sexiest graphics, but the games had one thing, they
were addictive, they had amazing game play, and we still love them to this
day... So what’s changed? For a start, with Technology came more ability to
develop things such as sound and graphics... yeah great, to an extent, but when
new titles coming out for the Game cube are nothing but a showcase of graphics
and sounds things start to suck.
There was an unmistakable and unforgettable amount of fun in playing these
games, the games of today although visually pleasing, are just that, the novelty
of the graphics soon wears off.
No longer do these companies focus on the game play itself, but on the graphics
- This is as always a matter of opinion, look at Luigi's Mansion for instance, I
had a very high expectation of it, but all these ghosts And dodgy features just
didn't do it for me, I cried out "Goomba?!" and "Buzzy beetle" at the top of my
voice but none came, much to my anguish.
I've always said, that using today’s technology and the classic 2D game play of
the past successes, such as Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super
Mario RPG, the ultimate Mario game could be created. Imagine with the storage
capacity of the game cubes mini-dvd's, A high resolution combo of the 3 stated
Mario classics.
To be specific what I personally would like is for there to be a Super Mario
World engine, with a much higher screen resolution (so less blocky picture and
so on) remaining in it's 2D environment, the way it should be, with some form of
RPG aspect to it, as in Super Mario RPG. Wouldn't like it if it was a full on
RPG though, as they seem too slow paced, nothing beats a fat 2D plumber from the
side. On a positive note to this article It has been rumoured that the
up-and-coming Mario128 for the Game cube will mainly feature 2D play, although
there may be an option to switch into a 3D mode to fight enemies or reveal
secrets.
Another positive sign is that this game is also rumoured to not feature new
characters, but all our old-lovers, such as Peach, Toad, Bowser, Luigi (And
err... I should think Mario as well, what with the game title n'all)
Here’s a bit more info on the rumoured new Mario game in creation.
Source: www.gamecubeland.com
Nintendo stated that a new horizontal side-scrolling Mario game is currently in
development. As the case with Nintendo nothing else was said. It is still a
mystery whether the title is a 3D Side scrollering plafromer for the GCN or a 2D
GBA title. Mr Miyamoto has already revealed that a GCN Mario game, "Mario 128",
has been in development for almost a year. Hopefully EAD is working on a GCN and
a GBA Mario game for maximum Mario lovin' next year
What do you think? Is 2D Mario a good idea? Or should they leave it behind?