Power Ups have always been a part of platforming
games, there is the mushroom, the star and
the fire flower in the first mario game, there
is the shield, the power sneakers and the
invincibility in the first sonic game, there
are the famous inhalable enemies in the kirby
series, there are the crazy gameplay twists
in the galaxy games, there are the transformations
in yoshi's wooly world and many more.
Power ups have always been used in platformers
to vary the gameplay, and empower the player.
Interestingly the way platforming games use
power-ups changed drastically over the years.
In the beginning they often just granted a
short period of invincibility or a small gameplay
upgrade, but nowadays they often completely
turn the gameplay on it’s head.
The interesting thing is that, in my opinion
the very first super mario brothers game found
the perfect way to grant the player special
abilities, and recent games are more and more
losing focus on what makes a power up feel
really great and well integrated into a game.
So are you ready?
Here’s why!
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So I want to talk about three main things
in this video, first why the power-ups in
super mario bros are so elegantly designed,
second how the mario series distanced itself
from its own formula with the galaxy games,
and third how modern games often integrate
power ups in a much more clumsy way than the
first super mario game did.
Before we start let’s just quickly define
what I mean with power ups in this video so
that we are all talking about the same thing.
I mean gameplay changing or enhancing abilities
that are given to a player to vary the gameplay
or to empower him.
But what is important is that they are in
some way optional and not tied to progressing
through the game.
In short I mean the magnet shield in Sonic
adventures two, but not the coin dash move
which you learn at some point and keep from
then on.
I do mean the abilities kirby gains by inhaling
his foes but I don’t mean the moves banjo
and kazooie learn from bottles.
So with the boring stuff out of the way, let’s
start with the classic mario games.
In the original super mario bros. the controls
are very simple, you have the d-pad for directional
movement, the b button to run and the a button
to jump.
That are the basic controls, and at it’s
core these are still the main controls in
all 2d mario games up until today.
Those are really simple mechanics and part
of the magic of the mario games comes from
really easy to understand and to use controls,
but challenging and interesting stages.
Now how does obtaining a fireflower, change
these controls.
Interestingly the answer is: it doesn’t,
it just enhances them.
the d-pad is used for the same movement ,the
a button gives mario the same jump as before
and the b button the same sprint mechanic
but additionally hitting b now allows him
to throw a fire-flower-fire-power-power-up.
Let’s take a look on a couple of other mario
power ups. the super leaf gives mario the
same jump on a but in the air he has the ability
to float a little bit by hitting a again.
When at full p-speed the leaf allows to fly
and the b-button is still running but when
pressed mario performs a useful tail attack
as well.
The core controls aren’t changed, and the
interesting thing about this is, it is true
for every single power up in the 2D mario
games, old and new.
Some give mario better movement options, the
acorn suit for example allows mario to float
in the air, the propeller suit grants a way
better spin move, the hammer suit throws hammers,
the penguin suit allows mario to throw ice
balls and to glide a little bit on slopes
and so on.
But not a single power up in the traditional
mario games changes the basic controls drastically,
but they enhance them in a way.
That’s even true for super mario 64.
The basic controls stay the same when wearing
a flight cap, but if mario performs a triple
jump he is able to fly, the invisibility cap
doesn’t change his controls in any way,
and the metal cap makes him heavier but allows
him to use his basic controls under water.
Designing power ups this way is really clever
because they enhance and empower mario, but
they don’t change the actual gameplay and
they are easy to understand as they are tied
to the basic controls every player already
knows.
This makes them a really valuable addition
for a player, because he or she still runs
through the same stage, which is beatable
with power up and without power up.
The gameplay is almost the same but with a
power up it’s easier to beat a stage.
But what makes this really cool is that these
power ups are so valuable that no player wants
to loose them.
In mario you lose them by taking damage and
that makes taking damage really punishing.
No one wants to damage boost through an annoying
obstacle because these power ups are not only
power ups, but marios health as well.
It’s a simple and really elegant system
that gives a player something valuable which
he wants to keep, enhances and varies his
gameplay and functions as his health.
Super easy to understand and close to the
core gameplay.
It’s an incredibly elegant solution for
a lot of problems.
Tons of games had systems like these in place.
Kirby for example has a specific button mapped
to the powers he learns from his enemies.
If he has no power it’s inhale and if he
has a power it’s use this power.
Sega gave our hedgehog Sonic a shield or invincibility
without changing any controls and if we want
to stretch this concept a little bit we could
also take the powers mega man learns from
defeating his foes as an example.
They give him more options on how to fight,
but his movement and jump stays the same.
But with Super Mario Galaxy the way power
ups work in the mario series changed.
