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Giant Bomb's 2012 Game of the Year Awards: Day Three

Today's Game of the Year feature includes probably the first award we've ever given to a Flash game. Wait, what?

It's day three, ya'll! Get ready for us to heavy drop some fine award category nonsense in your general direction, including our Best Looking Game, our favorite Flash game of the year, and the one gaming trend we'd really, super duper love it if it just stopped, like, forever.

Enjoy!

Best Use of Skrillex

Far Cry 3

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Skrillex. It's a divisive word, but then these are divisive times. When we find ourselves in need of some big-beat-dubdrum-st'p (which is what we're told by a bunch of very reasonable people is the appropriate terminology when dealing with a genre-bending force such as Skrillex) we reach for the brand name. The name of record. The real deal. Saul Skrillex, professional wobble bass enthusiast.

Apparently we're not alone this year, as 2012 was also the year that game developers reached out and placed a little Skrillex into their lives and into their games. That's not to say that every dubstep track to fit into a video game this year was a Skrillex banger, but, well, the best ones usually were. In this case, we're awarding this prestigious category to Far Cry 3, for its use of Skrillex in the mission where you grab a flamethrower from a government official that may or may not exist and... make it bun dem pot fields down bo bo bo bo bo. The hot collab between 'ex and Damian Marley, called "Make It Bun Dem," is pretty much the perfect soundtrack for one of the game's first forays into large-scale destruction.

Congratulations are due, but we're not exactly sure what this category is attempting to honor, so instead we'll just say "we noticed that many games used Skrillex music on their soundtrack and we think this is probably the best one." Congratulations?

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Runners-Up: Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Syndicate

Best Use of Nolan North

Spec Ops: The Line

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This was not exactly a banner year for Our Greatest Living Voice Actor. At least not in terms of video game work. One quick glance at his IMDB page sees plenty of work in television, but as for games, North largely stuck to unnamed side characters and occasional re-doings of his past characters--most notably returning as Desmond Miles in Assassin's Creed III, and a brief credited reprisal of Nathan Drake in PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

And then there's Spec Ops. Like a shining beacon through a largely foggy, indistinct year, North's performance as Captain Martin Walker goes beyond merely standing out amid the crowd. It helps, of course, that Spec Ops: The Line features some of the toughest, strangest, and outright most disturbing writing of any game this year. Walker, along with his two compatriots, find themselves trying to make sense of disasters--both natural and man made--so overwhelming that it's not quite surprising when psyches begin to fray, and people begin to lose their lives as a result.

North does a terrific job of maintaining that fragile balance between a man on-edge, and a man completely over it. It's certainly one of the better voice performances of the year, and it is by far the best use of Nolan North in 2012.

No Caption Provided

Runners-up: N/A

Best-Looking Game

Journey

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For all the complaining some players have about thatgamecompany's...unusual approach to game development, rarely does anyone have an unkind word to say about what the developer does visually. This is a company that makes beautiful games, from the simple, yet mesmerizing visuals of flOw, to the gorgeous landscapes of flower, and now the transcendentally beautiful deserts, hills, caves, and mountains of Journey.

Above all else, Journey feels like a "complete" visual experience. Possibly helped by the game's relatively meager length, Journey's graphics are painstakingly crafted, with each seemingly minor piece of the environment that surrounds you seemingly there for good reason, and not just for the sake of filling in the background. As your nameless journeyer hops and floats around this gorgeously built world, some of the most breathtaking lighting effects you'll ever see shine a light over every resplendent detail, creating a visual experience that truly feels like nothing that's come before.

No Caption Provided

Runners-up: Far Cry 3, Fez

PLEASE STOP

DLC That Should Be in the Main Game

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Worst Trend. Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself. This category has borne a variety of names over the years, but they all amount to the same thing: Please stop doing this awful, no good, very bad video game thing you are doing. So we decided to cut straight to the heart of the matter and call it exactly that. If you're guilty of anything on this list, just knock it off, alright? You're really harshing everybody's mellow. It's not cool.

Downloadable content is certainly an idea that's drawn its share of flack over the years, but it's one that we at Giant Bomb have generally felt OK about, with a couple of provisos. Chiefly, in terms of raw content, the game you get for the initial purchase price needs to feel satisfying and whole. As long as the game out of the box doesn't seem like it's missing anything, who cares what else they're selling on the side, right? And up until this year, we felt like the game industry was doing a pretty good job of policing itself in that regard. But not anymore.

