New Super Mario Bros. 2

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New Super Mario Bros. 2
New Super Mario Bros. 2.jpg
New Super Mario Bros. 2 logo
Original title New ス ー パ ー マ リ オ ブ ラ ザ ー ズ 2
transcription Nyū Sūpā Mario Burazāzu Tsū
Studio
Publisher JapanJapan Nintendo
Senior Developer
  • Yusuke Amano (Director)
  • Hiroyuki Kimura , Takashi Tezuka (producers)
  • Shigeru Miyamoto (General Producer)
    		•
    Erstveröffent-
    lichung    		 JapanJapanJuly 28, 2012 August 17, 2012 August 18, 2012 August 19, 2012 December 6, 2012 June 21, 2013
    EuropeEurope
    AustraliaAustralia
    North AmericaNorth America
    Korea SouthSouth Korea
    Hong KongHong Kong
    platform Nintendo 3DS
    genre 2D platformer
    language including German
    Age rating
    USK released from 0
    PEGI recommended from 3 years

    New Super Mario Bros. 2 (short NSMB2 ; Japanese Original title: Newスーパーマリオブラザーズ2 , NYU Supa Mario Burazāzu TSU ) is a Jump 'n' Run - play in a side view, which the Japanese game console manufacturers Nintendo comes. In Japan, it appeared on July 28, 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS - handheld ; A little later, sales began in Europe and North America, with the game being the first in Nintendo's company history to be available as a download . Another novelty in Nintendo's game repertoire is the ability to download additional content for a fee and thus expand the game. The in-house studio Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development , headed by Yusuke Amano, was responsible for developing the title .

    As in the previous games in the Super Mario series, the player in New Super Mario Bros. 2 slips into the role of the plumber Mario, who wants to save the kidnapped Princess Peach from the violence of a villain and has all kinds of adventures to endure. The gameplay is based heavily on that of its predecessor New Super Mario Bros.

    The game principle, the design of the game sections, the controls and the technical implementation met with a predominantly positive response from reviewers worldwide. On the other hand, the lack of new game content that stood out more strongly from its predecessors was criticized negatively. With almost eight million copies sold by March 2014, it is one of the most successful games for Nintendo 3DS. Just three months after the game was released, the successor New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U, 2012) came onto the market.

    Classification in the Super Mario series

    Mario statue in Kungsbacka

    The first games by the Super Mario Bros. ( NES , 1985) reasoned Super Mario were series laterally scrolling 2D platformers runs, after the release of the Super Mario 64 ( N64 three-dimensional, 1996), polygon -based games have been supplanted. From now on, the new offshoots of the Super Mario series were exclusively 3D platformer.

    It wasn't until ten years later that Nintendo returned to the origins of the series with New Super Mario Bros. ( DS , 2006). Due to the commercial success, the 2D Super Mario games established themselves as a side series parallel to the 3D games in the following years . The successor New Super Mario Bros. Wii ( Wii , 2009) came onto the market. Three years later, Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. 2 , which sees itself as a direct successor to the DS offshoot. With regard to the chronology of the Super Mario series, the 3D game Super Mario 3D Land (3DS, 2011) can be regarded as the direct predecessor. About three months after NSMB2 was launched , Nintendo released the successor New Super Mario Bros. U ( Wii U , 2012).

    Game description

    Backstory

    Shortly after the plumber brothers Mario and Luigi from Princess Peach have adopted at their castle, they are from as Koopalinge known seven children of the evil Bowser surprised. When it turns out that they have kidnapped Peach and are running away with her, Mario and Luigi set out to chase the Koopalings through six worlds. In each world they defeat one of them. Since the next Koopaling kidnaps the princess, they initially fail to free Peach. In the last world, the brothers set off for Bowser's fortress. After a long fight against Bowser, they manage to defeat the Koopa king and save the princess and bring her home to the castle.

    Gameplay

    A Nintendo 3DS. The control pad at the bottom left and the sliding pad above it. The action buttons are located at the bottom right.

