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125-532: New Super Luigi U (stylized as New Super Luigi Bros. U ) is a 2013 platform game developed by Nintendo for the Wii U . It is an expansion pack for New Super Mario Bros. U (2012), part of the Super Mario series. The plot and game mechanics remain identical to New Super Mario Bros. U , but Luigi replaces Mario as the protagonist. Luigi jumps higher and has less ground friction than Mario, and every level

250-455: A non-player character who appeared in NSMBU as an antagonist. Nabbit is invulnerable to enemy damage and steadily gains extra lives over time, but in return cannot use power-ups. Two other characters are also playable, yellow and blue-colored Toads , who retain the same physics from NSMBU . Each character can be played by an individual player in up to four-person multiplayer . New Super Luigi U

375-489: A non-player character . He asked a specific programmer to create a prototype; he was originally skeptical about the idea but was shocked to find it worked well, calling Takemoto about his discoveries before he even viewed it in person. They also considered and incorporated the ability for him to dodge enemies altogether as he does in New Super Mario Bros. U , which ended up being included in the final version; they found

500-858: A supporting character in the franchise. While most Toads look virtually identical to each other and usually are not named individually, notable exceptions include Captain Toad , Toadette and Toadsworth . The most prominent trait of the Toads is their large, mushroom-like head with colored spots on top. The Toads typically have assisting roles in the Mario franchise, but are occasionally featured as protagonists. A blue Toad and yellow Toad were featured as playable characters along with Mario and Luigi in New Super Mario Bros. Wii , New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario Bros. Wonder . The blue Toad also returns as one of

625-599: A true 3D platformer is a French computer game called Alpha Waves , created by Christophe de Dinechin and published by Infogrames in 1990 for the Atari ST , Amiga , and IBM PC compatibles . Bug! , released in 1995 for the Saturn , has a more conservative approach. It allows players to move in all directions, but it does not allow movement along more than one axis at once; the player can move orthogonally but not diagonally. Its characters were pre-rendered sprites, much like

750-488: A "running/jumping/climbing game" while developing it. Miyamoto commonly used the term "athletic game" to refer to Donkey Kong and later games in the genre, such as Super Mario Bros. (1985). Donkey Kong spawned other games with a mix of running, jumping, and vertical traversal, a novel genre that did not match the style of games that came before it, leaving journalists and writers to offer their own terms. Computer and Video Games magazine, among others, referred to

875-448: A 1980 arcade release by Universal , is sometimes credited as the first platformer. Another precursor to the genre from 1980 was Nichibutsu 's Crazy Climber , in which the player character scales vertically scrolling skyscrapers. The unreleased 1979 Intellivision game Hard Hat has a similar concept. Donkey Kong , an arcade video game created by Nintendo and released in July 1981,

1000-401: A 2D plane are called 2.5D , as they are a blend of 2D and 3D. The first platformers to simulate a 3D perspective and moving camera emerged in the early-mid-1980s. An early example of this was Konami 's Antarctic Adventure , where the player controls a penguin in a forward-scrolling third-person perspective while having to jump over pits and obstacles. Originally released in 1983 for

1125-506: A 3D Sonic game, Sonic Adventure , for its Dreamcast console. It used a hub structure like Super Mario 64 , but its levels were more linear, fast-paced, and action-oriented. Toad (Nintendo) Toad , known in Japan as Kinopio , is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo 's Mario franchise. A prominent red Toad serves as one of Princess Peach 's handlers and appears consistently as

1250-469: A 77/100 based on 59 critical reviews. Most critics praised the game's difficulty, with Jan Wobbeking of 4Players comparing the game's difficulty to that of the Japanese-exclusive release Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels . Nintendo Life ' s Thomas Whitehead appreciated the spike in difficulty and lauded the use of limited time and more intense platforming to do so. They originally found

1375-460: A backpack and a walking stick. He is the first one to meet Mario when he arrives in the Mushroom Kingdom and he helps him find his brother, Luigi . As a character who appears frequently in the series, Toad is considered to be one of the major characters in the Mario franchise. He has appeared in much of the Mario merchandise in products ranging from toys to plushies and keychains, and

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1500-462: A balance between open-ended and guided exploration. Another platform-adventure released that year, Pony Canyon 's Super Pitfall , was critically panned for its vagueness and weak game design. That same year Jaleco released Esper Boukentai , a sequel to Psychic 5 that scrolled in all directions and allowed the player character to make huge multistory jumps to navigate the vertically oriented levels. Telenet Japan also released its own take on

1625-481: A bouncing car that jumps on various platforms such as buildings, clouds, and hills. Jump Bug offered a glimpse of what was to come, with uneven, suspended platforms, levels that scroll horizontally (and in one section, vertically), and differently themed sections, such as a city, the interior of a large pyramid, and underwater. Irem's 1982 arcade game Moon Patrol combines jumping over obstacles and shooting attackers. A month later, Taito released Jungle King ,

1750-525: A brief burst of episodic platformers where the first was freely distributed and parts 2 and 3 were available for purchase. The abundance of platformers for 16-bit consoles continued late into the generation, with successful games such as Vectorman (1995), Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (1995), and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995), but the release of new hardware caused players' attention to move away from 2D genres. The Saturn , PlayStation , and Nintendo 64 nevertheless featured

1875-533: A cameo appearance in the Wii U version of Scribblenauts Unlimited , as a guest character from Nintendo's Super Mario series. A costume of Toad is also one of the exclusive Nintendo character costumes available to be equipped to various characters in the Wii U version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 . Toad is voiced by Keegan-Michael Key in the 2023 film adaptation . He retains his loyalty to Princess Peach , but he now carries attire relating to Captain Toad including

2000-517: A challenge for its players; the goal was to complete the main story mode while collecting the fewest coins possible. In the month after release, Nintendo partnered with the Chicago Transit Authority to rebrand one of their Chicago "L" Brown Line systems into the "Luigi Line"; the train was redesigned with a green color scheme and contained Year of Luigi artwork and other New Super Luigi U promotional material. Kiosk booths were placed on

