Talk:Floor (block)

Merging with floor

I didn't know that Wonder literally calls it a BlockMarioBrothers internally, that's a pretty strong point to merge them together. I considered just writing the info into floor originally, but decided against it because I considered the form factor to be more important. The floor in Wonder is certainly block-like, and I feel it would be strange to not classify it as a block. I see it similarly to the relationship of Flimsy Lifts and Donut Blocks, or ice and Ice Blocks. --PopitTart (talk) 16:17, January 29, 2025 (EST)

If there's a merge, I wouldn't mind reclassifying the original floors as blocks. They seem like a direct predecessor, not unlike Shellcreepers and Koopas. LinkTheLefty (talk) 16:25, January 29, 2025 (EST)

Well the thing is that NSMB and NSMBU bring back the floors in very un-block like form, where they exist in contrast to the blocks they inspired. I feel calling those blocks would be equally as strange.--PopitTart (talk) 16:37, January 29, 2025 (EST)

@Jdtendo, by any chance is this block mentioned in the Nintendo Dream guidebook? It is not uncommon for the developers of the mainline games to have both a lift and/or floor alongside a block of similar behavior (i.e. there is an ice floor ice lift, and Ice Block; there is a Cloud Lift and Cloud Block; etc.). I wonder if this block is really intended to be a "relative" of the Mario Bros. floor from the New Super Mario Bros. games, and not the same exact thing. Its Japanese name may be clarifying. - Nintendo101 (talk) 17:46, January 29, 2025 (EST)

Donut Block wasn't a block for its appearance in Super Mario 64 and later 3D games, for another pertinent example. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 17:50, January 29, 2025 (EST)

I support this merge; it's clearly just a repaint of the same component. It even features the same wavy pattern seen in NSMBU. Floors are very old, and appearances are many years apart and in games of different artstyle; it makes sense that they might occasionally reconsider how they look a little bit. Even this version of the article attests to their sameness to SMB3 floors, which are only different from the MB version (in the other Floor article) in that they are a little bigger.

I think even the chunkier versions of Floors can be considered like Bridge; they can be divided up into pieces, but they're parts of a continuous surface and aren't conventionally considered one square at a time - WilliamFrog (talk) 07:31, February 19, 2025 (EST)

I honestly think the floor from Super Mario Bros. 3 should be merged to floor, but the one introduced in Super Mario Bros. Wonder is intended to be a related but different object, similar to the relationship between Cloud Block and Cloud Lift, Ice Block and Ice Lift, and so on. Unlike the floor as intenerated in New Super Mario Bros. games, this one can contain power-ups and coins like Brick Blocks and ? Blocks. - Nintendo101 (talk) 10:30, February 19, 2025 (EST)

I wouldn't be opposed to moving the SMB3 block to floor, making room for the SMBW block to fill out this page with the (technically derived) name of "Mario Bros. Block". --PopitTart (talk) 04:30, February 20, 2025 (EST)

It's true that the blocky appearance is unconventional in newer designs; but floors in the franchise as a whole have been blocky on multiple occasions, so I don't see this as an entirely new concept. I think it's more of a "return to form". Being able to contain items is a healthy difference, but not necessarily a distinctifying one; Note Blocks for example, have flip-flopped their role as containers. Or, Crystal Block, which was originally distinguished by having no items, but later could hold them.

I would posit that the floor design evolution is not linear, but branching. The original "small blocks floor" (mb) split off into the "big blocks floor" (smb3, smbw), and the "no blocks floor" (nsmb, nsmbu). The original version is kinda ambiguous and not really any closer to either evolution; the variants are both interpretations of the original idea. WilliamFrog (talk) 01:33, February 23, 2025 (EST)

The floor in Mario Bros. isn't made of distinct blocks. Only as much as the floor in New Super Mario Bros. is made of individual red slices, at least. The "blocks" that appear in early phases bend as one piece, and the floors use fully contiguous sprites in later phases.--PopitTart (talk) 02:17, February 23, 2025 (EST)

I guess I'm not entirely correct to say it uses small blocks. You can still see how in smb3, each of its large blocks has the same shape as the "blocks" making up in the NES version's level 1 floor. It makes sense that this could be a way to reinterpret the idea for games with more standardized units, but it doesn't change anything fundamental about it.

I think the block/platform argument would be stronger if there was a "long floor" which was like a long ? block, where the entire length is hit at once. As it is though, no version of floors is really unitary; the points on their length act individually in every design. (If you want to be picky, NES MB in particular does actually work on those blocks as units, too)

I think the smb3 version is obviously just a technical variation of the mb floors. There are a lot of versions of mb, and in some of them the floor doesn't even move at all, so moving in cubes is certainly not so vastly different to require categorical distinction. That said, the smbw version is roughly equivalent to the smb3 version, which I think is a sufficient tie to be the same component.

But the vibe of the smbw version is pretty different, it does feel like it's more upfront about being blocky than the older designs, and especially other modern designs. I think if I had to try to nail it down, the difference is that unlike smb3, the smbw version COULD be smooth if it wanted, it's not a technical convenience or limitation. Which in turn, could imply different developer design intent. I think it could go either way, honestly. - WilliamFrog (talk) 04:07, February 23, 2025 (EST)