Level Design

Puzzle League

I’m starting with this one because it’s “easy”. Puzzle League has no story, no cutscenes, no levels, no locations. The blocks are always the same graphic no matter what difficulty level, or game mode you happen to be playing. The only slight variation on theme happens when the user enters the option menu and has the option to change the background graphic. These graphics are all repeating textures; wallpapers, rather than actual pictures.

The reason for Puzzle League’s lack of theme is confusing, considering its predecessor Tetris Attack had a full story mode, a character select screen, and multiple levels. I think Dr.Mario & Puzzle League being released as a budget title caused the studio to lose any interest in putting in extra effort to add any themes.

Mario Galaxy

Mario Galaxy, on the other hand, has many, many different levels. In fact, each “level” itself may have multiple locations, themes, and landscapes contained within it. These changes of theme are allowed for by the planet hopping gameplay. Players may be slipping around on a donut shaped planet covered in ice, and the next minute be dodging advancing flows of lava.

There is little explanation to tie these planets together, but they usually fall under a set of themes (fire and ice, grasslands, ocean exploration) that are related in some way. The game is also short on story advancing cutscenes, although there is a room you can go in on the main hub world to hear the backstory of the game as it becomes unlocked when the player finds enough power stars.

The level design does a very good job of keeping the player engaged, considering the fairly limited number of actions available to them (jump, spin, shoot stars), planets with interesting shapes, or gigantic enemies, or unique puzzle. These elements are often combined under the planet’s theme to tell a small story of it’s own. For example, I’m a little blurry on the details as I played this level quite a while ago, but one level has the player stomping on a series of pegs so that they jam into the center of the planet, agitating a giant worm that emerges and creates a bridge to a new planet with it’s body. I can’t really remember, but I think later on Mario must fight the fully agitated worm. These little touches add magic to the Mario universe, more so that just having the pegs cause a bridge to be magically lowered, say.