115 replies to this topic

[SL the Pyro]

Main Site (the whole site is a flash interface, so it's a potential 56k warning)

Okay, so I've been practically living under a rock (in my parent's house) for a while, so naturally I hadn't heard of this. And I have to say I'm surprised that New Super Mario Bros. is getting a sequel. I just thought it was a Wii-remake (Wiimake?) at first, but I was wrong. I've seen the site, and so far the game looks awesome.

-entirely new adventure area
-4-way multiplayer (can anyone confirm if it's Nintendo Wi-Fi capable?)
-new power-ups
-the return of Yoshi a la Super Mario World
-features Toad (two of them!) as a playable character alongside the Mario brothers

The American release date is November 15th, not sure about everywhere else. I know I won't be able to sink my teeth into the multiplayer until I get back to Barrie and unrestricted Nintendo Wi-Fi, but I don't think I can wait until Christmas...

[Raien]

Yeah, we've known all this last summer's E3. It should be good.

It's not Wi-Fi compatible though.

[Toan]

Game looks good, but I can't help but think this is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet.

[Raien]

Game looks good, but I can't help but think this is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet.

Do you mean the site or the game is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet?

According to previews, New Super Mario Bros. promises to be a challenging game for single players, moreso than the DS game. According to Nintendo, the introduction of the Super Guide means that Nintendo don't feel forced to compromise the game's difficulty for new players.

[SL the Pyro]

Yeah, we've known all this last summer's E3. It should be good.

It's not Wi-Fi compatible though.

...Why am I not surprised. Is there anything Nintendo CAN'T fail at these days?

Edited by SL the Pyro, 09 November 2009 - 11:10 AM.

[Green Goblin]

Yeah, we've known all this last summer's E3. It should be good.

It's not Wi-Fi compatible though.

...Why am I not surprised. Is there anything Nintendo CAN'T fail at these days?

.......making money?

[Masamune]

It's part of Nintendo's home cooked recipes for success.

You make the absolutely perfect game, but make sure you leave but one overt flaw to keep it from being flawless. Release and make millions, so you can taunt your fans that maybe they'll fix that little fault next time. Rinse and repeat. Serves billions.

[SL the Pyro]

Harumph. It's a 4-player adventure game/competition on a console that was MADE for online gameplay. Nintendo Wi-Fi on this game should've been compulsory. Anyone know why it wasn't included?

[DarkJuno]

Because Nintendo really doesn't care about on-line, not for this generation anyway. Plus they've made millions (and millions) without ever bothering to make proper on-line components - they have no real reason to bother. Whatever the case it's a 2-D sidescrolling Mario game, how can it not be at least fun.

Game looks good, but I can't help but think this is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet.

You'd best explain what you mean or I'm about to smack you.

[Sir Turtlelot]

This looks amazing, but my first real reaction was...

HOLY SHIT, THE KOOPALINGS ARE BACK!

I think the last side-scrolling Mario game they were in was SMW.

Edited by Sir Turtlelot, 09 November 2009 - 11:56 AM.

[Toan]

Game looks good, but I can't help but think this is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet.

Do you mean the site or the game is a watered-down LittleBigPlanet?

The game, clearly. I don't mean to storm into this thread with this fanboy elitist agenda either (trust me, I'm not - my PS3 goes the most unplayed of my three consoles), but at first glance it's a 4-player 2.5D side-scroller, just like LittleBigPlanet. I do understand the differences here - this one has Mario and friends, and the traditional enemies of the Mario universe, but LittleBigPlanet has the most robust level editor and an engine designed to upload those stages to the community for potential millions of custom stages, some of which rival the developer stages. Custom content, custom machines/vehicles/whathaveyous, all in LittleBigPlanet. And yet all I see here is another side-scrolling Mario game with aspects like multiplayer almost entirely lifted from LittleBigPlanet (I say "almost" entirely as they didn't even include online play). While it will probably be fun, all I see from this game is another Nintendo cash-cow with "Mario" slapped in the title - no innovation required.

