GAMER LOUNGE 20XX (NO CASUALS!!)

[Kosheh]

Whoops! Daylight Savings Time really fucked me over

I was implying that the series started out with a storybook theme where the game is separated in chapters that each have their own miniplot and characters in them. Even though the name changed the importance of story and fleshed out characters didn't... Until Sticker Star.

You're...sorta going in the right direction of what I was saying

Also, what the fuck does Donkey Kong have anything to do with this conversation?

EDIT: Also I never said anything about wanting Paper Mario series to be "hardcore". I'm just talking about story here. I don't care if they change the gameplay, that's not what I'm talking about! From the beginning Paper Mario was designed with begginers in mind. I knew this.

What I was trying to say before was "There's a particular franchise Nintendo continuously uses to try to explore new, fresh ideas. Kind of like an 'experimental' series of sorts to test the waters to see what type of gameplay players enjoy." Up until now, I THOUGHT it was Donkey Kong - given we've had the DKC series, DK64, Donkey Kong, Jungle Beat, and DKC Returns for example, each proving very different. Apparently though, that's not really the case. DK's pretty much established his niche over the years, as a "hardcore platformer", in comparison to Mario games as "casual platformer" titles.

But yeah nope it's not the Donkey Kong series that Nintendo truly takes in bizarre directions: turns out it's been Paper Mario all along, which insists on taking the series all sorts of crazy new directions in an attempt to establish itself, with the name changes to each game (at least in Japan) proving this. "Mario Story" was the only game in the series that had that title, whereas "Paper Mario RPG" kinda...self-acknowledged itself as a humongous, beautiful adventure. All the while, however, being it's a Mario title, its aim was to be accessible to beginners as you said.

...at what point, though did Miyamoto get this idea of "Hey guys, story isn't important" from, though
and furthermore, where on earth did the old Paper Mario 3DS beta concepts go


Like, did TTYD take ten years to develop due to the story and Nintendo demanded IS literally shit games out so they can maximize profits?
It's like around the Wii era, Miyamoto just lost his fucking mind. I mean for Christ's sake, Wii Music, Paper Mario's magic disappearing story, and now "Starfox Guard" being literally Five Nights at Freddy's but with not-scary things

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Going back for a second, I think the Mario/DK comparison I made is kinda solid?? But just in case, it's...similar to the Mickey/Donald Disney platformers of the 90's made by Capcom or whichever other developers at the time.
Mickey games have generally been accessible to newcomers and are good for beginners to the platforming genre around that time. You can complete each one of the SNES Magical Quest games in about an hour.
Donald Duck games, however, have always been tailored to players seeking an actual challenge and can get hard as hell during some segments. That's by design.
Mario games and Donkey Kong games are the same: Mario games have always been beginner-friendly, but...especially as of late, the difficulty in DK games really ramps up at some point and become absolutely frustrating as all hell. But we as gamers recognize that - and like it!