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MTV Multiplayer: Is Game Design Stuck in Super Paper Mario's Pit of 100 Trials?

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This entry was posted on 5/8/2007 11:20 AM and is filed under MTV News Multiplayer,Wii Surprises,Game Design Questions.


In Monday's Multiplayer I introduced MTV News readers to "Super Paper Mario"'s Pit of 100 Trials, an endurance test buried in the sewers of the game's main town. The pit presents 100 rooms of successive difficulty, progressively introducing the enemies that appear in the story-driven main adventure in the game. I kept trying to beat the pit -- which doesn't allow for mid-session saves -- and kept dying.

I wrote:

This used to be the only kind of experience games provided. Every game was designed to bring the player to failure. You were never going to win "Pac-Man" or "Tetris." You were just going to hang on as long as possible. The measurement of how long it took you to fail -- and how magnificently you managed to hang on before then -- was calculated by a high score. That was all a player could show for an evening spent gaming. The Pit is a throwback to that.

But not liking the Pit, being driven to frustration by the Pit, cursing the Pit and swearing that "thank goodness games aren't only made like that anymore" -- all that wouldn't quite be fair to the old games. That's because the Pit shows up in new games as well. The rest of "Super Paper Mario" appears to be modern. It's got varied environments and characters. It's got adventure. It even has funny writing. But the rest of "Super Paper Mario" and the Pit aren't quite that different. Bounding through adventures in the nerd palace or outside Cragnon Town -- stomping the menacing clouds and evil plants out there -- levels Mario up the same way all the fighting in the Pit's trial rooms does. Isn't the game world outside the Pit just another Pit in disguise? If you think of it that way, then how much have new games really evolved beyond the "Pac-Man" and "Tetris" design?

I'm sure people can draw exceptions. Not every single-player game is a pit in disguise. Right? And those games that are -- is there anything wrong with that?

I'm not sure. I'm going to be working through this one for some time.

 
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    • 5/9/2007 2:42 PM Geoff wrote:
      I don't think I really agree, Stephen... just because the games share the same mechanics doesn't mean they provide the same experience.

      Older games didn't let you measure progress in any way except survival. While the Pit provides the same ability, it's just one option in a whole world of different possibilities. Super Paper Mario is a bit linear, for sure, but "not dying" doesn't just mean enduring - it requires item usage, character interaction (the Innkeeper, for example), and different types of gameplay.

      If you reduce the similarities to avoiding death, lots of games share those characteristics - but just because they have a similarity doesn't mean they're synonymous.
      Reply to this
    • 5/9/2007 3:36 PM Stephen wrote:
      Geoff,

      I'm still trying to understand my own reaction to "Super Paper Mario" and why this Pit thing is bugging me. I'm known to be proud of how many games I finish, and I frequently, once finished with them, find myself sitting with the controller still in my hands, the credits rolling and the thought floating through my head: "why did I just play all of that?" Games I've thoroughly enjoyed have made me feel that way. It's a strange thing and I'm still trying to figure out what the problem is.

      The "Super Paper Mario" Pit is a grind. It's actually a fun one, aided by the novel flip mechanic. When I look at the rest of the game I see a grind dressed up with stellar graphic design and snappy dialogue. The other gameplay outside the Pit -- the puzzle-solving, the character interaction -- I'm not sure that they make the game's overall gameplay any more fun. In fact, I think they dilute it. The Pit embodies the game's best gameplay traits. So I'm left wondering what that says about the rest of the game and what would have made me happier with the overall experience.

      -Stephen
      Reply to this
    • 5/10/2007 8:49 PM Merus wrote:
      I've got this feeling that it's something to do with Tetris.

      I can't play Tetris much any more - I think the best version of Tetris was the one on the N64, with the four players and, more importantly, the count of how many lines you'd gotten. When you reached certain line counts, new skins were unlocked.

      What Tetris nails is the base mecahnics, but it's got nothing in the way of short-term goals unless you mess up, and nothing in the way of long-term goals.

      Halo, for instance, also nails the base mechanics, but also has a short-term goal in completing a series of encounters and a long-term goal in finishing each level of the game.

      Most RPGs have short and long term goals in spades, but their base mechanics are seriously deficient. It's probably why, when you go into the Pit where you only have one long term goal (get to the bottom), the game feels like a grind.
      Reply to this
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