Five reasons why the Mario series are hailed as the "King of Games"

Author: Gavin verhey

Not long ago I first came into contact with intellivision game highlights. As a loyal user of the former Nintendo red and white machine (NES), I am very happy to be able to experience the games of that era again. But after a few hours, I came to the conclusion that almost all of these games were poorly designed.

Even five years earlier than Super Mario, intellivision is still no match with the former. The biggest difference between the two games is that there is a strong team behind Mario who knows how to make a good game.

Super Mario Bros (from dipity.com)

Cause 1-Mario is more intuitive

In the game, you are a little man wearing a working suit and a red hat-as the name suggests, you are a plumber, running and hitting bricks, and collecting random pop-up items. Some specific items can change the size of your role and give it additional capabilities. Your enemies are some brown and horizontally walking turtles, and some creatures that will suddenly appear in the pipeline or ride on the cloud to throw weapons on you. You will jump to and mark objects through a series of different worlds, including the upper and lower conversion pipelines, and then kick the enemy into the maging.

Obviously, there is no story in this game that can maintain all aspects of content. That is, according to the current statement, this is an intuitive game. Until now, the Mario series games do not have any really practical content.

Fortunately, it does not need.

For all players, the basic game settings of Mario are intuitive. Even in any of the earlier nes games, my parents were able to pick up the Controller at any time and start the game without reading any game instructions.

Why? If your abilities are just running and jumping, you can easily know that You can destroy them as long as you jump to the enemy. When bricks are shining or there is a glowing "?" Signs, you can also easily realize that these bricks are different, and you should jump into a collision. These are the game skills you need to master. You may have to sacrifice or conduct a moderate experiment before you discover these skills, but this will not make players feel unnatural. As you move forward, you can slowly explore the remaining details.

Even in modern Mario games, this kind of intuition still persists. Although the game may become more complex, it seems to be a simple game as a whole.

From 1980s to today, many games, including electronic, desktop, and card games, have failed. The main reason is the complexity of the game. Many intellivison games do not have any profound significance, but their complexity is far beyond our expectation. Although Mario does not have its own practical significance, its simple and intuitive game design has prompted it to achieve great success.

Cause 2-new and old matches

Almost every subsequent Mario game was built on the initial game, adding some new elements and content. There are two main reasons:

First, the game uses players' nostalgia to immediately associate those players who have played Mario. Enemies of the same type will appear in the game. And when players get gold coins or mushrooms, they will still see the "beep" in the previous game ". In addition, based on previous adventures, Easter eggs and other items will also appear in the game.

In addition to nostalgia, gamers always want to see familiar content. Although each game later has its own characteristics, most of the game mechanisms are almost similar to those earlier, that is, any player can play games, and you don't need to worry about the game's server settings.

Of course, this does not mean that people want to play the same game over and over again. Therefore, some new elements must be added based on the original adventure content. Someone may ask, "What if mario appears in space ?" As a result, this game was born. You will find that the core of the game will not change much, but the world that players see has changed. Each game is a new and old combination. Some new elements are a little more, while others focus more on nostalgia, in order to create a fresh and knowledgeable game.

Super-Mario-World (from bundae. WordPress)

Magic games are similar. In the game, players can constantly access some new worlds and discover new mechanisms. However, in addition to the new theme, each setting also has many identical basic capabilities and game mechanisms. In addition, there are many nostalgia elements. That is, when you play scars of mirrodin, the "scrapdiver Serpent" will remind you of the "neurok Spy ", or a new set of "spellbombs" can not only enable the memories of old players, but also bring new experiences to new players. Mario was successful.

Cause 3-players feel good in the game

As I have said before, the game mechanism must make players feel good. This is true for Mario.

Let's look at the progress of Mario's game. Step on the enemy and destroy them to get gold coins? Feeling good. Kicking Bowser into the hot maging? Feeling good. Finally, the untouchable star? Feeling good. Start a new world? Feeling good. In the face of an intelligent question that is not simple but not complex, you can spend some time thinking and finally get the answer. It feels good.

Keep moving forward with this good feeling in the game.

Death is always frustrating, and the Mario series games have been mitigated as much as possible. Although they have not completely abolished the death mechanism, they have properly handled this mechanism.

First, you do not need to repeat too much game content even if you die. There are always many nodes in the level of the platform action game, and in the latest Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, the star collection tasks are reduced to the lowest scale, that is, it may take several minutes for the player to complete a level.

In addition, the Easter eggs mentioned above are also set for senior players in these games, that is, they will feel good when they realize the connection between games, and feel the closeness of the game.

While playing intellivision, I was always surrounded by the fear of death. There is always tension in the game, and I rarely receive rewards for my own actions. Generally, the only reward I receive when I complete a task is not to die.

The reason why Mario makes players feel good is that there is very little sense of death in the game. No matter which world you enter or where you fail, you can get the rewards from time to time from the game, and thus feel good.

Cause 4-replay Value

When I played Super Mario 3 for the sixth time, I still felt the pleasure of the game! This may be partly because of the game's own pleasure attribute, but mainly because of the game's replay value.

