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View Full Version : Rant: Purple Coins were a great idea!


cheat-master30
25th December 2007, 01:33 PM
Because they did something that really would have saved Mario Sunshine's tedium and the original's slight 'fetch quest' feel. But what do I mean? I'll explain:

A fetch quest is just a mission in a game to collect a ton of small objects for no real reason other than being a minor puzzle. Good examples were the red coins, the gold coins, the blue coins, the silver stars, purple coins and goodness knows what else old Mario games made you collect, a lot of what Rare made games made you collect and the chicken catching in Ocarina of Time. Of course, to a good extent, Pokemon is certainly one for the whole game.

But why are purple coins better? Well look at Mario 64. Every single level had at least one red coin mission. This meant one objective was always dead obvious and space that could have been used for a clever puzzle, boss or something else was wasted on the same thing, level after level. Basically, they just threw them as a kind of filler in my opinion. And then the gold coin collecting. A serious fetch quest of aimlessly wandering around, killing things and basically collecting anything not nailed down. Those stars could have been used for intelligent things. Like another proper mission for a star.

Mario Sunshine was just stupid with this. It wasted TWENTY FOUR stars on Blue Coins, and had roughly THREE red coin missions per level. And gold coin collecting in every level and the hub. And then all the side missions seemed to have even more red coin fetch quests...

I mean, add the Shadow Mario races to every level and that's a whole lot of repetitive star collecting. Bianco Hills for example had FOUR red coin missions, 1 100 coin collecting mission and a race against Shadow Mario. Well done. With the ten odd missions they had, about 4 had any originality. And it didn't help that much of that was because some guy though it a wise idea to add red coins to the mini bonus areas without FLUDD rather than actually innovating and adding a couple of good new objectives to complete. With all that space, roughly 20 one star new mini levels could have been added, and about three or four new themed objectives per world could have been added. The game basically became a massive collectathon.

Plus, consider this. If you ignore the Comet and Purple Coin missions, each level in Mario Galaxy has about 4 unique stars out of 6 compared to the 4 out of TEN from Mario Sunshine. You could even add those two because many Purple coin missions and Comet missions drastically change things in the levels.

Just think about it. We may have lost out on many of the best missions and many amazing mini galaxies (Loopdeeloop, Bubble Breeze, Rolling Green, Matter Splatter...) if Nintendo had stuck the old formula. And I'm not sure about you, but I'd prefer a ton of unique missions for stars than red coin and gold coin collecting...

cheat-master30
25th December 2007, 11:05 PM
Oh, come on? Does anyone disagree with my argument or anything?

SpongeFreak52
30th December 2007, 12:13 AM
Well, I wouldn't say the Purple Coin challenges were the BEST idea (or the least aggrivating), but yes, I see what you mean. It's kinda like Super Mario 64, only in that game you were only required to get eight coins, not one hundred.

It's not my favorite part of some Mario games, but it is one of the things they're known for. (They could have extended the time limit for the Ghostly Galaxy just a bit.) :p

cheat-master30
30th December 2007, 01:52 PM
Well, I wouldn't say the Purple Coin challenges were the BEST idea (or the least aggrivating), but yes, I see what you mean. It's kinda like Super Mario 64, only in that game you were only required to get eight coins, not one hundred.

It's not my favorite part of some Mario games, but it is one of the things they're known for. (They could have extended the time limit for the Ghostly Galaxy just a bit.) :p

You get what I meant though about the 100 coin thing being just a waste of stars which could be in more levels though? And if you get what I mean, Mario Sunshine wasted about 50+ stars on red, gold and blue coin collecting. That could have been whole new worlds to explore, or a ton of interesting challenges to complete. But it all got wasted on a massive collectathon of the century.

SpongeFreak52
30th December 2007, 02:13 PM
Well, you're right about Sunshine I guess. I guess having an out of level purpose for the blue coins gave it some slack, but you're right. 50+/120 stars is quite a bit to use on coin-related missions.

I guess they did the same thing in Super Mario 64, only they kept things consistent. Eight red coins in each level, find them, and you get a star. Same with the "get 100 coins" stars. Still, it's a large fraction of the complete number of stars in the game.

Let's see, 15(?) courses X 2 each = 30 stars, not including bonus levels, such as the Flying Cap Pillar. ZOMG? I think 64 had the exact same issue! The sad part is, I never really noticed that!

So...Purple Coin Challenges, compared to Red/Blue Coin Challenges. Many less in Galaxy, so that's a plus for more levels. Still, I wish they'd stayed consistent in whether or not a mission was timed. It's almost boring collecting Purple Coins without an amount of time to get them all in. And wherever there IS a time limit, it's almost impossible for some people (need I say the Ghostly Galaxy?)

Anyhow, I see what you mean about 64 and Sunshine, and yes, they must have realized that in Galaxy, and placed larger collective goals to make up for it. Good choice, Nintendo!

cheat-master30
30th December 2007, 02:17 PM
Exactly. The biggest cheap mistake was in how they put red coins in every level where FLUDD used to get removed on entry as a quick way of adding extra stars. And how Bianco Hills is nearly all made up of collecting stuff.