2125-527: A common term for the genre by 1989, popularized by its usage in the United Kingdom press. Examples include referring to the " Super Mario mould" (such as Kato-chan & Ken-chan ) as platform games, and calling Strider a "platform and ladders" game. The genre originated in the early 1980s. Levels in early platform games were confined to a single screen, viewed in profile, and based on climbing between platforms rather than jumping. Space Panic ,

2250-853: A flag pole. Throughout the levels are various enemies and hazards to hinder progression. Levels also contain power-ups that give Luigi new abilities when collected; for example, the Fire Flower allows Luigi to throw fireballs and the Flying Squirrel Suit allows Luigi to glide midair. Each level contains three "Star Coins" that serve as collectible items. Levels are split up into eight "worlds", and encounters with one of eight Koopalings occur within them. The levels are selected on an overworld map with branching paths. Compared to NSMBU , levels are redesigned to be more difficult and do not contain checkpoints , but are considerably shorter in length. The player has one hundred seconds to complete each level. Using

2375-532: A folder set reward named as the "Toad & Friends Set with Bookmarks". The quote repeated by the Toads in Super Mario Bros. , "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!", was ranked one of the most repeated video game quotes, and inspired a 2008 song by The Mountain Goats and Kaki King . Toad ranked in the seventh slot on GameDaily 's top 10 Nintendo characters that deserve their own games list;

2500-450: A forward-scrolling effect similar to Sega's 1985 third-person rail shooter Space Harrier . 3-D WorldRunner was an early forward-scrolling pseudo-3D third-person platform-action game where players were free to move in any forward-scrolling direction and could leap over obstacles and chasms. It was notable for being one of the first stereoscopic 3-D games . Square released its sequel, JJ , later that year. The earliest example of

2625-464: A ghost, add a nice dollop of charm to the whole package". Toad appeared in the animated series The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! produced by DIC Entertainment in 1989. Although he usually tagged along with Mario and Luigi in cases where King Koopa had kidnapped Princess Peach, he sometimes got captured as well. Toad's role in the show was to be the 3rd main character to the Mario Bros. (as Luigi

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2750-410: A great fast-paced 2D platformer", and found the game overall to be a unique twist on the standard Super Mario formula. In opposition, Kollar noted a lack of attention to new players, and although the game was balanced towards the player, it was too "relentless" to encourage more attempts. Writing for Eurogamer , Chris Schilling increasingly found frustration in the time spent between dying and opening

2875-443: A helper who would provide assistance to Mario if he needed it, thus making him a major allies. In Super Mario 64 , Toad explains the backstory as well as explaining what Mario has to do to proceed. In the remake Super Mario 64 DS , he is given character-specific remarks, such as mistaking Luigi for Mario in green clothes or thinking that Wario would betray the rest of the group. In Luigi's Mansion , he appears in various parts of

3000-605: A high quality of animation. The 1988 shareware game The Adventures of Captain Comic was one of the first attempts at a Nintendo-style platformer for IBM PC compatibles . It inspired Commander Keen , released by id Software in 1990, which became the first MS-DOS platformer with smooth scrolling graphics. Keen's success resulted in numerous console-styled platformers for MS-DOS compatible operating systems, including Duke Nukem , Duke Nukem II , Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure , and Dark Ages all by Apogee Software . These fueled

3125-418: A level, and negatively compared the experience to Super Meat Boy , which resets the player immediately after failure. 4Players highlighted a handful of posts made to Miiverse, where users verbalized their frustrations with the game's difficulty. Despite the changes, GameSpot felt the experience was too similar to NSMBU . The level design was lauded, but some criticized other small annoyances that hurt

3250-601: A maximum. In contrast, Kollar felt the levels matched Luigi's moveset well and merely took time to get used to. Critics were also opposed to the multiplayer, with mixed opinions directed towards Nabbit. Ryckert considered Nabbit a helpful addition geared towards new players who would not be comfortable with the increased difficulty. Gilbert criticized the multiplayer; they felt the game focused primarily on single-player and most levels were unmanageable with four players participating simultaneously. They also believed Nabbit caused "unexpected problems" by being unbalanced in comparison to

3375-606: A minimal role in the game. They appear at the end of every world as the Mushroom Retainers (who serve the princess) once Mario or Luigi defeats Bowser , rewarding the heroes with the message: "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" , and in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 they maintain this role. In the American Super Mario Bros. 2 , Toad got his first individual appearance and

3500-559: A named character—Mario, which became a mascot of the company. The term platform game gained traction in the late 1980s, as did the alternate form platformer . During their peak of popularity, platformers were estimated to comprise between a quarter and a third of all console games. By 2006, the genre had experienced a decline in sales, representing a 2% market share as compared to 15% in 1998. In spite of this, platformers are still being commercially released every year, including some which have sold millions of copies. A platformer requires

3625-623: A number of successful 2D platformers. The 2D Rayman was a big success on 32-bit consoles. Mega Man 8 and Mega Man X4 helped revitalize interest in Capcom 's Mega Man character . Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revitalized its series and established a new foundation for later Castlevania games. Oddworld and Heart of Darkness kept the subgenre born from Prince of Persia alive. The difficulties of adapting platformer gameplay to three dimensions led some developers to compromise by pairing

3750-423: A partner for this sort of tandem ride. Because of this, they hid him as an extra character by himself. Nintendo would invent a new, female Toad character with an extremely high-pitched voice named Kinopiko , 30 minutes later, who would be named Toadette outside of Asian regions . During the development of New Super Mario Bros. Wii , the developers at Nintendo decided between four characters to be playable in

