Super Mario - Jeff Ryan [72]
Stupid Mario, and his stupid, cherubic, mustached grin. As long as Nintendo pushed Mario as its mascot, it would be shackled to the game business with golden handcuffs. A business of which it had less market share every year. The whole game industry was receding, Yamauchi could see with his unequalled erudition. It would take a decade or more, he knew, but the “Internet” would provide the primary entertainment for a new generation, the way television had threatened the hegemony of the film studios. The numbers of people walking away from gaming were rising.
Well, if Nintendo was stuck with Mario, he’d work for his daily bread. With all the game companies moving to greener pastures, Nintendo’s first-party games would be more crucial than ever. It was in quite good shape for this sort of expensive development: for decades the big N had marketed and developed each major game like it was a blockbuster summer film. The game industry had revenue similar to movies: a few games were huge hits that everyone bought, and the curve rapidly dropped after that. There was no equivalent of a midlist novel or a cult TV show: either a nineties game sold a million copies and was all that and a bag of chips, or it was whack.
With enough great games, Nintendo would be able to ride out the lack of third-party developers. Who cared if the shelf was mostly Nintendo for the first few years? Most of the other games merely gave the illusion of choice. In reality, they sold as well as the dusty cake mix and pinto beans in the center aisle of a 7-Eleven. N64 gamers, like SNES and NES gamers before them, wanted Nintendo games. They wanted Mario, and Link, and little else.
So the grand dimensionalization project began, at Nintendo and everywhere else in the game world. Every 2-D franchise would, via trial and error, see what it would play like when placed in a virtual world. Just about every game franchise would have a stumble or two making this move. They were fundamentally different types of game play, and therefore resulted in different types of games. Tomb Raider may just be Pitfall with a supermodel, but the game play is quite different. Identical plots, but the Atari game was an obstacle course, and the 3-D game was a mix of puzzle-solving and action-adventure.
Castlevania, after one iffy switch to 3-D, went back to 2-D game play. Mega Man and Mortal Kombat did the same thing: both were thrown off-balance when characters wandered around instead of being corralled on a flat stage to confront opponents or obstacles. The look could change, but the content remained the same.
Mario had made the jump already, but he was holding down way more than one franchise. Besides the classic title, he had racked up the Donkey Kong, Super Mario Land, Mario’s Tennis, Mario Kart, Game & Watch Gallery, Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario RPG, and Dr. Mario franchises. For the N64 to seem robust in game selection, they’d all have to make the move to 3-D—and soon.
Some were easy: the original Super Mario Kart had practically herniated itself trying to mimic three dimensions, so its upgrade was a natural fit. (“Kick Asphalt,” went the tagline.) Donkey Kong got Donkey Kong 64, which was another natural fit—no more prerendering! A new sports title, Mario Golf (made with a Sega Saturn developer Nintendo stole, Camelot Software Planning), found a sweet spot between minigolf’s fun and actual golf’s skill requirement.
Miyamoto used his Super Mario 64 experience to chart true 3-D sequels for other Nintendo stars: Star Fox, F-Zero, and Wave Race. (Names for most of these were easy: just throw a “64” on the tail