Two new full-blown 2D Mario sidescrollers. In the same year. One on console. One portable.
Everything else in the universe seems to be determined to kick my ass lately, but at least I'll have this. Eventually. That's something.
Two small criticisms, regarding "New Super Mario Bros. U." Firstly, while I kinda like that we're getting back to the "name the sequel after the new platform" title-scheme... if they end up wanting to make a second one during the WiiU's lifespan (it was somewhat unexpected that NSMBWii wound up becoming such a monster smash, remember) they'll have to confront the prospect of web-wide comedy-gasm resulting from putting "U2" in the title of their game. Secondly... egh, the two generic Toads again. Look, I get it - if you use Peach and Daisy you've either got boys fighting over who "has to be" The Girl or girls being forced to be The Girl even if they'd rather not, fine. That's a societal problem, not a Nintendo problem. But there HAS to be a better solution.
On the plus side: Flying Squirrel Suit? Awesome. Return of Baby Yoshi? Awesome. "Starry Night"-homage backdrop (maybe more Yoshi's Island-style painter-graphics to come?) Awesome. Giant Land? Awesome. NSMBWii proved that 2D platforming could still move units and likely turned a whole new generation on to the genre, so making another one of these was a no-brainer. Hope I have as much fun as I did with the last one (which was a lot.)
Confession: I wasn't in love with the original "New Super Mario Bros." on the DS. It was good, don't get me wrong, I guess I was just expecting something akin to an SMB4 as opposed to a more polished SMB1. Good, just didn't blow my mind like I'd hoped it would. I thought NSMBWii was the superior game of the two, but "New Super Mario Bros. 2" looks like an improvement in it's own right.
The return of Raccoon Mario is a big draw, obviously - though seeing Reznor (the Triceratops minibosses from Super Mario World) come back makes me smile. The trailer also gives a good look at a new (unnamed?) power-up: A flower that turns you gold (?) and whose projectiles turn bricks into coins. Midas Mario?
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Also, we got Pikmin 3 and a Platinum Games exclusive called Project P-100 coming out. Retro was apparently originally slated to show off their new title, but they pulled out at the last minute as they weren't confident it was ready to be shown yet.
Rayman Legends also looks good, ZombiU has potential, as do Scribblenauts Unlimited, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and even Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion. Good times.
Also, weird thing, apparently Nintendo is working on Ninja Gaiden 3 with Team Ninja to make it not suck like the 360 and PS3 versions did. Makes me wonder if we might be seeing them back for the next Metroid.
I can agree with you on this and I think they will be good, but with rayman origins also coming I think people might get sick of 2d platformers for a bit. If I were nintendo I would hold off on releasing another one for at least 2 years after this. On the other hand Where are the other 2d games that nintendo perfected before this. Minish cap was the last 2d zelda I can think of, or a true 2d metroid game, or *looks at donkey kong country returns, kirby mass attack and kirby for wii* Oh there they are.
"Secondly... egh, the two generic Toads again. Look, I get it - if you use Peach and Daisy you've either got boys fighting over who "has to be" The Girl or girls being forced to be The Girl even if they'd rather not, fine. That's a societal problem, not a Nintendo problem. But there HAS to be a better solution."
Why not just have the two toads along with Peach and Daisy? Is it that hard to have six playable characters to choose from in a game? Or is it too difficult Nintendo to put a character selection screen in a NSMB game?
You know, I was very happy to see baby yoshis show up as well, except for two reasons:
1. It means that Yoshi is a secondary character. I firmly remain in the Yoshi needs to star in a game again camp. (A camp that is just me as far as I know)
2. furry bloat fetish is a thing I've only recently learned of, and seeing balloon baby yoshi I had a little sad.
The two toads are used because their character models are about the same as Mario, and so they could be lazier and not have to program dress physics. They actually told people this when the Wii version was released.
Bob bringing up valid criticisms with a Mario game? Quick! Take a picture as evidence! This is a bigger find than the loch ness monster. I kid I kid.
