It's not disingenuous. Everything you talked about is just level design and enemy placement. It's okay to be all right with a level pack. Smash Bros. is unlikely to undergo any major changes, and I'm looking forward to it.
Level design is a HUGE improvement over past games. It's disingenuous to call it a map pack because a map pack implies no such improvements. You're using loaded language so you don't have to make a point.
But for myself and many others, the core NSMB design was already stale after 3 entries. Honestly, NSMB is like if they released a Lost Levels 1-4, instead of SMB2usa, SMB3, and SMW. And if they did that, I probably wouldn't be talking about Mario today.
And many people were upset that SMB2usa changed too much. Where you upset at SMB3 going back to standard Mario gameplay and SMW not changing that much? Hell, SMW went back to SMB1 level tropes after SMB3 expanded concepts. Do you hate SMW?
I'm not saying that the 3 star coin mechanic is bad. It's a fine incentive for exploration. But we already had it in the NSMB1-3, then we got it in 3D Land, and then it's back in NSMBU and 3D World.
It's enough already. Time to come up with something fresh. I don't know what that is. I'm not a game designer. But I'll bet tons of indie devs have better ideas than just recycling the 3 coins in more challenging spots.
And what would you replace them with? They're trinkets of look of which doesn't matter that are hidden within levels for extra challenge. SMW had keys, Yoshi's island had flowers, red coins, and stars, Mario 64 had 100 coins, Sunshine had blue coins, Galaxy 2 had hidden medals and green stars, 3D Land had coins, 3D World has green stars. They are hidden in new and more elaborate ways. The challenge is new each time so their form doesn't matter.
The coins aren't just for collecting, they also unlock more content.
I'll concede this: if every review and impression cited level design that was a "billion times better", I'd overlook the formulaic nature of NSMB and play the game. But that's just not the case. It's one person's opinion. I respect it, but it's not the general consensus.
Well, the general consensus from people that have played it seems to be that it's one of or the best 2D Marios...
And my own judgment is on way more than the physics. It's down to everything I listed. When DK '94 came out, I was blown away. "Look at all the cool stuff Mario can do!" You could use those mechanics to reach all new areas and do new things. When I play NSMB, I'm not excited or intrigued. It's just, "Oh. A triple jump. A butt stomp."
Again, so SMB3 was a huge disappointment, right? Mario's moveset shrunk and they went back to just one character with one set of moves. It doesn't matter that the level design was great? They gave him a new powerup that allowed him to fly, but powerups don't count? I think you're putting way too much emphasis on something that doesn't make the game worse to play.
If you want to see a game where the physics and movesets make a game worse, look at modern 2D Sonic games, but those also have really bad level design.
If movesets are so important shouldn't 3D World be the most exciting thing you've seen? 4 characters with unique movesets in 3D.
Of course, they could drop a flagpole from the sky and it's the same as a star, but come on... When do they ever do this? Never. They use flagpoles to denote an end of level goal.
Mario 3D World would never have a goal like the having to chase down the star at the end of an eel's tail in Mario 64. Flagpoles just don't accommodate those dynamic goals. Technically, Nintendo could drop a flagpole from the sky or unlock one, but they've never treated flagpoles like that ever.
No, but they could cut you off from the flagpole using doors and pipes that have to be unlocked via adventure elements. For example, the ghost houses in NSMB games are disliked because they're less about platforming and more about trying to find the exit. They still have flagpoles at the end, but you gotta find them. 3D Land had a level that was essentially a Zelda dungeon where you had to use fire Mario to light torches to open doors. One level from the 3D World demo had a section where you had to collect 5 keys to unlock a warp box to reach the flag pole. It is quite easy to use flagpoles in the same way that power stars work. There's nothing stopping them from putting keys at the end of an eel's tail that unlocks the path to the flagpole.
I would rather have a higher amount of unique levels, possibly with hidden exits, than a level you go through 7 times with goals like "Climb to the top of the mountain and do something!" and "Climb to the top of the same mountain and do something else!"
