Sunday, April 22, 2012

Mario numbering shenanigans + 3DS Pokémon software

After Super Mario 3D Land, another Mario platformer will grace the 3DS later this year... New Super Mario Bros. 2. Wait, what? I think I speak for everyone when I say the numbering here is weird. I mean, what about the Wii game? We all thought it was the second one, right? So why ignore it now? Not to mention, it's a really tough act to follow - IMO it's hands down the best Mario sidescroller around, even when playing solo. Why not New Super Mario Bros. 3DS instead? I don't get it. It'd be like calling Paper Mario on 3DS "Paper Mario 2", totally ignoring the Gamecube installment just because it wasn't named that, and had a subtitle instead. But hey, it could be worse, they could pull a Stallone and call it "Mario Mario" instead...

On another subject entirely, an upgrade to the 3DS Pokédex app has been announced, and it features all 646 currently available Pokémon - which is what they should've done in the first place! Unfortunately, it's Japan-only for now, AND it costs 1500 yen (about $18). In addition, there's Pokémon AR Searcher (Japan-only for the time being, costs 300 yen), which is... weird enough for me to defer to Bulbagarden for the explanation:

Pokémon AR Searcher is a shooting-style game that puts Pokémon in real-world environments through the use of the 3DS back cameras. The app allows Pokémon to be caught and transferred to copies of Pokémon Black and White 2. The official Japanese Pokémon site mentions that rare Pokémon may be found through this app.

So this is a way to catch Pokémon set aside from the games themselves, much like the Pokéwalker with HGSS. And rare Pokémon are said to be available in this... just how rare are we talking here? Legendaries? Will it introduce new moves? New DW abilities? It'll be interesting to follow how this turns out...

9 comments:

  1. NSMB2? Mario Mario? TRANSFER TO BW2!? Holy crap, GIMME. NAO. Mind = blown.

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  2. It'd be really nice if this new app is how you get the dream world abilities of gen 5 pokemon, since it would (I assume) send them directly to your box or something so you don't need to worry about coding in their overworld sprites. But if you could get gen 5 pokemon with dream world abilities then you would be able to get gen 1-4 pokemon with dream world abilities, making the dream world itself obsolete unless there are some serious limitations on this app (not that I'd complain much. We'd finally get Imposter Ditto!). We'll have to wait and see...

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  3. Funny how you mentioned Paper Mario... Because considering how much hate the Wii title got, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually did that. (Even though it was still a good game overall, I can understand how some people got pissed after seeing they removed most of the RPG elements...)

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    1. That's because Super Paper Mario was its own thing, a spin-off of a spin-off. It didn't remove anything, it just did something else completely. For all intents and purposes, the 3DS game is the third game in the series.

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    2. Oh... because you weren't kidding when you talked about a Paper Mario on the 3DS ?!? O.o"

      I guess it just gives me one more reason to buy one, then !

      One question though, do you suspect the 3DS will have any upgrade like the GBA and the DS had ? Before answering, I want you to consider the factor that they had to make a "plug-in" for a second control stick functioning on its own battery because it was almost a necessity for some third-party games.

      Personally, I think leaving the console as it is would be unacceptable, but I thought you would be better than me to judge.

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  4. I don't get why they called it New Super Mario Bros. 2 either. Calling it NSMB 3DS makes a lot more sense, and plus you would have the '3', and '3DS' in the same title without it sounding weird. I think I would have preferred it if they went all out and called it Super Mario 13 instead.

    Anyway, seeing as NSMB Wii seems to be your favourite 2D Mario game, what would be your favourite 3D Mario game? 64, Galaxy, or Galaxy 2 (or possibly even SM3D Land)? Personally, my favourite Mario game is Super Mario Galaxy 2, and it's probably my favourite video game of all time as well.

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  5. I dunno about new moves, but it seems like this is their way of introducing Gen V DW abilities without making any sort of significant change to the Dream World.

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  6. I still don't understand why they still affix the "New" at the front of it. Coming into its third installment, it's not exactly "New" anymore, it's another Super Mario Bros. game. Which is great, but... it's been around for donkeys.

    As for Pokémon, PokéDex 3D 2 sounds... naff, not going to bother, but that AR thing sounds ace, especially with integration into Black and White. I hope this is an alternative way to get Hidden Ability Pokémon.

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