New Super Mario All-Stars

[Fryguy64]

Ah, the Super Mario Bros. series. It's been the peak of Nintendo's mountain of franchises since 1985 when the heroes of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. entered the Mushroom Kingdom. Since those days, the games have aged, and for the most part they have aged well.

With New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii reviving the series for today's generations, I think it's time to look to updating the classics for a new generation of gamers.

The aim of this project is to unify the design and gameplay of all of Mario's adventures. A big task, but something I have been enjoying playing about with for a while.

Overview
- Enemy designs and actions to be unified across the entire series.
- Stage designs to be clarified and unified across the entire series.
- Mario's actions to be unified across the entire series, and stages to be modified to take advantage of the fact.

Notes on stage types
Across the Mario series you tend to see certain set pieces being revived and updated. No doubt many will have noticed that NSMB and NSMBWii share most of their stage types with SMB3 and SMW. However, there are a number of stages that break away from this model (notably in SMB2, SML and SML2).

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. Game & Watch
(unlocked after beating Super Mario Bros.)
This game will feature all of the levels from the Game & Watch game, including the classic graphics. However, sprites, enemies and play mechanics will be shared with the other games.

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
The Lost Levels (or SMB2j) originally had graphics slightly modified from SMB, and much more challenging stages. The game also features five extra worlds, including an underwater world (perhaps a reference to the legendary Minus World from the original game). The game introduced something important though: jumping higher after bouncing off an enemy.

Super Mario Bros. Special
(unlocked after beating The Lost Levels)
The relatively unknown PC88 release from Japan, developed by Hudson. While it's a nightmare to play in its original form, a patch has been made for SMB where you can play the original levels in a close to original form. However, the game also includes enemies from Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2
This will be difficult to adapt to the play mechanics, as they are radically different. However, the enemies are (largely) unique, and several play mechanics were written into Super Mario Bros. 3's e-Reader release... so they can be compatible. The largest number of changes will be to this game.

Super Mario Bros. 3
The first title to use the play mechanics seen throughout the rest of the series.
After beating the game, you unlock Super Mario Bros. 3: World e, featuring the 30 extra e reader stages.

Super Mario World
This game introduced a number of other updates to play mechanics that have been carried through to the modern games, as well as introducing Yoshi. The game takes place in Dinosaur Land, but there are many similar stages which may need some adapting to differentiate them.

Super Mario Land
This game has four worlds and a nearly completely separate cast to the other series. The play mechanics in this game were imperfect, and need a lot of work to make the game playable.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Borrowing heavily from SMW, the second SML has the weirdest set of stages of all the games, from submarines to a fireplace to an N&B Block stage set inside Mario's hat. It also has a lot of unique enemies.

I've done a lot more than this and will update as and when I can!

[nocturnal YL]

Would have wanted something like this for a good while. I still like SMAS now, for the reason that you get 4~5 games for the price of 0~1.

And if all these come with the new game mechanics (wall jump, more powerups, etc), the game will be much easier. An option for old-time players to disable this would be good.

[Prince~Of~Light]

Agreed!!! Not even backjumps allowed.

So, this is a game then? (-lwl-)

[Fryguy64]

The idea is that:

1. Every game will be upgraded to have the same mechanics, although some of the brand new mechanics (shake to pick up, slow running start) will be removed as they would break the earlier games (and are unnecessary). Scoring methods, wall jumps, triple-jumps and pound-the-ground will be kept.

2. Every game will also have the original game "Classic Mode" available to play.

3. Beating games will unlock new features.

3a. Beating certain games will unlock bonus stages (for example, beating SMB:TLL will unlock SMB Special, beating SMB3 will unlock the extra World e stages from the GBA).

3b. Beating two games will allow you to switch on certain power-ups for other games. These will be rewarded with new areas that can only be accessed with the new power-ups.

4. Graphically, I'm thinking more Yoshi's Island style than NSMB... although I keep changing my mind about that.

[Manspeed]

This is starting to remind me more of my "Massive Mario mash-up" idea that combined all the enemies, power-ups, stage types and features from all the Mario platformers into one massive game with enhanced SNES-style graphics a la Four Swords Adventures.

I gotta say Fry, it's a good idea. I think the "preserved SNES graphics" look would suit it best.

You know what else would make this a winner? Some sort of "Mario museum" mode like the one in Sonic Jam, where you can run around a little playground and enter buildings that display pieces of Mario's history. It doesn't necessarily have to be in 3D either. If all the other games are having their graphics updated to match, than this mode can also be in 2D and just follow the same style.

[Fryguy64]

NSMB is an OK looking game, but I much prefer the chunky, colourful and characterful spritework as seen in Yoshi's Island, Super Princess Peach and the Mario & Luigi games, and I'd like to keep that alive. The 3D models often look so soulless.

And I'm not just sitting here wishing... I have been working on some of them... particularly Super Mario Land! I will be sharing the results of these soon

I considered some kind of museum or encyclopaedia as well, perhaps unlocking new parts as you play through the game. Why not?

[Flip]

Huh... a NinDB developed game? VERY cool idea