User blog:Athena Hawkins/Hawkinzene Ep. 1 ~ Super Mario 3D Dissatisfaction

< Hawkinszene > ''Ep. 1: Super Mario 3D Dissatisfaction''

Greetings, everyone, welcome to our first official numbered issue of Hawkinzene, and our real introduction to the slow-moving Lapis blog series. Hawkinszene is my way of displaying my interests, thoughts, or opinions in a quick and fashionable manner that's convenient for both me and my potential audience, all the while driving off unneeded paranoia and anxiety. Simple enough, right?

In our first issue, we're going to discuss my disillusionment with the Super Mario series, in particular its 3D outings like Sunshine and Odyssey.

Before you read

 * Everything here is purely subjective, meaning that it is all just my personal opinion and that it should never be taken as fact. If you enjoy or resent what I present, that's perfectly fine, we all have our own special taste buds and you are always entitled to your own opinion. That being said, I will show all the passion or loathing I can for what is presented on these blogs, depending on its direction and provided subject, so always be warned for what is to come. Please also take important note that I never attempt to come off as a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian; those types of people are boring and lame.


 * I have never played Super Mario Galaxy 2 nor Super Mario 3D Land, nor do I ever plan on playing either, so do not ask for my thoughts on those.

Super Mario 64


There are only a small handful of 3D games out there that manage to be as iconic as Super Mario 64, a highly successful launch title for the Nintendo 64, Nintendo's home console from the fifth generation of video games. Widely successful and acclaimed, like many Mario titles that came before and after it, it would go on to be largely influential on the field of 3D level design and establish an archetype that would stick around for years upon years to come. With all of that in mind, it makes it hard for me to nitpick and critique 64, granted how new and bold it was for the time- it was an ambitious project, jammed with ideas and foundations that mostly worked.

I'm just going to make this quick: Super Mario 64 is easily my favorite of the games presented on this list, or at least my most liked. With its choose-your-own-adventure game structure, I get to do much of this adventure the way I want to do it, and with 50 excess Power Stars beyond the mandatory 70 you need to collect to beat the game, it's a very flexible title that deserved the strong reception it got back in the mid-90's. Mario had a super-flexible and innovative moveset, moving in 360 directions felt so smooth and natural, and all of the game's levels felt like they were designed to take advantage of Mario's entire skillset. Though the game did hold a few tricky stars to gather here and there, nothing was too obnoxious, and it was accessible to 8-year-old me and still feels the same way to me twelve years later. Favorite courses include Tick Tock Clock and Lethal Lava Land.

The game hardly felt like it aged, polygon monster Bowser aside.

That said, I do have my problems and critiques with 64. I have strong disdain for getting booted out of a level for every time I gather a star, having to dive back in to go get another- a problem that becomes increasingly apparent on vertically stretching courses- such as Tall Tall Mountain or Rainbow Ride. Wall jumping is also a hellish task in this game; you have to rebound off of a wall almost immediately after touching it, or you'll just bump into it and fall. It's really clunky and rather unreliable unless you absolutely mastered it, and it's one of the few things the DS version did better. Lastly, the 100-coin stars felt like a lazy addition to the game and felt like random padding that made courses like Rainbow Ride particularly hellish, and resetting outside the castle after every (redundant) game over just got irritating after a while.

The DS version of the game is worse than the original game, in my opinion. The concept of having more playable characters in the base game is great, but their implementation was very poorly done. The levels were never designed to take on their varying strengths and abilities- Luigi's gliding backflip is obscenely broken, for example, while Wario's low mobility and poor jumping height make him nearly worthless altogether. Yoshi being the game's starting character is an intriguing concept, but the game doesn't feel natural to play at all until you play as Mario. When I finally got Mario, I just stuck with him for most of the game. There are power stars for the new characters to specifically gain for themselves, and Luigi and Wario did respectively get the Invisible and Metal Caps as their primary abilities, but all of that was unnecessary- Mario could do all of that in the base game, and splitting it all up felt forced. To me, the DS version is little more than a showcase of what the system can do, ironically making itself worse than the original product in the process.

