Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Episode 74 ANNOUNCEMENT



Episode 74: "Rusty Pipes" - which will deal with whether or not the Super Mario Bros. series has overstayed it's welcome and that other thing that was revealed at the end of last episode - will make it's debut on Thursday 8/30. ScrewAttack Advantage members can get an early look on Monday 8/27.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this is going to be like that one segment on the Big Picture, I'm pretty sure I know how this is going to go down:

"New Super Mario Bros. only has one release per console, and they added new suits and enemies with each game, so at least it's not as bad as Call of Duty. Plus, it's a return to sidescrolling platforming, which we haven't seen in a while."

But the sad thing is, even though Call of Duty is a yearly release, each game has new stories, new characters, new maps, new mechanics, new perks, new weapons, and new multiplayer options. As much as people like to say it's the same game every year, there is something new to expect with each release. Not enough to justify a yearly release, but there is something there.

In other words, each Call of Duty game has about as much change and innovation as each New Super Mario Bros. game, but released in less time. Since Nintendo isn't releasing Mario games yearly, they have no excuse as to why they feel the need to recycle assets from music to graphics to animations to the game engine. On top of that, they know the games will sell just because they're called Mario, so there's no reason why they can't take a risk and try something totally different. It's just laziness.

And just for a final thought, the only reason a game should be a sidescroller is if it's a new franchise or if the developer wants to experiment with new ideas on existing franchises without losing too much money. New Super Mario Bros. is neither: it's a low-cost, low-risk sub-franchise that only exists because Nintendo knows it's easy money.

JPArbiter said...

Well you got me interested. the Anti Thinker did not work that well the first time, but over the course of the past year you have moved from parody to a real examination of the sub aspects of gamer culture, so lets see what you do here.

slick use of the Terminator theme, I presume for copyright reasons you could not use the original soundtrack recordings?

Sam Robards, Comic Fan said...

I'm interested to see your thoughts on this, Bob.

I myself think Mario hasn't overstayed its welcome: I just think they've gotten a little complacent since Galaxy came out 5 years ago.

I wonder if Bob's going to reference Jim Sterling's take on this subject.

Sabre said...

Anon- I acctually brought up that point in a video I did a while ago.
http://youtu.be/WwlApV8QjZ0

Bob is putting himself in a lose-lose situation with this vid. Either he says something bad about Mario, which will likely piss off most of his audience who are nostalgic Nintendo fans, or he defends Mario, in which case he is guilty of the hypocrisy mentioned in the above video.

ScrewAttackSamus said...

Mario has "overstayed" his welcome as much as Bugs Bunny has. He's the face of gaming Anyone who honestly thinks otherwise is a moron.

Evilkinggumby said...

Wow bob makes this post/announcement and Screwattack.com goes down due to technical difficulties.. coincidence?! I think NOT...

Psyched for the upcoming video. Though does this mean it will feature Bob or his nemesis dressed as Ahnold? All half naked and holding a really big gun? Now THAT would be a twist no one saw coming.

The Almighty Narf said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Almighty Narf said...

I think it's less an issue that Mario specifically has overstayed his welcome, and more an issue that Nintendo managed success with Wii and DS, and are now wallowing in complacency. I can't think of a single Nintendo game that started development after the Wii came out that had an once of creativity.

Last place Nintendo was far more interesting than 1st place Nintendo, and I'd actually really like to see them get back to that point so we'd get some interesting games out of them again.

Anonymous said...

Nintendo can do better with the 2D Mario games but they don't because they don't want to.

It's not a theory its a fact. Read up the interviews with Miyamoto his being trying to make 2D Mario players buy 3D Mario for years now because those are the games he wants to makes. Yet the customers want 2D Mario more.

His reaction? Put in much more work for the 3D Marios (better graphics,more variety between worlds, orchestras for soundtracks.) what does 2D Mario games get? The bare bone minimum graphics, repetitive ""WAH WAH"" music and frankly barely anything new.

Which are what people are noticing and getting mad about. Why does the game series that sell 20 million get the scraps? Why are smaller studios making much more challenging and frankly better looking 2D platformers than Nintendo?

Nintendo have the assets to make an AMAZING 2D Mario game, something that can really rival there older stuff but they don't because of the old stubborn men who work there.

Manticore said...

Really I don't see a crisis. I mean an issue. sorta I mean three mario games in twelve months is straining. but this isn't new. Remember Attack of the Show mocking him for whoring himself?

The main problem is a good thing. The "retro" revival has given us something wonderful. A cycle of media and styles. Sidescrolling platformers are a live genre. And with this competition Nintendo has stuck with the familiar. A standard of quality but not the highest.

