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《新超级玛丽兄弟2》应完善的30个方面

发布时间:2014-01-22 16:46:24 Tags:,,,,

《新超级玛丽兄弟2》也许是款非常出色的游戏,但它却缺少野心。游戏的设计非常保守,黄金主题也并未发挥其全部潜能,说实话游戏中的新内容数量几乎为零。

所以在此我们将阐述一些能够帮助任天堂赋予这款游戏更多乐趣的方法。这些内容基于不同游戏部分进行了划分,但总共加起来便是30种。

New Super Mario Bros 2(from pcgames)

New Super Mario Bros 2(from pcgames)

故事线/概念

1.在游戏中硬币具有目的/意义

在某种程度上这与百万硬币奖励是相联系的,但事实上却不只如此。

我的意思是,现在硬币在这款游戏中做些什么?你并不需要使用它们去打开任何关卡,世界或秘密。Gold Flower是有趣的,但从根本上来看这只是一种新奇事物,并不具有故事目的。

任天堂应该让它们能够打开某些内容,或者至少将其嵌入情节中,因为现在我们会觉得《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》只是随机设置一个硬币主题。

2.瓦里奥有自己的角色

不确定角色应该是怎样的,尽管可游戏的角色通常都是最佳选择。也许有那么一次你作为马里奥战胜了游戏,打开了一些瓦里奥领土/Ware主题的领域而冲向硬币。谁不想像Gold Mario那样冲向Kitchen Island,Music Box World和Wario Land 4关卡并愉快地消灭瓦里奥的敌人而获得金钱?

或者让瓦里奥利用肩膀痛打Koopalings。特别是对抗Roy Koopa时,因为他使用的是相同的攻击。

说真的,围绕着所有黄金和金钱但却未呈现瓦里奥的游戏是非常荒谬的,这表示这些《新超级玛丽兄弟》游戏缺少足够的关心与努力。

3.真正的百万硬币奖励

现在你是否知道自己从一百万硬币中获得了什么?游戏屏幕上一尊马里奥的雕像。那么最大数值的硬币呢?屏幕上一尊浣熊马里奥的雕像。

作为来自任天堂的奖励,这真的太悲哀了。这甚至不是代表新角色或关卡的选择,甚至不如“你为硬币跑狼打开了一个彩虹包”(在硬币跑狼中玩彩虹关卡)或者“你打开一间能让你为库存添加一个Mega Mushroom的商店”等。这些奖励至少在游戏中还算体面且有价值,后者还很有趣。

也许后一种奖励能够适用于最后的战斗,所以如果你作为Mega马里奥在对抗Bowser,你只需要猛击他,而不需要疯狂追逐。这不仅是有趣的,同时还能让玩家感到强大。

不管怎样都比一尊雕塑好太多。

4.剧情转折比“Bowser再次抓住Peach”更有趣

需要一些真正预想不到的情节。如瓦里奥的出现。或者Bowser突然遇到所有不知打哪里冒出来的银河征服者。或者一个新反派出于Gold Flower和硬币主题而出现。

不能再只是呈现出“Bowser无数次绑架Peach”的故事。

综述

1.来自《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》的不同音乐

不可否认,游戏中出现了一些新音乐,并且非常棒。如Star World主题或者《SMW》中的boss战斗的混音。

但这却还不够。它们是否真的需要再次使用同样的高塔主题?同样的幽灵屋和城堡主题?同样的草地,沙漠,水等主题?甚至连最后的boss主题也与《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》中的一样,这真的很让人失望。

任天堂应该改变更多音乐。这并不困难。

2.来自大多数《马里奥》游戏中所呈现的不同世界主题

与《新超级玛丽兄弟U》一样,我们再次看到被龙卷风环绕的世界,或者就像《超级马里奥银河》那样,我们也看到了这些基于虚构的方法混合冰与火主题的巧妙银河设计。

虽然主题不错,但这只能说《新超级玛丽兄弟2》非常懒惰。除了将沙漠,天空和山等世界混合在一起外,其主题与早前的游戏并没有差别。那那些特别的世界呢?游戏应该被带进全新的Mushroom World领域并伴随着全新关卡主题和全新理念,而不只是循环自《超级玛丽兄弟3》以来便存在的相同内容。

3.超过9个世界

在《超级马里奥3D大陆》后,《新超级玛丽兄弟2》又能想出什么借口去解释只存在的9个世界?如果添加更多世界将有可能把这款游戏与DS和Wii版本区分开来。

4.新的敌人

尽管包含更多怀旧内容是合理的,但《新超级玛丽兄弟2》却几乎未引进任何新敌人或角色。我们面对的是填满半个屏幕的新型Boo,一些不容易死去的常见敌人,如Goombas和Piranha Plants以及一些更小的Urchins版本,其行为与大型版本一样。

