Six Things That Should Be Added in Super Mario Maker 2 (Or DLC)

     Super Mario Maker is almost here. For those who have been living under a rock, Super Mario Maker is a custom create your own Mario level. Over the past few weeks we've been getting more and more glimpses of what we will be in store for until the game comes out. It features a ton of stuff that you can use to make the ultimate Mario level, or troll people and make the hardest levels ever. Super Mushrooms, ? Block that you can put anything in, and Bowsers oh my. You can even customize enemies and objects however you want by making a giant totem pole of Goombas or any other enemies or have enemies like Lakitu and Bullet Bill cannons shoot out power-ups and coins and have ? Blocks sprout enemies. You can even add wings to objects and enemies to spice things up. With so much to customize you can never get bored designing levels, or can you? Here's a list of things that could make the next installment, if there will be one, better or make the current game better by hopefully adding these things as DLC later on.

New Level Templates

For Super Mario Maker, we've gotten the basic level templates of any basic Mario game. An overworld, A castle, and an Airship level template (because how would you include a Super Mario Bros 3 game design and not design an Airship level). What was missing was ice, desert, sky, and fire level templates. These would be interesting to add to a sequel or later as DLC as it could make the World dynamic and make this feel a lot more Mario. Also if we get a desert level template we can get everyone's favorite enemy, Angry Sun.

Super Mario Bros 2(USA & JP) Styles

Super Mario Maker pretty much featured most of the stuff from the Mario games that everyone loves from the series. Sadly, Super Mario Bros 2, the American and the Japanese versions are missing. I know that there was not that much of a difference between Super Mario Bros 1 and 2 other than difficulty, but there were stuff from it that could be beneficial. The wind mechanic and the poison mushroom would've been great add ons for the game, as they would also be even better ways to challenge people to get through their levels, or to really troll them. Super Mario Bros 2 mechanics would've been fun to put in as the game was fun. Adding Subcon spaces and stuff like vegetables to pick up and hurl at enemies could bring something fresh to the gameplay of non-SMB 2 game styles. It would've been nice to see a New Super Mario Bros version of Birdo.

GameBoy Era Games

This is more of an extension of number 2. Again, I know that even with the inclusion of Super Mario Bros 2, not including Super Mario Land or Super Mario Land 2 would be a bad thing as they are releasing Maker as a part of Mario's 30 Anniversary and these games, though not as influential as SMB3 or SMW, are a part of that history. Some of the levels were tweaks of already basic Mario levels and if included it would put of bit of style and flair to the already available levels cave and underwater. It would be nice to recreate something like the Moon Zone and Mario Zone levels. Also, the Sky and Water Pop levels were fun and you could have a bit of fun with that with the moving screen features in the Mario games available. Plus think about the power ups. Wouldn't it be nice to see the return of Bunny Mario?

More Bosses and Mini Bosses

In a way, Super Mario Maker does feature bosses in the form of Bowser and Bowser Jr. In the next installment Nintendo can up the ante by giving us more bosses or minibosses. Adding minibosses could give gameplay a bit more variety and make things more interesting as they served as a mini challenge between actual boss fights. Besides you could get tired of having Bower and Bowser Jr. be the boss of the level everytime. Also, if you want to be creative, you can practically make the first Mario game in the series to have a Boss Rush mode. There are a lot of minibosses and bosses to choose from in the series, even in the 2D games. Boom-Boom and Pom-Pom, Big Boo, Kamek, and Birdo. If they decide to add the Gameboy era games or Super Mario Bros 2 (USA) we could very well see the return of obscure bosses like Tatanga or Wart.

Koopalings!!

Bowser Jr. Isn't enough. We need the Koopalings to be DLC or in Super Mario Maker 2 pronto. The Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World parts of the game feel empty without them, especially with the Airship level editor.


Luigi, Toad, Peach Mechanics

I know that we can play as Luigi and Peach (and eventually Toad?) through the Amiibo function, but wouldn't it be great to play as them as you would in Super Mario Bros 2? Even with Mario, it would be cool to be able to have Luigi's traction and jump, be able to float around like Peach, or do whatever Toad does in the game. These mechanics, in some form haves existed in not just Super Mario Bros 2. Almost any game that featured Luigi (Ex. New Super Mario Bros series) have used a different gameplay mechanic to set himself apart from how the player plays as Mario. These mechanics could bring something interesting when designing levels as you can get really technical designing levels as can really play around with difficulty. You can make a level that could be easy of difficult depending on what character mechanic you use. You can also see what dynamics that goes into making a Mario game.

What do you think should be added in a Super Mario Maker 2 or at least should be DLC? 

Does eSports Need ESPN?

