Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
When you judge games based on gameplay, one of the few aspects that would be an advantage or disadvantage is repetition, where you do some of the same stuff more than once. It can be up to ten times.
Let’s say that there are 50 missions in one game. If they are all item delivery missions, then it’s bad because the game is too repetitive. Same if half of them are all delivery missions, and the other half is strictly fighting missions. What if 10 of them are unique missions, 10 rely on one mechanic, and 5 each of the others focus on different features of the game? Then that’s when repetition is good, and it may be more of a strength than weakness. What if all of them are unique, as each feature we see are used only once? That’s bad because the producers disappointed us by having these features, and they were all under-used. So basically, if you have some gameplay features, you should spotlight them by having at least five segments using them, but you do not want to overdo them.
Here are some examples of when it is acceptable and when it’s not acceptable.
Sly Cooper:
A popular opinion is that Sly 2 would be the best of the Sly Cooper games, with inability to replay missions being the only problem. Sly 1 had a completely different gameplay, and Sly 3 was deemed as disappointing. I haven’t played Sly 4, but I think it’s between Sly 2 and Sly 3 in terms of quality. If you played both Sly 2 and Sly 3, you can clearly see why Sly 2 was better, and it’s not just the hidden clue bottles.
In my opinion, one of the reasons why Sly 2: Band of Thieves was better than Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is because of repetition. In Sly 2, you had several missions involving pickpocketing, photography, computer hacking (which are mini-games), placing bombs, throwing items or enemies, and mashing buttons to lift objects. They made you do these a lot of times. It may be repetitive, but that’s what made Sly 2 good. It also had a few other missions (like explosive barrel placement, grappling, RC Chopper, machine guns, and sneaking). Of course, let’s not forget fighting. The point is, repetition was a strength in Sly 2 because there were so many features, as they were giving us more of a feature than making it dull.
In Sly 3, many of the features in Sly 2 were underused or removed. There were only two missions involving pickpocketing, six computers to hack instead of 19 like in Sly 2, only two photography missions, and two RC Chopper missions (which aren’t the same as in Sly 2). The button mashing part, was only present at the lemonade drinking contest. Even the new features were underused. Art decryption - only five paintings in two different missions. Safe cracking - only done four times. Bentley’s grapple camera - only two missions required it. Murray’s ball move was more prominent, but the missions that required it were all in the first half of the game. I blame this on not only the new playable characters added, but also on how there are fewer episodes. I also felt that there were too many weird missions (like the pirate ship battles and capturing scorpions) that took up the remaining gameplay space.
Super Mario:
Now let’s look at some examples where repetition is a bad idea. In the 3D Mario games, repetition is a weakness. So let’s compare Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey once again. The biggest flaws? Super Mario 64’s gameplay and level in detail is outdated and obsolete due to the data limitations at the time, and by today’s standards, the game seems cheesy. Super Mario Sunshine has broken controls (like how Yoshi dies in the water) and required the same 49 missions to complete in order to beat the game. Super Mario Galaxy has the gravity mechanic and was too linear. Super Mario Odyssey was even more tedious than Donkey Kong 64 as collecting was made meaningless by having too many power moons. But there’s one flaw that all four Mario games have in common - repetition.
Super Mario 64 is the lightest sinner in this flaw. Even so, it still has it. Every level has a 100-coin star and a red coin star. There are more red coin missions beyond the main levels as well. The slide missions, racing missions, and enemy-clearing missions like the ghost ones in Big Boo’s Haunt are better off if they only happened once, but we have them more than once. And some levels are repeat levels.
People hate Super Mario Sunshine more than Super Mario 64, and repetition is one of the flaws with Sunshine. There are 20 red coin missions, 8 100-coin shines, 10 FLUDD-less stages, several blue coin shines, and 11 Shadow Mario chase scenes. Oh, and very early in the game, you had to fight the gatekeeper, or polluted piranha, five times. There were at least a few unique missions that defy the trend, but other than that, all missions were boss stages (including the chain chomp one and Mecha Bowser ones), red coin missions, secret stages, races, and Shadow Mario chases.
Super Mario Galaxy is even worse in the field of repetition. There are repeat galaxies, repeat unique missions, repeat bosses, and worst of all, prankster comets. 15 of them are 100 purple coin missions, but the other 15, were repeats of some missions. What makes prankster comets even worse is that they compromise 1/4th of all the missions.
The worst of them all on repetition is Super Mario Odyssey. The small world segments, each of them have two power moons, one requires going further. Shopping, you can get them in every level. Koopa race, there are two versions of each. Ground pounding for moons (like the hidden art ones), that’s the biggest sin of repetition. This was what made power moons less valuable.
Reasons:
Why was repetition good for Sly Cooper, but bad for Mario? Here are the answers. The Mario games, despite gimmicks, are simple games, as not many features are present. It would be best if each type of mission was only done once in the game. But in Sly Cooper, there are many gameplay features that are good if used more than once. The fact that Sly 3 lacked repetition is part of the reason why it’s disappointing.
Here are the types of missions that would be good if there are more than one. Some are good up to an extent, but others have no limits.