In the galaxy games there are still power
ups that function in a similar way as the
power ups did before, like the cloud suit
that allows mario to generate clouds below
him instead of dropping down but maintains
the core gameplay otherwise, or the rock suit
that changes mario's spin attack into a crazy
bolder transformation but keeps his mechanics
otherwise.
But there were also things like the spring
suit which completely change how mario controls.
Your movement now works different, the b button
does nothing and the jump button gives you
a completely different jump than before your
in air controls are changed and so on.
The boo cape changes your controls drastically
and the bee suit overwrites a lot of your
basic movement options as well.
The power ups can’t be kept for as long
as a player does not get hit, but disappear
once you leave the area that was designed
for that power up and additionally the old
tie between power ups and health is broken
which leads to a couple of new problems.
The fireflower has to be on a timer, which
is a little bit lame, and there is suddenly
a problem with damage boosting.
Take a look at this scene.
Coins function as health in the galaxy games
and here is an obstacle, and behind it are
coins.
There is literally no penalty for just ignoring
the challenge, taking damage and grabbing
the health directly behind it.
Additionally the challenges which evolve around
power ups are designed so that they can only
be done with the power up and so the power
up has to be regainable at every point.
That’s by no means game breaking, but this
system lost its elegance.
Instead of power ups being naturally woven
into the game, as gameplay enhancer, health
and value to the player they are suddenly
minigames that change the gameplay.
I believe the main reason why nintendo left
their old system is that the galaxy games
have a different focus than the 3D mario games
had before.
Power UPs played no major role in the first
two 3D mario games.
In Mario 64 and Sunshine the stages were playgrounds
built for mario to have an area where his
brilliant movement can shine and a player
is challenged to master exactly this movement,
but in the galaxy games the focus shifted
away from mario towards the stages.
Suddenly every stage was built around a new
unique creative gimmick, and mario became
the tool to explore all these different worlds,
instead of the world's beeing tools for Mario
to jump and toy around.
The game is no longer about mario but about
the galaxies, that’s maybe one of the reasons
why mario lost a lot of his unique movement
options when switching to the wii.
Because the focus shifted away from mario
himself.
And it might be the reason why power ups are
used in an unusual way for the marios series
in these games.
I’m not trying to say the galaxy games are
better or worse than the other mario games,
in fact critics loved the games, users loved
the games, the sales were great and I personally
loved the games so they probably did something
right there, but what I want to say is that
there was a shift in the mario series with
the galaxy games, and there was a shift in
game design in general at this time.
Whether the tremendous success of the galaxy
games, made other studios copy ideas from
these games, or there was a general shift
in the idea how to design a game at this time
is debatable but a lot of platforming games
started to value variation in the different
challenges higher, in fact in some cases they
started to value variation higher than their
core mechanics.
Yoshi suddenly started to fly around as a
missile shooting plane or a mole digging through
the ground with completely different controls,
sonic suddenly discovered the power of the
color wisps which transformed him into a bird
or into a drilling machine which changed his
core gameplay completely and Kirby suddenly
stopped to inhale enemies but transformed
into a tank.
Whether this happened because of Galaxy can
be discussed, but what definitely happened
with some power ups is that they changed from
core gameplay enhancing options, towards gimmicky
minigames and I think this is a trap in which
some recent games walked into.
There is this idea that the more varied a
game is the more fun it is, and this is definitely
true to some degree but at least I believe
that it’s never a good idea to distance
yourself from the core gameplay beyond recognition
in order to create more variation.
Variation has to come in the level design,
which surprises with amazing ideas, but not
by changing the core gameplay from jumping
around to being a motorbike, or a weird black
hole.
This idea worked for the galaxy games and
in all honesty I’m not entirely sure how
nintendo was able to pull this off so that
the whole game feels like a cohesive experience
but I think at least part of the answer is
that the galaxy games at their core don’t
focus on mario, but on varying galaxies.
The very first super mario bros. already had
a brilliant system on which it’s definitely
possible to build upon.
Cleverly used power ups can enrichen and vary
a game by building upon the core mechanics,
but if core mechanics don’t work transforming
into a bird won’t magically make the game
any better, and if your core mechanics work
fine the question arises why to ditch them
for an umbrella mini game, when this mechanic
could be woven into the core gameplay in a
more subtle way.
There is a certain elegance in having simple
gameplay that gets enhanced by small tweaks,
mario's power ups are a great example how
to vary gameplay without loosing it’s main
focus.
Interestingly mario went back to the old power
up design with 3D world and 3D Land and it’s
going to be interesting to find out what nintendo's
plans for super mario odyssey are.
Thank’s for watching, I hope you enjoyed
this little video, if you enjoyed it don’t
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I hope you have a wonderful day and to see
you soon, goodbye.