[SL the Pyro]

I understand it will be fun, but multiplayer fanatics like myself who don't have any contactable real-life friends are getting a ball-shattering kick in the pants for, well, not having any real-life friends. I suggest they extend the release date so they have enough time to include Wi-Fi.

Edited by SL the Pyro, 09 November 2009 - 12:39 PM.

[Raien]

Harumph. It's a 4-player adventure game/competition on a console that was MADE for online gameplay. Nintendo Wi-Fi on this game should've been compulsory. Anyone know why it wasn't included?

Nintendo themselves said it was due to development costs. Apparently they'd been having difficulty just getting 4-player co-op for Mario games, let alone making it Wi-Fi compatible. Whether or not that's an acceptable argument is up to you.

[Toan]

Harumph. It's a 4-player adventure game/competition on a console that was MADE for online gameplay. Nintendo Wi-Fi on this game should've been compulsory. Anyone know why it wasn't included?

Nintendo themselves said it was due to development costs. Apparently they'd been having difficulty just getting 4-player co-op for Mario games, let alone making it Wi-Fi compatible. Whether or not that's an acceptable argument is up to you.

Wat.

Seriously, what? Media Molecule nailed it for LBP on the PS3, and they've only made one game before and have 30 employees. You're telling me Nintendo is copping out by saying they don't have the MONEY (hey, look, they've only sold the most consoles this generation) to implement something a company with no credentials nailed? Bull. Shit.

[Masamune]

Cost doesn't refer to just money, but also time and opportunity. Looking at Nintendo's release schedule this year, not having New Super Mario Bros. Wii available for this holiday season (due to implementing online) would represent a major opportunity cost on their part and would be downright idiotic. If Nintendo doesn't have another major Wii title they can put out for this Christmas, so it makes more sense to release a game that is going to sell a crapton of copies without Wi-Fi than to delay it into next year and still have it sell a crapton of copies, but while having lost countless sales during the Christmas season.

[SL the Pyro]

Wat.

Seriously, what? Media Molecule nailed it for LBP on the PS3, and they've only made one game before and have 30 employees. You're telling me Nintendo is copping out by saying they don't have the MONEY (hey, look, they've only sold the most consoles this generation) to implement something a company with no credentials nailed? Bull. Shit.

Agreed and seconded. Unless they blew a huge chunk of their funds on some project that the public doesn't know about, Nintendo should NOT be complaining about money of all things.

I could think of a great many other things to complain about towards Nintendo, but this isn't the thread. But I WILL say this: if they don't get their act together post-haste, I'm officially switching my allegiance to Sony or Microsoft.

(agh, I posted at the same time as Masa)

Edited by SL the Pyro, 09 November 2009 - 01:09 PM.

[Raien]

Interestingly, Nintendo made public an interview with investors, where they explained that they have a relatively low number of staff members compared to other major development studios. This has led to Nintendo's approach to release a few games that sell consistently well over a long period.

[Masamune]

I could think of a great many other things to complain about towards Nintendo, but this isn't the thread. But I WILL say this: if they don't get their act together post-haste, I'm officially switching my allegiance to Sony or Microsoft.

I've discovered a revolutionary technique where you can own more than one system and not have to owe allegiance to either one. I was absolutely amazed when I bought an Xbox 360 early this year and I wasn't issued a warning that stated I had to get rid of my Wii. I even bought a PSP and was allowed to keep my DS!

[Sir Turtlelot]

Cost doesn't refer to just money, but also time and opportunity. Looking at Nintendo's release schedule this year, not having New Super Mario Bros. Wii available for this holiday season (due to implementing online) would represent a major opportunity cost on their part and would be downright idiotic. If Nintendo doesn't have another major Wii title they can put out for this Christmas, so it makes more sense to release a game that is going to sell a crapton of copies without Wi-Fi than to delay it into next year and still have it sell a crapton of copies, but while having lost countless sales during the Christmas season.