    The basic gameplay of New Super Mario Bros. 2 is identical to that of its predecessor: The character Mario is shown from the side from a third-person perspective and can be maneuvered through a level full of opponents and obstacles using the control pad or the sliding pad of the 3DS . With the action buttons the player can let Mario jump, run or perform other actions. A major difference to the predecessor is the level design, which this time allows the player to collect a particularly large number of coins . The main goal of the game is to unlock the levels up to the final boss , defeat him and thus complete the plot, but the secondary goal , which is mainly emphasized in the game marketing, is to collect a total of one million coins. In order to reach this amount, the manufacturer introduced new useful items (" power-ups ") such as the gold flower, which enables the character to turn opponents into coins, or gold mushrooms, which are worth 50 coins, or Gold rings which, after jumping through, let all opponents gild for a short time and allow the player to collect many coins by hitting them. Leave behind z. B. thrown Koopas many coins, or after a hit on pipe piranhas coins come out of the pipe.

    The levels in New Super Mario Bros. 2 are linear and mostly run horizontally from left to right; some levels, however, are aligned vertically and run from bottom to top. Levels are selected on a world map , the path of which also has only a few options. If the character reaches the end of a level, which is either marked by a target flag or a boss fight, the player unlocks the next level on the world map. In each of the total of more than 80 levels of the game, three large star coins are hidden that can be collected to unlock alternative routes on the map or further levels.

    New Super Mario Bros. 2 also offers a two- player mode in which a second player with his own 3DS system and game module can play the role of Mario's brother Luigi in local co-op mode . Unlike in the predecessor, there are no separate levels for this mode, instead the same levels as in the single player mode are played. It is up to the players whether they help each other or play against each other. In this mode, the screen section is based on the player who is further ahead.

    There is also the “Coin Rush” mode in the game, in which three randomly selected, already unlocked levels have to be mastered with just one attempt for a time. The aim of the "Coin Rush" mode is to collect as many coins as possible and to avoid putting the character in danger. The personal highscore can be exchanged with other game owners via StreetPass .

    Graphics and technology

    The graphic design of New Super Mario Bros. 2 corresponds to that of its predecessors and offers a colorful, cartoon-like style. The use of primary colors is characteristic . A special feature of the game's graphics is that the game content is presented two-dimensionally and viewed from the side. From a technical point of view, these are three-dimensional elements modeled from polygons . This representation of three-dimensional objects on the basis of a rigid side view is known as a 2½D perspective. The camera follows the character at a set distance and continues to scroll when the character moves so that it is always as central as possible in the picture. The backgrounds are shown in different depth levels, which create a spatial effect by scrolling more slowly with increasing distance to the game figure (cf. parallax of movement ).

    On the upper of the two screens of the 3DS in New Super Mario Bros. 2 the levels including all backgrounds, objects and figures as well as UI elements such as number of coins and remaining time are displayed, while the lower screen shows information such as number of points and coins. The upper screen also allows an optional autostereoscopic depth effect with which the game is compatible . If the 3D effect is switched on, the figures and objects in the foreground appear slightly three-dimensional, while the backgrounds seem to wander into the depths and are blurred . The lower screen is a touchscreen , the functionality of which is used in New Super Mario Bros. 2 for menu and item selection.

    development

    New Super Mario Bros. 2 was created by the Software Development Department No. 4 developed by the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development (EAD) studio . The department head Hiroyuki Kimura and the EAD manager Takashi Tezuka acted as producers . The previous NSMB games had already been developed by EAD 4. Shigeru Miyamoto , who founded the Mario series with Tezuka and heads the EAD, served as general producer . Yusuke Amano acted as development manager for New Super Mario Bros. 2 and thus made his debut as director of a video game. The programming was carried out by the external company Systems Research & Development (SRD) , which cooperates with the EAD .

    Nintendo employees outside the EAD were also involved in developing the game and were trained as level designers for this purpose . The design of the levels began before the underlying game concept was determined. This is the opposite of the usual video game development method.

    Project start

    Since Tezuka sees level design as a core element of the Super Mario series and wanted to train Nintendo employees outside of the development team in it, he formed an initiative known internally as the "Mario Paukschule". This was attended as “students” by employees of other EAD groups and the Nintendo Software Planning & Development (SPD) department. In addition to Tezuka, the long-time Mario programmer Toshihiko Nakagō was also involved.

    Yusuke Amano was a participant in this "Mario Paukschule". At the time, he was working as the coordinator on Star Fox 64 3D (3DS, 2011) and, as one of the game designers for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, he already had experience developing a Super Mario game. Tezuka offered him the position of director for a new 2D Super Mario for the 3DS handheld.