任天堂真的觉得将这样数量的新角色放在全新游戏中是合理的?说实话,这与《Lost Levels》中的内容并没有太大差别。

他们应该想办法添加更多新敌人,这并不难。

Mario_and_a_Boo(from mikedragonboo)

Mario_and_a_Boo(from mikedragonboo)

5.新道具和升级工具(不是Gold Flower)

我并不是在计算,因为不管道具多酷,这几本书就是带有不同颜色方案的更强大的Fire Flower。

不应该这样,《新超级玛丽兄弟2》应该引进全新的升级工具,就像Wii版本带给我们的Propeller和Penguin Suits或者Wii U版本带给我们的Flying Squirrel Suit。这不适合黄金主题?

谁在乎呢?黄金主题在《新超级玛丽兄弟2》中并不是什么重要的内容,大约90%的游戏内容都是基于硬币收集的设计。这里有怎样的新升级道具呢?

什么都没有。本来这款游戏可以变得更有趣并长期吸引《马里奥》粉丝的注意。

6.可行驶的Yoshi

我知道这意味着比起Wii游戏更像是DS游戏,但因为在近来的《马里奥》游戏,甚至在Wii U版本中都能看到Yoshi的身影,所以为什么不让它再次出现呢?在《3D大陆》中缺少Yoshi真的很糟糕,那么在《新超级玛丽兄弟2》中呢?

7.像《新超级玛丽兄弟DS》中的迷你游戏

还记得像《Whack a Monty》和《Danger Bob-omb Danger》等游戏?作为用于分散注意力的内容,它们都非常有趣,但是让人失望的是《新超级玛丽兄弟2》并未呈现出同样的迷你游戏或更多地利用3DS的能力。难道不去提高重玩价值对于这款游戏来说是件好事吗?

8.像《新超级玛丽兄弟DS》中的Vs模式

或者像Wii版本中的一种模式一样,我认为这是关于在多人游戏的关卡编辑版本中收集硬币,这对于基于黄金主题的游戏来说是非常适合的。

再一次地,游戏严重缺少重玩价值,更多像这样的模式将能够更长久地维持玩家们的兴趣。

9.与免费的摄像机系统的合作

现在与某些人不同的是,我可以感受到为什么任天堂会使用《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》的摄像机系统而不是更具逻辑性的双摄像头,这能够将玩家集中在一起并且在某种程度上阻止游戏变成是两个玛丽兄弟碰巧遇到的冒险,而不是他们真正地在彼此协助。

但后者真的是个糟糕的理念吗?我并不这么认为。想象两个马里奥兄弟分别穿越大陆并不可预期地碰在一起的冒险有多巧妙。也许这与《银河战士》的猎人行动一样,即你进入一个房间,发现敌人已经率先到达了那里并尝试着杀死你。

想象在《新超级玛丽兄弟2》中有类似的内容。你进入一个关卡并发现一片荒地,因为其他玩家已经将这里的坏人都杀死了。整个街区都是空空的,没有硬币和道具,钱也都被拿走了。总之,这是创造有趣的“噱头”的一种让人沮丧的氛围。或者想象你在玩一个城堡关卡,穿越一个空荡荡的boss房间,并且这里只有一条通向旗杆的道路,boss已经被之前到达的人给杀死了。

这甚至会引起一些独特的挑战,就像当玩家1到达旗杆时,玩家2还有50秒去到达关卡最后。也许计时器是等到Bowser在关卡中发动空袭才开始算起,而最后一个进入关卡中的玩家不得不疯狂地奔跑才能避免被炸成碎片。这有助于呈现出传统的《超级玛丽兄弟》模式,特别是当进入最后关卡的结果与发生于特定故事(即受困的英雄将因为时间的流失被消除)的内容相似(游戏邦注:当玩家到达旗杆时,敌人和障碍将被冻结)。

这并不是关于世界地图结构所考虑的内容。想象一个玩家采取捷径并比你平常所做的更快到达之后的关卡。想象在Bowser的城堡中偶然遇到其他玩家并发现玩家1已经穿越了世界1至5而玩家2已经穿越了世界1,Mushroom和Flower。

10.在线多人游戏

也许会要求许多不认识其他3DS拥有者的人尝试着与对方进行合作,而从游戏当前的设置来看这对于许多人来说都是不可能的事。

更别说是在2012年的时候。而在现在的在线游戏中是否可行?

为什么任天堂不将其添加到游戏中?