First, players do not need to memorize every difficulty and challenge in the game. More importantly, players do not always need to repeat the same level.

How many players will be excited to collect all the stars in the early stages of Super Mario 64 without having to challenge the level of the remaining three points? I am one of them.

In this way, you will leave some unexplored world and fields. So when you return to the game one year later, you will be able to reach out to these "new" levels and fields for you for the first time.

This is even true for the earliest Super Mario Brothers. How many people choose to enter the curved pipeline in the first underground level and directly skip the three worlds? I am one of them. However, when you are in trouble or cannot choose to bend the pipeline, You can explore new worlds.

In addition, some valuable content has also appeared in Nintendo's recent games. For example, the purple coin in Super Mario Galaxy. This is an extra reward method that encourages gamers to play the game again. This means that you do not need to set up an achievement system to push players to play the game repeatedly, because your game itself has a mechanism that allows players to play the game again.

It is incredible that after many years, I can still find some new content from earlier Mario games.

This is what intellivision cannot do. After playing for 1 or 2 times, I don't want to go back to the game any more.

Mario (from designspaceblog)

Cause 5-secret

Back to the time when I used to play video games frequently, I read many electronic game magazines. Many Magazines use a variety of rankings to attract the attention of subscribers. For example, a magazine once listed "the 100 most important moments in the game ."

The top one is the 1up mushroom hidden in Super Mario Brothers.

I don't know if this ranking is reasonable, but this is the case. If the game provides you with more content that you cannot predict, you will be curious about it.

Secrets are also a type of play-heavy value that can make players more immersed in the game. You are always looking for something invisible to others. When you find them, you will feel ecstatic.

When you tell your friends that you have scored the highest score in Super Mario and reached a curved pipe, or you have discovered a secret channel in Super Mario world that can walk out of the haunted house, you can also find that you can use the peaches Super Slide Window of Super Mario 64. These are all valuable to the game and can be deeply impressed by the player. Without these experiences, the Gaming pleasure will be compromised.

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5 reasons why Mario is the king of gaming

Gavin verhey

We coshould all learn a lot from a certain Italian plumber.

And no, not about how completely ignoring your wedding sion leads to happiness, or that you shoshould always get on board airships with strangers. rather, the success of Mario can tell us a lot about the qualities of good game design.

Recently, I had the opportunity to boot up an intellivision for the first time. as someone who played the NES before I cocould even dress myself, I was excited to get the chance to try out something from before that era. I toyed with the system deep
The night, locking ing through a vast library of games and getting a taste of what it was like to be a gamer in the early 80 s.

After Hours and hours, I came to a conclusion: almost all these games were horrendously designed.

Despite predating Super Mario Bros by five years, the intellivision failed. The difference between the two systems is that the team behind mario had a surprisingly strong idea of what went into making a good game.

Want to know why the yellow guy from Night Stalker didn't end up being the go-to video game icon? Read on.

Reason #1-Mario is intuitive

Let me tell you about a game.

You are a little guy in overalland a red hat-allegedly a plumber-running around and hitting blocks that items occasionally pop out of. Certain items change your size or give you abilities.

The enemies are brown lurching blobs and turtles, with the occasional fanged plant or cloud-riding spike-throwing enemy tossed in for good measure. you travel through a range of worlds going up and down pipes, jumping on flags, and dropping the bad guy
Lava.

... What?

You're certainly not selling anybody on the game by describing it, and there's more or less a non-existent story running behind all of this to tie everything together. to use a popular word these days, the game is very difficult to grok. to this day, nothing
That happens in the Mario franchise really makes any sense at all.

Fortunately, it doesn' t need.

The basic gameplay of Mario games is intuitive to almost everybody. even as far back as the original game on the NES, my parents cocould just pick up the controller and start playing without even needing the instruction booklet.

Why? When your only abilities are running and jumping, then it makes sense pretty fast that you beat enemies by jumping on them. when blocks sparkle and have shining question marks, it's very intuitive that those blocks are different and you shoshould hit
Them. and that's really all you need to know to play. sure, maybe it takes one or two lives and a little trial and error to find some of that out, but it all feels natural. the rest of the details become apparent as you continue onward.

Even in Modern-era Mario games, the same kind of tropes are kept. The game has become more complex, but it never strays too far from simplicity.

A lot of games, video, board, and card, all the way from the 80 s to today, try to be too ambitious and end up falling flat because of unintuitive complexity. lack of the intellivison games I played not only made no sense, but were far more complex than what
Shocould have been happening on the system. The fact that Mario has been successful despite the game making absolutely no sense is a miracle of the design behind it.

Reason #2-something old, something new

Every Mario game builds on the last and reels you in while still being fresh and exciting. How? There are two parts to this.

First, the franchise has nostalgia that anybody who has ever seen another Mario game played can recognize. the same kinds of enemies always show up. the same digitally remastered beeps and boops from the original still echo as you grab coins and mushrooms.
There will be Easter eggs and in-game references to past adventures.

