RetroGames

@Hydra_Spectre Yeah, not a great help for me in the UK.

I'd rather we just finally get a 3D home release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie (I'm talking about the recent one that's actually amazing vs just WTF), so I can watch it in stereoscopic 3D in my VR headset. Why hasn't this happened already.

I'll admit that the designs are actually kinda cute.

Well, if it does dethrone the DS, the odds are it would dethrone the PS2 also, but it's a tough ask given what Nintendo is like near the end of their console's lifespans. Sony would probably be able support this system well enough in its twilight years to push it to the top, but I'm just not sure Nintendo knows how to do the same. I guess we'll see. If I were making decisions at Nintendo I would actually try to make that a goal of the system, because sitting at the top of the best selling consoles of all time list says something, and I'd wanna be saying that.

@Gs69 True--Mega Drive.

@Thomystic Still, on a Nintendo site you'd think it would be more appropriate to say it looks like some lost SNES game, which is probably closer to the truth anyway.

@Ryu_Niiyama Exactly.

@LikelySatan Hey, me too--in the right context.

@Rainz Well if Forbidden West does manage ten million copies at, what, $60 each, that would still be six hundred million, so that's not too shabby. And, remember, even though The Super Mario Bros. Movie made $1.35 billion at the box office, roughly half of that immediately goes to the cinemas, and then the other half gets divided into roughly two, half for Nintendo and half for Illumination. So, not to take away from the movie's huge success, but Nintendo isn't making quite as much on it as you might imagine. Still, it's amazing how big a hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been, and every single penny of it was more than deserved imo.

@luckyseven I never said a word about Pink. And I think Kirby's Epic Yarn is frikin' awesome. The whole series is generally solid. Liked the stereoscopic 3DS entries too, which, funnily enough, I actually played on my Oculus Rift VR headset still in stereoscopic 3D via the Citra 3DS emulator and Bigscreen.

@LikelySatan Well, exactly. It certainly does not come close to looking like a Genesis game though, which was my main point. But, out of the two, it's definitely closer to what some theoretical SNES game could get close to aesthetically. So it just felt a bit random of the reviewer to bring the Genesis into it and give it some free praise for whatever reason, especially on a frkin' Nintendo fan site.

Yes, because Genesis could get close to these visuals, that's the most obvious retro system to immediately go to as a comparison, rather than the SNES with its way more colours, more background layers and proper transparency. So, yeah, it feels like a lost Genesis game. That's what came to your mind first--on a Nintendo fan site--and not a lost SNES game. Nothing seems click-baity or Genesis fanboyish about that at all. Yeah, riiight.

@tgt Well, to be fair to you, I was saying similarly before I saw it, which was based on all the trailers, interviews and then reviews at that point. And, once I did watch it--although, to be clear, I did not pay to see it--unfortunately the movie turned out to be exactly what I had feared.

It's actually a decent enough movie if you ignore all that other stuff. But, as a man who was once a young boy and has spent a whole life growing up as such and going through all the very real trials and tribulations of being male in this word--not to dismiss anything female at all--I simply cannot support such a movie in good conscience.

And maybe some people cannot see any of the issues I'm mentioning with it, but, really, they're right there as clear as the nose on your face. So it's actually quite disheartening and maybe a little worrying how easily our modern society has made it for everyone [both female and male] to apparently just completely ignore such things when it's only targeted towards one side and one sex, when there would probably be riots in the street if this movie were entirely flipped to the other side in every way.

Still, each to their own. And both movies are a resounding success regardless of what I have to say about it.

@UmbreonsPapa Both movies are exactly what they are, this anyone else can go see and hear for themselves, and I have described them as what they are and will continue to do so if I feel like it.

And, yes, I brought up Barbie, because the other person said, "It's always kinda sad to see mediocrity winning.", and it's actually Barbie that's winning and tracking higher week for week at the box office right now when compared to The Super Mario Bros. Movie or any movie this year, so it totally felt like a perfect moment to mention it in the same sentence, and precisely because I object to some of the stuff in it and the sentiment behind it that has apparently just helped it make even more money.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the only one I will be recommending other people watch of those two, and for exactly the reasons I specified before.

@CMS_Glalie When I hear a comment like that coming from someone on a hardcore Nintendo fan site, I question if they're actually just a Sega troll or something--and there's a few of you sounding like that right now imo--genuinely.

@tgt Yes, hence my comments on what is in it that I object to about it.

