What's the best collectathon and why is it Bowser's Fury?

I'm very sorry if anyone is having déjà vu . This video is a reimagining and rescripting of an early video that I unlisted because I thought it was long-winded and poorly organized. I think this video is a big improvement but still contains all the important original ideas. You can still find the original with the following link, but I don't recommend it - this new one is better: • I've been playing Mari...
Chapters
0:00 Definitions
0:15 Evolving levels
0:43 Booting out of levels
1:12 How to make players sample
2:02 Extra collectibles
2:48 Conclusion

[@LilCosmosYT]

This is Nintendo's first time making an open world mario game, and they already nailed it

[@Yuti640]

FINALLY someone sees how Bowser’s Fury is the BEST

[@RylixBlizzai]

i particularly like how you don't even need to be that far away from levels for them to change to the next state sometimes i just went to look around for a moment only to turn the camera back around and see the level had changed right behind me, making me want to run around this new version, or that time i actually managed to catch a quick glimpse of the colosseum growing taller it was nice if there was a particular island i was having a blast on, that i wasn't forced to move onto something a mile away just to continue the island i was having a really fun time on

[@sunnycideup4725]

Great stuff man!! Nice and snacky size video, ended perfectly on it even😂

[@ilovegamedesign1576]

Haha! Thanks! As a fan of snacky media, snackability is something I have to aspire to in my own creations as well.

[@Fantazious]

I've been thinking about collectathons and this distinct difference between what you dubbed "explorable" & "sampler". Bowser's Fury certainly is up there as one of my favorite collecathons for striking a somewhat balance between the 2. I think giving the player the choice between wanting to stay in the area to explore more or leave and explore somewhere else is really good game design and it reminds me a lot of A Hat in Time and how it handles this issue with things like the boot out system. In AHIT, it technically has the boot out system in the game, You get a time piece, it boots you out, you pick another mission, and soon you're given the option to switch what chapter you wanna do. But the missions are designed with 2 things that make it fun for people doing the missions in order. 1: Every mission changes something in it's design that makes that mission unique to the others that you wouldn't be able to do before for specific story reasons and general gameplay purposes somewhat similar to what Bowser's Fury does. & 2: The boot out system in general does the exact opposite then what something like Mario 64 does. Instead of wasting time, it SAVES time. Each mission enters you at the exact spot in the area that skips all the level design you'd have to replay. It's to the point where if you didn't boot out and were able to run to where the next area is, it'd actually take longer. This makes it to where both are equally as fun! It's certainly up for debate weather Bower's Fury did this approach better then AHIT but I think both doing this design as good as they did shows that appealing somewhat to both is the right call.

[@ilovegamedesign1576]

I love a Hat in Time - the way the yarn balls don't boot you out so you have a reason to explore, while the time pieces (usually) do so it can still have more mission-based structure. But what I find especially interesting about A Hat in Time also is the way different levels do the boot out system to different extents. Mafia Town reminds me of Mario Sunshine/Mario 64 - a recognizable level with tweaks for different missions (though Hat in Time's tweaks are more interesting). Battle of the Birds feels like Mario Galaxy since each mission basically feels like a whole new level. Alpine Sky, meanwhile, feels like Mario Odyssey/Banjo Kazooie (or maybe even a micro-Bowser's-Fury - though AHIT predates Bowser's Fury) since it never boots you out to the HUB world. The levels in a Hat in Time almost feel like a romp through different takes on the collectathon genre.

[@its_elkku135]

Very nice video, I think this channel is very underrated. If I may give you a suggestion, I would think about the pace of your videos. You go through a lot of interesting concepts in a short time, which is admirable, but you're kind of reading all your points all the way through without pauses which can feel a bit disorienting and hard to follow. Speaking a little more slowly, and having pauses and using intonation to emphasize the structure of your argument would add a lot. Even so, I really liked your energy and the ideas you brought up. Keep at it!

[@ilovegamedesign1576]

Thank you! I really appreciate that feedback. I've been really focussed on adding energy because I think my early videos lacked energy, but I think you're right that in pursuit of energy I've started to go too fast. Or maybe I've always gone too fast, haha. But I think "snackability" has been my mantra, and it's time for me to start paying attention to "digestability" too.

[@denischen8196]

Is Princess Peach: Showtime! explorable or sampler? It has Sparkle gems scattered all over linear stages, and some can be easily missed, so you have to replay the levels.

[@ilovegamedesign1576]

That's an interesting question! I haven't played Princess Peach Showtime, so I don't have a lot of authority here, but I tried to look up some gameplay to understand better after your question. I'm not totally sure I'd call it a collectathon - like the linearity seems to evoke a very different feeling - but since you do need some Sparkle gems to unlock the bosses, I see why it could be considered one. If it's a collectathon, I'd call it an explorable because I still think the optimal way to play - and the way many players will end up playing if they're going on a more casual any% run - is to pick up the collectables as you go and not backtrack for the few missed ones. It looks to me like the game is designed to encourage you to play through most levels once but carefully on a casual play through. But again, I have not played it.

[@TsunamiVR_]

Dreaming…