I disagree, as at the end of the day Mario is all about running and jumping from one point to another, while maybe using some powerups. Mario stayed true to that when transitioning into 3D.
Insofar as Mario ran and jumped from one point to the other, yes, but that was largely the extent of it. When the game was linear the goal had been known to occur when you got as right as you could on a level, there was a very defined point a and point b, but now point b had to be found through exploration. And literally the same could be said of Donkey Kong.
Whereas Donkey Kong Country was fast paced platforming, but DK64 was a slow Banjo Kazooie collecathon.
Fast paced might be upselling it a bit, it was no Mega Man or Sonic. There was plenty of waiting around for opportunities in DKC. And yes, DK64 took collecting too far, but collecting was very much already a basis in DKC, this was just an overextention of that.
It was no longer about avoiding obstacles finding secrets, but was about puzzle solving and exploring.I would argue that it's honestly closer to a Zelda game than to a DKC game, as absurd as that sounds. Theres a good 5 instances of platforming in DK64. The rest is a treasure hunt and mini-games.
If you took that first sentence in isolation, you wouldn't even know if it was in reference to Mario or DK tbh. Because it applies to both. Mario 64 literally gave you a hint how/where to find the star and was like, "go find it!" That's puzzle solving and exploring! Moreover, what do you think you're exploring for? What do you think the puzzles lead to? Secrets. You yourself called it a treasure hunt, which is exploring to find something secret.
If the game was repainted to be Bob Ross 64 I don't think anyone on the face of the earth would describe it as a 3D donkey Kong Country.
If Mario 64 was the only 3d Mario game, again, you could say the same. Mario doesn't grow or shrink. Mario doesn't reach a flagpole. Mario doesn't jump past Bowser or chuck things at a clown car. Mario doesn't shoot fireballs, wear a cape, or have a tail. Yoshi isn't there (for the most part), Luigi is gone. There's no overworld map to traverse. Simply "beating" a level doesn't inherently unlock the next. Exploration is rewarded. There's a health "bar".
Take away the Mario aesthetic and what you have is exploring a hub, jumping into different portals, requiring you to revisit the same levels dozens of times to collect hidden objects in different places to progress. Prior to 64, very little of that screamed Mario. If anything, Crash Bandicoot was more similar to past Mario games in concept.
DKC traditions weren't turned on their head, they were straight up thrown out of the window.
Other than the linearity and the fact that it wasn't in 2d, which traditions were actually discarded? There was switching between Kongs, animal buddies, minecarts, Kremlings, barrels (blast, normal, tnt, steel, etc), collecting objects, instruments, exchanging goods for services from the Kongs, K. Rool stealing bananas and capturing Kongs, etc.
The health system may have been different, negating the need for the standard "DK barrel", but the same can be said of Mario 64. Where were the Mega Mushrooms?
- Raiden