3875-573: A playable character in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for a short time when the player is exploring around Mario and Luigi's house. In Super Princess Peach , Toad is kidnapped earlier in the game along with Mario and Luigi by the Hammer Bros. However, Toad appears as a playable character in two of the minigames in the game. Toad appears in Super Paper Mario in 3 aspects of the game. He appears in

New Super Luigi U - Misplaced Pages Continue

4000-460: A prominent character in New Super Mario Bros. 2 again running the Toad Houses to assist both Mario and Luigi. In Super Mario 3D World , a blue Toad is a playable character. In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon , five Toads of different colours act as assistants to Professor E. Gadd , who had sent them to investigate the mansions before Luigi had arrived. Throughout the game, Luigi meets up with

4125-466: A shift in design. Later 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie , Spyro the Dragon , and Donkey Kong 64 borrowed its format, and the "collect-a-thon" genre began to form. In order to make this free-roaming model work, developers had to program dynamic, intelligent cameras. A free camera made it harder for players to judge the height and distance of platforms, making jumping puzzles more difficult. Some of

4250-406: A side-scrolling action game some platform elements: jumping between vines, jumping or running beneath bouncing boulders. It was quickly re-released as Jungle Hunt because of similarities to Tarzan . The 1982 Apple II game Track Attack includes a scrolling platform level where the character runs and leaps along the top of a moving train. The character is little more than a stick figure , but

4375-715: A teenager with a rebellious personality to appeal to gamers who saw the previous generation of consoles as being for kids. The character's speed showed off the hardware capabilities of the Genesis, which had a CPU clock speed approximately double that of the Super NES. Sonic 's perceived rebellious attitude became a model for game mascots. Other companies attempted to duplicate Sega's success with their own brightly colored anthropomorphisms with attitude. These often were characterized by impatience, sarcasm, and frequent quips. A second generation of platformers for computers appeared alongside

4500-505: A test, and his first reaction was 'Are you really going to do this with Nabbit?!' But when he actually made it, before he even showed it to me, I got a phone call from that programmer, who was overjoyed, saying, 'It feels so refreshing to use Nabbit! Even the way he walks around the course selection screen is great!' When I heard that, I knew I had to keep pushing for Nabbit!" Directo Masataka Takemoto speaking about Nabbit, 2013 Iwata Asks interview When Tezuka first suggested Luigi to be

4625-475: Is chosen on the character select screen. Red spotted Toads are non-playable hosts of Toad houses and are strewn throughout levels that Mario must bring to the finish to save. Toad plays a role in the 2011 3DS title Super Mario 3D Land in which he, upon his rescue at the end of World One, assists Mario throughout the rest of the adventure through the availability of Toad Houses, where he provides items and uncovering secrets in various levels. Toad appears as

4750-622: Is described by IGN as an "unlikely protagonist who's weighed down by a heavy backpack and a desire for treasure". He first appeared in Super Mario Galaxy , where he helped Mario or Luigi retrieve Power Stars. Captain Toad also appeared in the game's sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2 , with his brigade to again help Mario retrieve the Power Stars in order to save Princess Peach. In Super Mario 3D World , Captain Toad appears in his own levels "The Adventures of Captain Toad" separate from

4875-546: Is featured in Nintendo 's board games such as being on the protagonist side in a Mario themed chess set and being a purchasable character in a Nintendo-themed Monopoly game. In Animal Crossing: City Folk , Toad's hat is available after getting 3000 points in Tom Nook's Point Tracking system. The American Club Nintendo website, which is now closed, offered a special reward featuring Toad and some other major Mario characters in

5000-469: Is in a vector game called Major Havoc , which comprises a number of mini-games, including a simple platformer. One of the first raster -based platformers to scroll fluidly in all directions in this manner is 1985's Legend of Kage . In 1985, Enix released the action-adventure platformer Brain Breaker . The following year saw the release of Nintendo's Metroid , which was critically acclaimed for

5125-509: Is once again a minor character who provides backstory to Mario and the others. In Super Mario RPG , he appears as a major NPC character who teaches Mario about the different skills to use in battles in the beginning as the duo heads to the Mushroom Kingdom (though Toad had to be saved by Mario along the way as he is kidnapped frequently by enemies). He appears more throughout the game, for example as part of Mario's nightmare. Toad appears as

New Super Luigi U - Misplaced Pages Continue

5250-558: Is redesigned to increase the difficulty level . The expansion adds Nabbit, a non-player character from New Super Mario Bros. U , as an invincible playable character. Nintendo's goal was to challenge preconceived notions of downloadable content (DLC) and make New Super Luigi U a game large enough to stand on its own. The developers sought to differentiate it from New Super Mario Bros. 2 's (2012) DLC. The increased difficulty served to challenge series veterans, but levels were shortened to encourage less experienced players. Luigi

5375-582: The Mario Kart series and in most Mario sports games . Captain Toad is a Toad that serves as the leader of the a group of Toad explorers known as the Toad Brigade. In an interview with Polygon , Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker director Shinya Hiratake said "I think honestly Captain Toad is someone that doesn't really care what's going on, but when he sees treasure he's like, 'I want it!'". He

5500-613: The Super Mario World game, Toad did not make an appearance in the TV show of Super Mario World with Yoshi and Oogtar (the latter having the same voice actor as Toad) instead taking his place. Toad appeared in the Super Mario Bros. comic books published by Valiant as well. In these comics, Toad often followed Mario on his adventures, seemingly as the hero's sidekick. He was a regular companion for King Toadstool, and even indulged in

5625-611: The Atari 2600 , with 256 horizontally connected screens, became one of the best-selling games on the system and was a breakthrough for the genre. Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle was released on the ColecoVision that same year, adding uneven terrain and scrolling pans between static screens. Manic Miner (1983) and its sequel Jet Set Willy (1984) continued this style of multi-screen levels on home computers . Wanted: Monty Mole won

