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Super Mario Odyssey Announced (Holiday 2017)

Nepenthe

Member
So do y'all thing that's Peach's new crown forever, or is that a thing specific to this game in-line with Mario's new cap?

Won't stick. The "classic" Mario designs are a staple and thus only more marketable year after year. Little changes per game are nice diversions, but permanent revisions aren't up Nintendo's alley at this point in their life, I think.
 

rex

Member
Like three of them.
:p

I imagine they'll be a few token levels that resemble the dense, rich, tightly focused, creative obstacle courses from the so called "accessible" (this is what Mr.Miyamoto officially called them in the stream) 3D Mario games like Galaxy and 3D World.
But I'm expecting this game to mainly consist of lot of "Oh no! This person's cat is stuck in a tree, roll down the hill and bash it to get the MaGuffin!", "Gather some food in the immediate area and throw it in the pot!", and "swing on these 8 or so polls to get to the MacGuffin!"
You know that Spyro the Dragon/Banjo-Kazooie shit, stuff that feels like a Zelda side-quest.
Sandbox Mario in a nutshell.

Sandbox Mario is riding up the mountain in Bob-omb Battlefield on a turtle shell.

It's grabbing a box and springing over the sandy dunes of Shifting Sand Land, up the side of a pyramid and crashing into a star.

It's climbing up Tick Tock Clock with obstacles going completely haywire because the player happened to enter the level at a certain time.

It's running, jumping, flipping, diving and wall kicking around a castle courtyard because it's simply fun to slingshot Mario around your screen.

And now, Sandbox Mario is throwing your hat out, landing a jump square on it, and bounding across the level in a way the developers may have never even intended.

But hey, if you just need that linearity I hear the Crash games are being remade.
 
Like three of them.
:p

I imagine they'll be a few token levels that resemble the dense, rich, tightly focused, creative obstacle courses from the so called "accessible" (this is what Mr.Miyamoto officially called them in the stream) 3D Mario games like Galaxy and 3D World.
But I'm expecting this game to mainly consist of lot of "Oh no! This person's cat is stuck in a tree, roll down the hill and bash it to get the MaGuffin!", "Gather some food in the immediate area and throw it in the pot!", and "swing on these 8 or so polls to get to the MacGuffin!"
You know that Spyro the Dragon/Banjo-Kazooie shit, stuff that feels like a Zelda side-quest.
Sandbox Mario in a nutshell.

Were 64 and Sunshine like that, though? If they're planning on replicating the style of those games, it's likely that the levels will be richly packed with dense design and platforming to accommodate Mario's acrobatic moveset. I mean, just watch the trailer. Wall jumping between buildings, using the umbrella to jump onto the house to pick up those... things, etc. The game doesn't look like the tightly designed levels of Galaxy 2 and 3D World, but it's not like it's not going to be a platformer.

I don't think that this is going to be a collectathon or "Triforce Quest" game, it looks like a return to form. I'm hoping that there still are dense 3D World-like levels in there as well, like in Sunshine.
 

Zips

Member
Has anyone modified the old Smithers Malibu Stacey picture to say "But now he can throw his hat", because that's what I instantly thought of when they showed that part.

Looked interesting - except for the city and regular people. That looked odd. Will wait and see how it turns out.
 
HrdcwXG.png

So is it just me or does it seem like the playable area in New Donk City is set on a small city built on the top of a much larger sky scraper?

Anyway, these disagreements about the art direction is pretty refreshing for a Mario game if you ask me, it's been a long time coming that Mario goes in a completely different direction.

Game looks incredible if you ask me, and it's definitely the Mario 64 esque game I've been asking for, they even have the damn dive move back. The hat throw jump combo looks sick as hell, too.
 

rex

Member
Regarding the camera of the new game: please give us camera snaps Nintendo. Crisp 90 degree turns like in SM64. No slow pans.
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
The developer panel for this game is on on the Nintendo stream right now.

Too bad I can't understand anything being said.
 
I hope by the end of development the city will look a lot more diverse... they have almost a year to complete it so it definitely will look much better when it comes out, but still.

Anyone notice how much reused stuff there is throughout the city? Same 2 or 3 people throughout (All of them look bland af, too), I'm pretty sure every car I've seen has been a taxi, the environment itself is very bricky and block; a far cry from the liveliness of Rockstar's incredible Los Santos.

No matter what, this is going to be fun to play. I know they have that on lock-down, I just want them to hone in on the look of the world too. I'm down with a more realistic looking city, but it really needs more life to it. The more cartoony worlds, especially the Mexican desert look fucking awesome.
 

