A couple of weeks back, I started playing the New Super Mario Bros DS game that came out about 6 years ago. I figured with the arrival of the sequel it was time to play the first game which had been on my shelf unplayed for all these years.
The only other Mario games I have ever played were the original Super Mario Bros on the NES and Mario Kart 7 on my 3DS. I like Mario Kart even though its the same as any other generic kart racer. For some reason, as long as a title has Mario in the title, it gets a pass from the game media, no matter how mediocre it really is. I don't know why people have such a nostalgia for these titles. I was around from the beginning and I have no sentimental leanings at all. In fact, having only played the original and this DS version, you really see how stale the formula is and how little things have changed. I had the same experience when I played the first Halo game, then Halo Reach back to back. Except there it was about 10 years between Halo games. Mario Bros had 21 years! If Mother Nature used Nintendo's evolution schedule, we would still be amoebas.
But what I really wanted to write about here is how little fun I am having with this game and why Japanese developers feel it is their duty to make gamers miserable. I'm also going to bring in another Japanese game I am playing right now called 3D Dot Game Heroes.
Why is Mario Bros not fun? This game is not about exploring, its not about experimentation, its not about roleplaying. It's about precision and timing....AND enemies trying to kill you. It's simplicity reminds me of an iphone game. Actually, that's all it really is. But Nintendo charges $40-$50 bucks for it instead of $5-$10.
When I think about this game, I am not filled with nostalgia. I am filled with frustration and anger. Jumping. A whole lot of jumping. Jumping over a cannon shell as birds swoop down on you or turtles throw hatchets at you or spiked armadilloes march towards you as you scramble on a moving platform over a lava pit, or giant spiked penus looking shafts shoot out at you, or man-killing fish pursue you while avoiding whirlpools, chasms, as advancing side scroll pushes you ever onward. You jump to avoid one thing only to meet your death with another thing, all the while having only intermittent save points which sometimes set you back 2-3 worlds.
Some or even most would say it takes "skill" to play this game. I say it takes "tedium patience". The game is just straight up tedious. I want to complete the game not because I like it, but because I feel that I need to finish what I started. Every time I pick this game up, I get stressed and pissed off. Is this really what a game is for? I thought it was supposed to make you FORGET stress? To be an escape. Not to up your blood pressure.
Maybe this is what Japanese developers do not get. Maybe Western gamers want you to have FUN with games? Not be frustrated and have to sweat to make progress. Unfortunately, with the success of Demon's Souls in the West, Japanese developers might think that the key to our hearts is to make games MORE difficult.
Which brings me to the other Japanese game I am playing at the moment: 3D Dot Game Heroes. I was having a lot of fun with this game, unlike Mario Bros....that is until I came upon a certain dungeon in the game which brought back one of the most hated features of Japanese RPGs. Namely, SWITCHES! The dungeon I was in had around 5 levels but on these levels there were red and blue blocks that would block your path until you stepped on a switch of the appropriate color to make the blocks lower into the floor. Problem is, you would have to make circuits of all five levels multiple times to hit the switch combos just right to access all the rooms. And lots of times you would get lost even with a map because there were so many floors and you wouldn't remember which rooms had switches and which still had blocks up etc. I spent hours in that one dungeon trying to find the boss.
Yeah, the Japanese maze shenanigan trick has stymied me ever since I gave up on the final dungeon in the first Final Fantasy game on the NES. I had to deal with a similar situation in Eternal Sonata more recently, where you would flip a switch and entire wings of the dungeon would shift, making you utterly lost. Back in the days before the internet, you were just screwed. Now, thankfully, you can look up walkthroughs to help you out when you reach a dead end. But my question of the 3D Dot Game Heroes developers is "Why?". Why do you make such a tedious switch pressing dungeon in the game? To me, it's just to make the customer suffer. Maybe Japanese gamers like a challenge and like to figure out puzzles. Me, after a long day at work, I don't want to spend precious hours of free time going back and forth over and over again.
Another instance of Japanese tedium psyche in Dot Heroes was when I went to the last temple to retrieve the last orb I needed to take on the supreme boss and found my way blocked by a.....TREE STUMP! I have a 20 foot long sword, an earthquake and ice spell, and bombs......but I couldn't destroy the tree stump! Turns out I needed a Fire Wand from the switches dungeon so I had to go BACK and experience that Hell AGAIN! Oh Japan.
So I guess playing these games has made me question what kind of games I really want to play. Compare these two games, Super Mario Bros and 3D Dot Game Heroes to two Western games, say Mass Effect and Skyrim...or Uncharted. Mario and Dot Game frustrate me and fill me with anger while Mass Effect intrigues me, entertains me, excites me, makes me love it. Skyrim makes me experience wonder, world immersion, and accomplishment, and satisfaction that I've gotten my money's worth with over 300 hours of gameplay.
It comes down to whether I want to come home from work and be pissed off at a game or do I want to have an EXPERIENCE that relaxes me or at least takes my mind off the day's events? You probably already know the answer to that one.
Till then, I will be trying to finish both of these game this Labor Day holiday.
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