Super Mario 3D World Excluded Online Co-Op to Imitate NES Games

[StewShearerOld]

Super Mario 3D World Excluded Online Co-Op to Imitate NES Games

Nintendo opted to keep co-op local in Super Mario 3D World because it wanted players in the same room playing "talking while they help each other."

While it does perhaps boast one of sillier titles in the series, Super Mario 3D World has, by-and-large, been <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10754-Super-Mario-3D-World-Review>well-received by critics and gamers alike. Granted, that's not too surprising seeing as Nintendo, if it knows nothing else, knows how to make a fun platformer. That being the case, some may have still been put off by the fact that 3D World features some prominent co-op while lacking any online functionality.

According to Nintendo however, its lack of online was, in fact, an important part of the company's vision for the game. "With [Super Mario 3D World] we really wanted to deliver an experience that you can share with family, friends, or your boyfriend or girlfriend in the same place like you did with the original NES," said producer Yoshiaki Koizumi. "We really want players to have fun in front of the TV, talking while they help each other out or get in each other's way."

It's a stance that in some ways we can respect. After all, there's no denying that the experience of playing with someone in the room with you is vastly different from playing with people secluded away in their own homes all around the world. That said, we're still left wondering if it might have been wiser for Nintendo to leave it a choice for gamers to make themselves. If nothing else, we can see a Mario game with online multiplayer being a bigger system seller than one that excludes online. The Wii U, in turn, could arguably still use every advantage it can find to boost its still not-the-best sales.

Source: Game Informer via <a href=http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/01/nintendo_left_online_out_of_super_mario_3d_world_to_deliver_the_nes_experience>Nintendo Life


Permalink

 

[Fappy]

I completely understand where they are coming from, but limiting functionality for that reason just seems silly to me. I am all for games embracing their local multiplayer roots, but there's no reason local AND online multiplayer can't co-exist in the same game. Say what you will about split-screen limiting your no-scoping skillzzzzz, but Halo was always pretty good about blending the local and online experiences together.

 

[Dark Knifer]

Couldn't you just do both so the players can dictate how they want to play the game, not you?

 

[Roxas1359]

And I find the game suffers because of it. Seriously what is with developers these days not being able understand that you can do both local and online multiplayer. From Nintendo they are being stubborn and wanting to continue local, despite the fact that online can be way more beneficial for a game like this. Meanwhile, other companies, looking at you EA, want only online multiplayer. As Fappy said, say what you want about Halo, but it showed that you can have local and online multiplayer just fine.

Then again, seeing as how the 3DS is region locked based on regions even for download play, I wouldn't be surprised if they were to only allow you to play with people on your region...
That actually scares me about Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros...

 

[Zigot66]

This sort of, "Why couldn't they do this as well?" attitude has brought me to the conclusion that at some point, we as gamers are going to have to make a choice, are we just looking for mass media entertainment? Or do we actually care about the creator's intention for their work?

If we really do care about things like creative vision, we will have to accept their work for what it is and not what we think it should be.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

That's an unusual point they made there, and I personally always prefer local play, to the point that I never play coop games online (I've never liked playing cooperatively with strangers I can't see or here, I'd find it boring or just frustrating). I can however see a lot of people would like to play online, and I think this doesn't really help Nintendo's attempts at become a more modern and online developer.

Not that the exclusion of online would have made a difference, what with all the server trouble they were having, but maybe we can expect a patch later on.

 

[Alexander Kirby]

This sort of, "Why couldn't they do this as well?" attitude has brought me to the conclusion that at some point, we as gamers are going to have to make a choice, are we just looking for mass media entertainment? Or do we actually care about the creator's intention for their work?

If we really do care about things like creative vision, we will have to accept their work for what it is and not what we think it should be.

I think Mario is seen as such a mass-market, appeal-to-everyone game that people forget about Nintendo's creative vision, as you call it. In fact I think that people are very used to games pandering to them nowadays, and to see a game actually limit what you can do as part of it being, well, art, is very rare. Many people like the awkward combat of Dark Souls as it makes them play in a different way, as the artist imagined, and while I don't like Dark Souls I respect the fact that they didn't just want to make a game for everyone, they wanted to give it more... soul (hehe).

With something like multiplayer it's a bit more tricky though, I think the point many people are making is "yes, we see how you intended us to have fun together, in the same room, but that doesn't mean you have to stop us having fun with strangers too." It's a tricky one.

 

[OManoghue]

They probably excluded online play to avoid crashing their servers, crushing their store, and delaying it an unknown amount of time ON launch day.

(Bitter about Pokemon Bank)

 

[Snotnarok]

This seems like an excuse as they've cut other things for lesser reasons, Princess Peach was excluded from games because they didn't want to animate the skirt.
They're just avoiding doing things online, keeping things in the same room, okay great what about if I want to play with my friend across the country? Who I can't see face to face.

