DDR0/Feld0 on Mario through the ages.txt

## Feld0 on Mario through the ages.txt
[11:01 PM] Feld0:
I haven't gotten to the end of Super Mario Odyssey yet but I've been spoiled with Yoshi's appearance
I don't like it, no
I want another game to come out that, like Super Mario World, allows Mario to take Yoshi with him for the entire adventure. Not the bullcrap of containing him to specific levels.
Or have Yoshi be a first-rate playable character in his own right like in Super Mario 64 DS
Containing him to specific levels relegates him to a puzzle-solving gimmick. Making him a main character for the entire adventure makes him, well, a character with personality and history.
Not that Mario was ever really about complex storytelling but there has historically been enough there to let your imagination run wild about why Mario does what he does
Fantasizing about why Bowser keeps kidnapping Peach and why Mario will put up with absolutely anything to get her back helps add some motivation to the whole thing
Super Mario Galaxy nailed this IMO by giving Rosalina an elaborate backstory and presenting the wider universe as a "cohesive" world for Mario to explore; SMG2 threw all that out and was lauded by critics for doing so, when it felt emptier and more generic to me. Super Mario World also did well with this by making it about Mario and Peach vacationing in Dinosaur Land, and Super Mario Sunshine had an interesting plot about Isle Delfino and its apparently corrupt government.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was "Bowser kidnapped Peach, oh no! Go save her and travel through a forgettably generic world map filled with 'galaxies' that are single-purpose puzzlewords." Compared to SMG1, where we had a hella elaborate kidnapping cutscene, Bowser whisking Peach away to the emphasized centre of the universe in a dramatic lightshow, and Mario then exploring places like Battlerock, a military base built into an asteroid; Dreadnought, a military starship; Honeyhive Galaxy, which contained a convincing civilization of sentient bees; etc. SMG2 was a bunch of abstract obstacle courses in zero-G; SMG1 was an adventure.
The Mario series seems to have been trending toward being a series of generic obstacle courses (the entire New Super Mario Bros. series, which has less story than the OG 2D Marios ever did; Super Mario 3D Land; Super Mario 3D World, etc.), and Super Mario Odyssey is something of a return to form in this regard.
	[11:01 PM] Feld0:
	I haven't gotten to the end of Super Mario Odyssey yet but I've been spoiled with Yoshi's appearance
	I don't like it, no
	I want another game to come out that, like Super Mario World, allows Mario to take Yoshi with him for the entire adventure. Not the bullcrap of containing him to specific levels.
	Or have Yoshi be a first-rate playable character in his own right like in Super Mario 64 DS
	Containing him to specific levels relegates him to a puzzle-solving gimmick. Making him a main character for the entire adventure makes him, well, a character with personality and history.
	Not that Mario was ever really about complex storytelling but there has historically been enough there to let your imagination run wild about why Mario does what he does
	Fantasizing about why Bowser keeps kidnapping Peach and why Mario will put up with absolutely anything to get her back helps add some motivation to the whole thing
	Super Mario Galaxy nailed this IMO by giving Rosalina an elaborate backstory and presenting the wider universe as a "cohesive" world for Mario to explore; SMG2 threw all that out and was lauded by critics for doing so, when it felt emptier and more generic to me. Super Mario World also did well with this by making it about Mario and Peach vacationing in Dinosaur Land, and Super Mario Sunshine had an interesting plot about Isle Delfino and its apparently corrupt government.
	Super Mario Galaxy 2 was "Bowser kidnapped Peach, oh no! Go save her and travel through a forgettably generic world map filled with 'galaxies' that are single-purpose puzzlewords." Compared to SMG1, where we had a hella elaborate kidnapping cutscene, Bowser whisking Peach away to the emphasized centre of the universe in a dramatic lightshow, and Mario then exploring places like Battlerock, a military base built into an asteroid; Dreadnought, a military starship; Honeyhive Galaxy, which contained a convincing civilization of sentient bees; etc. SMG2 was a bunch of abstract obstacle courses in zero-G; SMG1 was an adventure.
	The Mario series seems to have been trending toward being a series of generic obstacle courses (the entire New Super Mario Bros. series, which has less story than the OG 2D Marios ever did; Super Mario 3D Land; Super Mario 3D World, etc.), and Super Mario Odyssey is something of a return to form in this regard.