Topic: New Super Mario Bros. 2 Developers Explain Golden Coin Influence

[NWR_Neal]

And Tezuka exclaimed "Everything must be gold" and then, it was gold.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/31145

"This is great," Mario Producer Takashi Tezuka said to New Super Mario Bros. 2 Director Yusuke Amano when he first saw the coins emitting from Mario's block-adorned head. "You can make all kinds of stages like this!"

And that's how the gold influence became a focus, according to Amano in the latest Iwata Asks. He further elaborated, stating that the origin of New Super Mario Bros. 2's coin-crazy design dates back to a sequence in Super Mario 3D Land where Mario hits a Question Block and then wears it on his head, gaining coins as he moves around. After that was added to 3D Land, Amano got a request to add that mechanic into the game, and eventually, after the warm response from Tezuka, gold and coins were the hook.

Amano didn't want to plainly rip off 3D Land, though, so he then added a gold Koopa Troopa. And then a gold Goomba, Lakitu, and Bullet Bill. From there, nearly everything was golden.

The last piece was for Mario to turn gold. The original concept of the Gold Fire Flower power-up came out of the P-Switch, which turned blocks into coins. Eventually, it turned into shooting golden fireballs to turn blocks into coins.

According to Amano and Tezuka, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto actually did not like the idea of Mario having a block on his head when he was shown the concept. Tezuka explained "His background is in industrial design, so he wondered about the mechanism behind it. He can't accept something if the mechanism behind it isn't clear."

Amano pitched the concept to Miyamoto as a punishment/reward to players who greedily jumped under a block to get more coins. After a few hits, the block would then affix to Mario's head.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is coming out on August 19 in North America.

[tendoboy1984]

God that music is terrible. The "bah's" are everywhere!

[Evan_B]

I like the Bah's, myself... :/

[AV]

God that music is terrible. The "bah's" are everywhere!

Now I can't UNhear the "bah's" in the music.


I don't know why they have this horrible score, not every song must be as great the original games but this song was bad before and they just keep using it.


The logic behind this game just seems so odd. I am betting its more like " we need to make money! 2d mario games are quick and easy and sell huge. We need money, money, money cuz the company is going down, hey how about we make a game with mario collecting money just like we need money."

[Kairon]

The logic behind this game just seems so odd. I am betting its more like " we need to make money! 2d mario games are quick and easy and sell huge. We need money, money, money cuz the company is going down, hey how about we make a game with mario collecting money just like we need money."

I suggest you read the full source if you want to know all the little details about where the coin obsession theme came from. Hearing them talk about it actually makes it sound very organic, and part and parcel of the essential psychology of Mario games.

[Pixelated Pixies]

It's not the 'logic' behind the concept that worries me, so much as whether or not the focus on collecting coins is actually fun or brings anything truely original to what is looking to be an otherwise generic NSMB game. I had reservations about 3D Land right up until I started playing it and was proven wrong, so the same could be true here; but every time I see one of these trailers I can't help but be just a little dissappointed that Nintendo have decided to stick with what I feel is a pretty tired formula at this point.
 
Let's hope I'm wrong.

[Kairon]

I get what you're saying Pixelated Pixies. I have to say that I didn't see what all the hullabaloo about 3D Land was until GameStop accidentally gave it to me for free and it started to consume my life. Best $0 I ever spent.

[tendoboy1984]

I wonder what the surprise is for getting a million coins?


I bet it's going to be extremely easy to reach that million coin total. You can just replay levels (through Coin Rush and the story mode) and add those coins to your total.

[NWR_insanolord]

I don't think you grasp how much a million is. In my playthrough of Coin Rush I got about 1800 coins in those three levels. I would have to play through that over 500 times to get to a million. I wouldn't consider that extremely easy, especially given the apparent difficulty of the game.

[Pixelated Pixies]

I wonder what the surprise is for getting a million coins?

Wouldn't it be cool if they had a little virtual diorama where Princess Peach is shrowded in shadow, far off in the distance, and the game could allow players to waste their 1,000,000 coins in order to make Peach walk towards the camera and into the light so that you can eventually see her?
 
...
 
Wait. Actually that's a really dumb idea and serves no purpose. Forget I said anything.

[TJ Spyke]

I wonder what the surprise is for getting a million coins?

Wouldn't it be cool if they had a little virtual diorama where Princess Peach is shrowded in shadow, far off in the distance, and the game could allow players to waste their 1,000,000 coins in order to make Peach walk towards the camera and into the light so that you can eventually see her?
 
...
 
Wait. Actually that's a really dumb idea and serves no purpose. Forget I said anything.

Don't forget that in the original Pokemon games, your "reward" for getting all 151 Pokemon was a certificate that didn't do anything.

[Adrock]

I'll collect 1 million coins if the reward is to play as Daisy. Nintendo is notoriously bad at end game rewards for performing ridiculous tasks in Mario games. I still remember how pissed off I was when I finally beat the special levels in Super Mario World. It doesn't detract from the overall game; it's just kind of annoying.

Edit: clarification.

[Ceric]

Let me Play as Super Princess Peach and I'll just extort my Kingdom for hte Million Coins under the iron Rule of My Umbrella.

[slim1980]

Someone stated the end of nintendo?i8 dont think that would happen i think ps3 and 360 would first.reason im saying that is they do everything nintendo already did.like that playstation all star brawl hmmm nintendo made super smash bros back in 1999 and even did the wii controls back in the 80s this vr controller and the power glove.but the point is other gamein companys  do what nintendo already did.they should do there on things and they ould suceed even better than what they do now.ps vita come on  sold more and still saleing

[Ian Sane]

The coin idea seems to have come about quite naturally but it still seems like an obvious Wario idea instead of a Mario one.  Too often it seems like Nintendo is less familiar with their own IP than their fans are.  So did WE think of that obvious idea while Nintendo did not?  Or does Nintendo just not care because Mario is the cash cow so if they can shoehorn the idea into a Mario game, they will?