The discussion of this topic practically begins and ends with Mass Effect 3. It held back a profound piece of content on release day in the form of From Ashes, which added an entire new party member (one who we consider one of the best new characters introduced this year) and accounted for significant additional drama and back story throughout every stage of the game. And months later, the Leviathan DLC added painfully necessary context to Mass Effect 3's controversial ending, context so necessary the entire game becomes better for having it. But there were other offenders. Just when Asura's Wrath seemed like it had wrapped itself right up, it dropped a last-minute plot twist out of left field that required you to buy an additional episode to fully resolve. Street Fighter X Tekken shipped with bonus characters that unsavory players managed to hack right off of the disc, but those characters didn't actually go on sale until months after release. Examples like these simply strained our patience for the way DLC is produced and sold.

Hey, publishers: We get it. You need to make a buck. But if you're going to sell additional content on the side, make damn sure the base game doesn't suffer for its absence. When that happens, nobody wins.

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Runners-up: The All-Story, New Super Mario Bros.

URL of the Year

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

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Frog Fractions is a bit like Fez. There will be people who play Frog Fractions, and never plunder its true secrets. They will close a browser window, and wonder why a badly made fraction game with a Typing of the Dead section had people in stitches. Frog Fractions masquerades as something it is very much not, and while it hints something is going on, it maintains a poker face. There is never a big, glowing arrow that says "go here to have your mind totally fucked." You have to find that for yourself.

The crazier part about Frog Fractions is that just when it feels like it's crossed the apex of insanity, it keeps going. What starts as a subversive commentary on our expectations for math games (or browser games, really) becomes a thrilling rollercoaster of forgetting what the designer has cooked up next and enjoying the ride. Pure non-sequitur humor would not work in most hands, but Frog Fractions is not just weird and bizarre, it's really damn funny. Its surprises work because they're unexpected and hysterical. Your first impulse is to turn to a friend. "PLAY THIS!"

This category came to be when we had a list of games we really loved that didn't seem to make sense in our traditional categories. It's a bit how the "download" category came into existence, too. One day, and a day that's probably not far off, these browser games will be no different from all the other games we play, and this will no longer make sense. But we felt compelled to highlight these experiences because of what they do so well within such a limited scope. That limited scope is what allows them to succeed so brilliantly, and subvert our expectations.

And if you're playing and still confused at what the hell we're talking about?

No Caption Provided

Runners-up: http://ludonaut.de/the-message/, http://www.foddy.net/CLOP.html

81 Comments

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clumsyninja1

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Edited By clumsyninja1

FEZ is amazing. Also, Journey rocks!!!

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RadixNegative2

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Edited By RadixNegative2

I feel like Dear Esther and Guild Wars 2 should have at least been mentioned for best looking game.

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cooljammer00

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Edited By cooljammer00

Man, Skrillex is awful. Especially when other dubstep...dudes are out there and are quite good.

And The Message was pretty chuckle worthy.

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Sunjammer

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Edited By Sunjammer

What a disappointing set of awards this year.. Not the winners, but the awards. It's like a weak attempt at doing what was done last year. I realize GB GOTY is a set of gimmick awards, but everything just seems so predictable and half-assed this year.

Best use of Skrillex? Really?

At least the personal lists are picking up the slack. So far nothing on the "official" lists matter a jot. Maybe it's just that kind of year. Games were good. It's hard to get pissed off or particularly excited about anything. It was just a generally high plateau (which is obviously awesome).

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umbaglo

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Edited By umbaglo

If CLOP is anywhere near as good as QWOP, then it deserves the honourable mention.

Also, part of the Superfriends Kickstart was to get a QWOP version for PS3. I'm looking forward to that...!

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TheHT

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Edited By TheHT

@KittyVonDoom said:

Yo. I'm calling it.

So if there are 5 days of awards, the following 2 days will go:

Patrick's GOTY: Journey

Vinny's GOTY: TWD

The order could go either way, but I'm not doubting the overwhelming affection the staff have for TWD. Um, I guess.

don't underestimate Sleeping Dogs! I wouldn't be surprised if that took Vinny's top spot.

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mrfluke

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Edited By mrfluke

@happymeowmeow said:

A thousand times YES on the mass effect 3 dlc being the PLEASE STOP of the year.

YEP, that and the asuras wrath dlc, the fucking dlc for asuras wrath is the craziest stuff in the entire game as they take it as far as they can go in terms of batshit hyper insanity, and its criminal that its dlc,

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bybeach

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Edited By bybeach

You don't impress me. Go suck off a horned toad for nutritional needs,, or have sex with a gila monster. If you were in the main game doing your job with the others, I would perhaps ignore your ill-informed comment, I would not have (unfortunately) seen that excellent DLC actually and truly end the Mass effect Trilogy. Other wise this particular primitive writing this comment is more inclined to shove you down the garbage disposal..ugly is ugly. No, David Bowie outclasses you in every way, Just in case you had delusions...

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prestonhedges

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Edited By prestonhedges

@GunstarRed said:

Played a bunch of Frog Fractions, it's funny and there's some great jokes, but once I got to the bug porn section I lost interest. I have no idea how much more of it there is, but I get the point... I don't really get the massive amount of love for it though.

