I’ve played quite a few games this year so far across a
whole load of platforms, and the first one I managed to get to the end of was
Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, of all things…
The reason is to do with a mix of the game’s design, the
length, the optional extras and the plot. You see, there are quite a few things
that often get in the way of me seeing the game through to the end. Here are a
few:
·
The
difficulty. I don’t like to admit I’m rubbish at a game, but if I can’t
figure out how to get past a certain point, or haven’t developed my character
well enough to do it (I’m looking at you Dark Souls,) it’s not going to last very
long. I could probably work it out if I keep trying, but as long as I’m doing
that, there are other games I could be playing.
·
The Length.
I know gamers like their money’s worth, but the fact is most games are too
long for me to see through to the end. Most of the time, the plot can be
wrapped up relatively quickly. But there’s usually so much extra content to
play that if you breeze through the main areas in order to finish the game,
there’s no escaping the feeling that I’ve missed most of it.
·
The Plot.
Should we expect a good plot from a game? Well yes – but therein lies a lot
of what gets in the way of me beating them. Tied in with the length, if I’ve
played the game up to a certain point then dropped it for something else, I can’t
remember what’s been happening in the plot of the game when I come back to it!
So I necessarily have to start again, and get caught up in a cycle of having an
almost obsessive compulsive need to play the game “cover-to-cover,” so to
speak, and not having the stamina to do so.
·
Game
Design. This one’s actually quite straightforward: If a game is so poorly
designed that I’m not having fun playing it, then I won’t play it.
Super Mario 3D World is a game that addresses most of these
issues. This being one of Nintendo’s flagship franchises, it is a very
competently-designed game, and there’s frequently a sense of satisfaction as
you beat the level or a boss. Some levels are more challenging than others, but
there’s always a sense of possibility in the level design – you can get to the
end if you just get that jump right –
and a nice feeling of satisfaction when you eventually beat it.
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| Hoe the screen handles all 4 players at once is a mystery to me... |
It’s not too long – I didn’t count but How Long To Beat
reckons it lasts around ten hours – but the genius move in this game is that
the optional content is just that: optional. It comes in the form of
collectables – Green Stars, Stamps, getting to the end of the level and reaching
the highest point of the flagpole – and while there are bonuses for collecting
all of these, none of them get in the way of you making progress. You can only
unlock certain progression points once you have enough Green Stars, but the
chances that this will ever get in your way are very slim indeed. There’s no
new equipment, or levelling-up: The game gives you everything you need, and it’s
down to your skill as a player.
And of course, the plot is very basic. About the only
difference between this and the other Mario games is that Bowser has captured
the Sprixies rather than Princess Peach – who is a playable character in this
game – and there’s no need to play through the game or read a lot of journals
in order to remind yourself of what you’re doing.
The result is a game that was enjoyable, casual and
well-designed enough for me to see it through to the end credits, with an
option of going back through the game and getting all the collectibles if I
wish so to do. There either aren’t enough games like this these days, or if
there are, I don’t know where to look for them!
So now that I’ve gone off on one about how it was a Super
Mario game I managed to beat for the first time this year, let’s talk about the
actual game…
It’s true that Super Mario has come a long way from very
humble – but no less well-designed – beginnings, and it can be argued that the
franchise has come as far as it can go. A lot of the design choices were
cherry-picked from previous games, and the ‘3D’ nature of the worlds had a 2D
sensibility about them; a free-roaming game this is certainly not! The “Cat
Suit” which allows you to climb walls and make dive attacks at an angle was
new, and I don’t think controlling Princess Peach or Toad in a 3D platformer
had been done before, but other than that, most of it was treading old ground.
Did that hamper my enjoyment of it? Absolutely not. You see,
having not owned a Nintendo console since the SNES, and no later game than
Super Mario World, I actually missed out on a lot of the Mario franchise over
the past twenty-five years. Most of the game mechanics and designs that were
re-hashed in this game were new to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the new
challenges they presented.
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| This was the only screenshot I could find with just Mario in it. |
I played through the game as Mario, as I wanted to play the
most balanced character and let the game challenge me. And challenge me it did;
the platforming mechanics are stable enough and there’s usually a gimmick on
each level, a new idea you have to think through in order to progress. This
becomes especially true in the later levels, which force you to think outside
the box – but not too far! This gives each level its own specific challenge, a philosophy
I try to adopt when designing levels on Super Mario Maker, and does a fine job
of keeping the gameplay varied enough within the confines of a 3D platformer.
As the game progresses, it’s peppered with various other
bits and pieces to shake up the gameplay. Boss fights are the most obvious
ones, and here I think the games’ design comes into its own for its intended
market: The boss fights are not hard, but if you keep bashing them they will
kill you. Instead, you have to analyse their attack patterns, wait for your
opportunities and dodge out the way for the rest of the time. Once you’ve figured
it out, it’s not that much of a challenge – but for younger gamers, having to
think about what you’re doing is a far more effective process than doing the
same thing over and over again and hoping it will work this time.
Other variations include the Captain Toad levels, where you
play as a Toad who can’t jump at all having to navigate his way around 3D labyrinths
to gain five stars, dodging traps and using doors and elevators to negotiate
the levels. This got its own spin-off game that I’m looking forward to playing.
There’s also a few points in the game where you have a series of puzzle-levels;
a rush where you have to beat in short levels in sequential order in a very limited
time in order to get the ten green stars on offer. There’s also a series of
mini-games in which extra coins, lives and power-ups are available.
There is a multiplayer mode, but I haven’t tried this yet
for lack of having anyone to try it with at this point! This might come in
useful for me in the future though.
So, now that I’ve got to the end of the game, what about the
rest of it? Should I aim for a completionist run and go for all the green
stars, stamps and flagpoles? Well, I probably will at some stage, but again,
the game has happily given me the option not to do it. I’d like to have a go at
the multiplayer mode at some point; when I do it will probably give me an
additional challenge to the game. I think that’s a testament to a well-designed
game: I’ve got to the end-credits, but I’m more than prepared for it to keep on
giving!
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