Boss战斗

1.更有趣/独特的Bowser战斗

让我们面对它,当前的战斗基本上就是来自《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》最后战斗的缓和版,并且比之前《马里奥》系列中看到的最后boss战斗更无趣。

也许Bowser应该抓住Gold Flower并开始使用其能量对抗马里奥和Luigi?这是对于最后战斗模式的有效调整,让Bowser变成金色并尝试着将可怜的马里奥变成硬币。

2.不同的Dry Bowser战斗

但即使你喜欢最初带有3个移动平台的Giant Bowser,并且他尝试着将马里奥从背景中拉下来,但在与Dry Bbowser进行秘密的打斗中基于图像改变再次使用它却是一个笑话。秘密的boss并不意味着与最后的boss一样,他们应该带有新的攻击模式并提供给你一些新技能!就像《大金刚国度2》和《大金刚国度3》中的最后boss。

我们可以注意到那些带有出色的最后boss空间的内容与用于标准最后战斗的内容是不一样的。后者包含全新的策略,即你将机筒丢尽空调中并在一定距离内撞击对方。一旦你获胜了,他们都将面对一个全新的结局。

这便是Dry Bowser战斗应该做到的。

3.更多最初的Koopaling boss

的确,游戏中的Roy,Morton,Ludwig和Larry都带有与《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》中不同的攻击模式,但它却仍未解释为什么与Wendy,Iggy和Lemmy的战斗从根本上看来还是与《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》一样。

理想的情况是,这些战斗应该做出改变,而所有的Koopalings都必须带有独特的攻击模式。

4.Kamek的魔法效果

还记得在Wii游戏中Kamek将飞行并让每个boss战斗变得更有挑战性吗?他将独自让房间开始移动,升级Koopalings的攻击等等。

在这款游戏中,尽管也存在一些噱头,但boss看起来却还是非常传统。说实话,并不存在足够的噱头能够保持游戏战斗的乐趣。所以Kamek应该不断升级Koopalings及其战斗领域,从而有效地提升战斗乐趣。甚至还可以升级Reznor,你知道他需要这样的升级。

5.除了Koopalings,Bowser和Reznor之外的boss(Bowser Jr,Boom Boom和Kamek)

然后你便会遇到这个问题,boss基本上就是Reznor,Koopalings,Bowser和Bowser的克隆,没有Dry Bowser。这可能有点不同,但我真的很想念在《新超级玛丽兄弟Wii》中我们于飞船上与Bowser Jr战斗或者在第8个世界的宝塔/堡垒上与Jamek进行战斗。

这里也需要这样的boss。不同世界间的舰船上出现一个不同的boss能够比只有Koopalings和Reznor的游戏更有趣。

6.在战胜Dry Bowser后没有结局

看看我所说的关于不同的Dry Bowser战斗。如果玩家像在普通关卡那样未听到任何鼓励而面对结束,他们将会非常失望。这并不是任天堂第一次犯这样的错误(游戏邦注:《超级马里奥3D大陆》中的第16个秘密世界甚至没有一个替代的最后boss),考虑到他们付出了努力而创造出一个秘密boss,你可能会认为他们将为打败了boss的玩家提供适当的奖励。

道具

1.Ice Flower,Penguin Suit或者Blue Shell应该回归

Ice_Flower(from fantendo)

Ice_Flower(from fantendo)

Penguin Suit(from fantendo)

Penguin Suit(from fantendo)

blue_shell(from leelaughead)

blue_shell(from leelaughead)

关于前者是因为这是Wii游戏中频繁使用的一种有趣道具,而后者则是因为告诉穿越一个关卡(不停)非常有趣。

更不用说这能让马里奥在水中更快速地移动。难道这不适用于游戏中吗?

说实话,缺少这些道具将阻碍游戏发挥最大潜能。

2.道具在更多关卡中具有实际用途

有多少次你真正需要一个Mega Mushroom?

两次?

那Mini Mushroom呢?也许是两三次?

除了Raccoon Leaf和飞行,这款游戏中几乎所有升级道具都是无用的。也许
你难得发现的一个奖励屋却只能通过Mini Mushroom或Gold Flower进行访问,就像在许多宝塔或水下关卡中所看到的那样,但在大多数情况下这些道具却并未真正出现在那里。

你甚至不能在库存中获得一个Mega Mushroom。

任天堂本应该创造出有用的道具。确保玩家可以在不同关卡中使用特定的道具,或者创造更多奖励屋去利用一些稀有的道具。因为现在,《新超级玛丽兄弟2》的道具几乎都未得到充分利用。

硬币跑浪

1.对于每个包的独立记录

不知道是谁决定玩家应该局限于一个跨越所有不同硬币包的分数,但这却是一个糟糕的理念,必须立即废除。

你最好让每个硬币包拥有不同的分数。然后便有能力去选择是否发送给人们带有1个分数或者3个分数的StreetPass。

2.带有面向每个包的分数的实际在线排行榜

因为现在你不知道硬币跑浪中关于任何包的最佳分数是什么。人们是否会在Flower和Star包中努力获得3万个硬币?对于那些不想反复群发垃圾邮件的人来说怎样的关卡才是最合适的?