They probably played it right before they did deliberations. In a few months someone will mention it and they'll be like, "What? Frog What? I don't know what that is."

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shodan2020

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Edited By shodan2020

I thought Frog Fractions was a nice diversion and I enjoyed the Bug Mars Immigration Test, but I don't see what all the fuss is about.

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Solh0und

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Edited By Solh0und

I personally think "The All Story" needs to stop more than the nickle and dime DLC stuff. That plot point is wearing more thin than wheat thins.

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Lelcar

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Edited By Lelcar

@TheHT said:

@KittyVonDoom said:

Yo. I'm calling it.

So if there are 5 days of awards, the following 2 days will go:

Patrick's GOTY: Journey

Vinny's GOTY: TWD

The order could go either way, but I'm not doubting the overwhelming affection the staff have for TWD. Um, I guess.

don't underestimate Sleeping Dogs! I wouldn't be surprised if that took Vinny's top spot.

I have money on Sleeping Dogs for Vinny's number 1.

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NDN_Shadow

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Edited By NDN_Shadow

No Dota 2 mention for Nolan North at all? He voices 8 characters in the game, each with 20 minutes of unique dialogue! Maybe GB thinks that's it's still beta?

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smcn

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Edited By smcn

@NDN_Shadow: DOTA 2 is still beta. From the store page itself: "Dota 2 is a Free to Play game, that is not yet fully released."

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dr_mantas

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Edited By dr_mantas

If a game can be dismissed from the best looking category for simple being supposedly only about rendering and technical stuff, why did they ever combine the two aspects? Just have best looking game and best graphics as separate categories.

It's kinda weird, but whatever. It seems that artistic stuff will always trump graphics in their combined category.

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GenghisJohn

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Edited By GenghisJohn

@Sunjammer: dont be a douche

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umdesch4

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Edited By umdesch4

Well, with all these mentions of Frog Fractions everywhere, I decided to play it. While I don't think it'll make my top 10 list, I'm glad I ended up playing it. First game in a while that's managed to make me laugh out loud enough for my housemates to ask me what the heck I was doing.

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NDN_Shadow

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Edited By NDN_Shadow

@smcn: From the Dota 2 FAQ:

"We don't really think of Dota 2 as a beta, but we also aren't ready for everyone to show up and start playing just yet. We are constantly updating the game with new heroes, bug fixes, and new features. None of the items you purchase or the progress you make will be lost or reset once the game is available for everyone."

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dropabombonit

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Edited By dropabombonit

Great day of awards, loved the best use of Skrillex category

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Brad

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Edited By Brad

@LackingSaint said:

@Sooty said:

So is Frog Fractions just some flavour of the month thing or actually excellent?

Flavour of the month for sure. It doesn't even matter that it's a short flash game, if the guys at GiantBomb had played it earlier in the year they'd have had time to realise that a sense of humour was disguising an extremely shallow, boring game with a non-existant art style and forgettable soundtrack. Nothing about that game is impressive apart from some self-awareness, which you'll find in dozens of other fantastic flash games.

Would you feel silly about this comment if I told you most of us played it about two months ago?

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hbk619

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Edited By hbk619
@DeF said:

GOTY Awards are serious business, I see ;-)

Not sure I agree with this year's Northies choice though. I feel the runners up were stronger.

But there were no runners u.....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SNAP!
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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Skrillex! Nolan North! Sand! Please Stop! Flash games?

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KittyVonDoom

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Edited By KittyVonDoom

@Lelcar said:

@TheHT said:

@KittyVonDoom said:

Yo. I'm calling it.

So if there are 5 days of awards, the following 2 days will go:

Patrick's GOTY: Journey

Vinny's GOTY: TWD

The order could go either way, but I'm not doubting the overwhelming affection the staff have for TWD. Um, I guess.

don't underestimate Sleeping Dogs! I wouldn't be surprised if that took Vinny's top spot.

I have money on Sleeping Dogs for Vinny's number 1.

My logic here is:

  • The Walking Dead is the most consistently high positioned game (it's fairly safe to say that it'll be in Patrick's top 2)
  • Vinny's 10 will appear on the last day.
  • They won't preview a game more than once.
  • They've already previewed FC3 & XCOM. I predict Journey today.
  • They will preview the overall GOTY on the last day.
  • They won't preview more than one game.

But really, all I hope for out of this is a decent showing for Syndicate in the nominations, that would be nice.

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Eribuster

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Edited By Eribuster

We probably don't have to worry about New Super Mario Bros. series not stopping. Nintendo had a lot of time to pump out a sequel on the DS but they instead let the first game continue to sell at near MSRP. This has followed with the Wii games and will probably follow with the 3DS and Wii U games. So, hopefully Nintendo has NSMB out of their system for their current systems.

