Fungi Forums
TMK Stuff => Latest News => Topic started by: Deezer on June 21, 2023, 08:16:08 PM
-
Nintendo announced five new games starring Mario and friends during today's Nintendo Direct event. These upcoming releases for Nintendo Switch include three brand-new games and two remakes.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder - This new 2D side-scroller includes Daisy as a playable character. It is set for release on October 20.
Super Mario RPG - On November 17, Mario and Bowser will team up once again in a remake of the Super NES game.
WarioWare: Move It! - Wario will bring a new batch of microgames to the Switch on November 3.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon - This remake of the Nintendo 3DS game is scheduled to launch in 2024.
Untitled Princess Peach game - A new game starring Peach is planned for release in 2024.
Link: Nintendo Direct 6.21.2023 (https://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct/6-21-2023/)
-
We'll need to see more before a full assessment of course, but so far Super Mario RPG seems to be getting something close to the Link's Awakening Switch remake treatment. Less so, because it was already a TV console game so there is less to extrapolate (no addition of a depth of field effect, in particular), but similar principles: keep the original gameplay, story, and mechanics, down to the original camera framing, but upgrade everything that can be within that framework. Including adding proper cutscenes (the latter element having been applied to great effect on the Bowser's Inside Story remake).
Here is what I could tell from a closer view of the announcement trailer:
- Everything is dynamically 3D-rendered. Now that's a big subject for discussion, if not controversy, so for now I'll just mention the era of prerendered 3D sprites was quite short in the grand scheme of things.
- Movement appears to be still based on the 8 directions allowed by the control pad: N, NW, W, SW, S, SE, E, NE. This is in contrast to the 3DS remakes, which took advantage of that console's directional stick to allow more free-form walking around. I believe this is for the best in the case of Super Mario RPG: some of the platforming require precisely hitting one of these 8 directions.
- Perspective is not orthographic as in the original: this is clearest towards the end of the trailer, where the top of the underground pillars can be seen "moving" compared to the floor behind them.
All in all, interesting to see how, using a modern 3D engine, they can keep an experience – here, that implied by isometric "perspective" – that was dictated in the original by the technical constraints of the era.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to resume a game of Landstalker I just so happened to have started recently, and after that I have a Solstice cart I've been neglecting, which should tide me over until November. Can't be too prepared…
-
Mario RPG looks fantastic. I always had a soft spot for it's classic art style, so I love seeing how how it is faithfully recreated in this remake.
-
Movement appears to be still based on the 8 directions allowed by the control pad: N, NW, W, SW, S, SE, E, NE. This is in contrast to the 3DS remakes…
I noticed this, too, and immediately pined for the N64- or GameCube-era joysticks with octogonal ranges.