Topic: The only thing I don't like about 3D Mario games...

It's not the camera. I've always been able to work them well enough to do what I wanted to do. It's the powerups. Not themselves, but the fact that you can't take them from level to level like you can in the 2D games. Why is this? I mean, wouldn't it just add to the game if you could take Bee Mario from a Bee level into another level, and use your flight to reach an otherwise inaccessible area to find a hidden star? Or Boo Mario or Cloud Mario or Rock Mario or Yoshi (who you couldn't even take with you in NSMBWii). I loved being able to grab powerups from a previous level in Super Mario World to help me clear a level I was having trouble with. Why can you not do this in 3D Mario games?

Because having the ability to fly would render a large majority of levels suddenly extremely short. For example, in Beach Bowl galaxy, you have to swim underwater, find a shell to crack open the wall, explore a short cave section to find a switch that launches you to a higher area in the main level. If you had the Bee Suit that entire section would be rendered moot because you could just fly up the wall and be at the star in under a minute.

Hm. good point. I do think levels could be designed with that in mind, though, so that the addtional suits wouldn't nullify the need for gameplay skills, but it would be a challenge. I don't want to sound like I don't like 3D Mario games, though. i love them, and a PUMPED for Galaxy 2. i just kinda miss the "permanent" powerups.

That would make the game waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too complicated

And also, with 2D levels, the goal is always a long distance away to the right. So even if you have the cape on Super Mario World, you still have to traverse the entire level. Whereas in 3D that's often not the case, so building levels to retain their challenge when a suit is worn (and especially all the testing required) would be a nightmare.

But I know what you're saying. It would be sweet to go through some levels with different suits, but it's just not that feasible. Unless, perhaps, the ability to transfer suits is unlocked after 100%'ing the game, that would be an awesome bonus and, since all the stars had been collected, no loss of challenge.

@Raylax: now there's a good idea!

It's perfectly feasible. Mario has seen many ways to fly, and he has been in games when he could not fly at all. Plus, the cape does what you fear already. You can skip most of SMW if you master the cape because unlike every other 2D Mario, there is no limit on the cape's flight. But the game doesn't need to have a flying suit, and such a suit could be made with major limitations like the brief flight of the raccoon suit (or perhaps not flying at all but allowing the player to fall much slower, like the carrot from SML2), and/or the levels could simply be designed to accommodate such a suit, should such a suit be deemed necessary to the game, which it isn't.

What I don't like is that they don't have mini-Mario or mushrooms.

Galaxy actually DOES have mushrooms (they increase your health by three hits) but...yeah, I can't say I miss mini-Mario. Always found that to be a bit gimmicky. I know, I know, ALL Mario powerups are gimmicky, right? Not the way I see it. In the Galaxy series, they're simply a way to offer more complex and varied challenges. Mini Mario just makes you...smaller. Lame, in my opinion.

@pix: who's to say they don't have Mini Mario? They have Giant levels. but how do we know everything's big? maybe Mario's just really small. ooooooo _mindblown

I'm not sure what you guys mean by mini-Mario now. If the mini-Mario from NSMBDS, I don't care, but if Pix just meant small Mario (in other words, pre-mushroom Mario in 2D games), which is what I assumed since he paired the phrase with mushrooms, that can hardly be called gimmicky.

I don't see why they took that out to begin with. The games are easier anyway since you can run around half the enemies and obstacles without worrying about all that jumping stuff, so the added health never made sense to me, though they could always just make mushrooms and power-ups more plentiful anyway, problem solved. And don't a lot of enemies already deal two damage, meaning Mario can generally take three hits (same as if he were fully powered-up in SMW)? Might be imagining that, as it's been awhile. Or even if they kept the health circle, it'd be cool to have Mario become Super Mario when at full health.

Of course, if they're going to continue the NSMB series, I don't care that much, but I still think the games would feel more like Mario games if the power-ups were more traditional, actual power-ups than gimmicks.

I vote for Raylax's idea.

What you are asking for is Banjo Kazooie/Tooie. Not that I would complain, the powerups are also my main gripe about the 3D Mario games.