@NorthwestEagle Read his words. He's not going to hear anything you have to say, even when you're entirely reasonable about it and just speaking to the truth here, which is kinda ironic given what he said.

Don't waste your time on him or give any more energy to the Barbie movie. I hear ya though.

Let's instead celebrate The Super Mario Bros. Movie more.

@HotGoomba I think you meant to say The Lion King remake is not a real ANIMATED movie (at least according to Disney). Lol

But I got ya.

@NorthwestEagle Exactly. Not giving Barbie any more light than it's already been afforded, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a genuinely fun, innocent, optimistic, kind, authentic, joyful and suitable movie for everyone. And that's the kind of movie I can get behind.

@Pupuplatter So, I have a fragile masculinity. Should that give people more right to attack it? Are you saying it's okay to lie about males and attack masculinity in a movie knowing fine well that some males will actually feel that attack and be upset and hurt by it? Would you say the same if a movie did basically the exact same but flipped and was lying about and attacking females and all things feminine throughout? Is that the more fair, inclusive, diverse, and progressive world that we're all aiming for then? But, hey, let's not get into it--I'm just saying.

@fenlix Tell that to the people who made Barbie, which is currently tracking ahead of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Super Mario Bros. Movie on the other hand totally deserves all the success and praise it's been getting--and it didn't have to lie about or attack all things male and masculine in the process to get the praise from the mainstream media and "professional" critics in order to aid that success. The Super Mario Bros. Movie was/is a success because it is just a beautiful, optimistic, kind, authentic, joyful and genuinely fun movie that anyone of any age, sex, ideology or whatever can enjoy without any concern at all. This is probably why it has an all audience score of 94 on Rotten Tomatoes, higher than Barbie, Oppenheimer, Dead Reckoning, and right up there with Across the Spider-Verse. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the kind of movie I support, and indeed support with my money, which I did--I went to see it eight times at the cinema.

It has now made $1.35+ billion at the box office* and hit the number 15 spot on every top grossing movies of all time [not accounting for inflation] list, pushing the previous number 15 Black Panther down a spot to 16. Now that is a major achievement.

*https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross/?area=XWW

https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/all-time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

PS. It is my favourite movie of 2023 by far, probably in decades actually, and I give it a 10/10 personally.

PPS. Because Disney itself didn't want to call The Lion King remake an animation, it doesn't appear on some top animations of all time lists, hence The Super Mario Bros. Movie being able to claim the number two spot.

@Friendly Well, it doesn't have to be pixel art to achieve a look that avoids the cold plasticky, rather flat, and kinda bloomy lighting style they ended up with here, there's a bazillion 2.5D/3D games that have avoided this particular issue perfectly well*, so I would still hope for that to be improved if they were to work on a next game for Nintendo or whatever.

*Even the oft-slated Other M managed it rather well for example: https://youtu.be/A3QG6XjN6mI?t=1530 (watch for a few mins)

Not a huge fan of the cold, plasticky, and kinda flat plus overly bloomy lighting visual style in this entry in the series.

@Arawn93 I totally am--and for good reason. Lol

Sounds positive so far.

Yeah, the pointer was the thing I liked most about the Wiimote.

@Uncle_Franklin

"For me this desperation makes it look like a fairly charmless and incoherent whole."

Yup, I can tell you're seeing and feeling what I'm seeing and feeling too.

Some people clearly don't get it--they're probably better off for that ultimately--but it's absolutely there.

This is not true peak 2D/2.5D Mario, of that I am absolutely certain.

One single example [of many] of why I just don't like the look of this game is the way small Mario looks. It literally comes across like they just took the normal size Mario model and squashed him down vertically to around half his height, and he looks way too wide and weirdly proportioned as a result. It doesn't look like deliberate skillful design but lazy and amateur design to me. I much prefer the small Mario proportions of basically every 2D/2.5D Mario game prior to this. And, while I appreciate they've added some interesting new poses and facial expressions now, it simply doesn't cover up the fact Mario just looks wrong in small form here. And that's just one little example that goes to what I'm seeing across this game in various ways, where it simply does not look right and doesn't come across like the artists truly get great art and character design and so on. This is sub-par as far as I'm concerned, and I worry about future Mario games if the people making them can't get this kind of basic but essential stuff right and are going to be happy with this level of poor art and design execution going forward. Nintendo at its peak in the '90s would never have let this pass if it were some new SNES Super Mario Bros. game for example, and the same really should be true here, but it clearly isn't. I am not impressed.