像现在这样,你不知道这些问题的答案,并且有可能永远都不会知道。当然,有些人会设置一个有关主题的官方网站,并开始记录分数,但如果有好几百万的玩家并未使用网络论坛或未发送他们的分数到粉丝所创造的排行榜中,那这种方法便计算不了多少内容。我们都知道,有些人可能是马里奥的支持者所以会保持世界记录,但因为缺少硬币跑浪排行榜,所以现在的我们不可能知道情况。

3.巧妙的窍门

如果你不知道为什么这是有用的,那就去尝试打败一些随机的陌生人的分数(即你通过StreetPass所下载的)。你不知道他们最初采取怎样的策略去获得当前的分数,不管他们是否找到了巧妙的窍门而在一个关卡中获得数千个硬币。

将这点与排行榜结合起来,想象人们能够从世界冠军中找到什么巧妙的方法!

4. Expert Staff Ghosts的挑战

这是另外一个显著的添加内容,是直接源自像《马里奥赛车》和《零式赛车》这样的游戏。所以如果在像《马里奥赛车7》的计时赛模式下的硬币跑浪包中添加一些staff ghosts会怎样?如此,玩家不仅能够看到任天堂员工所找到的所有巧妙的策略,同时他们也能够尝试挑战别人的分数。

5.没有3万的硬币上限。

因为任何硬币上限都将设定一个技能上限,并将完全限制《新超级玛丽兄弟2》的硬币跑浪模式的整体竞争面。想象如果现实生活中的体育运动只因为裁判不想记录更高的分数而限制了团队能够获得的分数,或者如果《马里奥赛车》只是说“这便是最佳表现,没有什么记录能够比这个更好了”,那么人们该多郁闷。

基于竞争和技能的模式的上限理念总是非常糟糕,3万硬币的上限不应该出现在这款游戏中。

6.基本的关卡设计将变为某些特定关卡

简单地来说就是,有些关卡不能有效运行,而其它关卡没有足够默认的硬币或奖励使其能够成为硬币跑浪模式。所以为什么不只是面向硬币跑浪重新创造这些关卡,添加一些更有趣的游戏内容?以下是一些需要重视这点的关卡:

世界4幽灵屋:Boo墙完全放慢了游戏速度并限制了马里奥的移动,如果你陷入困境,甚至是在游戏一开始,你便没有足够的时间去完成关卡。任天堂至少应该在带有移动Boo墙的那部分开始添加50秒,如此它们便能像其它带有自动卷轴的关卡一样运行了。

世界3宝塔:自动卷轴和缓慢移动组块以及顶峰意味着这里没有真正的策略,你不能走太快,你不能承担任何风险,你是100%受限于开发者的要求。任天堂应该完全删除垂直自动卷轴,因为它会让关卡变得很无聊。

世界5宝塔:在这里上升的熔岩并没有多糟糕,但实际上在这一关卡中并没有什么真正的秘密或奖励,所以整体就变成了在玩过一次游戏后的回忆。更别提迷你马里奥管道了,如果之前的关卡选择是基于随机功能,那它便是无法使用的。任天堂应该添加一个Mini Mushroom到关卡中,并添加更多硬币和Gold Mushroom组块。

世界6幽灵屋:这里没有什么有趣的内容,这是一个在第一次游戏后便衰老的关卡。任天堂应该通过添加更多奖励而重新创造关卡并重新设计一些房间,因为当前的关卡一点都不有趣。

7.Bowser的城堡和Dry Bowser的城堡作为可游戏的硬币跑浪关卡

说实话,这只是任天堂懒惰的表现。他们所需要做的只是删除任何引起巨大Bowser战斗结局的内容,在Koopaling房间和最后的战斗中添加一些额外时间,并添加更多硬币让游戏变得更有趣。

mario 2(from shacknews.com)

mario 2(from shacknews.com)

8.所有的金币选择

现在你知道该如何从使用带有Gold Flower的标准马里奥或者White Raccoon Mario中做出选择?

