Extended Practice Hub World Research: Mario Games

The next game series that I want to look at for the hub world design is Super Mario as they have some fantastic home worlds that link all of the other levels together in a way similar to Spyro but it's usually only one place instead of many.

Super Mario 64
The first game that does this expertly is Super Mario 64 with Peaches Castle. This is probably one of the most well know hub worlds in gaming history and has many secrets of its own. Outside there are a lot of grounds to explore and then there is the main castle which has the connecting levels attached to it, and also the addition to the basement area which takes you to secrets and more levels and the upper levels of the castle, again doing the same thing.

The castle is a great design and so familiar with the series itself with many people knowing the famous castle itself and instantly being able to recognise it. The castle itself on the inside is fairly large having lots of secret passageways that can be explored and many secrets areas that can only be accessed through thorough exploration. It really is a very well design hub world but when it comes to inspiring our own it probably is a little bit too big, and doesn't have clear levels. You can pretty much access anywhere once you have enough stars, something that we don't necessarily want.

Super Mario Sunshine
The next game in the series is Super Mario Sunshine which in my opinion is a beautifully designed hub world which again takes you to all of the levels in the same way in which Mario 64 does, and in that same order where once you have enough stars you can go to each level, once you have completed the stage in the rights order though in each world.

The hub world is called Defino Plaza, and it really is beautiful and well designed. You feel like your actually exploring a living world here with the inhabitants walking around and doing there own thing and there's even a market stall set up where they have different fruits. It feels like they have lives here and live in all of the buildings and it's a really beautiful atmosphere that the game creates. Again the level is slightly too big to be used as inspiration for our own game, but I like the fact that the hub world has a lot of depth to it, it not only have buildings that are built up high but have water that can be swam through and underground tunnels to be explored as well.

Super Mario Galaxy
The last game that I looked at was Super Mario Galaxy as it too has a very beautifully designed hub world. In my opinion this isn't as interesting as the other two I've looked at and doesn't have as much of a world living on it, but it has a very interesting and unique design and it is very fun to explore and find the secrets to how to unlock the levels.

The reason that I really like the observatory though is the fact that it develops over time and extra parts are added onto it so that it becomes more detailed and extensive. The design does look interesting and it is fun to explore but again a little bit to big to be using as our own game. But the addition to the characters in the level are a nice feature and the fact that you can talk to them is even better, as they give you little tips and hints of where to go next and what you can currently do in the game.