Welcome back for another round of correspondence from the Nintendo Life Mailbox. It's October, and the heady aroma of freshly released Mario is in the air. *long sniff* Lovely! Do you smell it? It's peaty. Bit wet. Dungy, even. Like a... an elephant?
Enough of that. It's time for our monthly letters page feature. Got something you want to get off your chest? We're ready and waiting to read about your game-related ponderings.
Each month we’ll highlight a Star Letter, the writer of which will receive a month’s subscription to our ad-free Supporter scheme. Check out the submission guidelines at the bottom of this page.
Let's see what you've got for us this month, hmm?
Nintendo Life Mailbox - October 2023
"moons and missions" (***STAR LETTER***)
Hello,
I wanted to express my view on the future of 3D Mario, specifically my opposition to the series following what Bowser’s Fury did. I am someone who absolutely adored Odyssey, and is still ranked as my #2 game of all time. So when I played Bowser’s Fury, while I appreciated the game and don’t think it’s terrible, I found it as a concept for the future of the series, something I don’t want to see expanded upon. To me, having a ton of moons and missions in radically different locations with such vibrant environments, compared to one big open world in a basic Mario environment using basic power-ups compared to the brilliant capture system, is a shift away from what I found was perfection for 3D Mario. Perhaps a Bowser’s Fury expanded sequel could be better then I’d expect, but for now I just hope Nintendo expands on Odyssey instead.
NarwhalKing
We've briefly touched on this topic before and, in general, I agree. Mario has always been a playground simulator and just making the playground massive and contiguous for the sake of it wouldn’t be exciting. I'd rather see an Odyssey 2, Galaxy 3, or a fusion of the two.
Then again, look at how brilliantly Zelda translated to an open world. There are different series parameters there, and a specific lineage of large-scale exploration that BOTW tapped into, but it did prove that Nintendo can craft massive play spaces that feel as engaging and constantly entertaining as contained levels. Open-world Mario would have to be a whole lot more than 'Bowser's Fury, but 50 times bigger.' I liked Bowser's Fury, but its brevity and 'side-story' status was a virtue.
Have yourself a month's Supporter sub. - Ed.
"certified audience"
Hey Nintendo Life, thanks for being awesome!
Why do successful indie games rarely get sequels?
I'm thinking of Untitled Goose Game, Braid, Fez, Celeste or Night In The Woods. Some games like Shovel Knight or Cuphead have substantial DLCs but still no proper sequels.
While it's nice to have these one-hit wonders, it's surprising that these indie studios don't take advantage of the game engine they've set up and the certified audience they've acquired to make a quick sequel and create a cool new franchise.
Twilite9
Hmm, lots of hit indie games do get sequels, though. Spelunky 2. Rogue Legacy 2. Axiom Verge 2. Risk of Rain 2. Hades 2. Silksong (ha, well maybe one day). Fez 2...
For the ones that don't, there are various factors. If it's a tiny team and the game goes stratospheric, the developer is in a great position to do exactly what they want. After investing many years in one project (often continuing to support it for multiple years post-launch), even if there are ideas still to explore, they're likely to be burned out and eager to try something different. For solo devs in particular, if there's no inspiration for a sequel and no financial imperative, why bother? Not everything needs to be a franchise.
Anyhow, thank you for being awesome. - Ed.
"counting goalies"
Hey NL Staff,
Anyone remember Wayne Gretzky 3D Hockey on the N64? I sure do, it was an OG party game in hotel rooms when my team and I were on weekend youth hockey trips. Arcade 3 on 3 (4 on 4, counting goalies) ice hockey seems like a slam dunk Mario sports game, yet I fear I will never see this. Strikers is the closest I’ll probably get. Just wanted to see if any other Big N fans out there would fancy some Mario hockey.
Cheers!
Natendo 64
I'm not a hockey man, unfortunately, although even I've heard of ol' WG. I am a big N64 fan, though, and that console had an impressive ratio of excellent sports games considering its comparatively slight software library. Is Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey a potential gateway into the sport? Does Switch have any decent hockey games? Feel free to suggest some in the comments! - Ed.
"finish the game"
For the reviewers: Can the deadlines get crazy? Do you have to finish the game(s)?
larrythumbs
Yes, ideally you always finish the game. But 'finishing' can be difficult to define these days. Anything with a linear story is straightforward, but sometimes you roll credits and there's still half the game left. And how do you 'finish' a game like Civilization or Animal Crossing or Vampire Survivors? Everyone will have their own definition.
