{"id":278,"date":"2006-09-11T17:46:00","date_gmt":"2006-09-11T16:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/?p=278"},"modified":"2006-09-11T17:46:00","modified_gmt":"2006-09-11T16:46:00","slug":"critics-tough-on-new-bomberman-zero-compare-new-super-mario-bros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2006\/09\/11\/critics-tough-on-new-bomberman-zero-compare-new-super-mario-bros\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics tough on new Bomberman Zero (Compare: New Super Mario Bros)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Understatement: The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamerankings.com\/htmlpages2\/929921.asp\">game ranking for Bomberman Zero is 33%<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The reviewers more or less agree that Bomberman Zero removes all the good parts from the series:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Top-down view.<\/li>\n<li>The characters<\/li>\n<li>Dying instantly when being hit<\/li>\n<li>Multiplayer on one console\/screen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While adding new unwelcome features:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>New &#8220;futuristic&#8221; characters.<\/li>\n<li>First person view (most of the time).<\/li>\n<li>Health bar.<\/li>\n<li>99-level single player with no continue option.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Compare this to, say, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gamerankings.com\/htmlpages2\/920787.asp\">New Super Mario Bros (89%)<\/a>, which has managed to take an existing series and genuinely update it (it is absolutely great).<\/p>\n<p>My take is that it is about how you deal with technology and game style changes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bomberman Zero seems to follow the ca. 1999 laundry list of &#8220;new cool things&#8221;: First person view, vague futurism with murky textures, online multiplayer and follow that slavishly. (Single player without continue is more 1986 than 2006 though, retro in the bad way.)<\/li>\n<li>New Super Mario Bros sticks with the 2D format (retro in the good way), but mostly builds on advances in character animation tools and game physics: The game feels modern due to the great animations and the exquisite physics &#8211; it is all about a sense of bodily presence in the game. Modernized, but not by way of a laundry list, and  without destroying the game&#8217;s core.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There you have it: This is how to make a modern version of an old game. Ok, so it is not that simple. New Super Mario Bros is probably easier to modernize because a slightly open game of exploration and travel is quite contemporary, whereas single-screen 2d action games are hardly made anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I could imagine a 2D top-down Bomberman modernized like New Super Mario Bros: Better animations, better physics. I would play that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Understatement: The game ranking for Bomberman Zero is 33%. The reviewers more or less agree that Bomberman Zero removes all the good parts from the series: Top-down view. The characters Dying instantly when being hit Multiplayer on one console\/screen. While adding new unwelcome features: New &#8220;futuristic&#8221; characters. First person view (most of the time). Health &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/2006\/09\/11\/critics-tough-on-new-bomberman-zero-compare-new-super-mario-bros\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Critics tough on new Bomberman Zero (Compare: New Super Mario Bros)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jesperjuul.net\/ludologist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}