By We are in an age where the internet certainly plays a big role in our everyday lives. People use the internet for social means, for updates on news in the area, and even for helping them chose what they’ll need to wear to face the day’s weather. But for those who play games, downloadable content has got to be one of the most innovative ideas to ever surface out of game creation. What a better way to take advantage of this innovative idea, then to use it in a franchise that has just been dying to receive some of it. 3D Super Mario titles are asking for this, and they definitely deserve some attention.
Nintendo once stated that they didn’t intend to sell off an unfinished game and then “complete” it with the DLC, which is what some video game developers have been doing as of late (I cannot recall the exact quote, nor can I find it. If anyone can, it’ll be appreciative). I believe in this philosophy not as a Nintendo fan, but as a gamer who wishes for DLC to simply expand on the experience, not finish it. One shouldn’t need to purchase a game at full retail price, and then purchase DLC to essentially “finish” or “complete” the game. That’s laziness coming from the developers, and it’s greedy to ask for more money in order to have the “finished” experience.
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Their first efforts are to be paid off with the “Super Luigi U” DLC which would release sometime this year (hopefully). It’s Luigi’s time to shine with all new courses available for the player, essentially expanding the game. Unfortunately, since this is a 2D Mario title, there wouldn’t be much of new elements added to the game. A 2D game is a 2D game, DLC would only take you so far.
Now would Nintendo make their best efforts for creating DLC of this caliber for their upcoming 3D Mario title? They likely would, or rather they should. It’s not too hard to use a 2D engine in New Super Mario Bros. U and rework the levels to their liking. It’ll be more effort to work on such a large project in a 3D scale, so would it be of their interests to rework every single course or stage in order to create essentially a new game? Perhaps not to the “Super Luigi U” extent. Though new stages shouldn’t be out of the question, as that would be a great way of expanding the already complete experience.
This DLC content may not even need to be complex, it could be as simple as modifying already-existing stages with different obstacles, difficulty and method of completion. Anything like modifying the enemies to be more aggressive, to having a large number of them, or even weather conditions could lead to tougher challenges. A Bowser stage normally has lava, adding some volcanic rock falling from the sky as extra obstacles to go through, would be great for the more “hardcore” player. Wind could also make those stages much more difficult, as one will need to time their jumps accurately in order to reach their destinations much easier. Instead of Lava, make it ice, make it snowy, cold, slippery, only our imagination is the true limitation.
Of course one will need to “please understand”, that this likely would not be something that comes anytime soon after the game releases. If they happen to make content to the extent of “Super Luigi U”, it will likely take some time to make. This could also cause delays in other future titles being created by the 3D Mario team. If EAD Tokyo develops the game, and begins to develop another title, wouldn’t the DLC then hamper the development of their future titles? It’s pretty clear that Nintendo is having issues with Wii U game development, likely due to needing to finally stray away from that Gamecube architecture (Wii was basically a Gamecube tech-wise, with higher clocks, more RAM, and slight modifications). Adding that, along with requiring the creation of extra content, will lead to loads of issues. Hang in there Nintendo.
Mario-related news has been very quiet as of late, there’s hardly much to mention for Wii U. Hopefully Nintendo could turn things around with their tough development cycle, because a good part of the public isn’t very amused. Get your acts together, c’mon Nintendo Direct (we really need one of those)! Anyway, what do you think about DLC in 3D Mario titles for Wii U? Should Nintendo include such expansions for their next game? Or should they stay away and limit DLC as much as possible? Do you have any ideas for DLC?