5750-675: The MSX computer, it was subsequently ported to various platforms the following year, including an arcade video game version, NES , and ColecoVision . 1986 saw the release of the sequel to forward-scrolling platformer Antarctic Adventure called Penguin Adventure , which was designed by Hideo Kojima . It included more action game elements, a greater variety of levels, RPG elements such as upgrading equipment, and multiple endings . In early 1987, Square released 3-D WorldRunner , designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nasir Gebelli . Using

5875-516: The Master System with Alex Kidd in Miracle World . It has horizontal and vertical scrolling levels, the ability to punch enemies and obstacles, and shops for the player to buy power-ups and vehicles. Another Sega series that began that same year is Wonder Boy . The original Wonder Boy in 1986 was inspired more by Pac-Land than Super Mario Bros. , with skateboarding segments that gave

6000-675: The Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for the genre. It was bundled with Nintendo systems in North America, Japan, and Europe, and sold over 40 million copies, according to the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records . Its success as a pack-in led many companies to see platformers as vital to their success, and contributed greatly to popularizing the genre during the third and fourth generations of video game consoles. Sega attempted to emulate this success with their Alex Kidd series, which started in 1986 on

6125-450: The Sega arcade game Congo Bongo (1983) adds a third dimension via isometric graphics . Another popular game of that period, Pitfall! (1982), allows moving left and right through series of non-scrolling screens, expanding the play area. Nintendo 's flagship Super Mario Bros. (1985) was a defining game for the nascent genre, with horizontally scrolling levels and the player controlling

6250-467: The Super Mario series had levels that were longer than the last. He aimed to make a game that was similar in playtime to Super Mario Bros. 3 for easier accessibility. To get players to post about New Super Luigi U on the social platform Miiverse , they emphasized adding at least one "landmark" in each level, such as Luigi pixel art , stickers, and Luigi-shaped objects in the background, to encourage

6375-405: The Wii U GamePad , the player can use its touchscreen to place down temporary platforms to stand on at their discretion. Although retaining the same control scheme as Mario, Luigi himself has less friction and slides easier, and also jumps higher and moves slower midair. Once the game is completed the player has the option to turn these physics changes off. Replacing Mario is Nabbit , originally

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6500-533: The virtual camera , it had to be constrained to stop it from clipping through the environment. In 1994, a small developer called Exact released a game for the X68000 computer called Geograph Seal , which was a 3D first-person shooter game with platforming. Players piloted a frog-like mech that could jump and then double-jump or triple-jump high into the air as the camera panned down to help players line up their landings. In addition to shooting, jumping on enemies

6625-520: The Boost Rush game mode, similar to the DLC found in New Super Mario Bros. 2 . Ideas for gimmicks found within the new levels were conceptualized fairly quickly; the similarity between the new DLC and New Super Mario Bros. 2 "began to bother" Tezuka. When he requested game director Masataka Takemoto to start over from scratch with a new concept, he accepted the offer because he believed that fans would query why

6750-462: The DLC was not included in the base game. Takemoto's new goal was to create a DLC larger than New Super Mario Bros. 2 , and waited for its DLC to release to test how it would be received by its audience. When the DLC for New Super Mario Bros. 2 was released, to their expectations, fans were disappointed that the content was too basic to be held behind a paid barrier. When development for New Super Mario Bros. U DLC recommenced, they experimented with

6875-460: The Enchanted Castle , which was only modestly successful. That same year, Capcom released Strider in arcades, which scrolled in multiple directions and allowed the player to summon artificial intelligence partners, such as a droid, tiger, and hawk, to help fight enemies. Another Sega release in 1989 was Shadow Dancer , which is a game that also included an AI partner: a dog who followed

7000-475: The Hedgehog into 3D. Their project, titled Sonic Xtreme , was to have featured a radically different approach for the series, with an exaggerated fisheye camera and multidirectional gameplay reminiscent of Bug! . Due in part to conflicts with Sega Enterprises in Japan and a rushed schedule, the game never made it to market. In the 1990s, platforming games started to shift from pseudo-3D to "true 3D," which gave

7125-569: The King's activities. Played by Mojo Nixon , Toad appeared as a street musician in the non-canon Super Mario Bros. film . In the film, Toad is arrested for singing a song that badmouths Koopa, who punishes him by having him turned into a Goomba . Despite this, the Goomba-fied Toad (portrayed by John Fifer) remains hating Koopa and still manages to help Princess Daisy escape and distract the other Goombas by playing his harmonica . Toad also makes

7250-467: The Toads, who help him uncover secrets in the mansions. The sequel Luigi's Mansion 3 also features multiple Toads assisting E. Gadd, all of whom have been captured and require rescuing. Throughout the Mario RPG series, Toad is featured as more of a minor character due to the large amounts of generic Toads which appear in the games who seem to replace his role as a helper. In the times he does appear, Toad

7375-519: The acrobatics evoke the movement that games such as Prince of Persia would feature. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (1983) put a recognizable character from American comic strips into side-scrolling, jumping gameplay similar to Moon Patrol . The same year, Snokie for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers added uneven terrain to a scrolling platformer. Based on the Saturday morning cartoon rather than

7500-461: The adorable mushroom." IGN editor Matt Casamassina criticized Nintendo for including the two generic Toads over more notable characters (including the red-spotted Toad himself) in the Mario series for New Super Mario Bros. Wii , arguing that the developers were being lazy to not include other characters because the Toads were easier to make. The Toads in the Paper Mario series following

7625-415: The basis for the non-linear mission structure found in most open-world, multi-mission, sidequest -heavy games. Another Capcom platformer that year was Bionic Commando , which popularized a grappling hook mechanic that has since appeared in dozens of games, including Earthworm Jim and Tomb Raider . Scrolling platformers went portable in the late 1980s with games such as Super Mario Land , and

