Belgian Dude
Member
Bit of a mouthful of a title and there was probably an WAY easier way to say it but oh well:
While the NSMB series gets a bit of flack for revisiting the same "level themes" over and over (grasslands, desert and the like), throughout the course of Mario's history there are a plethora of varied and memorable locations. From the laughter-named locations of Superstar's Saga (in particular, Chucklehuck Woods and the Chateau, where Popple shenanigans are plenty), to the glimmering Glitzville and monochrome Boggly Woods of Paper Mario, and even to some of the more off the wall Color Splash locations, such as Tangerino Grill and Plum Park (where you face the best boss ever,
), the RPGs are a source of some pretty great ones overall.
But it's not only the RPGs, the Party games have some fun locations for boards, the linear platforming games all have unique levels (some that went on to become staples of the series) and the Galaxy series, as an example of the 3D platformers, has its fair share of memorable galaxies.
But despite all that, it wasn't until Mario Kart 8 released that I stopped and thought about how cool it'd be to see these old places in new, revamped, situations. And part of it is because MK8 is fantastic in its details: Baby Park went from a fairly simple course to having a gorgeous park and you could honestly make a new 3D Mario with worlds solely based on the backdrop of the Mario Kart 8 tracks and I'd be thrilled.
(Seriously: Mount Wario, Electrodome, Sunshine Airport, Toad Harbor, Rainbow Road, Ribbon Road, Cheese Land, Wild Woods all have the potential of becoming really sick smaller worlds, and god I want it)
MK8 didn't just have beautiful tracks, but through its details it felt like the most 'lived in' Mushroom Kingdom iteration. It was great seeing old tracks get completely revamped and given new life, and how they made Ribbon Road one of my literal favorite tracks in the series. If that's how far they went to revamp and old track, could you imagine how far they'd go if they had to imagine a level into a whole different genre? There's already experimentation in putting things INTO the Kart Series, but other than that the games/genres are pretty much self-contained besides the location staples, so it'd be super great to see individual locations getting a makeover or appearing on totally different contexts. Let me jump around in a 2D Boggly Woods, race in a Painted Swampland and collect moons in freaking Waluigi Pinball.
This concept isn't new for the Mario series either, of course, as what was Tick Tock Clock in Super Mario 64:
Eventually became THIS in Mario Kart 8 after being added as a track in MKDS:
So what about you? Do you feel like there's a RPG location that would be great as a Mario Kart track? Or a track that would be great as a World in a 3D/2D platformer? Just go wild: even individual levels from games could be expanded into worlds if you feel they have enough meat to them (such as the painted night one in NSMBU). I'll be posting a couple every now and then.
While the NSMB series gets a bit of flack for revisiting the same "level themes" over and over (grasslands, desert and the like), throughout the course of Mario's history there are a plethora of varied and memorable locations. From the laughter-named locations of Superstar's Saga (in particular, Chucklehuck Woods and the Chateau, where Popple shenanigans are plenty), to the glimmering Glitzville and monochrome Boggly Woods of Paper Mario, and even to some of the more off the wall Color Splash locations, such as Tangerino Grill and Plum Park (where you face the best boss ever,
Pe-Tea Piranha
But it's not only the RPGs, the Party games have some fun locations for boards, the linear platforming games all have unique levels (some that went on to become staples of the series) and the Galaxy series, as an example of the 3D platformers, has its fair share of memorable galaxies.
But despite all that, it wasn't until Mario Kart 8 released that I stopped and thought about how cool it'd be to see these old places in new, revamped, situations. And part of it is because MK8 is fantastic in its details: Baby Park went from a fairly simple course to having a gorgeous park and you could honestly make a new 3D Mario with worlds solely based on the backdrop of the Mario Kart 8 tracks and I'd be thrilled.
(Seriously: Mount Wario, Electrodome, Sunshine Airport, Toad Harbor, Rainbow Road, Ribbon Road, Cheese Land, Wild Woods all have the potential of becoming really sick smaller worlds, and god I want it)
MK8 didn't just have beautiful tracks, but through its details it felt like the most 'lived in' Mushroom Kingdom iteration. It was great seeing old tracks get completely revamped and given new life, and how they made Ribbon Road one of my literal favorite tracks in the series. If that's how far they went to revamp and old track, could you imagine how far they'd go if they had to imagine a level into a whole different genre? There's already experimentation in putting things INTO the Kart Series, but other than that the games/genres are pretty much self-contained besides the location staples, so it'd be super great to see individual locations getting a makeover or appearing on totally different contexts. Let me jump around in a 2D Boggly Woods, race in a Painted Swampland and collect moons in freaking Waluigi Pinball.
This concept isn't new for the Mario series either, of course, as what was Tick Tock Clock in Super Mario 64:
Eventually became THIS in Mario Kart 8 after being added as a track in MKDS:
So what about you? Do you feel like there's a RPG location that would be great as a Mario Kart track? Or a track that would be great as a World in a 3D/2D platformer? Just go wild: even individual levels from games could be expanded into worlds if you feel they have enough meat to them (such as the painted night one in NSMBU). I'll be posting a couple every now and then.
