User:Winstein/Sandbox

Draft of a proposal

Deemphasize sectioning off the Mario Party games for GBA/DS/3DS as "handheld"

What this proposal aims to do is to categorize specific handheld Mario Party games in the same level as the console Mario Party games. Basically:

• While categorizing, the games listed below won't be separated as "main" and "handheld", nor as "console" and "handheld".
• However, describing them in summary or article is fine.
  • Example: this Mario Kart (series) summary: "There have been a total of 16 titles in the series: 5 original home console games (with 1 upcoming), a home console port, 3 portable games, a mobile game, 4 arcade games co-developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and an RC-based game.".
  • Another example is calling specific games by their console installment. E.g.: Mario Party 10 is the 10th home console Mario Party.

It will affect the following Mario Party games:

• Mario Party Advance
• Mario Party DS
• Mario Party: Island Tour
• Mario Party: Star Rush
• Mario Party: The Top 100

Other games in the series should remain in their respective categories, namely the Arcade games and Mario Party-e. The latter is due to characteristics different from other Mario Party games, namely the fact that it's a physical game using the GBA as a companion device.

• Every other Mario series don't make the distinction between console and handheld
  • In the Super Mario games template, do you notice how other Mario series do not segregate the handheld entries from the consoles (and by association "main") games? As an example, Mario Golf has every game in this category, even its console and handheld sister games (e.g.: Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Golf: Advance Tour).
  • Even for the Super Mario platformers, despite the amount of games (it has more than the amount of Mario Party games), the console and handheld games are not segregated. This is to say that the amount of games is not a reason to separate listing games in such a manner.
    • Note that Nintendo themselves mentioned one time about the different types of 3D platformer styles, but that didn't cause the Super Mario platformers to require further categorizing.
• Superficial distinction that insinuates that handheld is lesser compared to consoles, given how the latter is listed as "main" games
  • For example, in this edit in the Super Mario games template, it was when the console Mario Party games are delegated to the Main, while the handheld games were delegated to Other. Eventually those games got relegated to being handhelds, as though there is hesitance to put it back in the same category as the "main" Mario Party games.
  • Moreover, numbering of games aren't an important indicator of game importance, since for example, the Super Mario platformers basically stopped at Super Mario Bros. 4 (basically Super Mario World). Even the New Super Mario Bros. series have numbering for the handheld 3DS game and console suffixes for its console games!
• The games are made primarily by two developer teams, one basically succeeding the other.
  • With the exception the Arcade games and Mario Party-e, every "main" game and the listed games are developed by two companies in succession: Hudson Soft for Mario Party 1 to 8, Mario Party Advance, and Mario Party DS, as well as Nintendo Cube for Mario Party 9, 10, and every 3DS and Switch Mario Party game. Mario Kart Tour is one example of a game that may not be on a traditional console, but it is made by the same talent as the console Mario Kart games, and is considered to be part of the main series instead of outside it.
• Switch's hybrid nature lend itself to both, so the distinction loses meaning since Jamboree and Superstars are handheld-compliant (not Super since it's advertised as a non-handheld entry)
  • Having a "handheld" category means that certain games would logically be in this category as well. For Nintendo Switch, both Mario Party Superstars and Super Mario Party Jamboree are listed as handheld-compliant on Nintendo's game info pages, which means that they should also be in the handheld category. Note that Super Mario Party is not handheld-compliant, because unlike the other two games, it is only playable in both docked and tabletop. I can imagine that needing to apply certain games in this category would get complicated, so having a handheld category is unnecessary.
• Gameplay-wise, the console and handheld games are generally not too drastically different
  • Even though certain Mario Party games are on the handheld, they still play similarly to Mario Party, with boards and minigames. The format where they presented may be different, but the formula is still intact. For example, Mario Party: Island Tour may have a general focus to reach the finish line, but it still presented boards and minigames. Not to mention, Mario Party DS plays very similar to the previous Mario Party games on the console.
  • Gameplay elements introduced in the handheld games are still acknowledged in the console games. For instance, the board system introduced in Mario Party: Star Rush was reused in Super Mario Party in the Partner Party mode.
• Nintendo does not acknowledge the separation, so the distinction is not needed.
  • Do certain Mario Party games get acknowledged with classic boards or minigames while other weren't? Yes, that is true, when Mario Party 1 to 10 have returning minigames. But that doesn't mean the games that aren't acknowledged are denounced.
  • The handheld categorization is not very useful because we already list the video game consoles next to the game, meaning that whether a game is console or handheld, it's already more or less stated. It is a far less useful categorization compared to listing which Super Mario platformers are 2D platformers or 3D platformers. Even though Nintendo sometimes distinguish the 2D and 3D platformers (Example in page 33 here), it's not split in the categories. (whether or not the platformers deserve to split could probably be in another proposal, should someone decide to create one)
  • On Nintendo's Mario Portal History section, if you check the Mario Party section, the "main" games and the games listed above are together. There is no special exceptions for the "handheld" games.

Whilst this wouldn't rule out a potential future rethinking in recategorizing the games in case Nintendo decided to do so, I believe that as of now (and probably the foreseeable future where they don't do separate console and handheld devices), categorizing games between console and handheld is not the way to go, since no other series segregates games in this manner.

Thank you for reading.