    The level designers assigned to Amano's project had not been involved, or only barely, involved in the development of the series. The more experienced series developers were working on New Super Mario Bros. U within the same department at the time . This enabled the studio to produce two new NSMB games simultaneously but independently of each other. In addition to Amano as director and the other participants in the "Mario Paukschule", the development team of New Super Mario Bros. 2 initially only included Tezuka and Nakago, who were involved in an advisory capacity. It wasn't until the second half of 2011 that the team joined a graphic designer, Masaaki Ishikawa . Thanks to his involvement in Mario Kart 7 (3DS, 2011), Ishikawa already had experience with developing the 3DS handheld and was responsible for graphics in the new project. The project was later joined by other previous Mario Kart 7 designers . In addition, there were two graphic designers from the Tokyo branch of EAD who were previously involved in Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS and who were significantly involved in the 3D effect of the new project.

    Conception

    Amano's plans were for a video game that would motivate the player to play in the long term and make it fun. In the search for a game element that would make this possible, an early concept of the “coin frenzy” was created, in which three levels should be completed in succession without errors. However, in the eyes of the development team, this early idea did not yet provide the desired motivation.

    Towards the end of 2011, Amano took over an item from Super Mario 3D Land , through which Mario automatically receives more coins the faster he runs. This idea met with a positive response, so the team came up with more ideas with coins as the focus. This is how the coin theme of the new game crystallized. Tezuka suggested letting the player collect a million coins and thus motivate him in the long term. In order for the player to actually achieve this goal, the levels had to be redesigned. At the time, the title of the game was New Super Mario Bros. Gold .

    Since the player would still have been a long way from collecting a million coins even after playing through all levels several times, the team transferred the coin collecting idea to the previously conceived new game mode and expanded the early concept of the "coin frenzy" mode with the option of extraordinary collect lots of coins. With this, the player would actually be able to reach the million-coin goal and would build up motivation for the “coin frenzy” mode.

    Two player mode was another suggestion from Tezuka. Since the additional work required for planning, programming and designing such a mode would have meant a delay in the completion date, the team initially rejected the idea. In addition, there were feared technical problems that a prototype was able to get out of the way. Therefore, the team finally decided on the two-player mode. For this purpose, Luigi was included in the project as the second character and the level designers redesigned the game sections so that they are also suitable for a cooperative game between two players.

    volume

    The game's music , which Japanese video game composers Yuki Tsuji and Natsuko Yokoyama created via sound synthesis under the supervision of Mario Kart composer Kenta Nagata , consists largely of remixes of pieces from New Super Mario Bros. As in the previous games, opponents dance and items synchronized with certain music elements and if the time available to complete a level threatens to run out, the tempo of the music is increased.

    The voice output of New Super Mario Bros. 2 is limited to exclamations and interjections , because there is no dialogue between characters in the game . Charles Martinet lent his voice to Mario and Luigi. Princess Peach and Toad were voiced by Samantha Kelly, while Kenny gave his voice to James Bowser.

    Announcements and publications

    Announcements

    The Nintendo President Satoru Iwata introduced New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the first time in April 2012 in a web show.

    In November 2010, Shigeru Miyamoto announced in an interview that both a 3D and a 2D offshoot of the Super Mario series for the 3DS were in development. Miyamoto mentioned the 2D game again in February 2011: “[Whole] in the sense of tradition, new technologies for 'Super Mario Bros.' let's make a Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo 3DS. [...] I want to show the whole world as soon as possible how the new 'Super Mario Bros.' on Nintendo DS [sic!]. ”At an investor conference on January 26, 2012, Group President Satoru Iwata announced that Nintendo was working on a new 2D Mario spin-off for the 3DS, which will be launched in the 2012 financial year (March 2012 to March 2013) and should be one of the most important 3DS games for this period.

    During an edition of the web show " Nintendo Direct " Iwata unveiled the game on April 20, 2012 under the title New Super Mario Bros. 2 and presented the first screenshots . August 2012 was given as the rough worldwide publication period. A week later, Iwata confirmed that the game would be available in stores and as a download from Nintendo eShop.