Masa makes a good point. More fans would be pissed if Nintendo were to delay their one of their big release titles of the season. Honestly, I'm not very surprised that they don't have online, it is Nintendo afterall.

I think the idea of having multiplayer is awesome, but in all honesty, I'll probably beat the game by myself before I play it with others, but that's just me...

I could think of a great many other things to complain about towards Nintendo, but this isn't the thread. But I WILL say this: if they don't get their act together post-haste, I'm officially switching my allegiance to Sony or Microsoft.

TRAITOR!!!

[Showsni]

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve Nintendo and Sony.

[DarkJuno]

How exactly do you "slap Mario on" a genre he was invented for and practically has defined? At worst, this is "just another Mario game" with multiplayer stuck in - the LBP thing I don't see at all, not unless there's some kind of build-a-stage editor it comes with that I've somehow missed reading about. And really, it's clear that the multiplayer aspect is them going "Huh, I guess we have to do something to make it different from the first game..." which in and of itself is fairly rare for them to do. Typical, Nintendo makes a modern sidescrolling Mario paltformer and people still complain.

EDIT: Last line was a general comment guys, not aimed at anyone here.

If anything, it's the Wii version/sequel to the second best selling DS game (first if you split up Nintendogs), with them (some might say tokenly) trying to take advatage of the Wii's family friendly everyone plays together approach. It's actually pretty smart from a business perspective.

[Raien]

And really, it's clear that the multiplayer aspect is them going "Huh, I guess we have to do something to make it different from the first game..." which in and of itself is fairly rare for them to do.

Miyamoto said they'd wanted to do co-op in a Mario game for a long time, but the technlogy wasn't there yet.

[D~N]

I don't care what anyone says, this game looks spectacular. I know my friends and I are going to have a blast with this one.

And I might get this game as early as Thursday (my friend is hooked up at gamestop and it's just a street date) so if anyone want to know about something or a particular feature and is too lazy to go to the official website or ign or something, i can post some videos early.

[DarkJuno]

Miyamoto said they'd wanted to do co-op in a Mario game for a long time, but the technlogy wasn't there yet.

Then all the better that it's not entirely cyncial.

[SL the Pyro]

Yeah, I guess I went a bit over the top with my anti-Nintendo rants. I'm just getting more and more pissed that if I want any real quality time with my online friends (the only ones I have), I have to buy another new game console and a bunch of new games. $500 or so down the drain. SSSSSSSSSSSSUCK.

Angry-ramblings aside, from a single-player perspective, the game does look damn good. I probably will be getting it and probably will enjoy it even more than I did its DS brother-in-arms. I will get over the lack of Wi-Fi connectivity eventually.

[Toan]

How exactly do you "slap Mario on" a genre he was invented for and practically has defined? At worst, this is "just another Mario game" with multiplayer stuck in - the LBP thing I don't see at all, not unless there's some kind of build-a-stage editor it comes with that I've somehow missed reading about. And really, it's clear that the multiplayer aspect is them going "Huh, I guess we have to do something to make it different from the first game..." which in and of itself is fairly rare for them to do. Typical, Nintendo makes a modern sidescrolling Mario paltformer and people still complain.

EDIT: Last line was a general comment guys, not aimed at anyone here.

If anything, it's the Wii version/sequel to the second best selling DS game (first if you split up Nintendogs), with them (some might say tokenly) trying to take advatage of the Wii's family friendly everyone plays together approach. It's actually pretty smart from a business perspective.

Firstly, the ubiquitous car example: Ford invented cars. This doesn't mean Ford still makes the best cars (Ha. I should know, I've owned two of them...). Likewise, just because Nintendo popularized the side-scroller doesn't mean it's impossible for them to recognize that someone did it better than they did, which appears to be the case here.

