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How Nintendo can keep Super Mario Bros. 35 going...

Waluigilicious

Waluigilicious

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,497
Weirdly enough, with how the game works at the moment it actually makes some sense that it is a limited release. Whichever level is picked the most comes up first, and then whichever level is picked second most comes up second, and then this goes down the list (it's a little more complicated than that, but that is the gist of it).

At the moment it works because people are unlocking levels and therefore picking the next one in the list. Whilst the first levels will always be the most common (as newcomers join the game), every week feels like a slightly different experience as people unlock more and more levels.

However, once we reach the point where everyone that is still playing has unlocked every level, it will just be the case of people picking whatever levels are best for coins, and in time it will be the same levels again and again. I can see it being a constant 1-2 only for example, if people weren't picking other levels to unlock them.

I think there are two fixes for this. First, add in all the SMB Lost Levels levels to keep the game fresh for longer, and secondly make it so that you can't choose out of every level you have unlocked, but rather one out of a randomly selected three (like in Mario Kart, except its different for everyone). If you have not yet unlocked every level then the last level you have unlocked should always be available as one of the random three choices too.

Thoughts?
 
Lyrick

Lyrick

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,818
I always pick 4-1/ 5-1 or a maze variant 6-4 or 7-4.

Throwing in Lakitu, Buzzy Beetles, Bullet bills and mazes seems to destroy peoples strategy of simply running 1-2 over and over again.
 
NotLiquid

NotLiquid

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,980
I feel like if you did keep the game running it may be ideal to implement a variation of Splatoon's map rotation, or Mario Kart's random voting system based on a randomly selected batch of levels.
 
Stopdoor

Stopdoor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,785
Toronto
At least your proposal is more humble than people saying "add entirely new games like SMB3", but I still think Lost Levels would just be a buzzkill in a multiplayer settings. It sounds good on paper but in practice I can't see anyone enjoying that except the top-level expert players.
 
dipship31

dipship31

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,195
Have there been any patches yet? I kinda fell away early with this one since when it got down to the last 3 players or so it would take forever.
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,267
Lost Levels would be kind of hellish, they'd be more frustrating than fun. I guess they could make it use the All Stars visuals as a bonus thing but ugh, please no, they're so bad.

The big things they should do are address level balance (stop giving us 1-1 at least three times per game) and incorporate auto scrolling in the endgame. Currently the endgame just isn't fun, it either drags on and on forever if you have a bad (i.e. too easy) selection of levels or gets so impossibly absurd that the only way you can succeed is by collecting a ton of coins and rolling the roulette, neither way feels like it rewards and encourages skillful play. Cutting down the maximum number of enemies that can spawn a little bit and having the game start autoscrolling in the top 5 would go a long way towards make the endgame rewarding and fun.
 
AniHawk

AniHawk

No Fear, Only Math
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,277
if they want to keep this going, then let people play with other character sprites. unlocking all the levels should have let you swap between mario and luigi for example. getting s-rank in a normal week unlocks peach, s-rank in a special battle unlocks bowser, etc.
 
Stopdoor

Stopdoor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,785
Toronto
AniHawk said:
if they want to keep this going, then let people play with other character sprites. unlocking all the levels should have let you swap between mario and luigi for example. getting s-rank in a normal week unlocks peach, s-rank in a special battle unlocks bowser, etc.
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It is kind of baffling Luigi isn't even playable in Super Mario "Bros."
 
NotLiquid

NotLiquid

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,980
Bazry

Bazry

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,536
They need to add new game modes if they want to keep it going, something like Fall Guys were only so many can progress each level, then the final is whoever beats Bowser first

It was fun for the 1st few games, but once you've won a game it gets so tedious and long at the end of the game that I just didn't want to play it again
 
Jacknapes

Jacknapes

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,213
Newport, South Wales
Lost Levels as a reward for getting, say 50-100 wins as the equivalent to Tetris Maximus mode would be good.

I would say add in Super Mario Bros 2 levels, but they are completely different to the original. Maybe mix in Super Mario Bros 3 and World levels over time.
 
MinusTydus

MinusTydus

The Fallen
Jul 28, 2018
8,244
Add Super Mario Bros. 2 so we can fill the screen with Beezos and Phantos.

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Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,267
MinusTydus said:
Add Super Mario Bros. 2 so we can fill the screen with Beezos and Phantos.