    At E3 on June 5, 2012, Nintendo presented the first trailer for New Super Mario Bros. 2 and announced the release date for America. Trade fair visitors had the opportunity to test a demo of the game.

    publication

    Nintendo released New Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan on July 28, 2012; the same day the 3DS XL , a hardware revision of the 3DS, was launched. The game was released in Europe on August 17th through the Nintendo of Europe subsidiary and in Australia the following day . In North America , Nintendo of America released the game on August 19th. In all of these regions, the game was available in stores and in the eShop from the first day of sale. It was the first full price game from Nintendo with this distribution method. In Japan, the rush to the download version of the game on the first day of sales was so great that the server the eShop collapsed briefly. In South Korea was New Super Mario Bros. 2 on 6 December 2012, and in Hong Kong out on June 21, 2013.

    Nintendo marketed New Super Mario Bros. 2 through commercials with Spanish actresses Penélope and Mónica Cruz, among other things . On November 15, 2012, a bundle consisting of a 3DS XL in a special Mario design and a download copy of New Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in Japan

    Additional content

    Since the game director Yusuke Amano had already designed additional levels for the new edition Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 ( GBA , 2003), the team decided to download additional content for a fee ("Downloadable Content", or DLC) in New Super Mario Bros. 2 record. In June 2012, the manufacturer officially announced plans. It was one of the first Nintendo games to feature DLC. Since some manufacturers only activate content already contained in the finished game in order to maximize profits against additional cash payments, DLC is considered controversial. The production managers of New Super Mario Bros. 2, however, affirmed that they would only start developing the DLC after the game was released, taking into account customer feedback.

    From October to December 2012, Nintendo released a total of ten level packages available via DLC in the in-game store, each of which comprises three levels and can be played in "coin frenzy" mode.

    Package no. Surname Publication Europe Publication America Publication Japan Level of difficulty
    1 Greed for gold 0Oct 2, 2012 0Oct 4, 2012 0Oct 2, 2012 1/5
    2 Coin course A 0Oct 2, 2012 0Oct 4, 2012 0Oct 2, 2012 3/5
    3 Thrill 0Oct 2, 2012 0Oct 4, 2012 0Oct 2, 2012 5/5
    4th Gold mushroom season Oct 25, 2012 Oct 25, 2012 Oct 25, 2012 2/5
    5 Coin course B Oct 25, 2012 Oct 25, 2012 Oct 25, 2012 3/5
    6th Golden nostalgia Nov 27, 2012 Nov 27, 2012 Nov 27, 2012 1/5
    7th Coin course C 0Dec 5, 2012 0Dec 5, 2012 0Dec 5, 2012 3/5
    8th Platform panic 0Dec 5, 2012 0Dec 5, 2012 0Dec 5, 2012 4/5
    9 Tricky crisis Dec 20, 2012 Dec 20, 2012 Dec 21, 2012 3/5
    10 Broken neck and leg Dec 20, 2012 Dec 20, 2012 Dec 21, 2012 "WARNING! For professionals only! "

    Special edition

    New Super Mario Bros. 2 Special Edition is a version of New Super Mario Bros. 2 that can only be purchased with a Nintendo 2DS . There is no shop in this version as all the packages for the Coin Rush mode are already included.

    Sales figures

    According to the market research company Enterbrain , New Super Mario Bros. 2 was sold 430,185 times in its first week of sales in Japan. Digital sales are not included here. After just four weeks in Japanese retail, the game cracked the million mark. With a total of 1.8 million units, it was the third best-selling in Japan in 2012.

    In North America, New Super Mario Bros. 2 was sold around 240,000 times on the market within the first five days, according to the manufacturer. It became the second best-selling game in North America in August 2012. By September 2013, sales had grown to around 1.85 million copies.

    On the video game charts published by Media Control for Germany, New Super Mario Bros. 2 took first place for five weeks after its market launch. The game turned out to be an evergreen title: at the end of February 2013, half a year after its publication, it was in fourth place in the German national charts. In the UK , the game sold a good 30% more often in the first week of sales compared to the launch of its predecessor New Super Mario Bros. The game debuted at number 1 on the game charts in Ireland , as well as in the Netherlands , Sweden , Norway and Finland . In Denmark, however, the game took second place in the chart in the first week. In the first half of 2013, New Super Mario Bros. 2 sold around 434,000 times across Europe. It was in 18th place on a list of the best-selling games published by GamesMarkt during this period and generated an estimated turnover of € 18 million.

