Overuse of SMB3, underuse of SMB2

[HeroLinik]

I saw a similar thread about this on Knux's site but it seems to have been buried up in newer topics after his forum started to lose activity. What it is, is that I (and probably other members in the community) have seen that a lot of newer levels nowadays seem to be in the SMB3 style out of everything - even if it contains game mechanics that would be found in another game like SMW or SMB2, like Super Mario Star Expedition, in which everything is styled into SMB3. About 80% of levels submitted are in the SMB3 style.

In contrast, about 10% of levels submitted are in the SMB2 style, so it comes as no surprise that it's incredibly underused. It's not just now as well - the SMB2 style has had a long history of being underused, and even so, if it ends up in community contests, a lot of them tend to score high (play Subcon Shivaree and Golden Palace, for example, which have been submitted to CC7 and CC6 respectively) but a lot of that could be due to bias as SMB2 is underused, and the judges (I am not stabbing myself here, as I didn't mention that) of the contests seem to be almost giving them the benefit of the doubt and letting them through as higher tier levels.
Personally, I would say it's because it's the main style of the game and that the Mario graphics, as well as the main physics, are based on SMB3, and it appears to have been made a default for SMBX, and that its logo is based on the SMB3 logo. I would address the idea of non-Mario themes such as Zelda and Metroid levels being underused but the reason is obvious enough as the gameplay not even Mario-themed and so it will be hard to make a level around a non-Mario theme.

Why do you think we are overusing SMB3, and underusing SMB2?

[Emral]

Probably because SMB3's colours come closest to "realistic" colours. The community is trying to create high-quality Mario levels, and that in every aspect.
I personally stepped back from styling my levels. I use custom shading styles which I think go well together. But since my shading style uses many colours, I refrain from using, let's say, the comic-ish SMW block samples for what I didn't make.

[RudeGuy]

It's not just now as well - the SMB2 style has had a long history of being underused, and even so, if it ends up in community contests, a lot of them tend to score high (play Subcon Shivaree and Golden Palace, for example, which have been submitted to CC7 and CC6 respectively) but a lot of that could be due to bias as SMB2 is underused, and the judges (I am not stabbing myself here, as I didn't mention that) of the contests seem to be almost giving them the benefit of the doubt and letting them through as higher tier levels.

Whoa, community have many problems in judging levels.

Also, SMBX was created for Mario games, and this is the reason of underused non-mario themes.

[FanofSMBX]

It's incredibly easy to make something SMB3 compatible. There's the replacement graphics pack, and you can just make the darkest color of something to a grey outline, and tada.

[HeroLinik]

It's incredibly easy to make something SMB3 compatible. There's the replacement graphics pack, and you can just make the darkest color of something to a grey outline, and tada.

Yeah, but why are SMB3 recolor packs the most common, and SMW, SMB1 or SMB2 are much rarer?

[FanofSMBX]

It's incredibly easy to make something SMB3 compatible. There's the replacement graphics pack, and you can just make the darkest color of something to a grey outline, and tada.

Yeah, but why are SMB3 recolor packs the most common, and SMW, SMB1 or SMB2 are much rarer?

Because with SMB1 and SMB2, it's hard to make the colored outlines. Actually I was gonna release a SMW Recolored Random Graphics once I added a few last ones.

[Darkonius Mavakar]

Also isn't smb1 the most underused style?

[Emral]

Also isn't smb1 the most underused style?

Hell no Zelda 2 is

[FanofSMBX]

Also isn't smb1 the most underused style?

Hell no Zelda 2 is

What about Earthbound?

[Emral]

Also isn't smb1 the most underused style?

Hell no Zelda 2 is

What about Earthbound?

There are not enough earthbound graphics in Vanilla SMBX to make a level. In fact, there aren't even blocks to stand on

[Chad]

Perhaps SMB3 is the more adaptable style for custom content and new ideas, as that style tends to have the largest selection. Most of what you'll find for other styles are either recolors, tilesets, or enemies that aren't in SMBX by default but were in the original games (with exceptions, of course). If you're not a talented spriter and want to rely on graphics packs for your levels, chances are you're going to have a better time finding new stuff in SMB3. It's even worse if a style is barely native to the engine or not at all; just look at SML2, as its selection is extremely limited.

if it ends up in community contests, a lot of them tend to score high (play Subcon Shivaree and Golden Palace, for example, which have been submitted to CC7 and CC6 respectively) but a lot of that could be due to bias as SMB2 is underused, and the judges (I am not stabbing myself here, as I didn't mention that) of the contests seem to be almost giving them the benefit of the doubt and letting them through as higher tier levels.

Except those levels are honestly good. Just because a level is SMB2 doesn't mean that it takes foul play for such a level to be given a good score. Besides, this type of thinking would only contribute further to the underuse of SMB2.

[reghrhre]

I really don't see why it's a problem that graphics are overused and underused, you make it sound as if we overuse smb3 graphics because it's a cool trend and you know how trends can be, people follow them because they're cool and everyone else uses them.

People should be able to use what they want, it doesn't matter that a style isn't used, it's not the end of the world. Besides, there's way more styled graphics for SMB3 and obviously, not everyone is an artist so they can't do anything about the lack of SMB2 styled graphics or stuff like that