Topic: Super Mario Galaxy 2

[GoldenPhoenix]

Has there been any word on the music?  The trailer makes me worry that they're not going to bother with the orchestra this time, and that would be a crying shame.

The game's not coming out for like a year.  Music will be one of the last things they work on.

I just figured one of the thousands of pretend journalists at E3 would have asked someone at Nintendo about it by now.

It has no processing power left for orchestrated music.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

People could wear their iPawds when they play.

[Mop it up]

Super Mario Galaxy hard?  Wha??  I actually took a DECADE off of video games, then Galaxy came out and sucked me back in.  I had no trouble with the difficulty.  Guess I'm just awesome.

Sure you are you big bragger you.
I have a dearth of gaming skill so if this game is significantly more difficult then I'm not going to be able to get through it!

I guess I must be the only one on this board who feels that the music in Galaxy wasn't very suitable. I'd rather have music in a style more similar to the stuff in the 2D games.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I dunno I found SMS far harder then SMG especially the water pack less stages (but even the normal missions were sometimes pretty challenging).

[Mop it up]

I dunno I found SMS far harder then SMG especially the water pack less stages (but even the normal missions were sometimes pretty challenging).

Oh yes definitely, that's why I never completed Super Mario Sunshine! And that's also why I hope this game isn't that difficult or I won't be able to finish it either.

[Sundoulos]

I dunno I found SMS far harder then SMG especially the water pack less stages (but even the normal missions were sometimes pretty challenging).

SMS was far more challenging.  There are very few areas in SMG where you have to worry about plummeting to your doom.  That being said, I feel like SMG was a far better game.

[mac<censored>]

Technically SMS was pretty nice, I liked the explorability of some of the levels, but I personally thought the tropical-island theme got kind of boring.  SMG and SM64 had a lot more variety, and I just felt a lot more excited to open up a new level in them.  I did like the sense in SMS that it was a real place, with wider open levels.

I also liked the seamless interconnectedness of the levels in SMS (you could see the other levels in the distance); I know it sounds a bit contradictory to say this and also complain about the homogenous levels, but I'm sure they could make it work somehow... (e.g. like in MP1, where there's snow some places and desert other places, and it still all felt like it was part of one interconnected world)   

I agree with the poster who noted that SMG was too linear (even more frustrating since it had a design that hinted that it might not be linear, but after a while, you realize it really is...), but the level designs were simply so excellent...

Also somehow the music in SMS seemed very annoying.

It'd be great to see something that picked up the good points of all the games:  the variety and non-linearity of SM64, with the wide open levels and "seamlessness" of SMS, and the insanely good level design and top-notch tech of SMG...

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

See, is where the linearity in Galaxy made more sense over Sunshine's borked sense of "openness."  Galaxy did a good job of varying the platforming (taking advantage of gravity) as you progressed through the level, and at the same time emphasized platform-to-platform acrobatics (as classic 2D Mario does).  Mario64 worked by providing great platforming areas that filled the average volume of the stages, and provided means like the Wing Cap and Cannons to help connect portions of the stage and made use of what would be an empty sky/airspace.  Sunshine kept you mostly stuck on what seemed like one massive solid pyramid (basically everything was Bob-omb Battlefield, but with no Wing Cap nor Cannon), where you just kept going higher and higher on the face of the pyramid with no meaningful alternatives beneath your feet.  Only once in a while was there an Island Folk who could throw you, but they were limited in use.  Everywhere else, you just kept climbing the pyramid with limited devation from the slope.  The FLOPP pack provided a handicap that slowed down your platforming flow.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

And this brings me to TP's borked sense of non-linear progression inside dungeons.  If they wanted a more open-ended challege for would-be fairy boy explorers, BRING BACK THE KEYS, AND I MEAN LOTS OF KEYS, the way the superior old games did.  That way we'd actually get lost for once and think about our location and make the presence of unlocked doors something special again.  For the Hero of Effort, it shouldn't be a problem, right?  But here there's this attitude that the only unlocked door is simply your only exit, making the dungeon just a predictable string of rooms which is absolute garbage.  We could run into a dead end, but at least it has a key (and not a FUCKING MAP TO SOMETHING OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON, or a retarded heart piece for a retarded 5-piece system), and that key could either lead to:  some bonus supplies, the next room for making progress, or an interesting shortcut into a room you don't know what do with yet!

Surprise, discovery, and choice aren't valued anymore?

[King of Twitch]

Can you do one big Dissertation on the Failures of Recent Mario and Zelda Trends Thread?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

An exciting proposal, but I can't derail two separate threads if I concentrated on a single endeavor like you suggest.

[King of Twitch]

Very true. I had to double check the thread title when I was about to post that due to disorientation

[BlackNMild2k1]

you could always cross post and derail both threads with a single post posted twice

[Mop it up]

I agree with the poster who noted that SMG was too linear (even more frustrating since it had a design that hinted that it might not be linear, but after a while, you realize it really is...), but the level designs were simply so excellent...