    New Super Mario Bros. 2 was downloaded more often in North America than in Japan, where only five percent of all customers bought the game in the eShop. The digital sales rate was even lower in Europe and Australia.

    The following table provides an overview of global delivery figures, divided into Japan and overseas (North America, Europe and other markets). The data comes from official Nintendo financial reports. Digital sales are included.

    Sales figures
    was standing Global Japan Overseas
    Oct 25, 2012 3.25 million 1.31 million 1.95 million
    Jan. 31, 2013 5.96 million 2.05 million 3.91 million
    31 Mar 2013 6.42 million 2.11 million 4.31 million
    Dec 31, 2013 7.63 million 2.35 million 5.29 million
    31 Mar 2014 7.82 million 2.38 million 5.44 million
    Dec 31, 2014 9.01 million 2.47 million 6.54 million
    31 Mar 2015 9.16 million 2.47 million 6.68 million

    reception

    Reviews

    In her review for the IGN video game website, the editor Keza MacDonald described the gameplay and level design of New Super Mario Bros. 2 as perfect. A 2D-Jump-'n'-Run could not be "more pleasant and effortless". Therefore, it is the best 3DS game in this genre. MacDonald considers the short playing time and the fact that the game hardly offers any innovations to be disappointing. She also criticized the 3D effect, as it does not have a productive effect on the gameplay , as it does in Super Mario 3D Land , but instead obscures the background artwork . This fact creates the impression that the game is not well tuned to the 3DS handheld. MacDonald emphasized the controls of the game positively: "It is such a pleasure to control Mario that it sometimes feels like the expansion of [the player's] thoughts" ('Mario is such a joy to control that he sometimes feels like an extension of your thoughts. '). The journalist rated the level of difficulty as a bit too low and judged the two-player mode to be less than ideal. The "coin frenzy" mode increases the replay value of the game.

    Oli Welsh from the website Euro gamers dubbed New Super Mario Bros. 2 in his review as "old dog old tricks to show off" ( 'an old dog doing old tricks'). Nevertheless, the game is of high quality; Welsh particularly emphasized the level design as challenging and not very repetitive. The level of difficulty is lower than in previous series offshoots, but there are more and better hidden secrets that contribute greatly to motivation. He complains that high scores cannot be compared online.

    Reviewers of publications such as The Guardian , Daily Telegraph , Forbes Magazine or Der Spiegel also called the game very fun and praised the precise technical implementation. Nevertheless, the publications complained that the game contained hardly any innovations. Carsten Görig from Spiegel also recognized a contradiction in the title of the game: Although the “New” indicates a new game, the “2” indicates that it is actually a successor. David M. Ewalt of Forbes accepted that the game had little innovation - what matters most to him is the fun the game offers. Steve Boxer from the Guardian praised the attention to detail, the graphics and the level design.

    Coin theme

    Jeremy Parish of the online portal 1UP wrote that New Super Mario Bros. 2 is in a state between "the mindless Nintendo that many people perceive" ('the insipid Nintendo many people perceive') and "the self-confident Nintendo" ('the self- aware Nintendo '). Parish characterizes the design of the game on the one hand as predictable and not very eager to experiment, on the other hand "as an act of self-irony ". The latter can be seen in the coin theme: While coins were rare in the early Super Mario games, they appear so frequently in newer versions that they are hardly of any value to the more experienced player. New Super Mario Bros. 2 noticed this, but did not try to fix the problem. Instead, it makes coin collecting the ultimate goal and consequently contains an even larger number of coins. However, Parish assumes that the player will not find the coins in this game to be pointless - although they are not of direct importance to him, the player tries to collect as many coins as possible. This is reflected in the level design: Coins are often hidden in difficult-to-reach places in the game and tempt the player to take additional dangers in order to collect them.

    Eurogamer complained that the coin concept was only a partially successful attempt to re-establish Super Mario as a game driven by scores. The concept is fun, but offers only vague rewards.

