Wesley Fenlon | Not with a bang but a whimper.

Nintendo’s Super Mario Galaxy 2 may be a bastion of creativity and fresh ideas, a wealth of originality crammed into a lovingly-crafted 3D platformer.  But behind that creativity lies an insidious case of theft.  Nintendo clearly poured so much effort into coming up with new ideas, when it came to a chubby-space-faring guide, they had to reach back into gaming’s past for inspiration.  And so we were given Mario’s new guide, Lubba, born from another blobular adventurer — though obviously a much more brodacious one.

Total bummer, Nintendo.  Total bummer.

Gotta catch ‘em all. It seems so innocuous, doesn’t it? There are lots of these little Pokémon fellas, and your challenge is to grab each and every one. But no, it’s not quite that innocent. Nintendo’s catchphrase invokes a youthful enthusiasm by deliberately tapping into the psychology behind game design, a never-ending, insidious cycle of collection and reward that we wholly by into with no reservations. Practically every game on the market entices us with collectable coins that lead to secret unlockables, or trophies to chart our progress — something to tap into that unconscious addiction to collect ‘em all.

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As one of the most important aspects of any video game, level design is a fascinating concept to study.  We can chart its progression from 2D into 3D, from simple linear stages into vast, sprawling environments.  In doing so, the general trend of 3D games begins to come into focus — and in some cases, it’s not such a pretty sight.  Sometimes we have to look backwards to see how we should move forwards.

Open world games have risen in popularity steadily since the release of Grand Theft Auto III, which not only spawned several sequels, but far too many cheap knock-offs and shoddy cash-ins.  Still, the goal of these games is admirable: they are presenting you with not a level to progress through, but a world to explore.  It’s a way to accomplish a level of escapism that smaller, more constrained games can’t match, but it’s a tricky thing to pull off.  The key is being able to form an explorable world with a scope so vast that players won’t feel as though the constraints of the area are too artificial — but size must be balanced with enough memorable locations to make the world feel alive.

Ultimately, games such as Bethesda’s Oblivion and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV can’t live up to both ends of the deal.  Oblivion is, even now, nearly three years after its release, a huge, beautiful game world.  But one grassy green hill looks like the next.  And the next.  The sense of exploration gets lost in the scope without delivering enough of what’s ultimately the most important thing: design.

Which, in my long-winded and roundabout way, brings us to Super Metroid.  Compared to GTA or Oblivion, Super Metroid is laughably miniscule.  It’s 2D.  It can’t compete with the miles and miles of explorable land and cityscape in Cyrodil or Liberty City.  But it just might have the best level design of any video game ever made.

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Growing up tragically deprived of video games until somewhere around the age of 10, I have the unshakable feeling that I missed out on some essential skillset that I’ll never be able to fully make up for.  Additionally, the intermittent exposure I had to gaming up to that point narrowed my enthusiasm for the genre to such a degree that I had no clue what I was missing out on.

It all started with Sonic the Hedgehog.  I don’t remember why, or how, but but my first real encounter with console gaming was the original Sonic on the Genesis.  If it had happened to be Mario, my retro gaming ineptitude might not exist as it does today.  Alas, fate caught me in its insidious web.

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