As already pointed out, why is a character select so hard to do? Mario 2 had it. I'd get if Toad was the 'default' and you could choose if you wanted to. It's weird to me. Oh well.
On the naming thing, if they do go with "game title U" they should make a chuckle vision game called "To me, To U"
Mario games aren't really my thing. ZombiU could be interesting, but given it's a re-skin of the allegedly crappy "Killer Freaks from Outer Space" I'm doubtful of it's success. It will sell being an exclusive launch game, and if I get a WiiU I'll buy it because it's horror, but I think it's going to be a launch day turd like Red Steel. That said, the idea of having to kill your zombie self when you do a corpse run is funny.
Surely I can't be the only one who has an issue with the prefix "New" being stuck in front of these Mario titles? I don't have anything against the games themselves, I just think Nintendo is taking the piss by calling them "new" when they're blatantly pandering to late-twenty-to-early-thirty-something nostalgia gamers such as myself.
The coin motif takes me back instantly to Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. That's actually pretty encouraging since that game was amazing.
The Nintendo E3 presentation was considered a dud, but I think there was really something for everybody. I'm particularly interested in seeing Epic Mickey Power of Illusion after, like, a twenty year vacuum since playing a side scrolling Mickey game.
Paper Mario: Star Sticker was also a stand out for me. The sticker system could be considered childish, but I think it's a really clever way to replace grinding with exploration. My 2013 is shaping up to be very fun.
"Why not just have the two toads along with Peach and Daisy? Is it that hard to have six playable characters to choose from in a game? Or is it too difficult Nintendo to put a character selection screen in a NSMB game?"
Considering it's a Mario game I think we can all take a guess at what the princesses role in the game will be. However I thought it was kinda odd how in New Super Mario Bros Wii there were four different heroes but only one princess to rescue, at first I thought they would have Daisy and Toadette be in the there if the 4 player co-op was used.
Honestly the 2 New ummmm..... New Super Mario games where the highlight of this years E3 for me. There where only a few things that got me excited (most of which I had had at least some for knowledge of). I was seriously let down when I found out that the new Castlevania on 3DS was not going to be a Metroidvania as well as a continuation of the somewhat lacking LoS canon. But I loved the first NSMB and quite enjoyed the Wii version as well (before my Wii died). and it felt really good to see more elements from Worlds brought back (Worlds was basically my first Mario game).
You do remember this game was originally titled NSMB Mii, right Mario, Luigi, 2 Toads and all your Miis
I agree that Yoshi needs his own game again, Yoshi's Island is really a masterpiece of variety and solid level design. Also, it had a lot of the best boss fights ever in a 2-d game. I'd probably even call it one of the most "innovative" side-scrollers, just to troll "teh hardcorez". I hope Nintendo gets around to iterating on that game on a console before they get off their retro kick.
Also, The raccoon tail is great and all, it's cute, funny, and easy for any player to use, but I really would prefer that they bring back the cape from SMW as a flight mechanic. It just had a really great feel to it and a wonderful sound effect, and figuring out how to use the cape and mastering it over the course of the game were one of my favorite gaming experiences as a kid. And what kind of kid doesn't like their hero to wear a brightly colored cape? Boring ones, probably.
Hmm, you know, that ghost level in the Wii U one actually looks a lot like the Yoshi's Island art style...
The new Sticker themed Paper Mario looks great too, but I'm kind of sad that we didn't get one more game in the Super Paper Mario style. I guess I'm the only one who thought that was the best game in the series, huh? For me, it captured almost everything I love about every different version of Mario.
I wonder if Bob has any opinion on the Paper Mario series? I don't think I've ever seen him give one.
You know, watching that trailer for the 3DS one again, they put a lot of emphasis on the coins. I wonder if there will be any point to that? A new gameplay mechanic revolving around coin collection might help the game rise above NSMB's level. Even if it's only a shop to buy power-ups in, I'd like that.