    Rating mirror

    The Metacritic website calculates the average rating of films and video games. For New Super Mario Bros. 2 , this rating, the so-called Metascore , is 78%, based on 70 registered reviews. For the GameRankings website, the global average rating based on 46 ratings is 78.40% (as of January 2014). The following table serves as an overview of the ratings that various publications have given the game:

    Magazine / website Rating
    1UP B 1
    Computer picture games 1.45 4
    Cubed3 8/10
    Destructoid 7/10
    Edge 7/10
    Eurogamer 8/10
    Famitsu 36/40 2
    Game Informer 8.25 / 10
    GameSpot 7/10
    GamesTM 7/10
    IGN Entertainment 8.5 / 10
    Joystiq 3.5 / 5
    N zone 91% 3
    Nintendo Life 9/10
    Nintendo Online 8/10
    Nintendo Power 85%
    Nintendojo B + 1
    Official Nintendo Magazine 90%
    Polygon 7/10
    The Guardian 4/5
    The Daily Telegraph 4/5
    Wired 8/10
    1Rated with American school grades
    2World's first review; Individual ratings by four editors, here: 9/9/9/9
    3 Most positive criticism recorded by Metacritic worldwide
    4th Rated with school grades

    Awards

    A selection of awards for which New Super Mario Bros. 2 was nominated and rankings in leaderboards:

    Comparison with the predecessors

    In the reception of New Super Mario Bros. 2 , the similarity of the game to its predecessors in terms of gameplay, graphic style and music was a central theme.

    Shortly after the first screenshots of the game were revealed, Tony Ponce of the Destructoid website wrote an article entitled 'Why does New Super Mario Bros. 2 look so bland?' (“Why does New Super Mario Bros. 2 look so bland?”), In which he summarized the aesthetics of 2D Super Mario games. According to him, almost every new 2D Super Mario was originally visually very different from its predecessor. The graphic style of New Super Mario Bros. , which was based on the old 2D offshoots, was justifiable at the time of its publication as a nostalgic homage to the old games. However, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and finally New Super Mario Bros. 2 also have identical aesthetics . Ponce interpreted this as a sign that Nintendo had lost its ambition in the development of the 2D Super Mario games.

    After the publication of NSMB2 , Edge magazine criticized the fact that apart from the coin theme and the 3D effect, the main game was composed of tried and tested game elements. The game takes over the elements of its predecessors, which contributed significantly to their success - level design, the 2½D graphic style and the game concept. In addition, the world sequence in all New Super Mario Bros. -Titles identical. The problem is exacerbated by the game concept, which, unlike the 3D Super Mario games, relies less on exploration, while the varied and individual design of the game sections is to be assessed positively. New Super Mario Bros. owed its great success mainly to nostalgia , and the successor now makes the mistake of trying to achieve this again. The Super Mario series itself is characterized by constant progress; the sub-series New Super Mario Bros. , on the other hand, steps on the spot.

    Chris Kohler , video game journalist and founder of the Wired GameLife portal , wrote that Nintendo introduced the “coin frenzy” mode to offer something new to series fans. Kohler considers the great similarity to the game's predecessors to be a deliberate strategy on the part of Nintendo, which is based on the great commercial success - the first two parts of New Super Mario Bros. each achieved more than twice as many units sold as Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007 ). Therefore, Kohler sees the reason for the development and release of New Super Mario Bros. 2 not in the will of the developers, but in Nintendo's urge to bring out another so-called system seller for the 3DS.

    Phil Kollar of the Polygon website took a more moderate position:

    “Ultimately that failure to feel as fresh as Super Mario 3D Land is going to define New Super Mario Bros. 2 for many people, but it hides deeper treasures for those willing to look past the familiarity. Even if it doesn't pay off in the end, Mario's gold rush lends the level design a unified focus. It allows Nintendo to experiment and develop tricks we haven't seen before, tweaks that expand on the language of a 2D Mario game in worthwhile ways. "

    “ New Super Mario Bros. 2 will set itself apart for many people by not feeling as fresh as Super Mario 3D Land . It does, however, contain hidden treasures for those who are willing to overlook these similarities [to their predecessors]. Even if it doesn't pay off in the end, Mario's gold rush gives the level design a uniform focus. It allows Nintendo to experiment and develop tricks that didn't exist before; Adjustments that expand the way a 2D Mario is in a worthwhile way. "

    - Phil Kollar : Game review at Polygon

    In an interview with GameSpot, when asked if the similarity to the predecessors was a design decision, producer Takashi Tezuka responded:

    “It's intentional. That similarity in the visual style and the control style is all intentional. The things we feel like we've already promised the gamer is that Peach will be kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario will move from left to right. We know that's what people are expecting! […] We know that there are all types of Mario games […]. So for us, with the New Super Mario Bros. series, we don't really need to mess with it. This is what people want. "