如果任天堂选择让你在三个关卡中作为Gold马里奥而游戏是否会比较好。这可能会稍微改变游戏,但是你必须承认看到人们在这三个关卡中想出包含Gold Flower的策略是很有趣的。

这是一个让硬币跑浪变得更加简单的选择,但我认为这也会让它变得更有趣,同时还能够提供给资深玩家一些新工具去获得更多硬币。

如果这30条内容都能出现在《新超级玛丽兄弟2》中,我敢保证人们将更加期待这款游戏的到来,它也将获得更积极的评论以及更多的销量。也许人们甚至会为了这款游戏购买3DS,这可能是任天堂在宣告《新超级马里奥游戏》时所下的赌注。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

30 Ways that New Super Mario Bros 2 could have been Improve; How the mediocre game could have been great

September 18th, 2012 by Nin3DS

New Super Mario Bros 2 may have been a decent enough title, but it lacked ambition. The game was designed in a way that involved playing the whole thing too safe, the gold theme wasn’t used to its full potential and the amount of new content in the game was quite honestly close to zero.

So here are some ways Nintendo could have made the game more interesting. They’re split among multiple lists covering different parts of the game, but all in all the number of items does add up to 30. Oh, and if Nintendo themselves read this, feel free to add anything below in as downloadable content, since I’m fairly sure most people would appreciate it.

Storyline/Concept

1. Coins actually having a purpose/meaning in the game

This would partly tie into the whole million coin reward thing, but there’s actually quite a bit more to it than that.

I mean, at the moment, what exactly do coins really do in this game? You don’t unlock any levels or worlds or secrets with them. The Gold Flower is fun, but it’s basically just a novelty with no in story purpose.

Nintendo should have made them open something or at least factor into the plot somehow, since it currently just feels like New Super Mario Bros Wii with a random coin theme thrown in.

2. Wario having a role

Not sure what the role would be, although playable character would be the best bet. Maybe have it so once you beat the game you unlock a few Wario Land/Ware themed areas to charge through as Mario and in coin rush. Because hey, who wouldn’t want to go charging through Kitchen Island, the Music Box World and the Wario Land 4 levels as Gold Mario and have fun blasting Wario’s enemies into money?

Or have Wario physically beating up the Koopalings with his shoulder barge. Especially neat against Roy Koopa, given he uses the same attack, right?

Really though, a game based all around gold and money without Wario even being present is quite honestly ridiculous, and shows the complete lack of care and effort put into some of these New Super Mario Bros games.

3. A real million coin reward

At the moment, do you know what you get for a million coins? A statue of Mario on the title screen. For max coins? A Raccoon Mario statue on the title screen.

That’s freaking pathetic for something so hyped up by Nintendo as a reward. And it’s not even like an alternative would have to mean a new character or levels, even something simple as a gesture like ‘you unlock a rainbow pack for coin rush’ (playing the rainbow levels in coin rush) or ‘you unlock a shop which lets you hold a Mega Mushroom in your inventory’. Both of those rewards would have at least been something decent and worthwhile in game, and the latter would have been pretty fun to use (imagine going back to all your favourite and least favourite levels and smashing them up New Super Mario Bros 1 style!)

Maybe the latter reward could have been worked into the final battle, so that if you go against giant Bowser as Mega Mario you just have to punch him down without the whole lava chase bit. That would have been fun, and made the player feel powerful.

Just anything more than a statue would have been good.

4. A plot twist that makes it more interesting than ‘Bowser captured Peach again’

No idea what, but something truly unexpected. Like Wario showing up. Or Bowser going all galactic conqueror out of nowhere. Or a new villain shows up as responsible for the Gold Flower and coin themes in the game.

Just something to make it more than a ‘Bowser kidnaps Peach for the millionth time’ story. Wouldn’t that have been good?

General

1. Different music from New Super Mario Bros Wii

Admittedly, there is some new music in the game and it’s pretty good. Like the Star World theme or the remix of the SMW boss battle theme:

But there’s not enough. Did they really need to use the same tower theme again? Same ghost house and castle theme? Same grass land, desert, water, etc themes? Even the final boss theme is the same as the one in New Super Mario Bros Wii, which is a disappointment.

Nintendo should have changed more of the music. Simple as that.

2. Different world themes from the ones present in most Mario games

Like how in New Super Mario Bros U we’ve got this cake and ice cream themed desert and a world surrounded by a tornado, or how in the Super Mario Galaxy games we had all these clever galaxy designs that did things like mix ice and fire themes in an imaginative way.

Yet theme wise, New Super Mario Bros 2 is lazy as hell. Oh yay, the exact same themes as earlier games except the forest and beach and sky and mountain worlds are mixed together! And what about those special worlds eh? No theme at all and a dull presentation that shouts ‘thrown together in minutes’ (graphics at least). The game should be introducing new areas of the Mushroom World with new level themes and new concepts, not just recycling the same stuff that has been done to death ever since Super Mario Bros 3.