In addition to nostalgia, people just want familiarity. each game may have its own twist, but a lot of the same gameplay mechanisms are present and, just like the original, anybody can pick up and play a Mario game with minimal understanding of the gimmick
Being used for this game. (The notable outlier to this being the Mario RPG games, but even those harken back mechanic to previous Games)

Of course, people also don't just want to play the same game over and over. as a result, new twists are put on the adventure. somebody asks, "What if mario was in space?" And a game is born. You'll notice that the core game never changes that much, just
The worlds that are visited. Each game is a mixture of the familiar and the new, some more so than others, which keeps the series fresh yet familiar.

A good analog might be something like magic. the game constantly visits New Worlds and has new mechanic. however, a lot of the same base abilities and gameplay shows up in every set in addition to new themes. furthermore, there is always a pull for nostalgia.
When you play something like scars of mirrodin, the fact that scrapdiver serpent reminds you of neurok spy, or that there are a new set of spellbombs, tug at the memories of old players while being fresh to new players. mario is similarly successful.

Reason #3-the game feels good

As I talked about in another blog post, having game mechanics that feel good is important.

Mario is chock full of those.

Just think about how a Mario game progresses. stomping on enemies and have them disappear, leaving a coin behind? Feel good. Dropping bow.into lava? Feel good. finally getting that-hard-to-reach star? Feel good. Unlocking a new world? Feel good. The puzzles
Aren't easy, but they're also not that difficult. You can figure them out with a few minutes of thinking and feel good about your achievement

You get where this is going.

Dying can be frustrating, but the Mario Series seeks to mitigate that. It doesn't do it completely, but it does a pretty good job of it.

First of all, dying doesn' t set you back too much. there are usually checkpoints within levels in the sidescrolling platformer games, and in the newer era of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy, each star-collecting task is small enough on its own that
Being bumped out of the level only costs you a handful of minutes.

On top of all this, there are the aforementioned Easter eggs for experienced players. A great "feel good" moment is when you realize a connection between games and it feels like the game is directly speaking toward you.

With the intellivision, I had a constant fear of dying. the game was full of tension, and I was seldom rewarded for what I was doing. often, your "reward" for completing a task was simply not dying. you need a little more to keep you coming back.

The way Mario plays out feels good without the constant terror of dying. no matter which world you go to or where you end up, there are constantly rewards to collect that make you feel good for playing.

Reason #4-replayability

While on Thanksgiving break I managed to spend a few hours with my long-lost friend Super Mario Bros. 3 on the super NES. And you know what? It was just as much fun as it was when I was six.

Part of that stems from the inherently fun nature of the game. However, I think a lot of that comes from replay value.

Mario games are built with replayability in mind.

First of all, there are so many levels that the average player isn't going to memorize the intricacies and challenges of each one. but, more importantly, you don't always have to go through the same levels.

How much of you felt that warm, sneaky feeling inside when you realized you cocould get through Super Mario 64 without needing to play a third of the levels if you just found all of the stars on the earlier courses? I know I was one of them.

However, if you take the speedy route through the game, that means you left worlds and areas unexplored. when you boot the same game up a year later, you can go back and play the same game through again while discovering all of these levels for the first
Time.

Even as far back as the original Super Mario Bros. You can see this kind of gameplay. How many people out there always take the warp pipe in the first underground level and skip three worlds? I know I'm one of them. However, if you mess up and don't end
Up taking that warp pipe there are still untouched worlds out there for you to buy E.

Moreover, in recent games Nintendo has found ways to build in replayability. the purple coin stages in Super Mario Galaxy are a great example. they're just an additional incentive to play the game again. it goes to show you don't need achievement systems
To reward players for playing your game over and over; you can put reasons to replay your game within the game itself.

Years later, I can still find new pieces of the same old Mario games I have always loved. That's incredible.

The intellivision? Not so much. I 'd play a game once or twice, and then never want to come back to it again.

Reason #5-secrets

Back when I played a lot of video games, I used to read a lot of video game magazines. because overused tropes draw in subscribers, I remember one magazine doing a "Top 100 most important moments in gaming" countdown.

What was #1? The hidden 1up mushroom in the first stage of Super Mario Bros.

Now, I don't know if I necessarily agree with that. However, it's certainly up there. Why? The moment you realize there's more to the game than just what you can see, your mind begins to wonder about everything.

Secrets add to the replay value, sure, but more than that they keep you engaged. you're always on the lookout for something not everybody else can see. when you find one, it feels incredible.

Remember when you showed your friends that you cocould run on top of the level and reach a warp pipe in the first underground stage of Super Mario Bros .? Or when you found the secret exit out of a ghost house in Super Mario world? Or when you found out you
Cocould go through the window to Peaches Super Slide in Super Mario 64? These moments all add up to a mixture of replayability, memories, and fun. The series wocould not be the same without these little tricks that reward the experienced player.

That wraps up why Mario will always be number one. Do you disagree or think I missed a reason? Let me know below!

On another note, between the holiday season, a busy magic season, and finishing up school, I hadn't made a post in a month. now that school is over and the rest of those are wrapping up, look forward to more blog posts in the near future.

Thanks for reading! (Source: designspaceblog)