Topic: White Tanooki suit is a horrible idea

Actually, you only get it if the suit never appears. If it appears just once, you can kiss your sparkly stars goodbye, even if you never used it.

I work with kids. I know first hand you are completely wrong in your assumption.

@brewsky: I have the sparkly stars, and I can tell you I saw that golden block more than 100 times.

(In 3d world)

In the NSMB games and 3D Land, if that block appears, your sparkly stars are gone. Not sure about 3D World, since I never had the block appear.

I worked with kids in a Pediatric clinic for almost two years. What does that have to do with anything? It doesn't take a genius to know this generation of children are living in a more vapid, sheltered, and sensitive society.

I'm pretty sure SMB3 had a raccoon suit item where you could fly through the whole level. Sounds like the Big N hasn't changed that much.

I think everyone is forgetting why older games didn't have continues and didn't let you move onto the next level. It wasn't because they wanted to have the game be "about the mad skills". It was more because there were only about 20 levels and they had to milk it for all it was worth. And adjusted for inflation those games cost a lot.

Imagine if today you went out and had to pay $150 or so for something that you could beat in an afternoon. Because effectively that's what it was like in the 80s and 90s. That's why the games were brutal, because otherwise you would have felt ripped off. And now because games are a good third of the price adjusted for inflation and orders of magnitude bigger? There's no reason to artificially raise the difficulty of the game. Even as someone who likes retro games I don't really want to be playing the same level section over and over again. I'd rather the game find a balance where I can still progress if I suck but I am rewarded if I do well.

And turning this into some sort of social-political agenda about how "back in my day we had to walk 100kms barefoot over hot coals"? Seriously, get over yourself.

Um, the older NES games or even SNES did have continues, and many had over 20 levels. I could beat Super Mario Wii U in a 3-4 hour sitting if I wanted to, and yeah back in those days they didn't spoil you with multiple check points and crap like the God Tanooki Suit.

It's obvious the gaming industry is trying to cater to casual gamers because most people these days would rather spend 5$ on a cell phone game than 60$ on a console game. They are dumbing down video games for the mainstream audience. This isn't only happening on Nintendo games.

Nah. I think devs/publishers including Nintendo learned from past experiences and made the games accessible to all audiences. They need to keep the newcomers/less-skilled interested on their games and offer these power-ups/easy mode to assist them through the game. Else they won't sell that well. Let's be glad this isn't Ubisoft, or you'd have to pay for in-game currency or a cheat code or white tanooki suit.

Anyway, the one who open this thread has either have some issues in his childhood or he thinks he just found his maturity and trying to show and educate the internet kids. I've been through it in my early internet days. He'll get over it.

I didn't say they didn't. I said that the reason that games back then tended to be more brutal was because the games weren't that big. Which included things like no checkpoints, no continues, no saves and so on. In the 80s and early 90s you were paying what adjusted for inflation was $150 for something that was often the same scale as a lot of smartphone games. So they HAD to be brutal otherwise you'd see everything that was on offer in the first half our and feel cheated out of your money.

And damn, champion dude can rush through New SMB in 4hours. Do you want a medal or something? I mean to be frank that's still quite a bit longer than most NES/SNES era games would have been without the artificial lengthening. So you've kinda defeated your own point yet again. And FYI, average completion times from howlongtobeat.com.....

Super Mario Galaxy: 15 hours
Donkey Kong Country Returns: 12 hours
Super Mario 3D World: 10 hours
New SMB U: 9 hours
Super Mario World: 5 hours
Donkey Kong Country: 4 hours
SMB: 1.5 hours
Donkey Kong Land: 1.5 hours

These games you're complaining about are objectively longer and they have more variety to offer. They're also cheaper than older games were and therefore there are more games that are competing for our time. So frankly even though 98% of the time I love the challenge if a game is being a PITA and I'm offered a helping hand to keep going through it? I'm going to take it. And if people with less skill than me take the option more often? So be it. I don't think the smug "I'm a real gamer" thing is worth it at the expense of people not being able to see all the game has to offer than.

I think the White Tanooki suit offered an interesting trade-off in New Super Mario Bros. 2. Especially in Coin Rush mode.

