Miyamoto Says He's Solved Co-op Issue In Mario Galaxy 60
In the fourth volume of the ongoing series of interviews between Nintendo's Iwata and the Mario Galaxy team, design legend Shigeru Miyamoto puts forth the opinion that he thinks he's nailed two-player Mario. That opinion is bolstered by Japanese sales figures, which shows the plumber doing quite well for his umpteenth outing. "Miyamoto: 'For every game I worked on, there were always times when I would keep discussing the issue of two-player simultaneous gameplay, and the staff also became conscious of the challenge, so every development team kept trying hard to solve it too. Though I think that might also have been because they thought if they didn't deal with it first, I'd come in and ask how it was coming along for sure! (laughs).'" Via Kotaku.
Note: Co-Star mode is not the main campaign... (Score:2, Informative)
Certainly not the perfect Co-op gameplay for my tastes - that would require the ability for new players to pop in anytime and add to the game at a whim.
Ryan Fenton
Re:Yes, hooray for the resurrection of a racist de (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Note: Co-Star mode is not the main campaign... (Score:5, Informative)
I bought it the day it came out here in Japan and have played through about 100 stars so far. About half of those were with a friend in the room assisting. It works so well because the assist doesn't make it game-breakingly easy and it's never necessary to have the assists, but it still makes a big difference to have someone helping out on some of the levels. The purple coin challenge for one later level comes to mind, where cannonballs are being shot out at Mario while he's standing on a moving platform and trying to collect special coins. Player 2 can freeze the cannonballs as they come out-- when done correctly it makes the level a bit easier but still very challenging, but if the projectiles are frozen at the wrong time it actually makes the level HARDER. What I do like about it is how I can invite people over to play who may not be very good at 3D platformers, and make the game a little bit easier for them (and thus a bit more fun). I think it also offsets the anxiety of having other people watch you play, and laughing at your screw-ups. That's really intimidating for many people.
What I think Miyamoto was saying was that his team developed a form of co-op that doesn't change the core mechanics of the game. You don't have two players running around the screen, fighting over the camera and interfering with each other, but they're still working together and playing the same game. That deserves quite a bit of praise, because in practice it really works quite well.
Lots and lots... (Score:4, Informative)