Topic: New NSMB Games? (Concepts)

This is a place where you can think of new ideas for a new NSMB game. We´ve go to improve them!

I really feel like stand alone 2D Mario games are made obsolete by Mario Maker. I would rather they either do MM2 DLC or MM3.

But if we did see the NSMB series get a new entry, I'd like them to take all the games in the series and release them in one big HD collection - remixed, with all the different power ups.

I reckon there is still room for a Nintendo designed 2D Mario game other than maker X.

My concept would be mario has been shrunk by bowser and Mario has to navigate giant obstacles and try to get back to normal size. Getting back to normal size could be an incremental process and you could revisit different levels as you get bigger allowing access to different areas of each level the bigger you get.

@Heavyarms55 that's a huge misconception. Of course, for you personally and a segment of others that may very well be the case. It still lacks somethings that the 'normal' 2D Marios have, most importantly: curated quality levels. In Mario Maker I'm more often than not searching for ages for one single good level, let alone a whole bunch of them you can keep playing, without getting interrupted by a troll level. That alone has made it impossible for me to really enjoy Mario Maker. I'd much rather play NSMB U for the 3rd or 4th time. I cant imagine I'm the only one.

Of course Mario Maker is great concept on it's own, but it doesnt render 'regular' 2D Mario obsolete.

@toiletduck Naw, it really does. Mario Maker 2 had a wonderful professionally made campaign. And in addition to it, it has endless quality fan made levels. People fixate far too much on all the kid made simple levels. After playing Mario Maker 1 and 2, I really find it very hard to go back to a simple stand alone 2D Mario without the ability to make and play our own levels.

I'd rather they start fresh with a new idea for 2D mario. Enough with NSMB! It's not new anymore anyway. That name was never good. Oh and I'd rather it be made entirely by Nintendo. Mario maker has run it's course. The user created levels were mostly awful or one big troll.

@Heavyarms55 Theoretically Mario Maker should be able to replace 2D Mario in general. In practice, this isn't the case as NSMBU Deluxe largely outsold Mario Maker 2 despite only been 5 months apart.

Making Mario Maker a replacement to the 2D Mario seems a bit too shorted sighted. New 2D Mario games should be expanding the series with adding new powerups, enemies and gameplay mechanics rather than just offering new levels which are just more of the same as Mario Maker can already do that. If the games aren't expanded upon then Mario Maker itself wont have a reason to release number 3.

My idea for a new 2D Mario! Give Mario a sword, palette swap his overalls and give him a name like Swordy Mario. The game itself doesn't really matter at all as it's just an excuse for a new fighter in Smash Bros as you have to buy the game to unlock him there. ;p

@Heavyarms55 I thought that too at one point but what people have tended to do with SMM2 is no replacement for what Nintendo does themselves. You see a lot of cute, clever and self-aware "surely this can't be possible inside Mario Maker... BUT IT IS!" type things and a lot of kaizo nonsense but solid high quality platforming design is quite rare.

The sheer number of levels available and lack of tangible reward for exploring them properly also means it often feels quite pointless. If you look at Mario 3 for instance (or NSMBU), there are plenty of levels that you can basically just walk through... but where there are tons of secrets to be found (in the NSMB series these would be the 3 coins that you're graded on, in Mario 3 it'd be extra lives or power-ups that had a real currency).

Similar levels in SMM2 might be just as well designed but I'd just walk through the level and never return. It's a hard balance to strike.

In terms of the future for 2d Mario - personally I'd like to see an element of discoverability. The original games were very mysterious and rewarded prodding and poking in lots of little ways. The internet has robbed games of much of that - which is why you see the appeal of rogue-likes and SMM2 itself. Possibly some rogue-like elements in a 2d Mario game might be interesting...

Other than that the alternative route would be to see the series take some cues from Mario Run (which I thought was fantastic). The asynchronous competitive mode in that game having elements of rewarding "style" of play is something that you can feel the NSMB reaching towards in places but never quite settling on and I think a game built to emphasize that further would be very interesting.

I think they should go back to regular 2D adventures, but add a Mario Maker-esque level designer as an additional gameplay mode. That would satisfy both sides. As far as what to do with the main campaign, one thing they could do is bring back a feature they cut from the original NSMB, the ability for enemies to grab your powerups. In addition to making the game more challenging, they could potentially make certain challenges that require powered-up enemies to get through, and give you bigger rewards for defeating the powered-up enemies.

@Bolt_Strike I've been thinking for years that it would be cool if enemies could use powerups, but I had no idea it was an actual cut feature from NSMB

All I want is NSMB: Royal or something. You play NSMB Vs 99 others to win. It's a sequel to Mario 35 and there are new features like when you complete a level there is a toad shop where you can spend your coins for items instead of the Item thing. Also, it would be cool if in every stage you had a limited amount of time like let's say 50 seconds for each so that you don't have so much time and there is more of a reason to rush through things! Enemies still go to opponents and so there is still that but you don't get any time for KOing enemies, you just get coins to buy items from toad.

@LatsaSpege if it's a sequel it needs to be Mario 70 ;p

@Dogorilla Yeah, the beta of NSMB allowed Goombas to pick up Super Mushrooms and grow huge.

@Bolt_Strike That's interesting. I can see why it would have been very difficult to implement for every enemy and powerup though.

How about a Super Mario 2D-Metroidvania? Maybe with Paper Mario graphics.

@Bolt_Strike Enemies getting power-ups is something I´ve wanted for a long time, ever since I saw Bowser use a Super Bell and turned into Meowser. If there ever was a game like that, it should be called NSMB: Powered-Up and should allow enemies to use every single power up. Fire Goombas can spit fireballs from their mouths, Ice Koopas roll on their own, and if you get hit you get frozen temporarily, etc, etc. (It would also be cool to have MM2 DLC allowing you to do that as well.)

I would love to see a 2D Mario game that uses hand drawn graphics, similar to Wario Land Shake It for Wii. All the characters would look like their original 80's/90's artwork. There would be plenty of reward for exploration like multiple exits for many of the levels. Maybe it could be a true sequel to Super Mario Bros 2/USA. Wart would be the main villain. You would be able to pick up and throw enemies and vegetables. At the start of each level you could choose a character to play with. It could even be playable with Bowser. Overall, there would be more of an adventure flavor with no time limit, and large dungeons with locked doors requiring you to steal keys from phantos. There's still so much room for genuine creativity with that style.

I would be happy with new power-ups and high quality level packs for NSMB. I think I'm in the minority here, but I love the gameplay and visual style. A new art style is always welcome though.

I know for some people Mario Maker covers all of that, but not for me. I miss the coherence and quality of the levels there. At least 1 out of every 3 levels is garbage and so far I have spent more time searching for quality levels than playing them unfortunately. Some kind of 'curation system' would be a step in the right direction.

I wasn´t a fan of USA Mario Bros 2, but the concept was great. They couldn´t do much with it back then, but if they gave the idea a reboot with a cartoonish art style, that would be great.

Also, I´ve always wanted to play as Bowser in a Mario game. I loved Odyssey´s ending, but would it be that hard to release some level packs entitled, ¨Super Bowser Bros?¨ The goombas could be Toads, and you could play NSMB from Bowser´s point of view! That would be great!