Frodo interviews Next Level Games, the creators of Super Mario Strikers
This past week, I was lucky enough to be flown up to Vancouver BC by our friends at Nintendo to meet the guys at Next Level Games, creators of Super Mario Strikers for the Nintendo Gamecube.
Now, I am from the Seattle area anyway, so it wasn't too tough for them to fly me out to Canada, but it is still amazing to be able to fly to one country in the morning and be back from said country in the evening. Whirlwind trip, woo! I felt like a little kid who just won a contest in Nintendo Power by sending in the best crayon drawing of Mario eating a mushroom or something. Next Level Games has some pretty nice studios, all in a loft in old town Vancouver. The studios are set up in a very open format, with the producers, programmers, artists, and even testers sharing a big open area. This actually makes a lot of sense, considering it would therefore be easy for an artist to yell over their shoulder if something needs to be tweaked, or for a producer to throw heavy objects at a tester who isn't doing his job properly. Well, maybe in that situation it wouldn't be so good for the tester. After a fancy tour and breakfast, we sat down in Next Level's awesome break room with their GIGANTIC HDTV and got to play the game.
Note to self: avoid playing games against developers of said games. They will most likely school you. Hard.
The game itself is very good, certainly more polished than the version we got to play at E3. The gameplay is also very different from other Mario Sports titles. Nintendo specifically came to Next Level to create a unique experience, and they got a team that seems very passionate about playing games and making them. In Super Mario Strikers, you see Toad with a scowl, angry-face Mario and sassy ass-slapping Peach. Yes, that's right. Peach slaps her own ass. There is an electrified fence all the way around the soccer field, which you can body check other players into, giving them a jolt and causing them to scream horribly. The developers mentioned that they surprised the voice actors they had to work with, because they had never had to make Peach scream horribly, or Toad grunt as if he were exerting himself kicking a ball. And it's true, the visceral sound effects make for a more emotional experience, which is something they really pressed at the meeting. They wanted you to know that they really focused on making Super Mario Strikers more mature, more emotional, more passionate than other Mario sports titles. That may sound silly at first, but when you actually play the game, you notice that attention to detail.
The thing that really sold me on the game, however, was knowing that these guys have been playing this game non-stop for over a year, and they are still playing it every single day, cheering and trash talking like they just picked it up. A game with that kind of replayability, especially when you are looking at people who's job it is to play the game, is worth checking out. I had the opportunity to interview Game Designer Mike Inglehart and Producer Ken Yeeloy, which you can download here. They were very eager to discuss their game, and I think I asked them some fairly unique questions. Download it and enjoy it!
Overall, my impressions of Super Mario Strikers are positive. I think that Nintendo was wise to bring in new blood for a new Mario Sports title, and as long as they market the game correctly and try to seperate it from the other Mario Sports titles, I think that it could be a big hit. There are tons of modes to play through, and Next Level even got to design their own original playable character for the game. Now that is trust.