And the types of missions that should be used only once:
Let’s say that there are 50 missions in one game. If they are all item delivery missions, then it’s bad because the game is too repetitive. Same if half of them are all delivery missions, and the other half is strictly fighting missions. What if 10 of them are unique missions, 10 rely on one mechanic, and 5 each of the others focus on different features of the game? Then that’s when repetition is good, and it may be more of a strength than weakness. What if all of them are unique, as each feature we see are used only once? That’s bad because the producers disappointed us by having these features, and they were all under-used. So basically, if you have some gameplay features, you should spotlight them by having at least five segments using them, but you do not want to overdo them.
Here are some examples of when it is acceptable and when it’s not acceptable.
Sly Cooper:
A popular opinion is that Sly 2 would be the best of the Sly Cooper games, with inability to replay missions being the only problem. Sly 1 had a completely different gameplay, and Sly 3 was deemed as disappointing. I haven’t played Sly 4, but I think it’s between Sly 2 and Sly 3 in terms of quality. If you played both Sly 2 and Sly 3, you can clearly see why Sly 2 was better, and it’s not just the hidden clue bottles.
In my opinion, one of the reasons why Sly 2: Band of Thieves was better than Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is because of repetition. In Sly 2, you had several missions involving pickpocketing, photography, computer hacking (which are mini-games), placing bombs, throwing items or enemies, and mashing buttons to lift objects. They made you do these a lot of times. It may be repetitive, but that’s what made Sly 2 good. It also had a few other missions (like explosive barrel placement, grappling, RC Chopper, machine guns, and sneaking). Of course, let’s not forget fighting. The point is, repetition was a strength in Sly 2 because there were so many features, as they were giving us more of a feature than making it dull.
In Sly 3, many of the features in Sly 2 were underused or removed. There were only two missions involving pickpocketing, six computers to hack instead of 19 like in Sly 2, only two photography missions, and two RC Chopper missions (which aren’t the same as in Sly 2). The button mashing part, was only present at the lemonade drinking contest. Even the new features were underused. Art decryption - only five paintings in two different missions. Safe cracking - only done four times. Bentley’s grapple camera - only two missions required it. Murray’s ball move was more prominent, but the missions that required it were all in the first half of the game. I blame this on not only the new playable characters added, but also on how there are fewer episodes. I also felt that there were too many weird missions (like the pirate ship battles and capturing scorpions) that took up the remaining gameplay space.
Super Mario:
Now let’s look at some examples where repetition is a bad idea. In the 3D Mario games, repetition is a weakness. So let’s compare Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey once again. The biggest flaws? Super Mario 64’s gameplay and level in detail is outdated and obsolete due to the data limitations at the time, and by today’s standards, the game seems cheesy. Super Mario Sunshine has broken controls (like how Yoshi dies in the water) and required the same 49 missions to complete in order to beat the game. Super Mario Galaxy has the gravity mechanic and was too linear. Super Mario Odyssey was even more tedious than Donkey Kong 64 as collecting was made meaningless by having too many power moons. But there’s one flaw that all four Mario games have in common - repetition.
Super Mario 64 is the lightest sinner in this flaw. Even so, it still has it. Every level has a 100-coin star and a red coin star. There are more red coin missions beyond the main levels as well. The slide missions, racing missions, and enemy-clearing missions like the ghost ones in Big Boo’s Haunt are better off if they only happened once, but we have them more than once. And some levels are repeat levels.
People hate Super Mario Sunshine more than Super Mario 64, and repetition is one of the flaws with Sunshine. There are 20 red coin missions, 8 100-coin shines, 10 FLUDD-less stages, several blue coin shines, and 11 Shadow Mario chase scenes. Oh, and very early in the game, you had to fight the gatekeeper, or polluted piranha, five times. There were at least a few unique missions that defy the trend, but other than that, all missions were boss stages (including the chain chomp one and Mecha Bowser ones), red coin missions, secret stages, races, and Shadow Mario chases.
Super Mario Galaxy is even worse in the field of repetition. There are repeat galaxies, repeat unique missions, repeat bosses, and worst of all, prankster comets. 15 of them are 100 purple coin missions, but the other 15, were repeats of some missions. What makes prankster comets even worse is that they compromise 1/4th of all the missions.
The worst of them all on repetition is Super Mario Odyssey. The small world segments, each of them have two power moons, one requires going further. Shopping, you can get them in every level. Koopa race, there are two versions of each. Ground pounding for moons (like the hidden art ones), that’s the biggest sin of repetition. This was what made power moons less valuable.
Reasons:
Why was repetition good for Sly Cooper, but bad for Mario? Here are the answers. The Mario games, despite gimmicks, are simple games, as not many features are present. It would be best if each type of mission was only done once in the game. But in Sly Cooper, there are many gameplay features that are good if used more than once. The fact that Sly 3 lacked repetition is part of the reason why it’s disappointing.
Here are the types of missions that would be good if there are more than one. Some are good up to an extent, but others have no limits.
- Platforming missions
- Collecting missions (like those red coin ones)
- Fighting missions
- Puzzle missions (as long as the same puzzles aren’t being used)
- Missions that emphasize or involve a special feature that make the gameplay unique
And the types of missions that should be used only once:
- Racing missions
- Defending missions
- Mini-game missions (if it’s the same game)
- Missions emphasizing a basic move
- Bosses (if it’s the same boss)