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7750-509: The centralized character, Takemoto first replied, "What are you talking about?!" When Tezuka persisted and requested the idea again a few days later, Takemoto took the idea into consideration; he found that making Luigi the main character would further solidify the game as a separate experience. With the change came the additions of a new control set for Luigi, and certain level concepts where standard controls made completion difficult became easier. After Tezuka convinced Takemoto to omit Mario from

7875-400: The concept of levels that "had extremely short courses but increased difficulty." They did this because they considered that players who completed the game would be looking for a more difficult challenge, but making each level the same length as the base game would make the experience "exhausting". Takemoto viewed the length change from a different angle; he noticed how each subsequent release in

8000-589: The console as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, along with Super Mario World , while Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis . Sonic showcased a new style of design made possible by a new generation of hardware: large stages that scrolled in all directions, curved hills, loops, and a physics system allowing players to rush through its levels with well-placed jumps and rolls. Sega characterized Sonic as

8125-421: The criteria of a platformer, and was billed as an action adventure . It used true 3D characters and set pieces, but its environments were rendered using a rigid engine similar to the one used by Wolfenstein 3D , in that it could only render square, flat corridors, rather than suspended platforms that could be jumped between. Sega had tasked their American studio, Sega Technical Institute , with bringing Sonic

8250-433: The dynamic shift in gameplay from the base game, but overall enjoyed the experience. 4Players noted difficulty in navigating Luigi through tight platforming sessions, but the higher jump helped to avoid failure. Ingenito derided the level design for its failure to justify Luigi's movement, and although it did increase difficulty it was not in a fair sense. They appreciated the higher jumps, however, and often exploited them to

8375-419: The earlier Clockwork Knight . The game plays very similarly to 2D platformers, but lets players walk up walls and on ceilings. In 1995, Delphine Software released a 3D sequel to their 2D platformer Flashback . Entitled Fade to Black , it was the first attempt to bring a popular 2D platformer series into 3D. While it retained the puzzle-oriented level design style and step-based control, it did not meet

8500-425: The expansion and Year of Luigi, including a partnership with the Chicago Transit Authority and a parkour -themed mockumentary . New Super Luigi U received positive reviews; critics praised the difficulty and level design, but criticized Luigi's control scheme as unbalanced with the difficulty change. The multiplayer and addition of Nabbit received mixed opinions. Debut sales were overshadowed by Pikmin 3 , but

8625-416: The expansion sold 3.07 million copies by 2020, making it the eighth-best-selling Wii U game . Once purchased, New Super Luigi U is selectable from the New Super Mario Bros. U ( NSMBU ) main menu. The main storyline is nearly identical to that of NSMBU , with the omission of Mario . The player controls Luigi with the goal of traversing each level from left to right to reach the end, identified with

8750-481: The fact that most had only one direct path to completion and did not give the player much freedom to explore. Henry Gilbert of GamesRadar called the shorter levels "impressively compact", and considered the shortened concept to be a positive with Super Mario series veterans in mind. Whitehead applauded the gimmicks found within levels and named memorable events that they considered were Nintendo holding back their creativity. USGamer ' s Jeremy Parish considered

8875-521: The first award for Best Platform game in 1984 from Crash magazine. Later that same year, Epyx released Impossible Mission , and Parker Brothers released Montezuma's Revenge , which further expanded on the exploration aspect. The first platformer to use scrolling graphics came years before the genre became popular. Jump Bug is a platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi under contract for Hoei/Coreland and released to arcades in 1981, only five months after Donkey Kong . Players control

9000-530: The foreground and background, and the camera panning and curving around corners. Meanwhile, Pandemonium and Klonoa brought the 2.5D style to the PlayStation . In a break from the past, the Nintendo 64 had the fewest side scrolling platformers with only four; Yoshi's Story , Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards , Goemon's Great Adventure , and Mischief Makers —and most met with a tepid response from critics at

9125-464: The game a greater sense of speed than other platformers at the time, while its sequel, Wonder Boy in Monster Land added action-adventure and role-playing elements. Wonder Boy in turn inspired games such as Adventure Island , Dynastic Hero , Popful Mail , and Shantae . One of the first platformers to scroll in all four directions freely and follow the on-screen character's movement

9250-411: The game entirely, other options for a replacement were considered. The original idea was to include a third Toad but was later decided against because it made multiplayer too disorienting. Princess Peach was never considered because she "is off somewhere far away in need of saving." After considering enemy options Takemoto settled on Nabbit, a character who first appeared in New Super Mario Bros. U as

9375-455: The game has sold 3.07 million copies and is the eighth-best-selling game on the Wii U . Platform game The genre started with the 1980 arcade video game Space Panic , which has ladders but not jumping. Donkey Kong , released in 1981, established a template for what were initially called "climbing games". Donkey Kong inspired many clones and games with similar elements, such as Miner 2049er (1982) and Kangaroo (1982), while

9500-440: The game to be frustrating, not because of the intentional difficulty, but other various changes to Luigi's control did not add up well to the precise and quick-paced level design. They considered the concept to go against the standard Super Mario formula of being able to explore each level as they please. They found the game overall to be too demanding and preferred the DLC found in New Super Mario Bros. 2 . Luigi's control scheme

9625-538: The game: Princess Peach, Toad, Wario and Waluigi (all suggestions made by fans). Two Toads (yellow and blue) were eventually included as playable characters in New Super Mario Bros. Wii due to their physical similarity to Mario and Luigi . In February 2018, Yoshiaki Koizumi confirmed that the mushroom on Toad's head is part of his body, and not a hat. It had previously been a common topic of debate among fans. Toad and his race of mushroom people made their debut appearance in Super Mario Bros. where they play

9750-498: The gameplay from its precursor but traded the frog-like mech for a cartoony rabbit mech called Robbit. The title was successful enough to get two sequels and is remembered for being the first 3D platformer on a console. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer said Jumping Flash was perhaps "one of the most important ancestors of every 3D platformer in the following decade." It holds the record of "First platform videogame in true 3D" according to Guinness World Records . Another early 3D platformer