Mik2121

Member
For anyone wondering what that above says:

[3D MARIO]

( Course Clear style 3D (stage based) )

( Open World style 3D )





---


BTW after watching the video a few more times, I'm starting to feel OK-ish with the more realistic areas. I still think that they should stylize it a bit because all the thinner elements don't play well with the lack of AA and it just looks messy. When watching it on a very small window though, I can see what they're trying to achieve (Mario in the real world sort of vibe) and it's not too bad. I wonder if they are pushing this idea a bit more thanks to the Super Nintendo World area in Universal Studios. Having this ingame already will make the Mario mascot running around the real world fit better.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I'm glad to see the return of semi open worlds and the acrobatic moveset but I'm disappointed the game appears to transport you through a series of unrelated stages via your hat spaceship.

Member the 2d marios where you would move through themed naturally connected lands of the mushroom kingdom? When will they recreate this in a 3D Mario? :/

The art is all over the place and looks extremely amateur in the city and forest environments. Like something you'd see in a crappy 3D card graphics demo fifteen years ago. However, the possibility that Donkey King may return as a mini boss where they could recreate Mario ascending a crooked building framework while jumping barrels and dodging obstacles is quite awesome.
You mean the Grass,Snow,Dessert,etc? Im glad they are done with those for now.
3D World tried something similar but for some reason the themes didnt fit the level
 

NathanS

Member
Sandbox Mario is riding up the mountain in Bob-omb Battlefield on a turtle shell.

It's grabbing a box and springing over the sandy dunes of Shifting Sand Land, up the side of a pyramid and crashing into a star.

It's climbing up Tick Tock Clock with obstacles going completely haywire because the player happened to enter the level at a certain time.

It's running, jumping, flipping, diving and wall kicking around a castle courtyard because it's simply fun to slingshot Mario around your screen.

And now, Sandbox Mario is throwing your hat out, landing a jump square on it, and bounding across the level in a way the developers may have never even intended.

But hey, if you just need that linearity I hear the Crash games are being remade.

I am simultaneously confused when people don't see those elements in 64 Sunhine AND when people act like their only in 64 and Sunshine.

As I noted every main line Mario Platformer has heavy playground element which leads to their being far less difference between 2d Mario; 64, Sunshine Mario, Glaxay Mario and the 3d series Mario. To show this let's look at an actual 2d Mario course and point out the playground elements and speculate how easily this course could be converted into any of the existing 3d Mario styles.

I'll be using 2-3 from Super Mario Brothers 3. I choose SMB3 because it's both well regard by almost everyone and in terms of its level design. It's also not one of the Mario games often described as “exploratory” and this level in particular is pretty straightforward, housing only one secret area.

Here's the level:
http://www.nesmaps.com/maps/SuperMar...os3Map2-3.html

The level in fact looks to be the very linear form of course design that we think of 3d Land having well having nothing in common with 64's course designs, and noted not to empower the player to mess around. But that misses so much. In fact this level is full of places to get expressive.

The course can be divide into three main section, the one-way block pyramids, the two brick block pyramids and the brick block pyramid covering the exit pipe.

The first section is patrolled by fire snakes and Koopa Troopas and three pits separating each the pyramids. The easiest way to handle this section is to run right past it, this section that makes up a good half of the level is almost all about messing about. At the top of each of pyramid are two “?” blocks, but they blocked on the bottom by brick blocks. This means a player that enters the course powered up is rewarded with easy prizes. But the first two set of blocks are arranged to be able to broken with a Koopa Troopa Shells easily. The first and last one-way block pyramids give power up so with good play even if you start the course as regular Mario you can power all the way up to Raccoon Mario. In between the two is a Starman, which could easily tempt a player to grab it and run right past the second Super leaf block losing out on the chance to power up. I could keep going on about this one section, but lets move on.

The Second section is patrolled by Brick Goombas and some more Koopa Troopas. Once more the easiest way to handle this section is to run right through it, up the first brick block pyramid, across the wooden blocks and down the second brick block pyramid, and again you’d be missing out. The simple fact that they're a bunch of Brick blocks here means a player can just mess around destroying them with a raccoon tail or using the Koopa Troopas here, possible discovering the hidden 1-Up well doing so. Of course the real prize is getting to the hidden platforms in the sky. You can reach them form flying, or by uncovering invisible blocks. If flying your more likely to uncover the higher, more hidden of the platforms which holds a P-switch turns all the brick blocks into coins easily giving you access to the 1-up and tons of coins.