Deadlines can be tough. More and more these days, review codes come in incredibly hot, especially on Switch where devs are optimising and submitting Day One patches up to the last possible moment (and sometimes for weeks post-release, which is always fun). Ultimately, you do your best to be as timely as possible given the restrictions of hours in the day, personal health, and commitments. When an 80-hour RPG drops in your inbox on Thursday evening with an embargo for Friday morning, there's really nothing to be done but laugh and give a workable estimate that's not going to destroy you. The writer's well-being and the quality of the review should be paramount in any editor's mind; those two things are connected in the long term. Also, reviews really aren't the traffic drivers many assume them to be, so while hitting embargo is always optimal, it's never worth burning out over. - Ed.
"all the questions"
Hello, Nintendo Life Staff!
I have… all the questions technically, but I will stick to just a few. And to make things easier, I will theme them all around Splatoon. (Which is my favorite game... possibly of all time!)
(1) What Catalog level are you at?
(2) What are your thoughts on Side Order?
(3) What is your most wanted new or returning feature for Splatoon 3?
Thank you guys for your time!
Catch ya later!
CaleBoi25
Over to resident inkspert (inkspurt?) Jim for our Splatober report... - Ed.
1) Thanks to Sea of Stars, Metroid Prime Remastered, and a handful of other games throughout September, I haven’t actually touched Splatoon 3 since Drizzle Season started. So I guess my catalogue level is… 1. Sorry to disappoint.
2) A Splatoon roguelike that’s going to be giving us even more story mode content? I am so very in for Side Order! That 2024 release date does still seem a way off, mind.
3) If you mean ‘Splatoon 4’, all of us at NL have some ideas we’d like to see! For me, though, it’s got to be more of the single-player stuff. - Jim
"overaggressive takedown"
This is a question for everyone who's done reviews for games on this site. Are there any games that they feel in hindsight that they were maybe a little too hard on looking back? This is not to say they need to now like the game they tore apart, just maybe saying "It perhaps didn't need the overaggressive takedown i gave it."
Willax
I asked the team, but generally there wasn't anything that came to mind — any takedowns we feel the need to execute are done fairly soberly. There will always be games where you think, 'Hmm, was that maybe a point higher or lower than we ended up on?' and you're always going to get differences of opinion and those ‘.5’ cases, but that's the nature of the 10-point scale. Thinking back over my own reviews, Yoshi's Crafted World felt like a classic .5 game — between a 7 and 8 — but its overabundance of charm ultimately tipped the balance for me. - Ed.
Bonus Letters
"I think that every game should have a Baby Mario, that cries until you rescue them after you take damage. Yoshi's Island got it right. I can't think of a single game series that wouldn't be enhanced by this feature." - its_luke_c
Now I'm imagining Samus protecting a wailing baby Metroid. Please stop. - Ed.
"Nintendo knows that better than PlayStation or Xbox." - StarChaser
What about Sega, though? - Ed.
"If there’s something that’s honked me off for a while in gaming, it’s how Nintendo gamers often get the rough end of a pineapple." - Coffeemonstah
Ow-wie zowie. - Ed.
"I want to give TheJGG for credit for this letter because they gave me the idea! Out of the four xenoblade games, (I’m counting x) which one has your favorite artstyle?" - minecraftemery
X. You can't beat a Skell. - Ed.
"In the Mario movie they call Tanooki Mario a raccoon. Disgraceful." - Munchlax
The original script called him 'Trash Mario,' so consider yourself lucky. - Ed.
That's all for this month! Thanks to everyone who wrote in, whether you were featured above or not.
Got something you'd like to get off your chest? A burning question you need answered? A correction you can't contain? Follow the instructions below, then, and we look forward to rifling through your missives.
Nintendo Life Mailbox submission advice and guidelines
- Letters, not essays, please - Bear in mind that your letter may appear on the site, and 1000 words ruminating on the Legend of Heroes series and asking Alana for her personal ranking isn't likely to make the cut. Short and sweet is the order of the day. (If you're after a general guide, 100-200 words would be ample for most topics.)
- Don't go crazy with multiple correspondences - Ideally, just the one letter a month, please!
- Don't be disheartened if your letter doesn't appear in the monthly article - We anticipate a substantial inbox, and we'll only be able to highlight a handful every month. So if your particular letter isn't chosen for the article, please don't get disheartened!
How to send a Letter to the Nintendo Life Mailbox
- Head to Nintendo Life's Contact page and select the subject "Reader Letters" from the drop-down menu (it's already done for you in the link above). Type your name, email, and beautifully crafted letter into the appropriate box, hit send, and boom — you're done!