3. More than nine worlds

After Super Mario 3D Land, what was New Super Mario Bros 2′s excuse for just 9 again? Seems like a few more could have at least differentiated this game from the DS and Wii installments, right?

4. New enemies

Because while a few more nostalgic throwbacks are nice, New Super Mario Bros 2 basically introduced no new enemies or characters whatsoever. Oh, we got a new type of Boo which fills up half the screen (and acts as a half thinking wall of lava), a few undead versions of common enemies like Goombas and Piranha Plants and some smaller versions of Urchins which act the exact same as the bigger ones.

Is this really what Nintendo considers an acceptable amount of new characters to introduce in a new game? Because to be perfectly honest, it’s not that much more than was in the Lost Levels, to the point New Super Mario Bros 2 feels like the Lost Levels to the DS original.

They should have added more new enemies, simple as.

5. New items and power ups (not Gold Flower)

And I’m not counting that, because for however cool the item is, it’s basically just a more powerful Fire Flower with a different colour scheme.

No, New Super Mario Bros 2 should have introduced new power ups, like how the Wii game brought us the Propeller and Penguin Suits or the Wii U game is bringing the Flying Squirrel Suit. Oh, it doesn’t fit in with the gold theme?

Who cares? The gold theme isn’t really that much of a big thing in New Super Mario Bros 2, about 90% of the game seems to have been designed with coin collecting as merely an afterthought. What would a new power up change there?

Nothing. But it would have made the game more interesting for long time Mario fans.

6. Rideable Yoshi

Yeah, I know it’s meant to be more like the DS game than the Wii one, but with Yoshi being in most other Mario games in recent history and going to be in the Wii U game, why leave him out of this one? It was bad enough he was absent in 3D Land, but New Super Mario Bros 2 as well?

7. Mini Games like in New Super Mario Bros DS

Remember games like Whack a Monty and Danger Bob-omb Danger? Those were actually pretty fun as a diversion, and it’s kind of disappointing that New Super Mario Bros 2 didn’t either bring back the same mini games or make a few more that use the capabilities of the 3DS fully. Wouldn’t absolutely anything to extend replay value have been good for this game?

8. Vs Mode like in New Super Mario Bros DS

Or even like the one mode in the Wii game, I think it was all about collecting coins in edited versions of levels in multiplayer, which would have been perfect for this game given the whole gold theme.

Again, the game seriously lacks in replay value, and a couple more modes like this could have kept people’s interest just that bit longer.

9. Co-op with free camera system

Now unlike some people, I can sort of see why Nintendo used in the New Super Mario Bros Wii camera system rather than the more logical dual camera one, it helps keep players together and to a degree stops it from becoming an adventure which the two Mario Bros just happen to be on rather than one where they’re actually helping each other.

But is the latter really a bad idea? I don’t think so. Imagine how neat it’d be to have an adventure where the two Mario bros are journeying through the land seperately and just happen to meet at unexpected points in time. Maybe it could be like how the hunters worked in Metroid Prime Hunters, where you’d enter a room and find that one of your rivals got there first and is trying to kill you.

Imagine something like that (obviously without the killing each other part) in New Super Mario Bros 2. You’d enter a level and find a deserted wasteland due to the other player having already killed most of the bad guys roaming about. Blocks would be empty and devoid of coins and items, the money would be gone. All in all, it’d be a depressing atmosphere that’d make for an interesting ‘gimmick’. Or imagine playing a castle level and coming across an empty boss room with just a path to the flag pole, the boss having been taken care of by the last guy to come through.

It could even lead to some unique challenges, like if when player 1 reaches the flagpole, player 2 has just 50 seconds to get to the end of the level or have the level destroyed with them in it. Maybe the timer is the time until Bowser launches an airstrike on the level and the last person to enter has to run like mad before they get blown to smithereens by the attack. It could make for an interesting take on the traditional Super Mario Bros formula, especially if the result of entering an ended level is akin to what happens in certain stories with the heroes trapped in a past about to get erased by the passage of time (with the enemies and obstacles frozen in place in the state they were in when player 1 reached the flagpole).

And that’s not even getting into what the world map structure could allow. Imagine finding out the other player took a cannon shortcut and arrived at a later level before you did normally, or something similar. Imagine meeting up at Bowser’s Castle and finding out player 1 had been through worlds 1-5 and player 2 had been through worlds 1, Mushroom and Flower.

10. Online multiplayer

May have actually gave us people who don’t know many other 3DS owners a way to actually try co-op, since it’s likely never going to be possible for many people given how it’s currently set up.