9875-419: The genre are walking, running, jumping, attacking, and climbing. Jumping is central to the genre, though there are exceptions such as Nintendo 's Popeye and Data East 's BurgerTime , both from 1982. In some games, such as Donkey Kong , the trajectory of a jump is fixed, while in others it can be altered mid-air. Falling may cause damage or death. Many platformers contain environmental obstacles which kill

10000-465: The genre as "Donkey Kong-type" or "Kong-style" games. "Climbing games" was used in Steve Bloom's 1982 book Video Invaders and 1983 magazines Electronic Games (US)—which ran a cover feature called "The Player's Guide to Climbing Games"—and TV Gamer (UK). Bloom defined "climbing games" as titles where the player "must climb from the bottom of the screen to the top while avoiding and/or destroying

10125-452: The genre continued to maintain its popularity, with many games released for the handheld Game Boy and Game Gear systems. By the time the Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 launched, platformers were the most popular genre in console gaming. There was a particular emphasis on having a flagship platform title exclusive to a system, featuring a mascot character. In 1989, Sega released Alex Kidd in

10250-412: The genre. A modern variant of the platform game, especially significant on mobile platforms, is the endless runner , where the main character is always moving forward and the player must dodge or jump to avoid falling or hitting obstacles. Various names were used in the years following the release of the first established game in the genre, Donkey Kong (1981). Shigeru Miyamoto originally called it

10375-487: The idea to be a good feature for beginners or less experienced players. This fell in line with one of Shigeru Miyamoto 's philosophies for game design: "An idea is a single solution that solves multiple issues at once." The game was announced in a February 2013 Nintendo Direct , coinciding with the announcements of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team . It was presented by Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata ; no release date and price were mentioned as it

10500-562: The intro, telling Mario and Luigi that Princess Peach has been kidnapped, and later appears in the Arcade mini-game Mansion Patrol. Additionally, Toad is one of the 256 Catch Cards in the game. In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story , a mysterious infection called "The Blorbs" causes the Toads to inflate to many times their normal size and roll around uncontrollably. Recent games in the Paper Mario series, starting from Paper Mario: Sticker Star in 2012, have prominently featured Toads as

10625-417: The jumps flutter to be unnecessary but the change ultimately became "second nature". Polygon reviewer Phillip Kollar considered the game "the most difficult Mario content that Nintendo has created in decades." Some praised it as a new challenge for players after completing NSMBU , but only with Super Mario series veterans in mind; IGN ' s Vince Ingenito called the game a " CliffsNotes version of

10750-454: The levels were open and had objectives. Completing objectives earned the player stars, and stars were used to unlock more levels. This approach allowed for more efficient use of large 3D areas and rewarded the player for exploration, but it meant less jumping and more action-adventure . Even so, a handful of boss levels offered more traditional platforming. Until then there was no settled way to make 3D platformers, but Super Mario 64 inspired

10875-512: The main playable characters. In "The Adventures of Captain Toad", Captain Toad must collect five Green Stars without jumping, and two hits will result in a life loss, but he can use his headlight to destroy any ghosts in his levels. Captain Toad later starred in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker , a year after Super Mario 3D World was released. A Mystery Mushroom costume based on Captain Toad from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

11000-608: The mansion as a save point. Different colored Toads appear in Super Mario Sunshine as Peach's attendants. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii and U , there are two playable Toads (multi-player only), one blue and one yellow. The blue Toad has a similar appearance to the original Toad and shares the same voices as Toad in New Super Mario Bros. Wii . The yellow Toad has a higher pitched voice. In New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe , both Toads are playable in single player, with Blue Toad being unlocked by pressing ZL while Yellow Toad

11125-489: The maze game, Namco's 1984 Pac-Land is a bidirectional, horizontally-scrolling, arcade video game with walking, running, jumping, springboards, power-ups , and a series of unique levels. Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani described the game as "the pioneer of action games with horizontally running background." According to Iwatani, Shigeru Miyamoto described Pac-Land as an influence on the development of Super Mario Bros. . Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. , released for

11250-405: The more linear 3D platformers like Tork: Prehistoric Punk and Wario World used scripted cameras that limited player control. Games with more open environments like Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie used intelligent cameras that followed the player's movements. Still, when the view was obstructed or not facing what the player needed to see, these intelligent cameras needed to be adjusted by

11375-519: The most common non-playable character (NPC) that Mario can interact with. This is due to the fact that Nintendo's intellectual property (IP) team refrains them from creating new characters that could possibly interfere with the Mario universe. In Super Mario Bros. Wonder the Yellow and Blue Toads return as playable characters, in both single and multiplayer. Toad has both playable and non-playable appearances in many Mario spin-off games, including

11500-526: The new wave of consoles. In the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s, the Amiga was a strong gaming platform with its custom video hardware and sound hardware . The Atari ST was solidly supported as well. Games like Shadow of the Beast and Turrican showed that computer platformers could rival their console contemporaries. Prince of Persia , originally a late release for the 8-bit Apple II in 1989, featured

11625-506: The obstacles and foes you invariably meet along the way." Under this definition, he listed Space Panic (1980), Donkey Kong , and despite the top down perspective, Frogger (1981) as climbing games. In a December 1982 Creative Computing review of the Apple II game Beer Run , the reviewer used a different term: "I'm going to call this a ladder game, as in the 'ladder genre,' which includes Apple Panic and Donkey Kong ." That label

11750-453: The other characters. Whitehead appreciated the use of Nabbit as a more approachable selection but was overall "misguided", and due to the addition of unmanageable multiplayer, suggested using NSMBU ' s multiplayer instead. New Super Luigi U debuted the same week as Pikmin 3 , another highly anticipated title by Nintendo that was also released exclusively for the Wii U, overshadowing New Super Luigi U in comparison. Japanese sales for

