Assist Block will be in New Super Mario Bros. 2, plus other Tezuka quotes
IGN has published a second interview with Takashi Tezuka, this time focusing on New Super Mario Bros. 2.
Tezuka commented on the core differences between the 3DS title and New Super Mario Bros. Wii U, revealed that the Assist Block will be in Bros. 2, discussed the game’s difficulty, and even fielded a question about a return to Super Mario Bros. 2.
Head past the break for all of Tezuka’s comments.
Tezuka on the core differences between Mario U and Mario 2…
“Well, first of all, this is a Mario, as I mentioned earlier, that takes advantage of the unique features of the 3DS. In the same way that U takes advantage of the Wii U. Another thing that we really thought about when we were developing New Super Mario Bros. 2 was, we really want people to enjoy this title over and over, to play for a long time. So what is one way that we can keep them enjoying this game?
“We thought of collecting coins… And we were thinking, okay, well, if coin collection is going to be a theme, what should we set the number of coins at? Should we just ask people to bring in ten thousand, twenty thousand? No, no, let’s make it a million. I’ll be perfectly honest, when we first talked about a million coins, people were like, are you crazy? Can you actually collect a million coins? But we said, you know, we really want people to come back to this game again and again, we want them to get their money’s worth and play it for a long time, so let’s make it so you can actually collect a million coins.
“With that in mind, I mentioned StreetPass earlier, via the implementation of StreetPass within New Super Mario Bros. 2, we have added a way to get coins, that’s one way you can get a lot of coins, and also there’s the two-player mode, which also is another way to allow you to get more coins. We’ve added a lot of cool gameplay elements based on the idea of this whole ‘let’s collect a million coins’ theme. You can’t miss it. When there’s a lot of coins on screen, the way we have implemented that…coin shower? It’s over the top. When the coins pop on the screen, you’ll be like, oh my goodness…”
Tezuka on New Super Mario Bros. 2’s co-op…
“We looked at multiplayer on Wii. Multiple players, for example two, on the same screen who are able to see each other, that’s fun. We actually ran some experiments when we were working on Mario for DS and saying, what would be fun for a two-player experience on the Nintendo DS?
“Of course the first thing we thought of, well, we’ve got two systems, two screens, let’s allow the players to be separated. But what we discovered is that you’re almost never together when you do that. You’re almost exclusively in different locations. It’s almost strictly competitive, you’re just thinking, I gotta get ahead of that guy. You’re not really working together. You’re not even interacting. So based on that, we decided that we wanted them to be on the same screen.”
Tezuka on New Super Mario Bros. 2’s difficulty…
“Actually, to be honest with you, I thought 3D Land was pretty easy… I think it’s more of a continuation of the DS New Mario. However… There are a lot of people who thought that game was actually very difficult.
“One really good thing about 3D Land, I thought… There’s a block that allows you to become the white Tanuki? The assist block? That was something that was implemented and received a lot of positive feedback, I thought that worked very well. And because we do think it worked really well, that’s appearing in New Super Mario Bros. 2 as well, the assist block.”
Tezuka on any way there could be a return to Super Mario Bros. 2…
“Well, I’ll think about that, then, that’s good feedback.”
Tezuka on Coin Rush mode…
“You know, I just wanted to touch on Coin Rush mode really quickly… You have one life to make it through three random levels. So there’s high tension, a lot of excitement going through. I wanted to point out that when you reach the goal and you get to the flag, for the second world, you get double, it multiplies those by two, and when you finish the third world it multiplies by three.
“So that’s a way to get… That’s something that incentivizes you, like you mentioned earlier, it’s a way to get you to that million coins. And this is really for people who are like, I love Mario, I can do better than this, I want to challenge myself. For those folks, this is a mode that is going to light them up. …Yeah. All the coins you gather in any mode are all added together.”
