GameTech: Super Mario in a birthday battle royale, and a new Minecraft update
Super Mario Bros 35 video game.
Mario has done everything over the years. He started life as a plumber. He became a kart driver, a golfer, an Olympian, a doctor, and even an astronaut. That’s a lot to achieve in 35 years. During all those escapades, Mario brought us all together in the spirit of fun and adventure. Until now.
As part of Mario’s 35th anniversary, Nintendo have put a twist on the classic Mario formula. Instead of saving the world, Mario is out for himself. Instead of having fun with other players, you are out to get them, until only one Mario is left standing.
Ok, so that might sound a little ominous, but Super Mario Bros 35 (Nintendo Switch) doesn’t hand Mario a rifle or give Princess Peach a shotgun. Instead, Nintendo have cleverly tweaked the Battle Royale formula for the world of platforming, so that 35 players can compete against each other in classic Mario gameplay.
Here’s how it works. The game begins with 35 players, each starting from the same level, in this case 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros. You don’t see the other players on your level. Instead, your screen is surrounded by tiny images of the other competitors, showing their individual gameplay.
From there, you play the game ‘as normal’, collecting coins and bopping enemies, progressing through levels, with the exception that there is a timer counting down to zero. As you collect coins or kill enemies, the timer is topped up. If it hits zero, or you die, then you are out of the Battle Royale and cannot be crowned the sole winner.
Sounds pretty straightforward, right? You just play until there is one person left? Well, it’s not quite so simple. With so many experienced Mario players around the world, Nintendo needed to introduce ways to make things harder. So in Super Mario Bros 35, you can ‘target’ other players by sending any enemies that you defeat in your game to an opponent’s game. The advantage is that the other player might be overwhelmed and die. The disadvantage? Killing enemies also refills your timer, so if your opponent survives the onslaught - they come out stronger.
In addition, as the levels go deeper into Super Mario Bros, the enemies become more difficult and tricky, so what seems like an easy, drawn-out affair at the start becomes nail-biting and tense as you unlock more levels.
Nintendo can’t lay claim to the simple genius of Super Mario Bros 35. The gameplay here is very much based on fan-made efforts that have been released for free in recent years. In saying that, Nintendo can certainly be praised for releasing an official version of a Mario battle royale that does the plumber justice, and will provide hours of fun. Despite being out for himself on his 35th birthday, Mario still invited us all to the party.
Will Minecraft be around to celebrate a 35th anniversary? It still has many years to reach that target, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Mojang’s masterpiece alive and kicking in a few decades, even if that’s in augmented reality form by then.
In the meantime, the original Minecraft has received one of the biggest updates in a long time. You know a game is truly popular when an update called ‘Cliffs and Caves’ is received with universal enthusiasm. While it might sound like one of David Attenborough’s less exciting documentaries, Cliffs and Caves will likely keep players excited for a while.
It transforms a key element of the Minecraft landscape, making the titular features far more detailed and interesting to explore. Caves will get ‘lush’ and ‘dripstone’ varieties, while the update also adds crystals, telescopes, bundles, sculk sensor blocks and a new warden mob. We can see lots players ‘caving in’ and returning to Minecraft to explore the new features.
Minecraft added some new monsters in the form of the warden mob, and Paul Anderson is adding monsters to our cinema screens in December.
The film adaptation of Monster Hunter, the smash hit game from Capcom, has released its first teaser. It shows Mila Jovovich in military garb, facing off against the humongous Black Diablo monster, as it rises out of a barren, desert landscape to confront her team of soldiers.
Will it be a monster hit? Unlikely in the current climate. But we’ll be hunting it down regardless.