 

[Vaccine]

And I find the game suffers because of it. Seriously what is with developers these days not being able understand that you can do both local and online multiplayer. From Nintendo they are being stubborn and wanting to continue local, despite the fact that online can be way more beneficial for a game like this. Meanwhile, other companies, looking at you EA, want only online multiplayer. As Fappy said, say what you want about Halo, but it showed that you can have local and online multiplayer just fine.

Then again, seeing as how the 3DS is region locked based on regions even for download play, I wouldn't be surprised if they were to only allow you to play with people on your region...
That actually scares me about Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros...

I have a love/hate relationship with Nintendo, I like that they have a stance on what they want their company to be about, on the other hand they shouldn't be outright telling people how to play their titles.

I like Nintendo the most out of the 3 major companies because it feels the least faceless but bloody hell they do some stupid shit, MH3U on the 3DS, a game with the greatest strength lying it's 4 man party hunt system.......no online play, though this could be more Crapcoms fault than Nintendo, but Nintendo should have pushed for this feature.

 

[VoidOfOne]

Interesting reasoning. In a way or two, it makes sense. I do understand the desire to have local co-op verses online co-op, especially if you don't know who's on the other end, and it seems that the majority of games these days that have co-op only support online, and not even LAN co-op.

That said, I also understand another reason for not having online co-op: it's cheaper and less of a headache. Now they don't have to worry about maintaining servers for the game, or deal with issues of connectivity.

 

[sethisjimmy]

I don't/can't respect it. Adding online play doesn't remove the ability to play locally. You can still get the complete "NES" experience if you want to. Or, if you choose live in the present, you can play multiplayer with friends across the world.

I can completely understand not including online play. It means time and money in programming and testing and servers, etc. There are plenty of practical reasons to not include online play. This is not one of them.

The developers of the Scott Pilgrim games said the same thing about that game. Just admit, it's too hard/too expensive/would take too long/etc etc etc. Especially with Nintendo, they've admitted in the past they don't have as much experience with online as the other companies. That's a valid reason.

Don't try to spin an obvious con as a pro.

 

[STENDEC1]

On the plus side, thanks to the Wii U's appalling take up rate there's virtually no one online to play with anyway!

*Jokes, Jokes... Well sort of anyway*

 

[martyrdrebel27]

This is why Nintendo is dying an embarrassing death. The refuse to keep with the times, and this just seems like some irrelevant, stubborn nostalgia-enforcement. Give players the option, they can still play in the same room. But the truth is, you know this, so what's really going on here? Stop with all your Face-Saving and be upfront.

 

[Something Amyss]

Couldn't you just do both so the players can dictate how they want to play the game, not you?

Nintendo, the company that said "no, shut up, you don't care about multiplayer?"

I doubt they'll let us choose how to play any time soon. They're too busy nannying us.

 

[Something Amyss]

This is why Nintendo is dying an embarrassing death.

How big a stash of money are they sitting on?

Dying, indeed.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

They chose not to shoehorn in online multiplayer; aren't there TONS of people here who bemoan companies putting online multiplayer into things? Why should Nintendo get shit over this? Furthermore, considering how tightly designed platformers have to be, when one split second of timing due to latency can royally screw up things, it makes SENSE for them to not put online in. Especially since Mario doesn't exactly need online in the first place.

 

[VG_Addict]

What's wrong with Nintendo's online, other than no account system? And they have adapted to HD, as Wind Waker HD looks great.

 

[Roxas1359]

They chose not to shoehorn in multiplayer; aren't there TONS of people here who bemoan companies putting online multiplayer into things? Why should Nintendo get shit over this? Furthermore, considering how tightly designed platformers have to be, when one split second of timing due to latency can royally screw up things, it makes SENSE for them to not put online in. Especially since Mario doesn't exactly need online in the first place.

Do you understand what you just said, "they chose not to shoehorn in multiplayer." Except for you know, the game is designed around multiplayer and switching characters, and plays perfectly fine in multiplayer. The game was praised because it's the first 3D Mario game to include multiplayer. The reason why people are upset at an answer like this is because it's a stupid one, still not as stupid as the one Sakurai made about why they aren't doing a story mode in the new Smash Bros though. The game is perfectly designed for multiplayer, and adding an online to it wouldn't kill them. If they had said that maintaining the servers or something would be an issue, then yeah I can understand that, but saying it was to "imitate NES games" is just dancing around the issue.

Then again, Nintendo's current CEO did boldly once stated that we, as consumers, "do not want online games" so I guess one way say we don't is to not really offer it much at all in the first place.

What people mainly don't like is when multiplayer is shoehorned into a single player game, and 3D World is by no means a single player game. It can be, but it has an integrated multiplayer mode that I've played with my friends before, and then got pissed off because they lost all 65 of my lives I'd built up during the game. >.>