Not to mention, it’s 2012 for God’s sake. Isn’t online multiplayer expected by now?

Why didn’t Nintendo bother to add it in?

Boss Battles

1. More interesting/unique Bowser battle

Because let’s face it, the current one is basically just a toned down version of the final battle from New Super Mario Bros Wii and far less interesting than the final boss fights seen previously in the Mario series.

Maybe Bowser should have grabbed a Gold Flower and started using its powers against Mario and Luigi? That could have been a nice twist on the final battle formula, having Bowser turn into gold and try to turn poor Mario into coins.

2. Different Dry Bowser battle

But even if you liked the original Giant Bowser battle with the three moving platforms and him trying to swat down Mario from the background, reusing it with a graphics change for the secret fight with Dry Bowser was a joke. Secret bosses aren’t meant to be the same as the final one, they’re meant to have new attack patterns and give you something new to master! Look at the ones in Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3, those are real true final bosses:

Note how both of those had a brilliantly designed final boss room which wasn’t the same as the one used for the standard final battle. How the latter had a completely new strategy involving you throwing barrels into the air conditioning and hitting him in the distance. And how both of them had a new ending once you won.

That’s how the Dry Bowser battle should have been.

3. More original Koopaling bosses

True, Roy, Morton, Ludwig and maybe Larry had a different attack pattern to in New Super Mario Bros Wii, but it still didn’t excuse how the battles with Wendy, Iggy and Lemmy were basically identical to their New Super Mario Bros Wii counterparts.

Ideally, this should have been changed and all the Koopalings given a unique attack pattern only found in this game.

4. Kamek’s magic effects

Remember how in the Wii game Kamek would fly in and make each boss battle more challenging? He’d either make the room itself start moving, upgrade the Koopalings attacks somehow, etc.

In this game though, while there are some gimmicks here and there, the bosses seem very… traditional. Very plain to be honest, without much in the way of gimmicks to keep the battles interesting. So Kamek should have been in upgrading the Koopalings and their battle arenas to make things better. Hell, maybe even powering up Reznor somehow, you know he needs it.

5. Bosses other than Koopalings, Bowser and Reznor (Bowser Jr, Boom Boom and Kamek)

Then you’ve got this problem, the only bosses are basically Reznor, Koopalings, Bowser and Bowser’s clon… no Dry Bowser. It’s a bit varied I suppose, but I definitely miss how in NSMB Wii you’d sometimes fight Bowser Jr on an airship or have Kamek show up as a boss in the world 8 tower/fortress.

We needed that here too. At least having a different boss show up on an airship inbetween worlds would have kept the game more interesting than it is with just Koopalings and Reznor for most of the game.

6. New ending after beating Dry Bowser

See what I said for a different Dry Bowser battle. For it to just end like a normal level without even a pat on the back to say you beat Dry Bowser is a complete and utter let down. It’s not the first time Nintendo made this mistake (the secret 16th world in Super Mario 3D Land didn’t even have an alternate final boss), but considering how they went to at least some of the effort of making a secret boss, you’d think they’d add in a proper reward for people who beat him.

Items

1. The Ice Flower and either Penguin Suit or Blue Shell should have returned

The former because it’s a fun item which had plenty of uses in the Wii game, and one of the latter because it was entertaining to charge through a level at high speed without stopping.

Not to mention, it made Mario move faster in water. Wouldn’t that have been conveniant in this game, where the water levels seemed to drag on and on?

Really, the lack of these items kind of held the game back from its full potential, and they should have definitely been included.

2. Items being actually useful in more levels

How many times do you seriously need a Mega Mushroom again?

Two?

And a Mini Mushroom? Maybe two or three times?

With the exception of the Raccoon Leaf and flight, nearly all the power ups in this game are basically useless in normal levels. Okay, maybe once in a blue moon you’ll find a bonus room only accessible with a Mini Mushroom or Gold Flower, like those in many towers or underwater levels, but for the most part all these items may as well have not been there.

Heck, you can’t even get a Mega Mushroom in your inventory any more!

What Nintendo should have done is to make items useful. Make it so many different levels had things that required certain items to get, or a few more bonus rooms making use of rarely used power ups. Because at present, the items in New Super Mario Bros 2 are woefully underused.

Coin Rush

1. Individual records for each pack

No idea who decided that players should be limited to a single score across all the different coin packs (and oh boy this might get even worse when the rumoured DLC starts coming out), but it was a bad idea and one that should have been immediately scrapped.

Just have different records for each coin pack, and Bob’s your uncle. Maybe then have the ability to choose whether you send people you StreetPass with one record or all three as well, that could be nice to have.