I'm just not feeling Wonder. It looks like some fan-made project where they don't really get the elements that truly make the best 2D/2.5D Super Mario Bros. games so great. And visually it's just as meh as all the previous "New" Super Mario Bros. games. All the designs and stuff just look off, and it's a shame that not only can most people in here not see that, but worse that the people actually making the game can't see it either. It's like the difference between the classic and best Pixar animations and the weird looking stuff with niche appeal they're dumping out now, and this game is like the modern-day Nintendo equivalent of that compared to the classic and best 2D Super Mario Bros. games. Or, you know how Sonic games just moved further and further away from the classic Sonic look and feel and just ended up being facsimiles that only noobs mistake for genuinely classic Sonic games--other than Sonic Mania, which really did look and feel like a proper Sonic game again--well, that's this Super Mario Bros. game imo. This just is not working for me.

Thank God for the sublime movie that got everything about the look and feel spot on, because if this is where the 2D/2.5D Super Mario Bros. games are at, I'm gonna have to just enjoy rewatching the movie instead for the foreseeable future.

Hmmm. Those first party games don't feel like proper A-tier material to me. And I don't care how anyone else thinks about it, but I want a new 2D/2.5D Super Mario Bros. game to basically feel like it's the pinnacle of what can be achieved in that space, which I don't get here. To be fair, I've not really felt like that for some time about the 2D/2.5D Super Mario Bros. games, but that's what I want. And, after the absolutely AAA-tier The Super Mario Bros. Movie, that A-tier 2D/2.5D Super Mario Bros. Movie is what I want more than anything now. Something that takes us back to the top of the genre level that the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and even Yoshi's Island all were as far as I'm concerned. I want that again.

I don't get it at all. But, man, I feel like this is ripe for memes.

Hey, this is Sega we're talking about after all. Outside of a peak back in '90s and thereabouts, it's not like it's been the standard-bearer of quality and entirely satisfying the fans. I mean, did you see what it was going to let Sonic look like in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie until fans [quite rightly] went on the rampage--this is Sega.

@Dracula_on_a_bike Technically shmechnically.

@PtM They were never about Zelda; she's just a secondary character and the plot device for the story of the actual hero, Link, to be told and indeed experienced directly by the player. So those games still haven't "subverted our expectations" yet. But, hey, maybe one day the real fans will get exactly what they want and instead of Link being the playable character, it will be Zelda, and Link will just be a plot point to serve our new strong female role model. Wouldn't that be very progressive and brave of the writers and designers. Can't wait for that to happen.

@Polvasti Yeah, they clearly "subverted our expectations" by making a new Prince of Persia game where you don't play as the prince.

Maybe there's a twist and you actually do get to play as the prince half-way through the game or something, right.

I wonder how people would feel if they made a new Super Mario Bros. game where you play the princess--and I don't mean a spin-off game that's about the Peach, but literally the next main Super Mario Bros. game, yet you don't play as Mario.

People make strange decisions sometimes.

Doesn't mean this game won't be good in its own right, but still . . .

@Sinton You're trying too hard. It looks crap, and it's "Disney" at a low in terms of visuals/aesthetics. End of my point.

@Sinton Yeah, so you understand my point.

@Sinton Then you understand exactly what I'm talking about.

I think it looks terrible artistically, and not proper Disney style at all. Take out the [ugly] Disney characters and there's absolutely nothing about this that looks like it's a Disney thing imo. Do not like.

Still not convinced. Just not a fan of the artstyle for the levels. It's not a proper realisation of classic Sonic in 3D/2.5D and how it should look imo. And, having seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie eight times, I can tell you that it is indeed possible to take classic 2D designs and transition them into 3D in a way that's totally in line with how you probably picture them being in 3D as a kid. Even better in fact. Same could be true when going from classic Sonic to 3D/2.5D. And this isn't it imo.

It's like if Yob was still around but had lost all his soul and charm and the pages of the magazine had lost all their soul and charm too. I think that's definitely one of the things we lost going all digital with our gaming info, where everything is so standard formatted and basic colours and the like. Well, at least no one has yet designed a website with the same personality and charm of the old gaming mags like Mean Machines and Super Play anyway.

@MegaMari0 See my images above. If they go with something along those lines, even if it's actually in 3D but totally captures the same general look and feel, they would be on course to giving us one of the most stunning fantasy adventure [animated] movies ever created imo. And, genuinely, if the overall film is also on the same level of quality as The Super Mario Bros. Movie is, I honestly think it could be the best fantasy action adventure movie ever created.

Pretty cool to see how you can support old games like this on Switch.