Alternatives to warp pipes

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Marscaleb
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Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Marscaleb »

Mario has such a wonderful mechanic with the warp pipe. A simple, non-intrusive element in a stage that can be used to send the player to an alternate route/area. It's beautiful in its simplicity.

For a while I've been thinking that Mario corners the market on this concept. But I was thinking today... Fundamentally, aren't there a lot of games that do this same kind of thing? Some sort of mechanic that takes the player to a new location? Not something that the player could simply move to, but some sort of delivery system that usually takes the player "offscreen" to a new place.

I've been thinking about it, and I feel like there are more examples, but I'm having trouble thinking of any.

Mario has pipes.
SMB2 and it's original Doki Doki Panic have large jars that work the same way.
Donkey Kong Country uses barrels that launch the player like a cannon. (Great use of theme.)

But I'm feeling kind of stuck to think of games that have done basically the same mechanic. I guess you could count doors in many games, although they don't seem very special but they technically work that way, depending on the context.

What are some other "warp pipe alternatives" that other games have used to send players to a new screen?
lidnariq
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by lidnariq »

Any game with a fast travel mechanic? (Secret of Mana has the cannons. Knytt Underground has the Disorder. All the 2d Castlevanias since SotN have teleporters.)

The Sonic games have those transparent pipes that just move you around a lot. Mega Man has the "special" doors before bosses and marking other special transitions. Metroid has the elevators.
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Dwedit
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Dwedit »

Doors. Just hit UP, and you're somewhere else. It may or may not be geometrically consistent .
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Fisher
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Fisher »

In Battletoads you warp to other stages when you quickly make the screen move and enter in the middle of some small moving dots in predetermined places.

In Gradius you can teleport to other stage if your score and the time you take to kill the boss meet some conditions.

Not sure if this counts, but in the japanese version of Dragon Spirit you get a different kind of dragon with diffetent shot if you die in the 1st stage, that seems to be a dream, changing the game's difficulty. I don't know if the US version works the same.

That's what I can remember for now. :-)
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nesrocks
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by nesrocks »

Dwedit wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:22 am Doors. Just hit UP, and you're somewhere else. It may or may not be geometrically consistent .
That's what I immediately thought. It's a door. Super Pitfall has Condors and blind spots. But it's so obvious I think what the OP meant was that the player character moves in a direction as he is transported.
In SMB3's doors this direction is the Z axis and is geometrically consistent, afaik.
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Pokun »

Dokidoki/smb2 uses mainly doors for the transitions. Jars are less common and although the Mario-reference is obvious, the jars are just to simply enter the inside of the jar (which is much bigger than the outside) and in most cases doesn't lead anywhere unless there's a door down there (or a warp jar in subspace).


The most common transitions between screens is probably just to walk off screen or a door, ladder, stairs or elevator that you enter. In RPGs you often don't even walk off the screen to get out of a town, instead you walk on a tile that is considered out of town and the game transitions to the world map mode. It's often cleverly used to make secret stairways or hidden paths to a secret area on the outskirts of town, and the player has to remember how far out he can go out without being taken to the world map.


But it sounds like you wanted more of a transportation system like the warp pipes are. In that case teleportation might be the most common one and is used in too many games to list, and several already mentioned. Other common things would be just entering a vehicle such as a ship or helicopter like in Ducktales, although that's not really equivalent of the warp pipes in Mario.

The Crazy Castle games uses both doors and pipes, but only as transportation within the same level/screen.

Kirby's warp pipe is the warp star.

Gimmick! uses a lot of pipes kind of like Mario.

Donkey Kong Country's barrel cannons is also a good example I think. It's both for shooting around in the same area/screen and for shooting away to bonus levels.
Edit: Oops! OP already mentioned this one.

Super Mario 64, although a Mario game, ironically doesn't use warp pipes as much as the 2D games (and some later 3D games). Painting portals are used far more often.

Mario Galaxy uses star rings to shoot Mario away through space.

In Mario Odyssey the paintings are back but not as common. The most common thing is to simply use Cappy's power to teleport you to checkpoints. Warp pipes are now also a bit more common again.
Last edited by Pokun on Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Gilbert
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Gilbert »

The Famicom NES version of Strider used pipes (or whatever name you'd call them) too.
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Marscaleb
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Marscaleb »

nesrocks wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 8:23 am
Dwedit wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:22 am Doors. Just hit UP, and you're somewhere else. It may or may not be geometrically consistent .
That's what I immediately thought. It's a door. But it's so obvious I think what the OP meant was that the player character moves in a direction as he is transported.
Yeah, and even I mentioned doors in my original post.
But like I said, they kind of are, and kind of aren't. It depends on the game/situation.
Some doors are "magical transports" and some doors are just... regular doors.

Pokun is right about the doors in SMB2; I forgot that they often did use them in warping ways, not just always the regular common doors. Hell you could toss a magical potion and make a door. (Good thing you didn't drink it.)
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Re: Alternatives to warp pipes

Post by Nikku4211 »

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