Also, 3D Land uses star coins as power stars. Although the levels end in flag poles, you need to unlock the way forward by collecting the star coins. It's likely that 3D World will use the green stars the same way, so you basically have flagpoles and power stars in the same game.
I don't understand the first thing. Was Galaxy not a 3D platformer?
I don't consider multiple characters new. We played SMB2. Okay, now it's in 3D. Galaxy already had Luigi. So the new options are a slight speed boost and the hover, which the challenge is not based around.
The third thing - the cat suit - I am actually very interested in. I think the mechanic of climbing walls is great, and I hope it's used well. It's the most interesting thing shown so far.
That said, it's not comparable to Sunshine. FLUDD (in addition to being three suits in one) was always with you. The cat suit, because you can lose it, is more likely to be treated as a non-essential item. After all, there can never be a segment where you can get hit and then need the suit without getting it back.
In fact, I'd be much more intrigued by this game if they came out and said, "Mario can now scramble up walls. This will inform every level in the game." That'd be much more exciting.
Mario Galaxy had a lot more platforming to the point that it's closer to 3D Land than it is to Mario 64/Sunshine imo, but the platforming still wasn't as high quality as 3D Land. 3D Land was hampered by being on a portable console where it couldn't have very complex level design. It should be refreshing to play a game like 3D Land that focuses on more challenging platforming on a console powerful enough to not hold the dev team back.
Multiple characters aren't new, but they aren't done often, especially in 3D. When was the last time Peach was playable? Uh-huh.
Despite not being a permanent moveset, the level design is built around the cat powerup. There are walls you can climb to find hidden routes and secrets. They've put new obstacles like wall conveyor belts to make new puzzles for the cat suit. There are new purple blocks that can only be destroyed by the cat suit.
Both of those are direct sequels. And we've established that for all its challenge and moving parts, NSMBU is extremely similar if not identical in core mechanics to its predecessors.
Sure, we can say we don't want to change "what Mario is." But what is Mario?
Super Mario Bros 2 USA redefined what Mario is at his core. Super Mario Bros 3 gave him flight and other suits. Super Mario World gave him permanent flight and a dinosaur friend that ate enemies and had powers.
Mario 64 redefined what Mario is again, giving him a new adventure in 3D. Mario Sunshine, while flawed, let Mario hover and created a much more more expansive mission-based adventure (almost sandbox in nature). Mario Galaxies brought gravity and spheres and radically shifting themes within levels, and the all important spin attack, and Yoshi's pointer tongue and the sling and fling stars. Even 3D Land combined recent 2D and 3D tropes into a neat combination experiment.
But recently? NSMBU and 3D World. Sure, you call those "new", but much like Nintendo uses the word, it's been sapped of its meaning.
And what is so disappointing about 3D World is that it is the first 3D Mario to ever debut on a console and be a direct sequel.
What does it matter if they are sequels? The mechanics for NSMBU are similar to past games, the level design and gameplay are vastly improved. 3D World shares design philosophies with 3D Land, but 3D Land is on a portable console. The difference in power and what they can do between the games is enormous. We've already seen lots of things that 3D Land never did.
Mario is a guy who runs through levels jumping on things to reach a goal. Sometimes the goal is linear or more like an adventure. Sometimes the 3D games forgot they were platformers and didn't have as much level traversal through skilled platforming.
NSMBU is a 2D game that takes Mario 2D platforming to its greatest heights through it's amazing level design. 3D Land, while having shorter levels due to the hardware it was on, took 3D Mario platforming to its most challenging levels so far.
3D World has a new powerup that allows him to interact with levels in a way never done before in Mario, but that's good enough for SMB3 but not here, apparently.
It's exciting to see what they do with a 3D Mario platformer where platforming is king when they aren't limited by the hardware constraints of the 3DS. And even then, it will surely still have adventurish parts, and those will be great, too.