Let's look here - Media Molecule began announced LittleBigPlanet in March 2007. That's well over 2.5 years ago. The game itself launched, completed, in October 2008. Again, as I stated before, this is from a development studio of 30 people working for a worldwide launch. When the game launched, it came with a full story mode (over 50 unique stages), hundreds of customizable costumes and items for the level editor which were unlockable, and a fully detailed physics engine to operate this with this game, alongside online multiplayer capabilities. And this was over a year ago.

Nintendo announces this game in E3 2009 - that was early June. They claim the technology is now right for this sort of game (Looking to me like LBP proved this). Then the game is rushed to ship in November from the game company on top of the market right now... without online multiplayer, without even the slightest indication of a gimped-out level editor like in Super Smash Bros Brawl... I do understand that this needs to be a Mario game, and for that to work, some adherence to the brand title need to follow: no different outfits, no messing the Mushroom Kingdom too much... But really, if the only innovation they can claim in churning this game out is a whopping THREE new items and a gimped multiplayer, how is this supposed to look like anything BUT a cash-out attempt? There's not even the option to play Peach here, for probably the most bullshitted reason I've ever read: Princess Peach will not be a playable character because of her dress, since it would require "special processing and programming to handle how her skirt is handled within the gameplay." "Miyamoto-san, 1988 called and wants to know if you'd like to borrow its copy of Super Mario Bros. 2 for the NES." I can't agree more.

It has "New" in the title. I expect innovation with that "newness". I shouldn't have to look elsewhere to find it, Nintendo - I've grown accustomed to finding it from you guys. And yet it appears that while the rest of the world passes you by with technology over two years old that you're just discovering... you're still sadly content with hap-hazardly throwing another game out there with "Mario" in the title for an extra buck, handicapping an untapped potential for WiFi to make sure your already fat wallets are even more full by Christmastime. It appears Mario is now no more than a new-age prostitute.

Besides, it's not like Nintendo is a stranger to delaying anything.

[Masamune]

I think you're missing the point of what this game is. This is a game that was built specifically with the mindset that it is a follow up of New Super Mario Bros. DS. The point is not to make a complex game, but you can get the sense that they have gone to painstaking efforts to do the very opposite. Its SUPPOSED to be a simple game that can be played with the same amount of buttons as was on an NES controller.

This game is meant for people who picked up New Super Mario Bros. DS as their first Mario game or as their first Mario game in a decade, liked it, and will be attracted by a similar game. While the Wi-Fi thing is disappointing, criticisms like the lack of a level editor, Peach not being playable, and so forth go against the point of the game. The Toads were chosen not because they secretly polled some group of people who thought Toads would be kickass, but because they did not want there to be any differences between the four playable characters. If not for twenty years of the Mario universe, I've no doubt we would've just got Blue and Yellow copies of Mario for Players 3 and 4.

It's not for you. Or me. This is just the next step in Nintendo cultivating those 'seeds' they planted with NSMB DS. They're upping the difficulty just a bit and only making it slightly more complex. Its a gentle nudge for those 'casual gamers' into becoming just a little less casual, but not overwhelming them with complexity. So instead of options, Nintendo just delivers a very solid game that's just.... fun. If the rest of us 'core' fans who grew up on Nintendo happen to buy in and enjoy the game too (which I'm sure most of us will), then all the better. But don't mistake this as a game that is comparable to Little Big Planet. There's a vastly different mindset behind this game.

So no, Nintendo is not lazy. They're just magnificent bastards playing us all.

[Ransom]

I agree with Masa.

Besides, it's not like Nintendo is a stranger to delaying anything.

But this was pretty awesome.

[Sir Turtlelot]

I don't understand why everyone is getting so pissed about this, I mean afterall, it's not like this is going to be the last Mario game or anything. Most likely, they'll continue the New Super Mario Bros. series and with each game add a little more.

And I once again agree with Masa, this game is going to be mainly directed towards casual gamers, so they aren't going to add a bunch of stuff into the game all at once.

[SL the Pyro]

This is just something I've been thinking about (uh-oh): has Nintendo ever considered releasing downloadable updates for games? Not downloading games themselves, but giving us updates for Wii games we have.