DittoM
Bob-omb
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hey Fami, I’ve been thinking about Mario lately (as most normal people tend to do), and was really curious about the future of 3D Mario. It’s been almost 7 years since Odyssey, and with the Switch 2 most definitely releasing next year, it’s not crazy to think it’s launching with a new 3D Mario.
Now, the most common prediction is that we’re most likely getting something completely new since it’s been probably too long for the Mario team to just be making Odyssey 2, but that got me thinking if we’re ever gonna see another more linear style Mario game again along the lines of the Galaxy games and 3D Land/World. Odyssey sold and reviewed exceptionally well, higher than every other game in the series, so it’s no surprise most people are predicting that future games will take it’s more sandbox collectathon approach since it well over well with a lot of people.
I’m not most people though. Me personally I love all of the more linear games (Galaxy 1, 2, 3D Land and World) over the sandbox games (64, Sunshine, Odyssey). Odyssey is a fine game but it really doesn’t have what I usually come to 3D Mario for. I like platforming challenges and the feeling that every objective the developers made was hand-crafted and thoroughly designed, rather than Odyssey’s approach of just throwing moons everywhere with most of them being copy-pasted objectives found in every world like kicking rocks, catching birds, herding sheep, etc. Barely any of the over 800 moons in Odyssey are as satisfying to obtain as the average star in the Galaxy games because of how little effort is needed to grab them. The challenge is finding them rather than getting to them, which works for some people but falls flat for me, especially on repeat playthroughs.
Often the discussion of linear vs open exploration in Nintendo games comes from Zelda with its new approach with Zelda games like BotW and TotK. However with 3D Mario there’s really 2 major differences. One is that linear Mario doesn’t play too radically different from sandbox Mario. The objectives are handled differently, but controls and sometimes even mechanics remain similar between games. Second, is that BotW (and to a lesser extent TotK) sold WAAAAYYY more than any other game in the series. Odyssey is the best selling 3D Mario by a decent margin, but 3D Mario always sold well and a good chunk of Odyssey’s sales can really be attributed to being the first 3D Mario game in Nintendo’s shiny new system. Everything has been selling better on Switch. I still believe that of instead of Odyssey if we got something like a Galaxy 3 that was just as creative and fresh as Odyssey but still linear, it still would’ve been the best selling 3D Mario game. Maybe not to the same degree as Odyssey but still massive.
Obviously there’s the elephant in the room to discuss and that’s Bowser’s Fury. It’s not a full fledged Mario game, rather a side mode in the 3D World port, but I personally think it did a fantastic job bringing the two types of 3D Mario together. It’s a large world with camera control, but the focus is more on smaller, linear platforming challenges spread across the massive world. We don’t know if this was just a little pet project for Nintendo or a glimpse into the future of the series, but I would love for it to be the latter.
So tell me, Fami, is there a future for 3D Mario? Is there a chance we get more games that play like Galaxy/3D Land/3D Word or is Odyssey styled games all we can expect for the next 20 years or so? I love 3D Mario and really don’t want it to go from a series I adored and obsessed over to one that I’ll still play but with more of an attitude of “looks quality, I’ll check it out I guess.”
Now, the most common prediction is that we’re most likely getting something completely new since it’s been probably too long for the Mario team to just be making Odyssey 2, but that got me thinking if we’re ever gonna see another more linear style Mario game again along the lines of the Galaxy games and 3D Land/World. Odyssey sold and reviewed exceptionally well, higher than every other game in the series, so it’s no surprise most people are predicting that future games will take it’s more sandbox collectathon approach since it well over well with a lot of people.
I’m not most people though. Me personally I love all of the more linear games (Galaxy 1, 2, 3D Land and World) over the sandbox games (64, Sunshine, Odyssey). Odyssey is a fine game but it really doesn’t have what I usually come to 3D Mario for. I like platforming challenges and the feeling that every objective the developers made was hand-crafted and thoroughly designed, rather than Odyssey’s approach of just throwing moons everywhere with most of them being copy-pasted objectives found in every world like kicking rocks, catching birds, herding sheep, etc. Barely any of the over 800 moons in Odyssey are as satisfying to obtain as the average star in the Galaxy games because of how little effort is needed to grab them. The challenge is finding them rather than getting to them, which works for some people but falls flat for me, especially on repeat playthroughs.
Often the discussion of linear vs open exploration in Nintendo games comes from Zelda with its new approach with Zelda games like BotW and TotK. However with 3D Mario there’s really 2 major differences. One is that linear Mario doesn’t play too radically different from sandbox Mario. The objectives are handled differently, but controls and sometimes even mechanics remain similar between games. Second, is that BotW (and to a lesser extent TotK) sold WAAAAYYY more than any other game in the series. Odyssey is the best selling 3D Mario by a decent margin, but 3D Mario always sold well and a good chunk of Odyssey’s sales can really be attributed to being the first 3D Mario game in Nintendo’s shiny new system. Everything has been selling better on Switch. I still believe that of instead of Odyssey if we got something like a Galaxy 3 that was just as creative and fresh as Odyssey but still linear, it still would’ve been the best selling 3D Mario game. Maybe not to the same degree as Odyssey but still massive.
Obviously there’s the elephant in the room to discuss and that’s Bowser’s Fury. It’s not a full fledged Mario game, rather a side mode in the 3D World port, but I personally think it did a fantastic job bringing the two types of 3D Mario together. It’s a large world with camera control, but the focus is more on smaller, linear platforming challenges spread across the massive world. We don’t know if this was just a little pet project for Nintendo or a glimpse into the future of the series, but I would love for it to be the latter.
So tell me, Fami, is there a future for 3D Mario? Is there a chance we get more games that play like Galaxy/3D Land/3D Word or is Odyssey styled games all we can expect for the next 20 years or so? I love 3D Mario and really don’t want it to go from a series I adored and obsessed over to one that I’ll still play but with more of an attitude of “looks quality, I’ll check it out I guess.”