11875-446: The overall experience. Ingenito noted that the 100-second time limit gave a strong "psychological effect" and credited the decreasing timer to many of his mistakes. Kollar enjoyed the limited time but was ultimately frustrated that it left little room to play at their own pace or to view the game's graphics; VentureBeat ' s Jeff Grubb shared similar opinions. Schilling considered the level design challenging but uninteresting, due to

12000-408: The platform-action game, Valis , which contained anime -style cut scenes . In 1987, Capcom 's Mega Man introduced non-linear level progression where the player is able to choose the order in which they complete levels. This was a stark contrast to both linear games like Super Mario Bros. and open-world games like Metroid . GamesRadar credits the "level select" feature of Mega Man as

12125-574: The playable characters in Super Mario 3D World . Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker featured Captain Toad as the main character, and was the first game to have a Toad as the titular character. When Mario Kart for the Nintendo Game Cube was revealed to be Mario Kart: Double Dash on April 23, 2003, Kiyoshi Mizuki actually wanted to make Toad one of the selectable characters from the beginning, but after thinking about Toad's own partner, they could not come up with any specific one suitable as

12250-549: The player around and aid in battle. In 1990, Hudson Soft released Bonk's Adventure , with a protagonist positioned as NEC 's mascot. The following year, Takeru's Cocoron , a late platformer for the Famicom allowed players to build a character from a toy box filled with spare parts. In 1990, the Super Famicom was released in Japan, along with the eagerly anticipated Super Mario World . The following year, Nintendo released

12375-405: The player more control over the character and the camera. To render a 3D environment from any angle the user chose, the graphics hardware had to be sufficiently powerful, and the art and rendering model of the game had to be viewable from every angle. The improvement in graphics technology allowed publishers to make such games but introduced several new issues. For example, if the player could control

12500-481: The player to maneuver their character across platforms to reach a goal while confronting enemies and avoiding obstacles along the way. These games are either presented from the side view, using two-dimensional movement, or in 3D with the camera placed either behind the main character or in isometric perspective . Typical platforming gameplay tends to be very dynamic and challenges a player's reflexes, timing, and dexterity with controls. The most common movement options in

12625-427: The player to post their findings. From there, other players could spend time trying to look for them. Tezuka was originally opposed to a physical release because the game was designed to appeal to players who had already completed New Super Mario Bros. U . He changed his mind after considering an audience that had never played the game and could use the DLC as a starting point. "I asked a programmer to make something as

12750-498: The player's character upon contact, such as lava pits or bottomless chasms. The player may be able to collect items and power-ups and give the main character new abilities for overcoming adversities. Most games of this genre consist of multiple levels of increasing difficulty that may be interleaved by boss encounters, where the character has to defeat a particularly dangerous enemy to progress. Simple logical puzzles to resolve and skill trials to overcome are other common elements in

12875-993: The player. In the 1990s, RPGs , first-person shooters , and more complex action-adventure games captured significant market share. Even so, the platformer thrived. Tomb Raider became one of the bestselling series on the PlayStation , along with Insomniac Games ' Spyro and Naughty Dog 's Crash Bandicoot , one of the few 3D games to stick with linear levels. Moreover, many of the Nintendo 64 's bestsellers were first- and second-party platformers like Super Mario 64 , Banjo-Kazooie , and Donkey Kong 64 . On Windows and Mac , Pangea Software 's Bugdom series and BioWare 's MDK2 proved successful. Several developers who found success with 3D platformers began experimenting with titles that, despite their cartoon art style, were aimed at adults. Examples include Rare 's Conker's Bad Fur Day , Crystal Dynamics 's Gex: Deep Cover Gecko and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , and Shiny Entertainment 's Messiah . In 1998, Sega produced

13000-450: The release of the mockumentary Finding Luigi – Legend of Parkour , which released for Nintendo's official YouTube channel. The video depicts Luigi as a "legend of parkour " who has mysteriously vanished from the industry, and the film crew attempts to meet with an on-the-run Nabbit to learn of his current whereabouts. New Super Luigi U received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator website Metacritic , receiving

13125-418: The retail copy totaled 24,881, about 1,000 copies behind Tomodachi Collection: New Life and a roughly third the number of Pikmin 3 . By the end of August, North American sales reached 120,000. By May 2014, New Super Luigi U reached 1.76 million sales, although 2014 was a financial failure for Nintendo and the Wii due to the poor sales of the Wii U console; Nintendo had a net loss of $ 457 million. As of 2020

13250-595: The retail version released July 13 and 26 in Europe and Japan respectively, and August 25 in North America. The following November saw the release of a Wii U bundle that contained NSMBU and New Super Luigi U . New Super Luigi U , alongside the original base game, were bundled together and re-released for the Nintendo Switch with other changes to gameplay as New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe in 2019. On July 27, Takemoto made an post on Miiverse that Nintendo would be holding

13375-557: The second floor of the Clark/Lake station so passersby could demo the game, and a Luigi costumed character was a frequent rider. The promotion remained from August 12 to September 8, after which it returned to normal. Throughout the promotion the official Nintendo of America Twitter account was changed to appear as if it were Luigi's, and was used to take pictures of Luigi visiting different places in Chicago, Illinois . The same month also saw

13500-518: The site explained that he has a strong appeal that Nintendo has yet to tap into. Toad is listed in The Most Neglected Mario Bros. Characters list as a character whom Nintendo has ignored for quite a while due to his lack of starring roles in more recent games. IGN also listed Toad as one of the top ten characters needing a spin-off. In an Oricon poll conducted in Japan from 2008, Toad

13625-486: The time. Despite this, Yoshi's Story sold over a million copies in the US, and Mischief Makers rode high on the charts in the months following its release. The term 3D platformer usually refers to games with gameplay in three dimensions and polygonal 3D graphics. Games that have 3D gameplay but 2D graphics are usually included under the umbrella of isometric platformers , while those that have 3D graphics but gameplay on

