Miyamoto Says He's Solved Co-op Issue In Mario Galaxy

In the fourth volume of the ongoing series of interviews between Nintendo's Iwata and the Mario Galaxy team, design legend Shigeru Miyamoto puts forth the opinion that he thinks he's nailed two-player Mario. That opinion is bolstered by Japanese sales figures, which shows the plumber doing quite well for his umpteenth outing. "Miyamoto: 'For every game I worked on, there were always times when I would keep discussing the issue of two-player simultaneous gameplay, and the staff also became conscious of the challenge, so every development team kept trying hard to solve it too. Though I think that might also have been because they thought if they didn't deal with it first, I'd come in and ask how it was coming along for sure! (laughs).'" Via Kotaku.

Comments

Note: Co-Star mode is not the main campaign...

[RyanFenton]

From what I've seen in other stories/previews/reviews, the CoStar mode is not activated just by someone picking up the second controller when someone else is playing. Presumably, because otherwise, a "power player" would just tape a second wiimote to the first, then always play that way, enabling super-jumps and thwomp-freezing all the time. It has to be played as a separate game mode... don't know if it's all special maps, or how much is available in CoStar mode.

Certainly not the perfect Co-op gameplay for my tastes - that would require the ability for new players to pop in anytime and add to the game at a whim.

Ryan Fenton

Re:Note: Co-Star mode is not the main campaign...

[rabiddeity]

Incorrect. By default it DOES in fact let someone else pick up a second wiimote and jump right in while someone else is playing, no special configuration required and no special levels. For super jumps the cursor has to be pointed right at Mario to super jump, and right at an enemy to freeze it (when the camera moves, player 2 has to follow the enemy or it becomes unfrozen). Sorry, but unless you have three hands nobody is going to be cheating on this one. And some enemies, such as thwomps and bosses, can't be frozen, so it's a gimmick of limited utility anyway. The real power players will be doing perfect 90 degree turn side jumps, crazy long jumps that take them across the level, and avoiding or killing every enemy regardless. Expect to see some crazy speedrun videos on YouTube.

I bought it the day it came out here in Japan and have played through about 100 stars so far. About half of those were with a friend in the room assisting. It works so well because the assist doesn't make it game-breakingly easy and it's never necessary to have the assists, but it still makes a big difference to have someone helping out on some of the levels. The purple coin challenge for one later level comes to mind, where cannonballs are being shot out at Mario while he's standing on a moving platform and trying to collect special coins. Player 2 can freeze the cannonballs as they come out-- when done correctly it makes the level a bit easier but still very challenging, but if the projectiles are frozen at the wrong time it actually makes the level HARDER. What I do like about it is how I can invite people over to play who may not be very good at 3D platformers, and make the game a little bit easier for them (and thus a bit more fun). I think it also offsets the anxiety of having other people watch you play, and laughing at your screw-ups. That's really intimidating for many people.

What I think Miyamoto was saying was that his team developed a form of co-op that doesn't change the core mechanics of the game. You don't have two players running around the screen, fighting over the camera and interfering with each other, but they're still working together and playing the same game. That deserves quite a bit of praise, because in practice it really works quite well.

Re:Yes, hooray for the resurrection of a racist de

[reanjr]

99% WASP? That's ridiculous. There's no way there are 1% Atheists on Slashdot...

Lots and lots...

[Paul_Hindt]

of games have successful 2-Player Cooperative modes. Contra, Double Dragon, Toejam & Earl, Gauntlet, Final Fight...the upcoming game Army of 2 is specifically designed to be played ONLY as a co-op game, and if you don't have a buddy to play with it throws a bot in there to duke it out with you. The whole game is designed so that 2 players are required to make it through the levels.