[Adrock]

Wario is a cash cow too. Despite the Land and Ware spinoff series, he's still an established part of the Mario universe so I'm sure Nintendo thought about it and I wouldn't be surprised to see Wario pop up in the game. Maybe he's the 1 million coin prize.

[Kairon]

Let me Play as Super Princess Peach and I'll just extort my Kingdom for hte Million Coins under the iron Rule of My Umbrella.

This would make me buy the game.

[Luigi Dude]

The coin idea seems to have come about quite naturally but it still seems like an obvious Wario idea instead of a Mario one.  Too often it seems like Nintendo is less familiar with their own IP than their fans are.  So did WE think of that obvious idea while Nintendo did not?  Or does Nintendo just not care because Mario is the cash cow so if they can shoehorn the idea into a Mario game, they will?

The thing about the Wario Land series is it's an exploration based platformer instead of a pure platformer like Mario.  Ever since Wario Land 2 the series shares more in common with Metroid then Mario.  This is why people need to stop saying this should have been a Wario games because it plays nothing like a Wario game.  Wario games are about exploring large stages, solving puzzles and collecting treasure.

Treasure is much more important to Wario then coins anyway.  In Wario Land 2, coins are used to play the mini-games that give Wario treasure.  In Land 3, coins are used to play the golf mini-games you need to play to get certain treasure.  In Land 4, coins are used to play the mini-games that will allow Wario the buy items to beat the bosses quicker which is required if you want to get all the treasure in Very Hard mode which gives you the best ending.  In Shake, coins are used to buy items from the Syrups shop.


So really, coins aren't as important to Wario as some think since even in his own games they're mostly used to buy things that help him get treasure.

[TJ Spyke]

I'll collect 1 million coins if the reward is to play as Daisy. Nintendo is notoriously bad at end game rewards for performing ridiculous tasks in Mario games. I still remember how pissed off I was when I finally beat the special levels in Super Mario World. It doesn't detract from the overall game; it's just kind of annoying.

Edit: clarification.

You were pissed off? I was excited, and surprised they put so much work into it. They changed several of the enemies to look completely different. It was pretty cool. You want a lame bonus? Play Super Mario 64 and see what all 120 stars get you.

[UncleBob]

Am I the only one reminded of maxing out the coin counter in Super Mario Land 2?

And this is the second 2D portable Mario game in this "new" series?

And now I have a bigger coin counter to max out?

[tendoboy1984]

Someone stated the end of nintendo?i8 dont think that would happen i think ps3 and 360 would first.reason im saying that is they do everything nintendo already did.like that playstation all star brawl hmmm nintendo made super smash bros back in 1999 and even did the wii controls back in the 80s this vr controller and the power glove.but the point is other gamein companys  do what nintendo already did.they should do there on things and they ould suceed even better than what they do now.ps vita come on  sold more and still saleing

I can't understand anything you're saying. Let me fix that big jumbled paragraph...

"Someone stated it's the end of Nintendo? I dont think that will happen. I think Microsoft and Sony might exit [the game industry] first. The reason I'm saying that is they do everything Nintendo already did, like that PlayStation All-Star game... Hmmm, Nintendo made Super Smash Bros. back in 1999 and even did the Wii controls back in the 80s (this VR controller and the Power Glove), but the point is the other gaming companies do what Nintendo already did. They should do their own things and they could succeed even better than they do now. PS Vita (come on) sold more and still selling."

Ok, here are a few corrections:

1. Nintendo didn't make the Power Glove, and it's nothing like the Wii Remote.

2. PS Vita is NOT selling well at all. It's doing much worse than the 3DS did, and many people are expecting (hoping?) it will die out in the next few years if Sony can't turn things around. Remember the PSP Go?

[Ian Sane]

For those complaining about the "prize" for getting 100% completion it realistically can never be anything truly worthwhile.  What you really would want would be more videogame content but then you're not 100% done then are you?  All you can get is like an alternate ending or a certificate or a star next to your name or something like that because everything else would just provide more for you to do.  It's not a 100% acknowledgment then because you still need to do more.

What is Nintendo supposed to give you in Super Mario 64 for collecting 120 stars?  More stars?  But then what when you collect those?  The thrill has to be in the journey, not the destination.

[Pixelated Pixies]

What is Nintendo supposed to give you in Super Mario 64 for collecting 120 stars?  More stars?  But then what when you collect those?  The thrill has to be in the journey, not the destination.

True. 100% completion rewards are by their nature something which shouldn't be that important to the overall game, as most people will not see that content. Unlockable characters or special items, however, can be a cool way to reward players who do persevere. I enjoyed, for instance, using the unlockable character in Mutant Mudds despite their abilities being effectively mute due to the fact that I had already beat the game. Still, they were fun to use. Completion rewards should be a fun little novelty that feels substantive without being essential or meaningful to the game overall.
 
In terms of what might a worthwhile unlockable for NSMB 2? I'd say something like a gold Yoshi that can swallow enemies and spit out coins would be cool, or maybe having Wario as an unlockable character. These are things that fans will find worthwhile. I agree that the journey is what's important, but it's nice to have a little something to show for it.

[TJ Spyke]

Ian, SMW had a cool idea in changing the designs of some characters. What if they had changed the Goombas in SM64 into the design of the SMW ones when you got all 120 stars?

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

I've started to come around on this game since E3. The gigantic long-term 1 million coin goal makes a lot of sense in the handheld, portable gaming context, and they're finally showing some cool new ideas, such as the Dash Mario stages, which tells that maybe NSMB2 will turn out all right after all.