At most, there will probably DLC packs for New Super Mario Bros. U. I'll be shocked if there's a New Super Mario Bros. 3 on the 3DS or New Super Mario Bros. U 2 for the Wii U. That would be a bad sign of Nintendo's health.

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LackingSaint

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Edited By LackingSaint

@Brad said:

@LackingSaint said:

@Sooty said:

So is Frog Fractions just some flavour of the month thing or actually excellent?

Flavour of the month for sure. It doesn't even matter that it's a short flash game, if the guys at GiantBomb had played it earlier in the year they'd have had time to realise that a sense of humour was disguising an extremely shallow, boring game with a non-existant art style and forgettable soundtrack. Nothing about that game is impressive apart from some self-awareness, which you'll find in dozens of other fantastic flash games.

Would you feel silly about this comment if I told you most of us played it about two months ago?

Haha yeah that's definitely a thing i'm all up in feeling right now. Sorry if I came off as bitching, I guess i'm just not feeling the love for the game that others are. But hey, it's your awards show, not mine.

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Wandering_Idiot

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Edited By Wandering_Idiot

So, I just played The Message.

I'm not sure how to feel.

Someone needs to get punched, that much is sure.

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Brad

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Edited By Brad

@Eribuster said:

We probably don't have to worry about New Super Mario Bros. series not stopping. Nintendo had a lot of time to pump out a sequel on the DS but they instead let the first game continue to sell at near MSRP. This has followed with the Wii games and will probably follow with the 3DS and Wii U games. So, hopefully Nintendo has NSMB out of their system for their current systems.

At most, there will probably DLC packs for New Super Mario Bros. U. I'll be shocked if there's a New Super Mario Bros. 3 on the 3DS or New Super Mario Bros. U 2 for the Wii U. That would be a bad sign of Nintendo's health.

Yeah, Nintendo has a clear track record of only cranking out one iteration its core franchises per console (same goes with stuff like Mario Kart), so I don't think we're expecting to see more of those games anytime soon. It was just the lethal combination of heaping them on so close together, and doing so little to change them up. Whenever they do get back to that series, they better take it somewhere new.

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droop

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Edited By droop

I really don't get Frog Fractions. I finished it, liked the text adventure stuff and the boxing story, but didn't really find it funny or mind blowingly insane at all.

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Deusoma

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Edited By Deusoma

I'm not sure what "The All-Story" is, but it links to Halo 4, the Assassin's Creed franchise page, and the Mass Effect page. I'm not sure how that is a runner up for the worst new trend, personally.

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allenibrahim

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Edited By allenibrahim

@Deusoma: It's the story about how an ancient civilization or race predicted the universe would basically end, and the character you play as in the game is The Chosen One aka Jesus who's sent to stop the cycle.

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Dan_CiTi

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Edited By Dan_CiTi

@Brad said:

@Eribuster said:

We probably don't have to worry about New Super Mario Bros. series not stopping. Nintendo had a lot of time to pump out a sequel on the DS but they instead let the first game continue to sell at near MSRP. This has followed with the Wii games and will probably follow with the 3DS and Wii U games. So, hopefully Nintendo has NSMB out of their system for their current systems.

At most, there will probably DLC packs for New Super Mario Bros. U. I'll be shocked if there's a New Super Mario Bros. 3 on the 3DS or New Super Mario Bros. U 2 for the Wii U. That would be a bad sign of Nintendo's health.

Yeah, Nintendo has a clear track record of only cranking out one iteration its core franchises per console (same goes with stuff like Mario Kart), so I don't think we're expecting to see more of those games anytime soon. It was just the lethal combination of heaping them on so close together, and doing so little to change them up. Whenever they do get back to that series, they better take it somewhere new.

The problem I have is there still no Mario game where it incorpoartes all of the "moves" he's ever had. Not that I need the punching back from SM64(it was pretty dumb outside of the wallkick), but it would be nice to see that in a future game. Basically have more or less all of the SM64 moves plus the spin from SMS. Same thing in 2D, with NSMBU they brought back the SMW style Yoshi, but added flutter kick from SMW2 & SMS and the new fruit meter.

Basically what I want in a New/new Super Mario World game that takes all the good stuff from SMB3, the later Mario games, and put it into something like the Super Mario World engine and it is basically a Metroidvania but still has Mario like levels built into the world. Sort of like how Skyward Sword's world on the ground was already a sort of dunegon before you walked through some big door and had to fight a boss at the end. Anyway now that Miyamoto doesn't seem too hot on doing big fancy games anymore, someone else needs to take Mario and do something creative with it, and adapting the sort of openness of Galaxy and adapting it to a 2D game would be interesting, aside from just making it Mohawk & Headphone Jack with Mario.