Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
With Super Mario Land 3D being a homage to Super Mario Brothers 3, and New Super Mario Brothers Wii U being a homage to Super Mario World, I think it's about time that Nintendo pays homage to the dark-horse of the central Mario series...Super Mario Brothers 2 USA.
Although the game is essentially a palette-swap version of Doki Doki Panic, as I am sure everyone here is aware of, and its altered game-play seems odd when placed beside the rest of the Mario "canon", it was actually my favorite Mario game as a child. I loved the music, multiple characters with actual differences beyond simple aesthetics, and the gameplay as well...sitting on enemies as they walk around, and even hitching a ride on the Pidgits and Ostros, was a game-play mechanic that I found to be endlessly amusing. One of my earliest memories is coming home from school and finding out my dad had just purchased it for the NES, needing my help as he was puzzled what to do with the orb that appears after defeating Birdo. When I found out years later that the game I loved was not actually a Mario game...well, I didn't care, and I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't consider this a Mario game even knowing its backstory.
Anyway, the main point is that I would love to see Nintendo pay homage to Super Mario Brothers 2 for the next Mario Platformer they produce, be it New Super Mario Brothers 3, or the next 3D Land. Personally I'd prefer the latter...and hey, they have the perfect name for it since it'll be "Super Mario 3D Land 2" and everything. When I say "homage", I don't mean a remake...for one, while I enjoyed the "pick-up-enemies" game-play in the original, I don't necessarily wanna see that in a modern Mario Platformer. They could incorporate it a bit, like there being pick-up vegetables and potions, but apart from that I'd still like it to be "jump on enemies to kill them" gameplay. And rather than the weird health-system Mario Bros. 2 had, I would rather them just use the classic "Mario->Super Mario->Power-Up" health system.
Now, the one game-play element of Mario Brothers 2 that I think would be vital to incorporate is the multiple characters...Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad being the four playable characters, of course. This would fit neatly in New Super Mario Brothers co-op style, but I think a single-player 3D Land game would also be neat with multiple characters. Rather than making them unlockable, or forcing you to beat the game with all four characters to unlock extra stuff (beating levels 4 times seems a bit much), I'd love for it to be simply completely optional like in Mario Bros. 2. Let the player switch between the characters on the World Map at their leisure, with everyone sharing the same lives, but the characters could have their own health...i.e., Mario might be Super Mario at the moment, but Luigi could be regular Luigi. The characters would have differences, and this would affect the game difficulty meaning players could kind of choose their level of play...Mario is the average-man for standard players, Peach is easier to use as she could float to save herself, Toad would be for speed-runners, being extremely fast without much flair, and Luigi would be quirky and difficult yet good if mastered, with his trademark slippery style and high jumps.
Most importantly, however, the game would have to bring back all the classic Mario 2 baddies...Birdo, Clawgrip, Mouser, Tryclyde, and, of course, Wart. Oh, and there'd need to be levels where you're pursued by Phanto, naturally. The Bird Statue would also return, taking the place of Flagpoles, and at the end of each level you'd have to fight an enemy who would be guarding the orb to open it. And the Subspace Potions could return too...like, for example, when tossed on the ground, a door would appear leading to a special version of the map with secret items and such, maybe even alternate exits. Like, you'd see a hint in the normal version that there's a hidden exit, and thus would need to use your Subspace Potion in that location or something.
Although the game is essentially a palette-swap version of Doki Doki Panic, as I am sure everyone here is aware of, and its altered game-play seems odd when placed beside the rest of the Mario "canon", it was actually my favorite Mario game as a child. I loved the music, multiple characters with actual differences beyond simple aesthetics, and the gameplay as well...sitting on enemies as they walk around, and even hitching a ride on the Pidgits and Ostros, was a game-play mechanic that I found to be endlessly amusing. One of my earliest memories is coming home from school and finding out my dad had just purchased it for the NES, needing my help as he was puzzled what to do with the orb that appears after defeating Birdo. When I found out years later that the game I loved was not actually a Mario game...well, I didn't care, and I don't think there's anyone out there who doesn't consider this a Mario game even knowing its backstory.
Anyway, the main point is that I would love to see Nintendo pay homage to Super Mario Brothers 2 for the next Mario Platformer they produce, be it New Super Mario Brothers 3, or the next 3D Land. Personally I'd prefer the latter...and hey, they have the perfect name for it since it'll be "Super Mario 3D Land 2" and everything. When I say "homage", I don't mean a remake...for one, while I enjoyed the "pick-up-enemies" game-play in the original, I don't necessarily wanna see that in a modern Mario Platformer. They could incorporate it a bit, like there being pick-up vegetables and potions, but apart from that I'd still like it to be "jump on enemies to kill them" gameplay. And rather than the weird health-system Mario Bros. 2 had, I would rather them just use the classic "Mario->Super Mario->Power-Up" health system.
Now, the one game-play element of Mario Brothers 2 that I think would be vital to incorporate is the multiple characters...Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad being the four playable characters, of course. This would fit neatly in New Super Mario Brothers co-op style, but I think a single-player 3D Land game would also be neat with multiple characters. Rather than making them unlockable, or forcing you to beat the game with all four characters to unlock extra stuff (beating levels 4 times seems a bit much), I'd love for it to be simply completely optional like in Mario Bros. 2. Let the player switch between the characters on the World Map at their leisure, with everyone sharing the same lives, but the characters could have their own health...i.e., Mario might be Super Mario at the moment, but Luigi could be regular Luigi. The characters would have differences, and this would affect the game difficulty meaning players could kind of choose their level of play...Mario is the average-man for standard players, Peach is easier to use as she could float to save herself, Toad would be for speed-runners, being extremely fast without much flair, and Luigi would be quirky and difficult yet good if mastered, with his trademark slippery style and high jumps.
Most importantly, however, the game would have to bring back all the classic Mario 2 baddies...Birdo, Clawgrip, Mouser, Tryclyde, and, of course, Wart. Oh, and there'd need to be levels where you're pursued by Phanto, naturally. The Bird Statue would also return, taking the place of Flagpoles, and at the end of each level you'd have to fight an enemy who would be guarding the orb to open it. And the Subspace Potions could return too...like, for example, when tossed on the ground, a door would appear leading to a special version of the map with secret items and such, maybe even alternate exits. Like, you'd see a hint in the normal version that there's a hidden exit, and thus would need to use your Subspace Potion in that location or something.
