New Super Mario Bros. Wii Attempts To Bridge Casual/Hardcore Divide 119
When Nintendo returns to its roots next month by releasing a new, 2-D, side-scrolling Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii, it's trying to do more than simply hop on the retro bandwagon many publishers have ridden in recent months. Speaking at a roundtable discussion in New York this week, Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto talked about how they're trying to satisfy fans of the series who want challenging gameplay in addition to attracting new or casual players just looking for an entertaining platformer. Quoting:
"... you can play the story mode single-player all the way through from beginning to end, and at any point along the way, you can add players from the world map and have up to four players cooperate to complete the levels. And beyond that, there are two dedicated multiplayer modes, one of which is free-for-all, which lets you select the stages from story mode ... so you can easily find the stage you like. And then there’s also a coin battle mode which is a competitive multiplayer mode, in which you’re actually competing for points and you’re getting ranked based on how many points you’ve collected. The free-for-all mode has kind of a similar feel to something like Mario Kart where you just happen to have four people over and you want to sit down and play a quick match in your favorite level."
If I just happen to have 4 people over? (Score:5, Insightful)
The free-for-all mode has kind of a similar feel to something like Mario Kart where you just happen to have four people over and you want to sit down and play a quick match in your favorite level.
Honest question: how often does this happen for other people that you have three other people over and you say "Hey, let's play mario kart" and they say "sure?" One of the 3 people for me is invariably my wife who has made it clear she doesn't enjoy playing videogames even "casual" games in a group. (Before anyone starts suggesting "a game she's sure to like," realize I've probably made attempts to get her interested in games already). Even when she's not, I don't see that happening, most people who I have over don't come over to play videogames. Same with my friends who have wiis, when I'm at their house with other people, I don't find myself playing mario kart or smash bros or guitar hero.
Who are these groups of people that nintendo is still making games for? And next console generation, can we establish before hand which consoles are going to have libraries that are mostly group games and which consoles have more games that you can play online or by yourself? I got a wii early. I think Muramasa, demon blade is the only game I've played on it this year.
Re:If I just happen to have 4 people over? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:If I just happen to have 4 people over? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If I just happen to have 4 people over? (Score:2, Insightful)
Honest question: how often does this happen for other people that you have three other people over and you say "Hey, let's play mario kart" and they say "sure?" One of the 3 people for me is invariably my wife who has made it clear she doesn't enjoy playing videogames even "casual" games in a group
It happens pretty often for those in which one of those 3 people is not a wife. You've either become really disconnected from your younger years or video games just wasn't part of what you and your friends used to do in your childhood if you seriously think this very common situation is so odd.
And next console generation, can we establish before hand which consoles are going to have libraries that are mostly group games and which consoles have more games that you can play online or by yourself? I got a wii early. I think Muramasa, demon blade is the only game I've played on it this year.
If there was any console in which it was blatantly obvious about what type of games were going to be on the system, it was the Wii. It was dubbed the party/casual game system from the get-go and if you even looked into any of the titles coming out for it around launch time that was quite clear. I mean the controller by itself should have made that clear enough, did you think you were going to be standing there by yourself swinging your arms around for 4+ hour long sessions of in-depth solitary gameplay? Not that the Wii doesn't have some good in-depth games you can sink your teeth into and spend long game sessions with, but seriously it was very clear that was going to be more the exception rather than the norm.