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The structure of the game means that only Mario 1 and Lost Levels would work. Any level that does anything other than go from left to right would require a totally different approach to spawning enemies and showing them on the garbage bar.

In addition SMB2 wouldn't really work because it has very few coins and powerups and killing enemies wouldn't work well due to the limits of the throwing mechanic, which would make it hard to reward players as SMB1 does for bouncing on enemies repeatedly or hitting multiple enemies with a shell, which is a key part of Mario 35's gameplay loop.
 
LiS Matt

LiS Matt

Member
Jan 19, 2018
1,097
Oh is that how the levels for each match are chosen? I did wonder why it was always 1-1, 1-2 on repeat
 
Belthazar90

Belthazar90

Banned
Jun 3, 2019
4,316
I wonder why would they go through that effort if the game is going to be discontinued in march. There's no benefit on keeping it going when it's not going to be "going" for much time anyway.
 
OP
OP
Waluigilicious

Waluigilicious

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,497
LiS Matt said:
Oh is that how the levels for each match are chosen? I did wonder why it was always 1-1, 1-2 on repeat
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Yeah, its hard to explain but ill give it a go! Let's say the levels the 35 people chose are as follows...

1-1 x8
1-2 x7
1-3 x6
2-4 x5
3-2 x1
5-3 x3
6-4 x3
7-3 x2

The rule is the most popular levels come up first (the earlier one if equal), and the same level can't come up twice in a row. So in this case it will be...
1-1 (7 left)
1-2 (6 left)
1-1 (6 left)
1-2 (5 left)
1-1 (5 left)
1-3 (5 left)
1-1 (4 left)
1-2 (4 left)
1-3 (4 left)
2-4 (4 left)
1-1 (3 left)
1-2 (3 left)
1-3 (3 left)
2-4 (3 left)
1-1 (2 left)
1-2 (2 left)
1-3 (2 left)
2-4 (2 left)
5-3 (2 left)
6-4 (2 left)
1-1 (1 left)
1-2 (1 left)
1-3 (1 left)
2-4 (1 left)
5-3 (1 left)
6-4 (1 left)
7-3 (1 left)
1-1
1-2
1-3
2-4
3-2
5-3
6-4
7-3

So for people who have been playing since day 1 its quite cool. At first everyone was of course picking the first stages since that's all they had, but every week as more and more people play, the stages get slightly more varied (and difficult) as we all progress together. 1-1 comes up a lot because there are still people who have just started and thats all they can pick.

Problem is, as time goes by everyone has every level unlocked, this sense of gradual progression as a community will be gone. Instead people will choose the same few levels that are either easy or have a lot of coins. This game is timed for a reason and its quite cool, but once the time for it runs out, it would be even cooler if they implemented a random level select system as I suggested!
 

Sixfortyfive

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,615
Atlanta
Waluigilicious The in-game level queue isn't determined by how frequently levels are picked by the player. It's determined by each player's experience level. The players who have the lowest EXP/LV on their account will have their stages show up first. The highest-leveled player will have his or her stage show up last on the list. People have verified this by unlocking 8-4 with fresh, extremely low-level accounts and getting it to show up as the 2nd stage of a match. The only thing I'm not 100% sure on is how exactly it handles duplicate selections that come back-to-back. I believe that the game just throws those out of consideration, as I've yet to play a single match that actually goes through 35 stages before looping back to the beginning of the list.

I also think you're looking at stage selection shortsightedly. Picking a stage at the start of the round based on how easy it is to farm coins is a poor tactical move unless you're simply aiming for the coin high score leaderboard rather than winning the match. Ideally, the stage that you pick at round start should be one that you can confidently clear but is likely to kill your opponents. That's why maze castles (7-4) are good; if you know the correct path then it's easy, but players who don't know it will burn up their whole clock trying to figure it out. Or, if you're extremely confident in your platforming skills, you could pick a stage full of bottomless pits like 6-3, where the item roulette can't bail you out of the difficult jumps.

When in warp zones, you should skip stages that pose a high risk of death (bottomless pits, cheep cheep bridge), and focus instead on stages that facilitate needs for different phases of the game (farming coins in the early game, spawning difficult enemies in the mid-game, and farming time in the late game).

Mandos said:
I mean an obvious update is the all stars art style
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Hideous.
 
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