    “That is on purpose. This similarity in visual and control styles is intentional. We think we've already made promises to the players like that Peach will always be kidnapped by Bowser and that Mario will always move from left to right. We know people expect that! […] We know that there are all kinds of Mario games […]. So for us that means that we have the New Super Mario Bros. - Row doesn't really need to be messed up. That's what people want. "

    - Takashi Tezuka : GameSpot interview

    Comments on the publication policy

    IGN's Audrey Drake noted that there were six different Mario games released between late 2011 and late 2012 . Because it includes titles like Mario Tennis Open (3DS, 2012) and Paper Mario: Sticker Star (3DS, 2012) belong to different game series and therefore offer different gaming experiences, this is not a big problem, Drake wrote. On New Super Mario Bros. 2, however, this does not apply because it plays just like its predecessor. The problem with Nintendo's release strategy is compounded by the fact that the successor New Super Mario Bros. U came out just three months after the release , which is also based on the same formula.

    Nintendo President Satoru Iwata justified the New Super Mario Bros. release strategy. - Play with the fact that you have only developed a part for each console and want to continue like this:

    “We only create a New Super Mario Bros. title one [sic!] Per platform. I think we'll probably go ahead and continue at that pace. That being said, that's probably Miyamoto's choice, so I can't give you a 100 per cent guarantee that that's the pace we'll continue at. "

    “We're just bringing a New Super Mario Bros. -Deposits per platform. I think we will probably continue at this pace. However, that is probably [Shigeru] Miyamoto's decision, so I cannot give a 100% guarantee that we will continue at this pace. "

    - Satoru Iwata : Interview with Kotaku

    For series of games that claim to be particularly successful, the manufacturer often decides to publish new titles every year, wrote Eurogamer editor Oli Welsh. For example, one of their most talented studios develops a “big” series offshoot every two years. The gaps between these releases are filled by a B-Studio, whose games are more similar and therefore require lower production costs. Welsh sees this as given in the Super Mario series. The former Art Studio is in this case Nintendo EAD Tokyo with its 3D Super Mario games ( Super Mario Galaxy , Super Mario 3D Land ), the B-Team EAD Kyoto with New Super Mario Bros.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b c d e f g New Super Mario Bros. 2 (credits). In: Kyoto Report. Retrieved July 14, 2013 .
    2. ↑ a b c d e New Super Mario Bros. 2 Related Games. In: GameSpot. Retrieved May 4, 2013 .
    3. ↑ a b Alexander S .: New Super Mario Bros. 2: Coin Rush & Downloadable Content. In: Nintendo-Online. June 22, 2012, accessed January 26, 2014 .
    4. ↑ a b c Lucas M. Thomas: E3 2012: New Super Mario Bros. 2 Gets its Release Date. In: IGN. June 5, 2012, accessed January 16, 2014 .
    5. ↑ a b South Korean Nintendo Direct highlights. In: GoNintendo. November 5, 2012, accessed March 25, 2013 .
    6. ^ A b Lucas M. Thomas: Building to New Super Mario Bros. In: IGN. June 1, 2012, accessed March 25, 2013 .
    7. ↑ Plot, official homepage for the game. In: Nintendo.de. Retrieved May 4, 2013 .
    8. ↑ Richard George: E3 2012: New Super Mario Bros. 2 - Greed is Good. In: IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc., June 8, 2012, accessed September 12, 2012 .
    9. ↑ a b Lucas M. Thomas: E3 2012: New Super Mario Bros. 2 Gets Coin Rush & Campaign Co-Op. In: IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc., June 6, 2012, accessed September 12, 2012 .
    10. ↑ a b c d Keza MacDonald: New Super Mario Bros 2 Review: It's not the best Mario game on 3DS, but it's joyous while it lasts. In: IGN. August 3, 2012, accessed May 4, 2013 .
    11. ↑ a b c Iwata asks: New Super Mario Bros. 2 .: 1: The Mario Paukschule . In: Nintendo.de. Retrieved March 9, 2013 .
    12. ↑ Iwata asks: New Super Mario Bros. 2 .: 2: Cooperation with other teams. In: Nintendo.de. Retrieved March 9, 2013 .
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    This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on February 15, 2014 .