Time constraints and technical limitations nearly left the ability to play the entire game with a friend on the cutting room floor.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/31213
New Super Mario Bros. 2's cooperative mode, which allows two players to progress through the entire main game together, was nearly unable to be included in the final product, the latest Iwata Asks revealed.
During the development of New Super Mario Bros. 2, Takashi Tezuka, who was overseeing the development of the game, suggested that a robust cooperative mode be added. Rather than the competitive mode that was featured in the original New Super Mario Bros., Tezuka instead envisioned a mode more akin to that in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
While this inclusion seems like a no-brainer, it was met with hesitation from Yusuke Amano and Masaaki Ishikawa, the Director and Art Director of New Super Mario Bros. 2, respectively. Though a prototype of the mode was up and running, the pair didn't believe that they would have enough time to go back and retrofit the levels that had already been completed to accommodate a possible second player. More than that, they also pointed out that, unlike other entries in the series, New Super Mario Bros. 2's level structure allowed for a lot of exploration, not just simple left-to-right progression. This would prove troublesome in terms of how to focus the camera on both players.
The solution? Have the camera focus on one player, while allowing the two to compete for who that player is. Amano and Ishikawa rationalized it in a few ways, including how a less-skilled player can improve by watching a better one, and how two players can work together to collect the multitude of coins present on the screen at one time.
So, after some trepidation, the cooperative mode was included in the final product after all.
Boo.I can only assume there is some technical reason that the desired release timeline made them not want to solve. If I could hazard a guess, I bet there are environmental factors like enemies and what not that only trigger when Mario is in view and having multiple ones possibly trigger caused some snafu.
Want NSMB Mario vs. Luigi mode. With cool new levels.
Regarding the camera problem though... isn't that why we each have our own screen? Why not let us each have our own camera?
What was that, Nintendo? You almost left out features? You didn't put a feature to good use? You have to speak up, I can't hear you over your screaming laziness.I can't help but speak up in instances of people calling developers lazy. This is almost definitely not an issue of laziness. These games get set forth with a budget and timeline in mind. Features are added and removed based on what's doable in those constraints.
Did you read the IA interview? The reason it wasn't being worked on was because it "would be harder" on the devs. I don't know how you think they AREN'T being lazy when they basically say it: We don't want to do this because it might be hard work.What was that, Nintendo? You almost left out features? You didn't put a feature to good use? You have to speak up, I can't hear you over your screaming laziness.I can't help but speak up in instances of people calling developers lazy. This is almost definitely not an issue of laziness. These games get set forth with a budget and timeline in mind. Features are added and removed based on what's doable in those constraints.
I would bet substantial amounts of money that virtually all of the developers involved would want to improve these features. There just wasn't enough time in the day. As I said in my last post, the producers needed to make the call that the budget and timeline needed to be extended to get these features. They did NOT need to hit the 'lazy' people with sticks.
You can consider this response a general, non-specific one because I am only guessing in this case.
And to Marty's comment, they (Amano and Ishikawa) did both comment that they didn't want to do the extra work to put it in, but I think they were being fairly coy with that answer. I'm sure they saw value in the mode, but like any of us, who wants their boss to drop in midway through a project and tell them to add something pretty substantial?
"it would be harder" translates to "it would take more time." it's only laziness if these people didn't do it AND they didn't come to work at all. You honestly think that's the case?Nintendo could make and has made a better 2d Mario game then the ones in the NSMB series and it had nothing to do with everyone working 110 hours a week that you envision. Quit being a pansy.
Or is your definition of lazy anyone that doesn't work 110 hours a week? Get a clue.
Since the first NSMB came out in 2006, 2008 is the only year that hasn't had a new Mario platformer. The series has become like Call of Duty where this is now an annual thing. Hell this year we're getting TWO of them.
On the N64 Nintendo would routinely delay games to get them perfect. These days they clearly consider getting the game out on time as more important. I wouldn't blame the devs for being lazy as much as I would blame the suits for insisting on this schedule. If you were told you had to release this game for 2012 and going full out with co-op would miss the deadline or would require insane overtime, you would probably just do what they're doing here.
The devs aren't lazy. If anything they deserve credit for fitting this in the best they could. Blame the executives at Nintendo for over milking Mario. This game is coming out LESS THAN A YEAR after Super Mario 3D Land. What is this? Guitar Hero?
Of course the thing to remember is 2D Mario games have very long legs and system sellers that do over 20 million for the system they're on.