13750-437: The video game industry internationally. The following year, Donkey Kong received a sequel, Donkey Kong Jr. and later Mario Bros. , a platformer with two-player cooperative play . It laid the groundwork for other two-player cooperative games such as Fairyland Story and Bubble Bobble . Beginning in 1982, transitional games emerged with non-scrolling levels spanning multiple screens. David Crane's Pitfall! for

13875-455: The visual flash of 3D with traditional 2D side scrolling gameplay. These games are often referred to as 2.5D. The first such game was Saturn launch title , Clockwork Knight (1994). The game featured levels and boss characters rendered in 3D, but retained 2D gameplay and used pre-rendered 2D sprites for regular characters, similar to Donkey Kong Country . Its sequel improved upon its design, featuring some 3D effects such as hopping between

14000-413: Was Floating Runner , developed by a Japanese company called Xing and released for PlayStation in early 1996, before the release of Super Mario 64 . Floating Runner uses D-pad controls and a behind-the-character camera perspective. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64 , which is a game that set the standard for 3D platformers. It let the player explore 3D environments with greater freedom than

14125-421: Was a long way from completion. More details were revealed at E3 2013 ; Nintendo announced that Mario would be omitted from the DLC entirely and would be replaced with Nabbit. They also announced that the DLC would release not only for the Wii U Nintendo eShop but as a standalone physical copy as well, with a green box instead of blue. The eShop variant released June 19 in Japan and the following day worldwide, and

14250-497: Was a primary way to attack. This was the first true 3D platform-action game with free-roaming environments, but it was never ported to another platform or released outside Japan, so it remains relatively unknown in the West. The following year, Exact released their follow-up to Geograph Seal . An early title for Sony's new PlayStation console, Jumping Flash! , released in April 1995, kept

14375-432: Was also a major character rather than a sidekick). He remained on the show when it spun off into The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 , allowing them to live in his house. During the 2 shows, he got alternate forms such as The Toad Warrior, Baby Toad, Raccoon Toad, Frog Toad and even Super Toad; however, these forms of Toad have not made an appearance outside of the shows. Due to his & many other characters' absences in

14500-554: Was also used by Video Games Player magazine in 1983 when it named the Coleco port of Donkey Kong "Ladder Game of the Year". Another term used in the late 1980s to 1990s was "character action games", in reference to games such as Super Mario Bros. , Sonic the Hedgehog , and Bubsy . It was also applied more generally to side-scrolling video games , including run and gun video games such as Gunstar Heroes . Platform game became

14625-504: Was developed by Nintendo EAD , the developers of New Super Mario Bros. U . The downloadable content (DLC) was made to emphasize the character Luigi due to the Year of Luigi , a marketing campaign commemorating the 30th anniversary of his introduction in Mario Bros. (1983). The concept for a Luigi-oriented DLC was conceived by producer Takashi Tezuka . Tezuka stated that the game's primary goal

14750-468: Was found in any previous game in the genre. With this in mind, Nintendo put an analog control stick on its Nintendo 64 controller, a feature that had not been seen since the Vectrex but which has since become standard. The analog stick provided the fine precision needed with a free perspective. In most 2D platformers, the player finished a level by following a path to a certain point, but in Super Mario 64 ,

14875-429: Was given a bigger role as one of the four playable characters. In Super Mario Bros. 3 , Toad appears in the Toad houses where he provides items and extra lives for Mario to take on his journey. He is the sole playable character in the puzzle game Wario's Woods , where he tries to prevent Wario from taking over the woods with the help of Birdo and a fairy named Wanda. The 3D Mario games introduced Toad's role as

15000-489: Was made available through an update to Super Mario Maker . Captain Toad appears in all but three of Super Mario Odyssey 's Kingdoms, rewarding the player with a Power Moon after they find him in each location. When reviewing Treasure Tracker , IGN 's Marty Sliva called Captain Toad and Toadette "a pair of sweet, endearing characters that [they] genuinely wanted to root for", saying that personality details like Captain Toad and Toadette "cower[ing] in fear when they see

15125-524: Was made the primary focus due to the Year of Luigi marketing campaign; New Super Luigi U was branded to coincide with it. It was purchasable as DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U , as a standalone game, and as a bundle with the main game. It was also included with the Nintendo Switch port, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe , in 2019. New Super Luigi U was announced in a February 2013 Nintendo Direct ; digital and retail versions were released between June and August. Nintendo took multiple routes to promote

15250-440: Was mostly criticized for its impreciseness. Schilling criticized Luigi's controls, not due to their function, but because they did not pair well with the level design, which focused on precision and therefore did not emphasize Luigi's slippery movement. He appreciated the ability to revert controls post-completion but called the overall concept "a green peg in a red hole." Game Informer reviewer Dan Ryckert struggled to get used to

15375-418: Was the first game to allow players to jump over obstacles and gaps. It is widely considered to be the first platformer. It introduced Mario under the name Jumpman. Donkey Kong was ported to many consoles and computers at the time, notably as the system-selling pack-in game for ColecoVision , and also a handheld version from Coleco in 1982. The game helped cement Nintendo's position as an important name in

15500-402: Was to "change what people think of DLC." To help make the DLC distinct from that of NSMBU , various developers were brought in from the New Super Mario Bros. 2 team to design new gimmicks that didn't overlap with the base game. According to Tezuka, the developers originally considered ideas for DLC that were much smaller than the final product, and settled on making more playable courses for

15625-638: Was voted as the eighth most popular video game character in Japan. Another poll (of over 1000 votes) conducted in Japan by NintendoWorldReport in concern to Japan's favorite Mario Kart racers listed Toad as the second most favorite Mario Kart racer in the country (only being beaten by Yoshi). Toad has been credited for being one of the celebrated characters in the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. games. UGO.com listed Toad on their list of "The Cutest Video Game Characters," stating "Once you get over his misleading name, you'll find Toad to be quite

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