Level select is starting to make me mad

[lcvolt]

hi, i know this is picky and maybe stupid but, aren't you tired of having a level select screen on modern games? i guess new mario bros needed it, and somehow DKC returns too, but a lot of other games are getting this screen and it makes them look boring. today i got really mad. paper mario sticker star is getting one of those screens. this is not even a side scroller, its an rpg! a game where you are supposed to explore or use a random transport system, but not a select screen, specially when they look like the usual generic blue dots taken right away from mario party. why not something else? that looked specially wrong on DKC returns. the classic ones had flags, and sometimes crocodile faces, now we get the same blue/red dots?
it just makes me mad that games are starting to get too uniform, specially from nintendo. all games are starting to copy the musical style, the game mechanics, level selection, and menus from other games. it starts to look generic. mario galaxy 2 is a 3d platformet game, level select just makes me get lazy on the game. instead of exploring, i just get to make 1 or 2 shines, oh, but once you get one you get taken away from the level and are forced to run trhough it again, which makes it feel like a chore.

[mojoeskateco]

Can't agree more about the Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 comparison.  I love them both but I didn't like how they just had a connect the dots style map for Galaxy 2.  It just seems lazy.

Your post reminds me of the RPG genre.  In the 16bit / ps1 era JRPGs had world maps that were explorable and you could find secret areas on them, etc.  You felt like you were exploring even if you actually couldn't go everywhere at the beginning due to "events" in the game (i.e. the bridge is out, etc.).

I always think of FF9 which had a huge world map to explore and then FFX is pretty much a straight line to the end of the game.  Several games in the PS2 era were the same.  Amazing looking dungeons but connect the dot style or uninspired world maps.  This is why Dragon Quest VIII was my favourite game of the PS2 era.  I'm looking forward to Ni No Kuni on the PS3 as it looks to have a huge explorable world map but an old school style to the gameplay.

[laurenhiya21]

I haven't really seen many games that have a select screen but don't really need it, but I definitely hear you with the Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 thing.
I really liked running around in the hub world of Mario Galaxy 1, so the removal of that plus making the 2nd one more kiddie friendly and a lot easier ruined it for me :/
Really made it feel like a cash in >-<;

[lcvolt]

i also forgot to mention sonic colors for the wii. how lazy! besides, a good sonic games has at most 12 greatly design levels. instead, in this one there are like 50 very crappy ones that look very similar to each other and that ALL of them have special ways to beat it and other objectives, its just too much for a completionist, so I end up just beating it for the sake of doing it.