Feldschlacht VI's Blog

Mario. As a game designer now, I remember back to when I was a little kid, Mario was pretty much all I cared about. #the easy life- And as I aged, I was blessed with many great Mario games to keep me distracted and quiet and my parents happy.

But I’d like to talk about the new age of Mario. Particularly the Wii and the Wii U games. What happened? They are geared towards little kids, or little pussies. The games are way too easy and forgiving. Especially a majority of the Mario games. And besides the fact that they are way too easy, the target audience seems to be toddlers. Fuck kids. They aren’t the only ones who play video games. A lot of sad lonely adults play video games also. What about them?

I realize that Mario games have always been full of bright colors, cheerful atmospheres and such. But the old games had a balance to these kind of things. And they were all at least somewhat challenging. The new Mario games are just way too easy to the point where they feel empty and devoid of gameplay.

Here’s a screenshot from “Mario 3D World.” 

 

What you’re seeing here is Mario running with the “White Tanooki Suit” traversing around the level without a care in the world because he’s completely invincible. This happens when the players fails to complete a level and loses five lives in a row. They are then given the option of being a pussy and using the White Tanooki Suit to beat the level with ease. I think the White Tanooki suit was a horrible decision and is a foreshadowing of bad things to come from Nintendo.

Now I can already imagine the counter argument people would give me, it would go something like “you’re a DICK, you don’t have to get the white tanooki suit you asshole, and stop taking video games so seriously blah blah.”

Well, fuck you. I do take video games seriously. Because if I don’t, who will? I view games as an art form like any other. You see, challenge is one of the many variables that separates a video game from a fisher price kids toy. Or whatever other cheap distraction parents buy for their kids to keep them content. The fact that a person is interacting with a video game, instead of just watching it like a movie. This makes video games into an intricate art form, capable of making the player feel even more connected to the characters they are playing, and the story they are witnessing. So fuck you, and everyone else who doesn’t take video games seriously… or doesn’t %100 agree with my opinion. 🙂

Back to the “White Tanooki Suit.” From the perspective of a game designer, this is the worst decision ever. From the perspective of a company trying to sell video games. This is the best decision ever.

See, kids today have small attention spans, with all the sugar being pumped into their veins and whatnot. These little shits can’t even sit through a 2 hour movie let alone play a video game. If the little kid keeps dying over and over, he or she is probably going to throw down the controller, forget about the game and move onto something else. Thus bringing the sales of Nintendo games to a halt. Right?

Wrong.

When I was young (back in the days of NES.) I would often have trouble beating certain Nintendo games. I mean shit, they were hard! And unforgiving. A lot of them didn’t have battery backups for saving. So when you died, or turned off the game you’d have to start all over from the beginning. Ain’t that a bitch? So naturally you would get frustrated and walk away from the game thinking “fuck this.” But later in the day, or the next day or whatever, You would be tempted to try again. And this time try harder. You see, this is why our generation are the seasoned veterans of the video game industry. And why we aren’t complete pussies. To beat Nintendo games back in the day we had to nut up and hone our skills to perfection. And when we finally beat the game we felt accomplished and triumphant. None of this pussy “beat the level for us” shit.

But nowadays a lot of that is changed. Little kids aren’t challenged to beat the game. If they die there is little consequence. The games are as forgiving as possible. This mentality mirrors our attitudes in real life. Kids nowadays aren’t being pushed hard enough. Failing at something, and being punished for failing at it builds strength and character. Nowadays kids have no incentive to try harder. Victories are just handed to them without any work or effort on their part. This is what I call pussification of a generation. And it seems to get worse every few years.

But anyway, I’m getting off track.

I believe game companies like Nintendo are too scared to make their games challenging because they believe it will turn kids off to their products. But inadvertently, they are turning older kids off to their products. This attitude in general scares me. Because video games are waning away from having actual solid gameplay. And are starting to be more geared towards appeasing little children with bright colors and non threatening, non challenging games. The fact that a Mario game, one of the most prominent icons in the video game industry would include a White Tanooki Suit that virtually beats the level for you is evidence enough that recent Mario games are going in this very direction. This game mechanic alone breaks so many rules of game design. And at the rate Nintendo is going, their games will soon be little more than toys for distracting small children.

Look at this screenshot. If you’ve played Dark Souls you’ve probably seen this screen a lot.

This is just fucking awesome. This is how a game over screen is supposed to look. It’s just there, in bold; red; depressing capital letters. “YOU DIED.” No bullshit attached. No babying, no beating around the bush, no Tanooki Suit just “you died, next time try harder faggot.”

Isn’t that awesome? Dark Souls is an awesome game. And it brings me hope. Not every game needs to be as ridiculously hard as the notorious Dark Souls. (Even though I didn’t think it was that hard). But maybe games can find a medium in between that and a fucking Tanooki Suit that grants invincibility.

Man… I mentioned that White Tanooki Suit a lot didn’t I?