I said this about the Zelda release last Christmas. Zelda wasa solid B. That was good because Zelda is experiencing grading on a curve in a world where many different action adventure games are competing and doing things. So of course Skyward Sword feels a little.. well old hat. Nothing baaaad (well the padded quests) but not as much good as if competing.

Mario is the same way. Now to be fair you could say New Super Mario Bros Wii was their answer to LBP and what an effective response for their profits. And it was fun and entertaining.

It really the 3DS thing that's got me feeling "that's a little gimmicky" particularly a mismatched gimmick especially with the other platformer challenges coming along.

So Yeah Mario is being lapped but its still a classic standard in quality and I don't see any game as BAD just maybe, ya, time to reassess and compete platformers are no longer a dead or completely won genre.

Anonymous said...

I just want them to stop using that horrible soundtrack for those games.

Seriously, if I have to hear that 'BAH BAH' sheep noise ever again, I'm going to end up hurting someone.

Anonymous said...

"And just for a final thought, the only reason a game should be a sidescroller is if it's a new franchise or if the developer wants to experiment with new ideas on existing franchises without losing too much money. New Super Mario Bros. is neither: it's a low-cost, low-risk sub-franchise that only exists because Nintendo knows it's easy money."

While i do agree that they are a bit lazy with the recycled music and levels, i don´t really see what´s wrong with making a 2d sidescroller. It´s a different gameplay experience than a 3D platform game (imo a better experience) so why not do both? But i would like to see a new mario game that does something new. It´s like the Zelda games, always the same areas and you always fight the same enemies, it gets boring after a couple of games, no more vile plants and rock shooting bushes!

- MrBaskerville

Sabre said...

"While i do agree that they are a bit lazy with the recycled music and levels, i don´t really see what´s wrong with making a 2d sidescroller. It´s a different gameplay experience than a 3D platform game (imo a better experience) so why not do both?"

No one is saying they should never do side scrollers. I remember the DS game being well received. The difference is that they are doing the least amount of work possible, and farting it out for all the "dumbshit hardcores" -I mean "retro gamers" to line up and buy again.

There is a video on the internet about it called "GameOverThinker: Worst Person".

That's not really about Mario of course, but most of the same arguments used to attack FPS games can be applied to Mario very easily, and recently Nintendo has gone full Activision and is churning Mario games out so fast and so little difference that they are starting to blur together.

I don't want to keep plugging my video on someone else's blog, but this is well worn ground I covered a while ago.

Anonymous said...

I was mostly commenting on this line:
"And just for a final thought, the only reason a game should be a sidescroller is if it's a new franchise or if the developer wants to experiment with new ideas on existing franchises without losing too much money."

I think it implies that one should never make a sidescroller unless you wanted to experiment or establish a new franchise. Which i think is boulderdash! But i agree with the rest. I wouldn´t mind a new 2D mario game if it had interesting and fresh backgrounds and new music, giving it a distinct feel. The new Mario bros games, while fun, tend to pander a bit too much to nostalgia. While it could easily have been something more, had they put more time into the presentation.

But the problem with Nintendo in general is that their franchises tend to rely to much on repetition. Zelda games has to have the same forest area, the same lava area, the same desert and so on, with the same enemy types, and same goes for Mario. You know exactly what you´re getting, and it´s getting a bit old.

- MrBaskerville

Anonymous said...

Calling it right now-the Monster Voiced evil Boss character is the Ninja senator.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm... my guess? The monster-voiced guy is called the OverActor. Believes in action over thoughts, a believer rather than a thinker, plus, you know... pun.
Ah screw it, it's MechaKara.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it´s a crossover with the Irate gamer :D, fingers crossed.

JPArbiter said...

I am Screwattack advantage, so right now I am giggling at how so many, particularly Anon number 1 was wrong.

Michael Sriqui said...

My name is Michael Sriqui, I am a big fan of the game overthinker, eventhough I did not grow up during the era of the NES I still have fond memories of nintendo power. I think I just discovered something incredible when reading the pdf of the first issue of Nintendo Power; if you look at the NES Achiever's rankings for Super Mario Bros. the person on the top of that list is none other that Cliff Bleszinski the creator of Gears of War, I checked the location as well and it turns out that the place they list as his hometown is realy where Cliffy B. comes from. Holy Sh@#t I guess that Cliffy B. was a big SMB player when he was younger.

smile said...

Let me predict the conclusion of the video: Mario is not going anywhere.

Come on - yeah, yeah, we can bitch about New Super Mario Bros. but we're all eager to see what happens with the new Luigi's Mansion and Paper Mario.

And you know we're all interested in whatever new direction a 3D Mario will go.

And if Good Feel did a 2D Mario, we'd be down for that too.

I'm not too hung up on this.

Anonymous said...

>Brining the anti thinker back
>Anti thinker
>Back

Bob... Why are you taking obvious steps back?

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