Super Mario 64 is the only one of these games on the list that I can stand today, and even then, I only find it to be a great game, rather than something of perfection. There is a lot going for the game to me; I love its ambition and concepts and levels, with a few exceptions here and there, but there are definitely things that weigh it back from taking anything more than just the best 3D Mario title.

Super Mario Sunshine


A significant step down from its predecessor in nearly way besides its graphical presentation, Super Mario Sunshine was always the black sheep of the 3D games for me- I almost always forget about its existence when it comes to the Mario topic. I always saw Sunshine as just an exceptionally gimmicky and worse Super Mario 64 with wonky physics and an aged system of gameplay that took little inspiration or notes from other popular 3D platforming titles at the time. Though it is thematically very inspired and appealing, the gameplay is much the opposite and reliant on gimmicks. Wouldn't say they were worth sacrificing some of Mario's old moves for, but alright...

I must say that Isle Delfino is very nice, and that its levels look gorgeous, but it gets all samey and kind of bland after a while; small changes to mix up the theming here and there, like with Pinna Park and Sirena Beach, don't necessarily negate this issue, don't even start with me. A jungle expedition could have been cool, maybe a sandy desert level or something like that too? Corona Mountain could have been a unique full level, as opposed to a half-assed "obstacle course" to the final boss. It really sucked that we only got 7 full worlds altogether in Sunshine, as opposed to FIFTEEN from 64- for a game that has as many Shine Sprites as there are Power Stars in its predecessor, it's kind of surprising how much padding out they did as opposed to making new and refreshing levels that could have taken advantage of theming changes and ideas. There's a new concept called blue coins in this game- instead of being worth 5 coins like in Super Mario 64, you can spend ten of them at a time in the plaza for Shine Sprites- up to 24. Now that's what I call padding!

But the real issues with Sunshine belong to its gameplay. The physics and collision detection feel ridiculously off at times in Sunshine, with Mario sometimes awkwardly colliding with a platform at an unexpected angle and getting bumped off into his death. This is most apparent if you're not using F.L.U.D.D., a choice you will sometimes not have at all in the game's bonus challenges where you're only allowed to use Mario. F.L.U.D.D. is an interesting idea in theory, but ultimately comes off as gimmicky and awkward- the Hover nozzle is just a glorified double jump that feels significantly more painful and slow to use. Yoshi also feels rather out of place; he controls funkily in this game and felt like a last-minute addition. Though the Rocket and Turbo nozzles for F.L.U.D.D. are neat additions, they're nothing especially noteworthy and are kind of basic additions to the tool in the end. Don't get me wrong, this is all unique- Mario using water to blast apart foes and using it to get around is interesting! But it's the execution that came off as lame to me, really- just like with the physics and decision to retain the flaws of 64's game design (such as getting booted out of the level after collecting Shine Sprites).

That's not to say Super Mario Sunshine has no unique boons at all, of course. I found its bosses to be more challenging, and fun, than those found in Super Mario 64 (I'm making these comparisons a lot huh) and greatly appreciate the unique plot premise, though I'm very divided on the voice acting and the introduction of Bowser Jr., one of my least beloved characters from the franchise. I also do enjoy some of its exclusive prospects, like its goofy redesign of King Boo and the unmistakable original soundtrack, by far one of gaming's greatest osts to date. I also do enjoy how the game looks, and feel that the graphics haven't aged poorly at all- it still looks like a good game in its presentation, even now.

Though there are diamonds in the rough with Super Mario Sunshine, it's still a title I like far less than 64, and something I do not regret saying in the slightest. Sunshine feels like nothing more than a sequel to 64 with weird and forced gimmicks, wonky physics and controls, and a better soundtrack attached to it. It did have some ambition and creative control with its theming and premise, but everything falls flat with the gameplay, which was definitely not an improvement over 64's- at least, not to me.

Super Mario Galaxy


TBA

Super Mario 3D World


TBA

Super Mario Odyssey


TBA

Conclusion
TBA, I'm tired, it's 5:46AM, this is a common Athena thing