Man, Mario is awesome but since Nintendo is doing two of these, it'd have been fun if they had created a new world for one of these. It kind of seems like a waste to come up with these new game ideas and then package them with old worlds and brands.
That doesn't mean I'm not eagerly waiting for these, just that it would've been nice to see Nintendo stretch their creative muscles with their worlds as well. Something as quirky as Rhythm Paradise but for a platformer. Drool.
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-silencing-on-youtube/
The Koopalings return:
http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=178889
Nintendo had the big guns this year, they just didn't seem to know how to show 'em...
I don't really care for the generic Toads either. I'm confident enough in my manhood to be comfortable with the fact that I actually *WANT* to play as Daisy. How awesome would that be, seriously? And why, exactly, must we limit the roster to the number of potential players, anyway? Miis (only about the worst/laziest addition you could make outside of more Toad colors) already break that rule, and NSMBWii's character selection was in no way based off of who held what controller (other than first player having to be Mario, which did bug me a bit since I'm a fan of Luigi). So there is really no sense to it at all.
Still, Mario platformers are always sweet news. And unless something changes, NSMBU will probably be my "main" WiiU game come launch day.
Oh yeah, and I DEFINITELY want to see Yoshi be more of a star again. Seriously, no modern game has enabled you to take him between the majority of stages the way Super Mario World did, and that just never stops ticking me off.
Bob.
As much as I admire your passion for this series, I'm just not that excited for these games.
First of all, as far as 2D side scrollers are concerned., but Rayman Legends knocked both these games out of the freaking park. There is NO competition between which game gets my money when the console comes out.
Second of all, one of the things that irked me about Sony's God of War Ascension and Microsoft's Halo 4 was that they are barely doing anything to expand their franchise (Though GoW is adding a new multiplayer mechanic which I am curious about, and 343 did bring a neat new visual aesthetic to Halo).
But honestly, Nintendo and their side scrolling Mario games are no less guilty than those two. Mario games USE to do something new with every iteration. Sunshine was the first Mario game to have a plot that couldn't be summed up with "The princess get's kidnapped." Galaxy created a world that was on par and even better than most HD titles at the time. Nintendo may have already sold the system to me if I new Galaxy 3 was comming to an HD system. More so if it was a whole new 3D Mario game all together.
This is Nintendo's first HD system, WHY AREN'T THEY MAKING THE MOST OF IT!? Hell, Pikman 3 looks better and more fun than their Mario games, and I've never even played that franchise.
They could've used Wario and Waluigi in place of the two Toads
http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-and-misogyny-via-wikipedia/
Moviebob needs to see this!
okay, dude, chill. Don't get me wrong, your heart's completely in the right place and I fully support Sarkeesian and condemn those who would openly threaten, belittle, and insult her, but you're getting a little overeager there. I'm certain Bob will chip in his two cents when he can, but he's got far more immediate matters to deal with.
Roy Koopa's also in New Super Mario Bros. 2. After I found THAT out, the game became an insta-buy.
Aiddon- It's just another feminist extremist. Nothing anyone can say can change their minds. Anyone who disagrees will be painted as an evil sexist no matter how polite, well reasoned and researched. They are just using games as an attention grab the same way as Peta and the Red Cross have in the past.
Feminist extremist = anyone who has the common sense and knowledge to know that sexism is still an issue that needs to be addressed and dealt with.
Piss off, you intellectual coward
If I'm an intellectual coward, why is it that rational debate on sexism is overlooked or simply ignored, whereas confrontational, childish tactics get a response?
Perfect example. The bechdel test video she did explaining the test ways down voted and it was pointed out that most, if not all her videos failed the test including the video about the test, her responce? Block comments and ratings. She has also been accused of blocking comments on her videos except for ones that agree or are easy to take down straw men.
http://geek.pikimal.com/2012/06/11/kickstarter-project-targeted-by-harassment-threats/
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