Finally we have the half of a Brick block pyramid blocking a pipe to the exit area. Once more we have a few Koopa Troopas patrolling the area, and this time making use of their shells is mandatory. Well most of this course engaging with way enemies, level element and Mario's actions can all play off one another has been optional now you HAVE to engage with how shells brick blocks and coin blocks interact. It's sort of mandatory playing about to end the course, no real challenge, just a brief bit of watching the game do some pinball with its elements. You do get one final option before the leave though, a 10-coin block rests in the area the Koopa shell will end up bouncing back and forth, giving the option to test your reaction skills to get closer to another life.

Oh boy,I, didn't really cover everything you could say about that course, an early not super special or hard one that you can race through in under 30 seconds. All hiding a mini playground of platforming you can mess around in all sorts of ways other then just moving forward. Lord the level design in SMB3 is great.

Anyways I feel how that translates into 3d Land or World doesn’t need to be too elaborated on, 3d versions of those sections arranged in a straight line. So let's move on to the form of Mario that seems most removed from SMB3's level design, 64.

At the most basic all you need to do to make this take the sections put them in an open area, perhaps in a rough circle. Then take each sections and take the optional goals and make some of them power stars. Have to break into one encased at the top of the one-way block pyramids, perhaps you need to grab a power up to do so or triple jump/use a cannon to get into an area on the top of the pyramid. Fly up on to the flouting platforms. Instead of finding a 1-up in the brick block pyramid it's a star, that sort of thing.

Galaxy could work by placing each section on a planet and one of the mission that got you a power star in 64 would create a launch star to send you to the next section.

At heart most Mario games are working form the same building blocks, just provide different focuses on elements that are in all of them. 64's greater playground feel comes from not setting a clear overarching goal, such a single end point. Add one of those and a lot of people will get certain amount of tunnel vision and not notice all the playground elements that exist on the way to end point. Remove it and its like taking blinders off the entire possibility of messing about comes into focus.
 

KtSlime

Member
I see I'm not the only one watching the Japanese presentation. Should be nice to go back to the sandbox style. Game looks real fun.
 

orioto

Good Art™
After watching the vid many times i'm starting to get hyped. There are pretty nice things there, even technically. And at first i noticed too many empty boring zones but there are a lot of shorter piece of levels with density and platforming.

It should be great in the end i'm sure.
Now this is clearly a little rough but maybe it will evolve a lot till release.

Also we've been used, with 3D World and Galaxy, to some kind of perfection. At least to me, those games looked perfect, but it was more easy cause they had a style and a scope that allowed to do that. The cameras, the size of the levels..

There it's going to be more difficult to hide the limits. The game must be way more demanding technically.
 

ghibli99

Member
HrdcwXG.png

So is it just me or does it seem like the playable area in New Donk City is set on a small city built on the top of a much larger sky scraper?

Anyway, these disagreements about the art direction is pretty refreshing for a Mario game if you ask me, it's been a long time coming that Mario goes in a completely different direction.

Game looks incredible if you ask me, and it's definitely the Mario 64 esque game I've been asking for, they even have the damn dive move back. The hat throw jump combo looks sick as hell, too.
That screencap alone makes me want to just explore the crap out of it. You can see stuff jutting out to the edges of the screen, etc. God, if only this were a launch title. I know they probably don't want to blow their wad in one go, but an open-world Mario and Zelda game at launch... that might've kept me busy all year. LOL
 

Grisby

Member
Looked good. City stuff was a bit weird, but in a good way. I like the fact that Mario seems to be focusing on a true single player again (no buds).
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
For those not watching, they just showed off multiple different jumps, slides, and climbing mechanics in the city area.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
Does anybody else think Grow Home is the only recent thing that even remotely recalls the "sandbox platformer" style of Mario 64? I think it's just the combination of big worlds and gameplay purely focused on movement. Odyssey might end up feeling refreshing because that structure of platformer kind of died out after Sunshine. I never played any of the main PlayStation platformers though so I don't know what those are like.
 

Morts

Member
Didn't see the side-flip or the butt slide in that new moves video. I hope they're in there.

Also, do we know if it's analog movement or 8-way with run button?
 

Sterok

Member

At least Nintendo was smart enough to group Galaxy with 3D__.

Galaxy is far superior to everything else, and I liked 3D__ more than 64, but exploration is fine as long as the platforming is tight and creative, which looks to be the case like Mario always is, so this should be fine.
 

jett

D-Member
I'm glad to see they aren't just abandoning the foundation laid by 64 and Sunshine. It would have been sad to not see that style of Mario again.

I like SM64 and all, but I hope they make changes to the foundation of having to redo the same level multiple times to get another star.
 
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