{"id":520,"date":"2010-08-24T21:14:06","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T04:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islemaster.wordpress.com\/?p=520"},"modified":"2014-03-17T00:49:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T07:49:03","slug":"examining-mario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/examining-mario\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining Mario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/johannahobbs\/2574314353\/\" title=\"mario by sensesmaybenumbed, on Flickr\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3177\/2574314353_7294fc9795.jpg\" width=\"180\" class=\"alignright size-small wp-image-565\" alt=\"mario\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Michael Abbott over at The Brainy Gamer recently asked us, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainygamer.com\/the_brainy_gamer\/2010\/08\/the-world-is-flat.html\">Why does 2D Mario continues to outsell the fantastic <em>Galaxy<\/em> games?<\/a>  And it&#8217;s a great question.  I personally think it&#8217;s because 2D Mario hits a larger demographic, but it got me thinking about why I like Mario games.  Abbott to the rescue again: his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brainygamer.com\/the_brainy_gamer\/2010\/08\/fun-factors-catalog.html\">Fun Factor Catalog<\/a> is a convenient tool examining the franchise.  Let&#8217;s take a look:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;margin-top:2em;border-top:solid black medium;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;text-transform:uppercase;font-weight:bold;font-family:arial, sans-serif;\">Series-Defining Factors<\/span>These &#8220;fun factors&#8221; are likely to appear in every Mario game:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Tactile Control of Avatar<\/b><br \/>Because every Mario game just &#8220;feels right.&#8221;\n<li><b>The Hard Teacher<\/b><br \/>Fair Failure, where developing player skill is key to success.\n<li><b>Simple Mechanics\/Complete Mastery<\/b><br \/>The drive to completely master a skill; related to The Hard Teacher.\n<li><b>Perfect Run Challenge<\/b><br \/>The drive to completely master a challenge; also related to The Hard Teacher.\n<li><b>Shiny New Tech<\/b><br \/>We expect something shiny and new with each entry in the series.\n<li><b>Following a Franchise<\/b><br \/>This happens automatically now for Mario.\n<li><b>Physics Toy<\/b><br \/>The playground mentality.  If you took out the objectives, would this game still be fun?\n<li><b>Collecting and Unlocking<\/b><br \/>This is central to all 3D Mario games, and for a while was nearly synonymous with the 3D platformer.\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;margin-top:2em;border-top:solid black medium;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;text-transform:uppercase;font-weight:bold;font-family:arial, sans-serif;\">Specific Games<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario Bros.<\/span>Has all of the defining factors, except for <b>Following a Franchise<\/b> and <b>Collecting and Unlocking<\/b> (though the latter was retroactively added in later versions, such as the re-release for GameBoy Color).  Strongest defining factor is probably <b>Tactile Control of Avatar<\/b>.  The <b>Physics Toy<\/b> is mostly limited to Koopa shells, but they were pretty fun.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario Bros 2 (Doki Doki Panic)<\/span>Though not originally a Mario game, this holds on to most of the key factors.  I think the one I miss most when playing this game is <b>Physics Toy<\/b>.  I would say its strongest factor is <b>The Hard Teacher<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario Bros. 3<\/span>This one follows the series in a pretty stock way.  I would say it adds an element of <b>Cooperative\/Competitive Play<\/b> with its strong two-player mode, and also one I didn&#8217;t find of Abbott&#8217;s list, <b>Page Turner<\/b> where the player&#8217;s progress is constantly rewarded by introducing a new environment, play style, power-up or mechanic.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario World<\/span>Another game that capitalizes on being a <b>Page Turner<\/b>, with the ghost houses and secret exits adding a touch of <b>Making the Player Feel Clever<\/b>.  This game also has what I call <b>Dare to be Different<\/b>.  It undermines player expectations of the series by introducing a whole suite of new characters and images to the Mario canon.  (A parallel would be <em>Link&#8217;s Awakening<\/em> to Zelda)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario 64<\/span>A landmark for the series, and best-known for <b>Shiny New Tech<\/b>, but also innovative in adding some <b>Joy of Exploration<\/b> and lots of <b>Heroic Navigation<\/b>.  Also, the first appearance of <b>Collecting and Unlocking<\/b>, which goes hand-in-hand with <b>Page Turner<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario Sunshine<\/span>I think this is the most underrated Mario game.  It falls short in the <b>Simple Mechanics\/Complete Mastery<\/b> factor with the complex FLUDD device, and the <b>Tactile Control of Avatar<\/b> didn&#8217;t carry over to Yoshi.  It also pulled back a bit on <b>Page Turner<\/b> by having fewer distinct areas.  However, this game took some cues from Zelda and really shines in <b>The Joy of Exploration<\/b> and in <b>Drinking In the Atmosphere<\/b> and <b>Dare to be Different<\/b>.  It also takes <b>Heroic Navigation<\/b> to new levels by providing more walls, ropes, and precarious positions than any past game.  Finally, its <b>Shiny New Tech<\/b> went largely unnoticed: the incredible fluid dynamics present throughout.  Those same fluid dynamics made the game beautiful to look at and added another layer to its <b>Physics Toy<\/b>-ness.  All told, this isn&#8217;t a bad game, it just emphasized a different kind of fun than a typical Mario adventure.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">Super Mario Galaxy \/ 2<\/span> SMG hearkens back to Mario 64 with an emphasis on <b>Shiny New Tech<\/b> and <b>Simple Mechanics\/Complete Mastery<\/b>.  It also has a unique kind of <b>Physics Toy<\/b>.  Galaxy 2 is more of the same but it refines <b>Page Turner<\/b> to a science, and notably takes some cues from Sunshine for a hint of <b>Dare to be Different<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"display:block;border-bottom:solid lightgray thin;\">New Super Mario Bros. \/ Wii<\/span>Obviously there&#8217;s a good dose of <b>Following the Franchise<\/b> here, but in my experience with NSMBW I would say that its focus lies in <b>Physics Toy<\/b> and <b>The Hard Teacher<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>Thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Abbott over at The Brainy Gamer recently asked us, Why does 2D Mario continues to outsell the fantastic Galaxy games? And it&#8217;s a great question. I personally think it&#8217;s because 2D Mario hits a larger demographic, but it got me thinking about why I like Mario games. Abbott to the rescue again: his Fun&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-designer","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1276,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions\/1276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradleycbuchanan.com\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}