2. Actual online leaderboards with records for each pack

An obvious addition this one, since at present you don’t have a clue what the best scores in coin rush were for any of the packs. Did people manage to get 30 000 coins in the Flower and Star packs? What levels were the best ones to play for those people who don’t want to spam either 2-4 or Mushroom 1 over and over?

As it is now, you don’t know, and quite honestly likely never will. Sure someone might set up an official website about the topic or something and start recording records, but that doesn’t count the many thousands if not millions of players who don’t use internet forums or send their scores to whatever fan made leaderboards happen to exist. For all we know, some of these people could be Mario pros good enough to hold the world records, but thanks to a lack of coin rush leaderboards, it’s now impossible to know.

3. Ghosts for playthroughs

And if you don’t know exactly why this would be useful, try playing coin rush against some random strangers score you downloaded via StreetPass. You just don’t know what their original strategy was to get their current score, whether they found some neat trick or combo that allows for thousands of coins in a level or exactly what they did.

Combine this with the leaderboards, and imagine just what neat tricks people would find out from the world champions!

4. Expert Staff Ghosts to challenge

This is another obvious addition as well, and one taken straight from games like Mario Kart and F-Zero. So how about some staff ghosts for the coin rush packs in this game like the ones found in Mario Kart 7′s time trial mode? With this, not only could players see all kinds of clever strategies Nintendo employees have found to do even better, but they could try and challenge someone else’s score despite not living in an area with anyone to StreetPass with.

5. No 30 000 coin cap

Because any kind of cap on coins places a skill ceiling and completely limits the whole competitive aspect of New Super Mario Bros 2′s coin rush mode. Imagine how annoyed people would be if real life sports limited the score teams could get because the judges couldn’t be bothered to count any higher, or if Mario Kart simply said ‘okay then, this is the best possible time, so there’s no point in recording any times better than it’.

The concept of a cap on a mode based around competion and skill is a terrible one, and the 30 000 coin cap should never have been included in this game.

6. Fundamental Level design changes to certain levels

Simply put, some of them don’t work and many others just don’t seem to have enough coins or bonuses by default to make them good candidates for coin rush mode. So why not just redo these levels a bit for coin rush and add in things that make them more interesting to play? Some good examples of levels which need this are:

World 4 Ghost House: The boo walls completely slow down the gameplay and limit Mario’s movement, and if you mess up even once at the beginning you just will not have enough time to complete the level. Nintendo should have added at least one 50 second adding clock at the start of the section with the moving Boo walls, and they should have done the same for every other level with auto scrolling.

World 3 Tower: The auto scrolling and slow moving blocks and spikes mean that there’s no real strategy to be had here, you can’t go any faster, you can’t really take any risks and you’re 100% limited by how the developers want you to proceed. Nintendo should probably have at least completely eliminated the vertical auto scrolling altogether due to how boring it makes the level.

World 5 Tower: The rising lava isn’t too bad here, but the fact is that there’s no real secrets or bonuses at all in the level, so the whole thing becomes a game of memorisation after the first play through. Not to mention the one Mini Mario pipe is unusable if the levels before were chosen poorly by the randomisation feature. Nintendo should have added a Mini Mushroom to the level and maybe added some more coins and Gold Mushroom blocks in general.

World 6 Ghost House: Has practically nothing interesting in it, and is a maze which gets old after the first time round. Nintendo should have redone some of the level by adding some more bonuses and redesigning some rooms, since the current level just isn’t very fun to play through.

7. Bowser’s Castle and Dry Bowser’s Castle as playable coin rush levels

Honestly, the fact they’re not already is just pure laziness on Nintendo’s part (and don’t they dare sell them to us as DLC!) All that would have had to be done would be to remove whatever sets off the ending after the giant Bowser battle, adding a few extra time clocks throughout the Koopaling room and final battle and perhaps adding some more coins to make it more interesting.

8. All Gold option

Finally, there’s this idea. You know how at present you get a choice between either using normal Mario with a Gold Flower or White Raccoon Mario?

Well wouldn’t it be neat if Nintendo had a choice to let you play as Gold Mario for all three levels. Yes it’d break the game a bit, but you have to admit it’d interesting to see what kind of strategies people would come up with involving the Gold Flower in all three levels.

It’s an option that makes Coin Rush easier, but I think it’d also make it a lot more fun, as well as give experts some new tools to use to get the perfect amount of coins.

If those 30 things listed above had been in New Super Mario Bros 2, I’m sure people would have given the game a far warmer welcome, better reviews and better sales.  Maybe people might have even bought the 3DS just for this one game, which was probably what Nintendo were betting on with the announcement of a New Super Mario Bros game for the system.(source:nintendo3dsdaily)


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