On one hand, you're invincible from obstacles and fly to whatever area at an instant. On the other hand, you're less likely to pick up coins to break the high score. So it added an interesting balance of Risk Vs. Reward that not many- if any- Super Mario Games really touched on.

And that's another reason on why New Super Mario Bros. 2 is so under appreciated

I have it. It's fun but to be honest, all the new Super Mario games are ridiculously unchallenging. Not that the older ones were hardcore but they were still more of a challenge than the newer ones. The only way to get a real challenge out of them is to play multiplayer because it's a lot more chaotic trying to navigate around with a 3-4 players.

The White Tanooki Suit is a teavhing mechanic. If the player uses it as a cruch that is their choice but it is supposed to make the level eadier so they can learn what they were doing wrong. Just like a participation trophy, it rewards all players while encouraging people to get better. Without it if you keep failing a level you are never encouraged to keep trying, just punished for failing. With participation trophies (or the White Tanookie Suit) the player gets to choose to either take it as encouragement to become better without the discouragement of failing all the time, or the player can be satisfied and never want to achieve greater. It puts the power in the player's control of how they want to play a game without taking anything away for players that don't want the "easy way."

This is one of the dumbest rants I've ever seen on this forum, and that's saying quite something.

Speaking as someone who grew up on the original NES Mario games, I see no problem with the white Tanooki suit. I've played NSMB2, 3D Land and 3D World, and occasionally there was a level that I just couldn't for the life of me get to the end of, and opted to pick up the suit. Sometimes I did it to get a better lay of the land and then went back to complete it without the suit, other times I didn't.

My point is that why, with all my years of gaming experience and the fact that I would consider myself very good at platformers, should I toss my copy of the game out the window because I couldn't get past ONE ARBITRARY level? It's like playing Mario Kart and saying you won't use the Bob-Omb power up even if you're in last place because you should have the skill to drive faster.

Is this discussion really going again ?
Yes, the white Tanooki Suit was a bad idea, because in a sense, its wasnt optional. Many people aim for a 100% file, and while collecting some of the harder coins in the game, the arbitrary rules of it showing up and instantly ruining you chances of ever getting those glittery safe file stars is pretty annoying to downright infuriating.
The biggest problem is, that its not all that clear when its ok to show up and when not. Some claim its ok once you beat the first set of stages, some say it may never show up untill the 100% mark is hit. Then its unclear if a reload gets rit of the flag that it ever showed up, some people say it does, some people say it doesnt.
And it takes quite some time and effort to 100% finish 3D Land to find out that whatever condition it was you triggered was the wrong one.

3D World on the other hand did a much much better job with it. Even if you take the suit, clearing the level without it afterwards will remove the flag of you having used it. Also, simply showing up doesnt count at all.

In concept, its a lifeline so that players wont get stuck in the game, and i think thats a nice thing to do. And i have no clue why the people claiming that Mario games are getting way too easy still complain about it, you guys should never see that thing at all easy as it is...

Bottom line, it prevents situations like "that one level" from comming up, having people spends 50 bucks on a game, unable to finish it due to be unable to clear a certain stage. And for those complaining that "in the olden days" something like that didnt exist, simply shoot for a 100% file, post it on MiiVerse and brag about your "ye olde mad skills bro" shaped by years upon years of unforgiving difficulty.

Even if I lose a life several times(silly mistakes, silly me), I ignore the White Tanooki leaf 99.9% of the time. It's optional. If I want to use it, I'll use it and play around with it, and vice versa.

You shouldn't do that, you should learn where you're faulting and be motivated to get better. It's not like these games are cheap like old NES games and if you had to resort to using the lame God suit then you're probably not as good at platformers as you think. Even without the god suit or the ridiculous "let's have the CPU finish the stage for you" freebees, the newer Super Mario games are not all that difficult.

It's not like that at all actually, and I'm pretty sure you meant the blue shell power up.

In 3D World, I've used it only once.. or twice in those dark corners of the stages in the extra worlds. In the other Mario games, I use it in an alternate save file and just have fun with the thing.
As much as the item is cool, I always avoid it like the plague. It's a matter of option and determination. Simples.

The white tannoki suit is used to those who have never played platform games or even games in general. If you don't want it, don't bother with it. Simple as that.

Agree with the VeeFlame's post, but it's obvious that any little kid playing the game that isn't any good at it is just going to take it without a second thought.