Topics

1

Mario Chat / Max Landis' Super Mario Brothers

« on: October 22, 2014, 08:26:05 PM »

U.S screenwriter Max Landis (best known for the movie Chronicles and the Spider-Man fanfic The Shocker:Legit) recently made public an abortive 436 pages (!) script for a Mario movie feat. Banjo-Kazooie cameos, Wario reimagined as a slavist named "Wallace" and um, just read it.



Still, beats ColonelKr's, I guess?

2

Mario Chat / The Nintendo investor meeting and what it means for Mario

« on: February 01, 2014, 05:52:45 PM »

Amidst the various news and (mostly) non-news resulting for the January Nintendo investor meeting, two things could (should Iwata not resume his proud traditions of saying things and not doing [dukar]) have an interesting impact on the franchise: Nintendo has expressed a willingness to expand character-licensing deals as well as doing more collaborations with third-party developers.

Do you expect more substantial promotional material (such as cartoons, comics... etc) to be produced in the coming years? Do you think there will be more third party-outsourced Mario games in the future? Do you view such potential developments positively or negatively?

3

Mario Chat / The "Where does this urban legend/trufax about Mario comes from?" thread

« on: January 23, 2014, 08:32:11 PM »

Inspired by this. I don't really expect this to pick up much steam but hey, maybe we can get something going!

To start, I've read a bunch of times over the years that Wario was purposefully designed as an over-the-top evil caricature of Mario to represent Nintendo R&D1's frustration with having to work with an existing IP. Is there anything to substantiate that?

4

Mario Chat / Your favourite Mario developers?

« on: November 04, 2013, 05:57:19 AM »

USGamers recently published this neat little article about some of the the development teams involved with the mainline and RPG Mario games, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to start a discussion about everyone's favourite Mario developers. Of course, you can mention studios beside those listed in the article, such as Hudson Soft or Next Level Games.

Personally, I love SPD 1's crazy sense of humor and bold asethetics, but EAD pre-restructuring is responsible for all of my favourite games in the franchise, save for TTYD. I didn't (and still don't) care much for Sunshine, though.

5

Mario Chat / Nintendo's frustration with 3D Mario

« on: October 15, 2013, 06:06:14 PM »

I recently came across this interesting piece and I figure I might as well share it. It's about Nintendo's perception that SM64 "split" the fanbase and how Sunshine's underperformance pushed Nintendo to shift to the more linear design of Galaxy and (more overtly) the 3D __ series. I was vaguely aware Nintendo considered past 3D Marios "too complex" to an extent, but I didn't think it ran that far back.

The Register spoke to Satoru Iwata [in 2003] and reported the following: “Iwata blamed falling games sales on overly complex titles that are too tough for newcomers and casual gamers. They’re also bad for the business, [Iwata] added – gamers can spend months playing them, and while they’re doing so, they’re not buying other titles. Those who find they can’t win get so fed up with the experience, they don’t feel inclined to buy an alternative title. Nintendo’s message to the industry seems to be: forget about discs jam packed with ever more complex levels and involving gameplay, and give the punters something they can complete quicky – and get out to buy more of the stuff.  Iwata wants Nintendo to focus on games that have a broader appeal.”

More importantly though, it's a perhaps uncomfortable reminder that Nintendo make games for consumers, not fanboys.