One reason why the level designs in Super Mario Galaxy were so good is because it was linear. When it comes to platformers having a more focused direction makes them better, otherwise they lose some of the elements which make them a platformer and become too much like an adventure game. That's one reason why Galaxy was so great; up until then platformers were drifting off into adventure games, such as the Banjo-Kazooie games. They were great yes but they lacked focus.

[mac<censored>]

I agree with the poster who noted that SMG was too linear (even more frustrating since it had a design that hinted that it might not be linear, but after a while, you realize it really is...), but the level designs were simply so excellent...

One reason why the level designs in Super Mario Galaxy were so good is because it was linear. When it comes to platformers having a more focused direction makes them better, otherwise they lose some of the elements which make them a platformer and become too much like an adventure game.

I don't care if  something drifts between "platformy" and "adventury" really, I just care that it's fun.

SMG would have been more fun for me if it was a bit more open.

[ThomasO]

The game's not coming out for like a year.  Music will be one of the last things they work on.

Yeah, the music for Gusty Garden Galaxy was recorded in late August, less than three months before release of the game.

[King of Twitch]

You know what needs to be brought back for smg2? Ragtime.

Here's a ragtime pianist, Tom Brier doing some sight-reading Nintendo covers:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B9FC64106E80523F&search_query=Tom+Brier

Some original stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmf4Xstc1Ac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plRfbG9DzVc&feature=related (waltzy)

The moment this musical style style tickles your ears, you can't help but wish for it to replace smg1's classical (though I very much liked the game's music). Just needs a bit more of that mario bounce IMO.

[Hostile Creation]

This I am psyched for.  I loved the first Galaxy but it ended too quickly and I thought that they didn't do everything they could with it.  Normally I'd be iffy about a direct sequel so soon, but this is pretty much exactly what I wanted so I am thrilled.

I really need to get my Wii and catch up on all the games I've missed.  I am so far behind.  I haven't played in nearly a year, and now more incredible games are coming out.  This is what I get for slacking.

[vudu]

How has this topic fallen to the third page?  You should be ashamed of yourselves.

So here's a crackpot theory:  Super Mario Galaxy will feature co-op.

Here's an interesting interview with Miyamoto over at Wired.com.

Wired.com: You said you had the idea to do a four-player Mario game for a long time. Had you ever actually done any prototypes of such a game on other hardware?

Miyamoto: With each (Mario) project, we do different experiments. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. We’ve done games in the past where we’ve had the idea and worked on it. But with side-scrolling games, the challenge was that the screen continues to scroll forward, and what happens when the other player falls off the screen? With Mario 64, we had an experiment that took advantage of the idea of the screen growing larger and smaller depending on how far apart the characters were. So we had Mario and Luigi running around in that 3-D world, but we ended up not using it.

Wired.com: Why did you decide not to use that Nintendo 64 game with Mario and Luigi?

Miyamoto: Ultimately, it’s the idea of processing speed and working within the constraints of the hardware.

Miyamoto said that part of the reason they're making Galaxy 2 is because they had so many left-over ideas that didn't make it into the first game.  Galaxy already had a variation of co-op.  Think they would try to add a full-blown co-op mode to Galaxy 2?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I'm ashamed someone found the topic.  I did what I could to kill it.

[Mop it up]

A Mario game with co-op play involving Mario and Luigi would be like a dream come true. It would be a difficult thing to implement because I don't think split-screen would work well, so the levels would have to be designed to keep the two players nearby without the camera zooming out so far as to make them specks on the screen. If anyone could make it work, it would be Miyamoto.

[GoldenPhoenix]

A Mario game with co-op play involving Mario and Luigi would be like a dream come true. It would be a difficult thing to implement because I don't think split-screen would work well, so the levels would have to be designed to keep the two players nearby without the camera zooming out so far as to make them specks on the screen. If anyone could make it work, it would be Miyamoto.

It is called New Super Mario Brothers Wii.

[Mop it up]

I missed adding a key word there, I was talking about 3D Mario games (is 3D technically a word?).
New Super Mario Brothers Wii does look awesome and is definitely something I'm anticipating. I'm just hoping it ends up with a better title...

[GoldenPhoenix]

I missed adding a key word there, I was talking about 3D Mario games (is 3D technically a word?).
New Super Mario Brothers Wii does look awesome and is definitely something I'm anticipating. I'm just hoping it ends up with a better title...

It won't I remember thinking the same thing (along with others) about NSMB DS, that just could not be the real name. But we were proven wrong.

[Guitar Smasher]

Co-op 3d mario would not work unless it's split screen.  Otherwise the camera would be behind only one of the characters, at any given time, and the other would have a near impossible time with the platforming elements.  This would be even worse in Galaxy, where the 2nd player could be on the opposite side of a sphere, competely out of view.  Should the camera follow the players equally, it would do so normal to the plane passing through both characters, making it effectively a 2d game.