Even though it has been here for years, eSports is starting to get its recognition and is starting to come into the mainstream. With million dollar prizes that seem to grow and grow each year and tournaments getting almost as big coverage to match. It is even being covered on sports channels like ESPN. You can say thing are good, but they are not.
     Ever since eSports tournaments have been broadcast on channels like ESPN, there have been some form of backlash against it. There have been backlash again sports fans asking why are they watching people playing video games. Even one of the former commentator, Colin Cowherd, has gotten headlines for bashing the channel's decision to show tournaments.

"Here's what's going to get me off the air. If I am ever forced to cover guys playing video games, I will retire and move to a rural fishing village and sell bait. You want me out? Demand video game tournaments on ESPN because that's what appeared on ESPN2 yesterday."

     Sadly even the president of the channel, John Skipper, has some not really positive remakes about it. The president has publicly commented on eSports by saying that it is not a sport.
     It's one thing for fans to be against it and probably another when you some of the commentators have something negative to say about it, but it's the worst when you have the head of the network bashing it. I can talk about how, just like any sport, eSports can be just as demanding and its participants train just as much as athletes in sports, but that's another story. So, the question is that should these tournaments pack up their things and go somewhere else? Do they need to stop airing on ESPN?
      eSports have been getting quite the number of hits online on Twitch and other streaming sites. Just last year, Dota 2's international tournament pulled in almost 20 million viewers, along with League of Legends and its 32 viewers online. With these numbers, and them growing each year as last year Dota only had one million. It is obvious that these tournaments are not going to be losing any sleep if they don't air on TV. Also, considering the fact that people prefer to watch things online than on TV, It would be wise not to pass up a deal with Twitch, or any other streaming service to solely broadcast tournaments online.
      I do understand that these eSport tournaments need a network like ESPN to get spread awareness and get a bigger and broader audience, but the respect is clearly not there. It's one thing to bash, it's another to do so blatantly and try to make money off of it. It's hypocritical that the president sees eSports this way but doesn't see a problem collecting all of the money it makes for the company. Maybe eSports does need to stay after all. To make a point that Skipper and the channel's fans that criticized the airings are out of touch and eSports is here to stay and that it's not just a sport. It's something more.
   

Sony, YouTubers, and Digital Media Part 2: Do YouTubers Belong Outside of YouTube?

Last week I talked about a video YouTuber Joshua Ovenshire, Jovenshire, made about concerning Cable, Digital Media. To recap, Ovenshire made a case that due to PlayStation Vue, we might see the final nail in the coffin for cable as its service can offer channels you want for a cheaper service. What I had to say about is that the service Vue, will not be the cable killer. Cable still has its hooks in everything that even with the popularity of the Netflixes and Hulus it won't be going away. We have a service similar service compared to Vue, Sling TV and that did nothing to Comcast. Vue could be the potential to something, but we won't see the death of Cable anytime soon.

     In the second half in the video Ovenshire made an opinion that as Digital Media is growing and TV is dying, channel executives will start needing YouTubers, Vine stars, and other internet celebrities in order to create content for their shows online. I know considering that Ovenshire being a YouTuber himself he would think this way. 

      I'm not going to deny that YouTubers and YouTube are done and are doing things with networks. Grace Helbig has a talk show on E! Timothydelaghetto has been on the comedy improv show Wild N Out and Epic Meal Time have a show on FYI . It has always been like this since Fred had his deal with Nickelodeon to do a series and a few movies. However I don't know how he came to the conclusion that as channels make the transition online equals a high demand for YouTubers and Vine stars to work for these channels.

      There is still a big stigma with how networks and Hollywood is willing to work with internet celebrities as they still see them as regular people that just film themselves on camera doing whatever and upload it to YouTube. And there is a valid reason why. There hasn't been a YouTuber or a Vine star who has found any success outside of YouTube. Epic Meal Time haven't had good luck with shows outside of YouTube as they had a couple with G4 and Revision3. Both fell through. Hopefully Epic Meal Empire won't? Helbig's show is on thin ice as it is being proven time and time again on E! unless you are a Kardashian, or if your talk show doesn't have the words Chelsea Handler on it nobody will be willing to watch it. Also Lucas Cruikshank, Fred, after all the deals he's done as Fred is right back to where he started, on YouTube. Not acting as Fred, just doing vlogs. These people have millions of people watching their content on YouTube but are simply failing to get these fans and viewers to follow them outside of YouTube or enough for them to transition into something beyond YouTube.
     Again there is no connection that as content is migrating to digital formats that these companies are going to rely on YouTubers and Viners. There is the fact as there have been deals where we've been getting shows premiering on Hulu and Netflix, due to the audience that use these formats, these networks and people who have been doing online content have been doing the same things they have always done by hiring talent, overlooking internet celebrities all together. There might be deals in the future, but not in the way or not as many as Ovenshire thinks there will be.

What are your thoughts?